PS

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

 

  • Bruce A. McHenry
    Oil companies get the largest subsidies because they have the most lobbyists not because it is good policy. Let's track of the representatives who participate in this kickback scheme and vote them out of office.
    Tell Congress: End government handouts to rich oil companies
    act.credoaction.com
    As gas prices and oil company profits soar, it makes no sense that our government continues to reward Big Oil with an additional $4 billion a year in subsidies and tax breaks. Those who have defended this policy are starting to feel the pressure. Let's turn it up, and finally end oil subsidies.
    May 8 at 4:32am · · · ·
    • Laura Kelleher Neal, Alfred Essa, Sunny Beach Lund and 2 others like this.
      • Marc Fox
        Hey - were I a Yank (at the time) - I would have considered voting for (gulp) Ross Perot. He would have done away with all lobbyists... but since nature does abhor a vacuum, it is reasonable to think that was wishful thinking...and that some other form of the same animal would have taken their place. Proof? Imagine Italy without Berlusconi. In the end, there are other Berlusconi's waiting to fill those shoes, only they are not as (alas) capable to do so. Hence his being so very popular with Italians...
        May 8 at 11:25am · · 1 person
      • Alex Beltchev
        ‎4 billion is peanuts when compared to the money administrations (not only the Obama one) waste on ridiculous earmarks and pork-barrel projects every day of the year. At least oil companies provide the only viable energy source going forward for the forseeable future that make this economy function. Not to mention the creation of jobs which translate into tax revenue at every level. "Down with big oil" is an easy sell when gas prices rise, but it's a narrow-minded, knee-jerk reaction to the realities of the market. How do you reconcile wanting independance from foreign oil while at the same time attacking your domestic oil industry by freezing drilling and threatening higher taxes on profits which are needed to ensure continued production?
        May 8 at 12:21pm ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry
        It is not clear to me that the domestic oil industry needs tax breaks in order to be profitable. One study estimated that the lobbying efforts and campaign contributions of our larger companies, not just oil but defense and big conglomerates like GE, translated directly into several percent greater profitability. How are those political contributions any different from kickbacks? How are they good for the country when most of the economic growth comes from new companies that do yet have the large income needed to retain lobbyists and hand out campaign contributions to hundred of candidates? CREDO's $4 billion estimate looks low compared with others I have read which also estimated that oil subsidies are at least 10X greater than support for renewable energy technologies.
        May 8 at 12:48pm ·
  • Harold P Boushell
    It begins Dominos will FALL all the way to J P Morgan:
    <
    http://www.wealthwire.com/news/global/1115
    >
    Harold
    Greece Considers Exit from Euro Zone
    www.wealthwire.com
    Greece's economic problems are massive, with protests against the government being held almost daily...
    May 6 at 2:51pm · · · · See Friendship
    • Tom E. Turner likes this.
      • Bruce A. McHenry Are you saying that the banks will suffer if Greece pulls out of the euro? Having made this crisis possible, surely the banks are aware of the possible outcomes and are situated to benefit from the volatility...
        May 6 at 5:09pm ·
      • Harold P Boushell Issue is Devaluation of the Currencies and dumping
        of BONDS and the trigger higher Interest
        rates World Wide.
        May 6 at 5:20pm ·
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  • Bruce A. McHenry
    What do you think? Should this song get recorded?
    Sunni-American Pie
    docs.google.com
    A song about Osama, the Saudi royal family, W and Henry Kissinger.
    May 3 at 9:19pm · · · ·
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  • Bruce A. McHenry
    Cheers ring out across America because, "Justice has been done." Tragic error. The truth is that a star witness has been lost. Justice has been delayed or, more likely, denied.
    The CIA's Destroyed Interrogation Tapes and the Saudi-Pakistani 9/11 Connection
    www.huffingtonpost.com
    Why does Bush, and the CIA, continue to protect the Saudi Royal family and the Pakistani military, from the implications of Abu Zubaydah's confessions?
    May 2 at 3:27am · · · ·
    • Brian Stetten, Jason Weir and Eliane Carvalho like this.
      • Bruce A. McHenry It is very convenient that the news breaks on a Sunday night. With most people going to work on Monday morning, fewer will have the time for thoughtful analysis of the news. Very little will come from any of the commercial American outlets, and even NPR.
        May 2 at 3:38am · · 1 person
      • Barry Kort There were a lot of Dopamine-Driven Cheers last night. You could almost hear the pundits screaming, "Goooooaaaaallll!!!!!!!"

