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MARCH 9,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:

NOTEWORTHY PASSING – From Fox:  "Genean Hixon, whose breakthrough treatment with penicillin at age 12 during World War II led to modern medical practices, died March 1 two days short of her 83rd birthday, the Denver Post reported.  Hixon died of liver cancer, which was diagnosed in December.  Hixon was hospitalized on July 24, 1943, with severe osteomyelitis — a bone disease that at the time was seemingly incurable and potentially fatal. She became one of the first American civilians to be treated with a 'mysterious miracle drug' – known now as penicillin -- and the Denver Post reported on her treatment in a series of articles."  Didn't know the story.  Now I do.

GOOD MOVE – From the Washington Examiner:  "Republican National Committee data operatives will build a list of the millions of Americans who have lost insurance policies due to Obamacare in order to help their candidates win over these voters at the ballot box in 2014 and 2016.  'Getting that information [on plan cancellations] and having good data as to who votes, who doesn't vote, voter registration, party affiliation, consumer characteristics, cross-referenced with that kind of information, I think, is important for us to have,' Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told the Washington Examiner after his CPAC panel presentation Saturday morning."  Maybe the party is starting to move into the 21st century.  Cheers!

TALK ABOUT OPPORTUNISTS – From The Hill:  "Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) said Sunday that President Obama’s controversial healthcare law has been 'great' for residents of his state.  Crist has sharply criticized the healthcare law in the past. But the former Republican governor and 2008 GOP vice-presidential short-lister is running for his old post this year as a Democrat.  Crist said during an appearance on CNN’s 'State of the Union' that he would have no problem running on the healthcare bill, which is known colloquially as ObamaCare, as he seeks to regain his former office.  'I don’t think so at all' Crist said when he was asked if the healthcare law was hurting Florida citizens, especially seniors, as Republicans have alleged."  A perfect example of no class.

March 9, 2014       Permalink

TEMPORARY PORTRAIT OF A GENERATION – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  There's a new study of the "millennial" generation.  Interesting stuff, but read with caution.  From ABC: 

Most of America's young adults are single, don't go to church and while half say they have no loyalty to a political party, when pushed they tend to swing further left politically than those before them.

A new Pew Research Center survey out Friday showed that half of America's young adults, ages 18 to 33, consider themselves political independents, identifying with neither party. But asked which way they lean politically, half of the so-called millennials say they lean toward the Democratic Party, the highest share for any age group over the last decade.

In addition, young adults seem to be turning away from their predecessors' proclivity for religion and marriage. Almost two-thirds don't classify themselves as "a religious person." And when it comes to tying the knot: Only about 1 in 4 millennials is married. Almost half of baby boomers were married at that age.

The new survey shows how the millennial adults are "forging a distinctive path into adulthood," said Paul Taylor, Pew's executive vice president and co-author of the report.

This can especially be seen when it comes to politics. Only 27 percent said they consider themselves Democrats and 17 percent said Republicans. The half of millennials who say they are independent is an increase from 38 percent back in 2004.

"It's not that they don't have strong opinions, political opinions, they do," Taylor said. "It's simply that they choose not to identify themselves with either political party."

The number of self-described independents is lower among their predecessors. Only 39 percent of those in Generation X said they were independents, along with 37 percent of the boomers and 32 percent of the Silent Generation.

Pew describes Gen Xers as those from age 34-49, boomers as 50-68 and the Silent Generation as those 69-86.

When the self-identified Democratic millennials are combined with the self-described independents who lean Democratic, half — 50 percent — of the millennials are Democrats or Democratic-leaning while 34 percent are Republicans or Republican-leaning.

COMMENT:  I wouldn't panic over this.  Churchill once said that, if you weren't a liberal at 20, you had to heart, and if you weren't a conservative at 30, you had no head.  Young people traditionally are more liberal than the nation, and many change.  The boomer generation, which we thought was so radical back in the 60s, turned out to be less so. 

