Why Didn't The TSA Just Do This Earlier?

The TSA received a lot flack, well deserved in my opinion, for the implementation of body scanners that would generate a digital nude image of the person being scanned.  As of May 16, the TSA has announced that all airport scanners will no longer display digital nude image of a person, instead it will show a generic outline.  The move by the TSA was prompted by a ruling from the courts mandating that the the scanners be removed by May 31st, originally it was to be June of last year but the TSA was able to get that date extended.

While we still have to parade convicts in front of a digital machine, despite the near nonexistent threat of attacks prior to the implementation of said devices, we at least no longer have to suffer the indignity of being rendered naked digitally.  I have one question though, why didn't the TSA have the scanners display a generic outline from the get go? It doesn't take much foresight to see that the implementation of these type of devices are controversial enough by itself, and that the way the images would be displayed would only needlessly anger Americans. Why wasn't the TSA proactive? The answer, as we all know, is that government agencies are rarely proactive. But rather than be a Debie Downer we should count our blessings, after all, it only took them five years and a court order.

College Graduates In China Facing Similar Future to Those In America

According to a post by Gordon Chang at Forbes, China is seeing record numbers of Chinese graduates, but at the same time a drop of college graduates who have employment contracts prior to graduating. According to the South China Morning Post, the average number of students with signed contracts for  mainland China is 52.4%, however, it is as low as 46% in Guangdong and 33% in Beijing.

Given that it is an open secret that China fudges their official numbers, the employment situation in China for recent graduates is starting to look very similar to those in the United States. For those who rely on China to supplant the United States as the economic hub of the world, this is bad news considering that China hasn't even come close to approaching the economic development standards that the United States has. China cannot be both the creditor, debtor, producer and consumer for the world; that would be the equivalent of the perpetual motion machine.

The cessation of economic growth in China, which I think will happen in the not to distant future, will be a black day for the global economy and unmitigated disaster for the PRC.  For the last two to three generations the Chinese government has stacked their entire legitimacy, and raison d'être, on economic growth. What happens to the Chinese government when that is removed? Only time will tell.

Damning Failure: Washington Bridge Collapse

Given that I live in Washington I suppose I should comment on the recent bridge collapse along I-5. Thankfully no one was killed, and traffic hasn't been affected at all in Seattle proper, and it looks like a new temporary bridge should be up in relatively quick order.  But a slue of news organizations are talking about what why this happened, who is responsible and what needs to be done. My opinion is that this bridge collapse is evidence of a damning failure of our government.

Coming to an America Near You

Video of a punch of people in Caracas stampeding after they hear that chicken parts and flour are finally available. Venezuela has been plagued with shortages thanks to the Chauvinist regime, the latest being a toilet paper shortage.  It's sad to think that an common item, considered so disposable in ordinary times, becomes a highly valued commodity during times of want.

Closing the Gender Gap Isn't Going to Help Japan

Goldman Sachs with an utterly fanciful report about how closing the 'gender' gap in the workforce will help move Japan's economy forward.  Increasing the number of women in the workforce will yield no long term benefit for Japan, and the same can be said for western countries. At best such a move will be a net neutral. The reason is that technological innovation, the regulatory environment and demographics matter far more for the prospects of long term economic growth than the percentage of your workforce is men or women*.

Youths Continue to Riot In Sweden

American media continues to neglect to mention who exactly the rioters are.  They say youths but they are deliberetly leaving out an adjective that should be attached to it. The media doesn't speak the truth for fearing to offend people's delicate sensibilities, however, their continued silence only assures that when the public finally changes their mind about our current stance on multiculturalism that it will be a violent change. 

Stratfor: Strategic Challenges of Italy and Greece

I've posted two videos today detailing the strategic challenges facing two Mediterranean nations

 

Heh: Too Pretty to Have a Job

Women says that being pretty is why she doesn't have a job. Heh.

Abenomics is Economic Seppuku

Girlfriend forwarded me an article from the New York Times on Abenomics and asked what I thought of it.  I replied by forwarding a video posted on After the West  that covers one of the major problems with Abenomics. Abenomics is essentially a three pronged approach towards jump starting Japans stagnant economy. 

The first prong, massive government investment, is nothing new for the Japanese.  Every Prime Minister of Japan since the early to mid 1990s as tried government investment to little effect.  There is little reason to think that Abe's economic stimulus is faring any better.

What Happens WhenYou Put A Socialist In Charge

You get an attempt to confiscate as much wealth as possible by the government. Fortunately for the French, the Constitutional Council has decided that a 66.66% marginal tax rate or higher on income over 1.2 million Euros, around 1.5 million Dollars, is confiscatory. I am sure that this will comfort the wealthy in France and bring the likes of Gerard Depardieu back from Belgium. Having their attempts at fleecing the evil nasty rich rebuffed, Hollande's government is turning their sights onto corporations. I can't what the downside of trying to implement a marginal tax rate above 75% would be for corporations. Whatever does happen I am sure, as the Captain always says, that it will be a feature, not a bug, of Socialism.

In The Ruins of A Republic

In the last post of my series on the Decline of the Roman Republic I ended shortly after Sulla’s dictatorship. The end his dictatorship in 81 B.C marked a transition period for the Roman people. Sulla had assumed the dictatorship due to the machinations of his rival and former superior Marius, and he used his powers to try and purge the Republic of what he saw as the rot of corruption that had festered for far too long. At least this is how Sulla would describe his actions; and I believe it was a real motivation considering that he did voluntarily disband his legions and give up the dictatorship. However, whatever Sulla’s ultimate intentions, the reality is that his proscriptions were a bloody terror that purged the republic of guilty and innocent alike. Most troubling is that the actions of both Marius and Sulla revealed a startling truth that even Sulla's voluntary resignation of dictatorship could not hide. The Republic of Rome was no more.