        Vengeance Demons have a curious way of bouncing the ball into the other guy's court.
        May 2 at 4:09am · · 2 people
      • Elizabeth Terry A very interesting article! I'm not so sure all the truth would have come out even with a captured and alive Bin Laden. I wouldn't call his killing a "tragic error". For the first time in my life I am glad over someone's death.
        May 2 at 6:48am ·
      • Barry Kort Tragedies are strange dramas. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Tragedies tend to repeat until we are able to transform them into comedies.
        May 2 at 7:50am ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry Elizabeth, I did not say that killing Osama was a tragic error. On the contrary, it was surely very carefully premeditated and quite intentional. Osama would have talked. I said that Obama's remark reinforcing the hoi polloi's reaction that "justice has been done" is a tragic error.
        May 2 at 8:06am ·
      • Barry Kort What we needed is the kind of trial the Israelis gave to Adolf Eichmann.
        May 2 at 8:24am · · 1 person
      • Bruce A. McHenry
        Disconcertingly, my first comment has been deleted but not my me. It was detailed and repeated the observation that the suppressed intel discussed in the link was the Rosetta Stone for 9/11.

        I repeated that of the four people Al Quaeda operative Zubaydah named as co-conspirators, all three princes died promptly and under suspicious circumstances before the FBI could question them.

        The elder prince was also the head of the largest Saudi publisher!

        The fourth, a Pakistani commander, went down with his family and close associates in an air crash.
        May 2 at 8:35am ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry I also wrote that the story was personally confirmed to me by Tom Ridge when he headed DHS during my second encounter with him on the bikeway between Bethesda and Georgetown. The first meeting had been at the Center for the Study of the Presidency.
        May 2 at 8:36am ·
      • Elizabeth Terry Now I understand your point :)
        May 2 at 9:37am ·
      • Barry Kort One of the main features of a drama is that the audience doesn't learn the whole story until the very end. If we knew the whole story, it wouldn't be a story; it would be a dull scientific model that would rival Sominex as a sleep inducer.
        May 2 at 9:56am · · 2 people
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  • Bruce A. McHenry
    Cambridge Local News: Lightening Starts Fire, Stupid Neighbor Lets it Burn
    Cambridge Local News: Lightening Starts Fire, Stupid Neighbor Lets it Burn
    bmchenry.posterous.com
    A freakishly lone lightening strike hit the house at the other end of Elm St on Harvard St at about 5:25 yesterday afternoon. I was sitting at my desk facing the window in that direction and had not even noticed rain let alone thunder when the clap made my heart beat double. I thought it hit D ...
    April 29 at 4:28am via Posterous · · ·
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  • Bruce A. McHenry
    Good analysis of the problems of being rich or expecting to inherit. Undertaken by the Gates Foundation.
    The Atlantic: Breaking News, Analysis and Opinion on politics, business, culture, international, sci
    www.theatlantic.com
    The Atlantic covers breaking news, analysis, opinion around politics, business, culture, international, science, technology, national profiles on the official site of the Atlantic Magazine.
    April 28 at 10:01pm · · · ·
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  • Bruce A. McHenry recommends a link.
    Secret Fears of the Super-Rich - Magazine - The Atlantic
    www.theatlantic.com
    Does great wealth bring fulfillment? An ambitious study by Boston College suggests not. For the first time, researchers prompted the very rich—people with fortunes in excess of $25 million—to speak candidly about their lives. The result is a surprising litany of anxieties: their sense of isolation,
    April 28 at 9:51pm · · ·
      • Karen E Caswelch Thanks for posting this! While I'm nowhere in the very rich position, I am definitely considered uppoer middle class, and I worry about the values I teach my kids. It's a good reminder that money isn't everything!
        April 29 at 9:19am · · 1 person
  • Bruce A. McHenry
    This comic strip asks who was most correct... George Orwell with 1984 or Aldous Huxley with Brave New World? The first dystopia is disciplinarian and fascist, the latter one is libertine and pacifist. Which is the greater threat?