Other polls show young people turning against Obama as they realize what he's done, and is doing.  They're not a lost cause.

March 9, 2014       Permalink

HEAT IN THE EAST – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:  As we focus on Ukraine, the heat between China and Japan is rising.  This could end badly, especially if there is a miscalculation about the intent of the United States.  Reader Joseph J. Gallick refers us to this report from Japan Today:   

China said on Saturday that there was no room for compromise with Japan on questions of history and disputed territory, “each inch” of which it would defend from its Asian neighbor.

China’s ties with Japan have long been poisoned by what China sees as Japan’s failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China before and during World War Two.

Beijing’s anger over the past is never far from the surface, and relations have deteriorated sharply over the past 18 months because of a dispute over a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

“On the two issues of principle, history and territory, there is no room for compromise,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on the sidelines of China’s annual parliament.

“Only by making a clean break with the past and stop going back on one’s own words can the relationship emerge from the current impasse and have a future,” Wang said, reiterating China’s oft-stated stance.

Ships from both countries shadow each other around the disputed islets, called the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan. Tokyo has scrambled jets numerous times in response to Chinese aircraft, raising fears of a clash.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan needs a stronger military to cope with what he calls an increasingly threatening security environment, with a more militarily assertive China and unpredictable North Korea.

Ties between the two Asian rivals worsened when Abe visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine on Dec 26, which China sees as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism because it honors wartime leaders along with millions of war dead.

China has increasingly contrasted Germany and its public remorse for the Nazi regime to Japan, where repeated official apologies for wartime suffering are sometimes undercut by contradictory comments by conservative politicians.

COMMENT:   Obama says we are "pivoting" from the Mideast to Asia, but his talk isn't taken seriously, especially as he cuts America's defense budget in the face of increasing threats.  A rising China is confronted by our ally, Japan, which is led by a nationalistic government.  Yet, despite all our pivoting, we don't seem all that interested.

Our South Korean ally is caught in the middle, and I'd guess that the South Korean leadership is sensing American weakness.  A reconciliation with North Korea is not out of the question.

Question:  Are we winning anywhere?  Answers are solicited.

March 9, 2014        Permalink

THE AIRLINER – AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  They still haven't found the wreckage of that Malaysian airliner that went down Friday with 239 people on board.  The mystery deepens with reports that several passengers were traveling with stolen passports.  That fact, and the fact that there was no distress call from the cockpit have raised speculation – we stress that it is speculation – that a terrorist action on board may have brought down the plane.  But until they find it, no one will know.  From Fox:

Interpol says no country checked its database for information about stolen passports that were used to board the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared with 239 people on board Saturday less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bound for Beijing.

In a sharply worded criticism of shortcomings of national passport controls, the Lyon, France-based international police body said information about the thefts of an Austrian passport in 2012 and an Italian passport last year was entered into its database after they were stolen in Thailand.

Interpol said in a statement it was investigating all other passports used to board Flight MH 370 and was working to determine the "true identities" of the passengers who used the stolen passports.

The statement came as officials said finding the wreckage of the flight is “the utmost priority."

“There is still no sign of the aircraft,” Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Department of Civil Aviation, said during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Rahman said that the search area has been increased to 50 nautical miles, from 20, and includes 34 aircraft and 40 ships. Aircraft are conducting 12-hour searches, until sundown, while ships continue the search through the night.

COMMENT:  Aviation experts are recalling EgyptAir flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic off Nantucket in 1999, with a loss of 217 people.  Our National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the plane had been intentionally crashed by its first officer, although the Board could determine no specific motive.  The officer was heard on the voice cockpit recorder to be mumbling Muslim prayers as he put the airliner into a dive. 

But we are speculating.  We must wait for answers, if they ever come.