Detriot Should Just Declare Bankruptcy

And end it all now. There is no way that a city that is as broken as Detroit, with a deficit of 386 million and total outstanding long term debt of over 14 billion, can recover. What's really funny is that out of it's total 400 million in short to medium term liabilities almost 30% of that debt comes from public projects that were supposed to rejuvenate the ailing city.  Time and time again we have examples of cities, that instead of opting for fiscal restraint, aim for hairbrain public works projects as the panacea for their fiscal woes that only hasten the economic suicide of the municipality. This should be front page news and be a cause of foreboding for all Americans, but it will remain under reported and under read. Eventually Detroit will announce bankruptcy and we will hear the gnashing of teeth and the wail: "How could this have happened?"

Leftists Turning Against The Old?

The fact that Social Security and Medicare are slowly strangling this nation financial isn't news to myself, or most anyone else who isn't hooked up to the crap culture opium drip.  For a long time attempting to address this situation was guaranteed political suicide because not only would you have the largest voting demographic out for your blood, but you would also have media encouraging the blood bath.  This may be changing.

Keynesian Economics and Our Economy in a Single Picture

After AWB Fails The Media Tells Us What We Already Knew About Firearms

Now that the AWB has been taken off of the table, and there is no point for the media to try and use people's emotions to push forward a law that would do nothing to stop firearm violence, guess what the media reports.  A DOJ  report that says gun violence has fallen dramatically over the last two decades, and that less than 2% of convicted inmates reports buying a firearm from a gun show; the majority acquired their firearms through friends and families. 

This comes as no surprise to me or any other 'right wing' gun nut.  We've been saying this for some time now.  I can imagine a lot of 2nd amendment lovers would find this report funny considering that it was only released after the AWB was well and truly defeated. Whether the media or the DOJ was avoiding releasing this bit of information until after the AWB failed, or it's just a coincidence that the report was released after it's failure, I cannot rightly say. But I do know one thing, the preponderance of data showing that the proliferation of firearms in this nation is not the reason for gun violence will be ignored, once again, in short order.

Dow Breaks 15,000

Dow Breaks 15,000, further proving it is a useless metric when it comes to the economic prospects of America.

Coatia Learning About The Absurdity of the EU

Croatia is set to become the 28th member of the EU on July 1st.  The Croatian government, and perhaps the people of Croatia, believe that entering into this illustrious Union will bring about economic prosperity and signify that Croatia is a modern European country.  But it looks like their celebratory cheers are turning into grimaces as the sweet nectar of the EU is revealed to be a bitter draught.

What Have You Done With The Life You Have Left?

Life is the greatest gift we have and we are fortunate enough to be living in a time were our lifespan keeps increasing every decade.  That is as long as you aren't a fatty or take crappy care of yourself you will live a long life. The point being that there is a pretty good likelihood that those of us alive today could possibly live to our theoretical maximum life span, this is of course not factoring what advances in genetics and biotechnology could do to increase our life span. But the seemingly unstoppable upward trend of our maximum life spans is not the focus of my post. One thing is for certain, I, you, and everyone else will die. Whether there is an empty void, reincarnation, or an after life no one can rightly determine with full confidence, but we do know our time is limited, and this is important.

It is easy for us have our life pass us by and not even realize it's passing us buy. I'm not simply talking about the individual that passes through live on the consumerist morphine drip. I'm talking about us, the individuals who blog, read blogs in this ever growing circle. Observer calls it watching from the box and I call it living in my head but they are the same thing, the acts of a passive individual. In this case the passive individual isn't mindless like the masses, in fact it is probably quite the opposite. The passive individual in this case is very contemplative and intellectual. A lot of our time spent on this earth will be watching and analyzing the world around us. I don't need to expound on the benefit of having this disposition of which you are all well aware but there is a potential problem. That problem is inactivity.

Britain Not Long For The EU

The EU has been on shaky ground since the financial crisis of 2008. Some individuals have even postulated that nations like Italy, Spain or Greece could eventually opt out of the Union.  Mainstream news pundits to play down this likelihood as the current consensus among the elites is that the world will become increasingly more interconnected; the EU simply being a step along in that direction.  However, the spectre that a nation may willingly leave the EU has been raised.  This time though it comes from the British Isle with UKIP performing very well in the latest rounds of elections.

We could very well see the dissolution of the EU come, not from one of the mismanaged countries of the Mediterranean, but from our British cousins north of Europe.  It shouldn't be too surprising when the UK only ever put their foot in the door, they maintained their monetary sovereignty, and their long history of resistance towards Continental Europe. There may be hope for Great Britain yet.

Potentially Disturbing Turn in Bombing Case

The Boston Marathon bombing looked like an isolated incident of Islamic terror by two Chechen brothers. By isolated I mean in regards to how the operation was put together.  As sad as it is to say this, the bombs utilized were not so technically advanced that any moderately intelligent person with plans from the Internet couldn't have put them together.  MSNBC now reports that three more suspects have been arrested.  This now raises the specter that this was a more organized attack. If the suspects are legitimate suspects, as opposed to a mistake by the police, this would be disturbing news; though the fact that a this whole ordeal illustrates how the TIDE watchlist doesn't prevent potential attacks is disturbing by itself.