    In a related question, would you rather live as a chimpanzee in a violent patriarchal society or as a bonobo in a matriarchal one noted for free love?
    April 28 at 6:46pm · · · ·
    • Alex Beltchev, Ed Feeny and Abhishek Sinha like this.
      • Bruce A. McHenry Read the strip and see if you don't end up chuckling at yourself.
        What are you doing here?
        April 28 at 6:56pm ·
      • Alex Beltchev Huxley WAS right! The fact that I read about it here proves it!
        April 28 at 8:41pm ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry So, what about the related question, Alex?
        April 28 at 9:07pm ·
      • Alex Beltchev What am I doing here? Thought I answered that; I am busy proving Huxley right.
        April 29 at 7:37am ·
      • Bruce McKelvy Excellent and valuable "strip." It points out that our lives are defined by self-discipline.
        April 29 at 9:05am ·
      • Jim Mays Aren't we seeing both distopias playing out? Huxley is us; Orwell in China, North Korea, Iran...
        April 29 at 10:50am ·
  • Bruce A. McHenry was tagged in Noreen Ferrante's album.
    New Years Card 2011
    April 28 at 3:40pm
  • RECENT ACTIVITY
  • Bruce A. McHenry
    Have you been sitting quietly like a good little boy or girl all lined up in rows of desks? Well, don't. Lack of movement kills. Stretch. Stand up. Twist. Fidget. Tap your heel. Whatever you do, don't just sit there!
    Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?
    www.nytimes.com
    A growing body of research suggests that watching your diet and exercising a few times a week is not enough to offset sedentary time.
    April 21 at 6:31pm · · · ·
  • Vesna Gerintes
    Sugar, the new cigarette. After watching 1:30h video 'Sugar: The bitter truth' (viaBruce A. McHenry ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM and reading this (via Nick Bilton ) try to recall how did you quit smoking.
    Is Sugar Toxic?
    www.nytimes.com
    That it makes us fat is something we take for granted. That it might also be making us sick is harder to accept.
    April 18 at 9:34am · View Post · Remove Tag
  • Peter Rothman
    Bruce, do you know about these guys? Could this be useful for the KPF?
    OmniCompete - Home
    www.omnicompete.com
    OmniCompete is a central hub for security innovators, start-ups and investors and hosts competitions and events around the globe.
    April 15 at 6:36am · · · · See Friendship
    • You like this.
  • Jonathan Vos Post
    We are Californians who know enough Management Technology to be dangerous, and share a couple of dozen facebook Friends. Great to be connected!
  • RECENT ACTIVITY
  • Bruce A. McHenry
    Prompted by the recent New York Times article on the toxicity of sugar, several FB friends posted this UCSF lecture about the central role of fructose in creating a global obesity epidemic. Yes, fructose is in fruit but there it is offset by fiber. Not so in Coke and most fast, processed foods. 90 mins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
    Sugar: The Bitter Truth
    gdata.youtube.com
    Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical Sch
    April 13 at 3:52pm · · · ·
    • Brian Stetten, Vesna Gerintes, Marcy Dorna and 6 others like this.
      • Anne Stone Well said, well said. Eat the fruit, not even the juice.
        April 14 at 8:23am ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry The lecture also says that sucrose (eg. crystallized sugar) is half fructose and therefore also harmful.
        April 14 at 8:29am ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry While the effects are now clearly recognized, they are merely chronically bad. The FDA is tasked with regulating harmful substances but only if the poisoning is critical. This distinction prevents labeling of fructose and sugary foods with a warning like that on packs of cigarettes. Clear labeling would be beneficial, especially to the poorer folks who are most impacted by the obesity epidemic.
        April 14 at 8:37am ·
      • Alison V. Reed Read the article yesterday in the NY Times. Well written and something many have known for a long time. The food and beverage industry has been using the unsuspecting public as guinea pigs for profit with disastrous results. Thanks for posting.
        April 14 at 3:03pm ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry This link gets the whole NYT article:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
        April 14 at 3:36pm ·
  • Bruce A. McHenry via Sharon Allen
    This song goes along this article: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-real-housewives-of-wall-street-look-whos-cashing-in-on-the-bailout-20110411?page=1
    "End of the Ship" by Roy Zimmerman
    gdata.youtube.com
    please friend me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter and visit me at http://royzimmerman.com/ This video recorded at the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City.
    April 13 at 8:56am · · · ·
  • Bruce A. McHenry recommends a link.
    Big government on the brink
    www.washingtonpost.com
    America has promised more than it can deliver.
    April 13 at 8:15am · · ·
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  • Bruce A. McHenry
    There are decent people everywhere, even in international high finance. He was one.
    John Perkins Official Web Site
    johnperkins.org
    I’m traveling to California next week and hope you’ll join me at these two events. Please see below for direct information and I hope to see you. GREEN FESTIVAL April 9-10, 2011 San Francisco Concourse and Design Center San Francisco, CAhttp://www.greenfestivals.org/ PRAXIS PEACE INSTITUTE, SONOMA,
    April 7 at 11:46pm · · · ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry He's in in SF this weekend.
        I'd like to meet him too but I am doing SFO to DCA tomorrow.
        April 7 at 11:46pm ·
  • Bruce A. McHenry
    iPad stalls expected netbook sales. Apple triumphs. America does, sort of.