March 9,  2014     Permalink 

MARCH 8,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 5:06 P.M. ET: 

SOCIALISM DOWN – From the American Interest:  "New York City lefty Mayor Bill de Blasio was elected in a landslide with more than 73 percent of the vote last November. Yet after only two months on the job, his approval rating has been cut nearly in half, with only 39 percent of city voters expressing approval of the job he has done so far. As the WSJ notes, this is considerably lower than his predecessor’s approval ratings at this time in his tenure, although he is still personally relatively popular."  Crazy Bill started attacking the immensely popular charter schools, suggesting they were playthings of the rich.  In fact, they are loved in minority communities.  Not a wise move, Bill, but Fidel would approve.

EMBARRASSING – From AFP:  "US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on American ambassadors around the world to make the fight against climate change a top priority ahead of new UN talks next year.  In his first department-wide policy guidance statement since taking office a year ago, he told his 70,000 staff: 'The environment has been one of the central causes of my life.'"  I'm so moved.  The world is in flames and John wants a monument built to his life.  Apparently, John hasn't noticed that dissent over "global warming" is growing.  But his friend, Al Gore, is getting richer.

BRILLIANCE – Reader Bill Sorby sends us a story noting one effect of New York State's trendy "get tough on guns" laws.  Remington, one of the nation's legendary gun makers, has announced that it is moving a New York plant to Alabama, with a loss to New York of 2,000 jobs.  Remington's initial investment in Alabama is $87-million.  New York is the largest outmigration state in the Union.  In other words, more people leave New York than any other.  Absurd taxes, ridiculous living costs, are driving people away.  This state cannot afford factory closings.  But the trendies are in charge, and they will not care.

March 8, 2014       Permalink

STORY OR NON-STORY? – AT 11:04 A.M. ET:  Stories about potential presidential candidates are entertaining, and sometimes they have substance.  So let us entertain.  There is a movement on to draft Dr. Ben Carson, the African-American neurosurgeon, for the Republican presidential nomination.  Is it possible this could happen?  From The Hill:

Neurologist Ben Carson could be 2016’s sleeper presidential contender.

You won’t find him in early polls, and he doesn’t make headlines for huddling with top advisers in primary states.

Carson is lauded for his plainspoken yet forceful ability to speak clearly about the party’s values. The retired physician rose to prominence after delivering a controversial speech at last year’s National Prayer Breakfast, where he lambasted President Obama and his policies while standing just feet away from the president.

Now, his supporters believe Carson, as a black Republican and a true political outsider, could be the one GOP candidate capable of taking down Hillary Clinton.

That simple star power has made him one of the biggest draws at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, earned him a prime speaking slot on Saturday, and and even inspired an unlikely movement to draft him into the presidential race.

But for as much of a surprise as his rise with conservatives has been, he’s still a reluctant candidate.

Carson maintains he doesn’t want to run and isn’t making any serious preparations for a bid, but in a Thursday interview with The Hill, it was clear that he has thought seriously about the logistics of a campaign.

“My hope, obviously, is that someone else will really catch fire and generate a great deal of enthusiasm. If that doesn’t happen in another year and there’s still a lot of people clamoring for another option, then I will have to really look seriously at it,” he told The Hill in a phone conversation.

But people are already clamoring for Carson. He wouldn’t give specifics on where his packed speaking schedule had taken him in the past few months, but said he visits states in every corner of the country, headlining fundraisers and civic events and speaking at schools about conservative principles and on the dangers of ObamaCare.

“People are so thrilled to see that they’re not the only one with common sense. But the problem is the people with common sense have been beaten down so they’re afraid to express themselves,” he said.

COMMENT:  It's intriguing.  Carson is a terrific guy.  I've heard him speak and he'd make a wonderful keynote speaker at the national convention.

But running for president is brutal.  Carson has no experience in politics, and certainly none in foreign policy.  He is given to verbal gaffes, common to amateurs.  He has to prove that he is not a five-minute wonder.  It is a very hard road, and he will be accused of being an Uncle Tom, one of the standard charges made by left-wing McCarthyites. 

But I certainly think he's worth following, and we will do it.

March 8, 2014       Permalink

THE AIRLINER – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:   There is intrigue, whether justified or not, surrounding the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner yesterday, with 239 people on board.  It appears the plane may have crashed off the coast of Vietnam, with no mayday message or any other communication from the cockpit.  From Fox:

Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said there was no indication that the pilots had sent a distress signal, suggesting that whatever happened to the plane occurred quickly and possibly catastrophically.

China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported the plane was lost in airspace controlled by Vietnam, and never made contact with Chinese air traffic controllers. There have been no reports of a plane crashing into Chinese waters, and China is assisting the airline in its search for the plane.

Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday spotted two large oil slicks in the area where the plane vanished in the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people on board, including two infants and 12 crew members, had crashed.

The slicks were each between 6 miles and 9 miles long. There was no confirmation that the slicks were related to the missing plane, but the statement said they were consistent with the kinds that would be produced by the two fuel tanks of a crashed jetliner.

COMMENT:  Recovering wreckage from underwater is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible.  It was, however, done well in the case of TWA Flight 800, which crashed off the coast of Long Island in the 1990s.  That, too, went down without a distress signal from the cockpit.  The probable cause, which is still mired in controversy, was, according to the NTSB, an explosion in the center fuel tank. 

We must wait for answers.  But in an age of terror and hijackings, we aren't wrong to speculate about the possibility of an intentional crash. 

March 8, 2014       Permalink

RUSSIA AND GERMANY – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  One of the complicating factors in confronting Russia over Ukraine is the strange role of Germany.  Germany is the strongest country in Western Europe, yet is linked closely with Russia economically.  It therefore frustrates efforts at a unified response to Russian aggression.  From London's Daily Mail:

As Europe’s leading power, a global economic titan, and a nation that has sought since 1945 to set an example of peace and democracy, Germany ought to be at the forefront of demands for sanctions to be imposed on Russia after its outrageous behaviour in Ukraine.

But it has signally failed to discharge its moral duty towards Europe. The main reason is self-interest because the German economy is massively dependent on Russia. Not only is Russia one of the main markets for its exports, but its industry and homes rely so heavily on the country’s gas and oil.

What’s more, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel (who grew up in a Soviet-controlled area east of Berlin) and her Kremlin counterpart Vladimir Putin (who once worked for the KGB in Dresden) have a pretty strong relationship.

Hard economic facts graphically reveal the two countries’ interdependence.

Germany is Russia’s third biggest trading partner and accounts for 31 per cent of Russia’s imports from the EU. At least 6,100 German companies have capital investments in Russia, turning over 40 billion euros in 2012 and employing 270,000 people.

The main factor behind Germany’s reluctance to challenge Russian aggression, though, is the fact that 35 per cent of its natural gas and oil supplies come from Russia.

The effect of Germany’s failure to lead the EU and demand tough sanctions against Moscow means that a divided West is left to look on haplessly as the Russian tyrant remains free to continue unimpeded in his bullying of his neighbours.

Most chillingly, this means that Putin might also feel emboldened to start menacing other former Soviet states such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia which, like Ukraine, have considerable Russian minorities.Indeed, this is a truly inglorious moment for Mrs Merkel.

COMMENT:  When Mitt Romney said during the 2012 campaign that Russia was our greatest enemy, he was laughed at.  In fact, he was prescient.  Russia is rising.  It is led by an aggressive, strategically savvy leader, Vladimir Putin, who runs circles around the king of the faculty lounges, Barack Obama.

Obama began his administration by canceling missile defense systems promised to Poland and the Czech Republic, thus demonstrating his contempt for those allies.  The chickens are now coming home to roost.  Putin acts with impunity, and the strongest nation in Western Europe hedges its bets, dependent on Russian cash and supplies.  Countries that border on Russia might well have to cozy up to the Kremlin, if only to stay alive.  They must feel very alone.

March 8,  2014     Permalink