    Why are Mexicans dealing drugs instead of building iPads? Anyone?
    IPad Causes Collateral Damage in Taiwan - BusinessWeek
    www.businessweek.com
    Acer's CEO resigns amid slow PC sales and a delayed start in tablets.
    April 7 at 10:47pm · · · ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry For my flight to DCA tomorrow, I just bought a sleek little Apple bluetooth keyboard to go with my iPad, for $69.
        April 7 at 10:47pm ·
      • Jim Lai Mexico is in the throes of a resource curse, except the resource money flows through drug cartels.
        April 8 at 4:01am · · 1 person
      • Bruce A. McHenry Why can't we just deal with the problem at the root? Let's tag, tax and treat drug abusers.

        We need a revolution.
        April 8 at 7:06am ·
      • Jim Lai Taxation would require legalization. Treatment is a liberal policy. They're not viable politically given the strength of coinservatism, which tends to favor punitive measures. About the only measure that would have conservative backing would be tagging, but US prisons are already overcrowded without solving the problem. Ideological impasse.
        April 8 at 7:18am · · 1 person
      • Bruce A. McHenry
        Our hospitals are built on a military model, a feudal one. Each hospital is like a castle under doctors as barons and baronesses. They often think of patients as a rabble to be subdued (especially in psychiatry). There are many conditions that can be self-diagnosed and treated without seeing an MD but in the US drugs are tightly controlled, especially those that help with pain and suffering, major features of many illnesses.

        So the patronizing attitude of AMA and APA about everyone, nurses, assistants, social workers and therapists, not noble enough to have earned an MD are also roots of the drug problem, and of the high cost of American health care.

        We need a revolution.
        April 8 at 7:33am · · 1 person
      • Bruce Robbs The great test bed: medical marijuana centers... Stay tuned
        April 8 at 11:57am ·
      • David Curry Yes, it seems that these barons and baronesses really hate WebMD and Wikipedia. While advanced diagnostics and treatment should likely be handled by well trained physicians, 90% of our ailments can be self diagnosed and treated. And it does seem to be the accepted paradigm in US medicine that if it has good efficacy with pain and suffering, then it must be dangerous.
        April 8 at 1:18pm · · 1 person
    • Bruce,
  • RECENT ACTIVITY
  • Bruce A. McHenry
    Wherein I shamelessly promote an excellent episode of NYC's RadioLab, and myself. (Actually, there is a good reason to send you off to my blog. FB truncates wall posts - without warning you - and comments here do not permit links.)
    PS
    bruce-mchenry.blogspot.com
    I had too much for dinner again and, having fallen asleep to KQED, woke up to an excellent episode of RadioLab sometime after 1 AM.
    April 7 at 6:50am · · · ·
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  • Bruce A. McHenry commented on mercurynews.com.
    I was a young software engineer at StratCom and remember above all Paul's gentleness. Generous with his time, he was a truly humble leader. He was genuinely concerned that employees develop themselves and was more concerned about that than his equity. I will always remember him fondly.
    Paul Baran, Palo Alto man who helped create precursor to Internet, dies - San Jose Mercury News
    www.mercurynews.com
    Paul Baran, an engineer who helped create the technical underpinnings for the ARPAnet, the government-sponsored precursor to today
    April 7 at 6:34am · · ·
  • Bruce A. McHenry
    Two former reporters for Fox sued them and lost because, "it is not against the law to falsify the news".

    The issue was injecting cows with hormones to increase milk production. Monsanto objected, and a passel of other "news" corporations including Newsweek joined Fox in the suit.
    What's in your milk is not in the news
    gdata.youtube.com
    Most people tend to believe whatever they hear or see in the media. Because they have this false image in their minds, put there by the media, that the media feels a responsibility to the public to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This is not so. The media once felt a r
    April 6 at 1:50pm · · · ·
    • Marcy Dorna and Nate Blair like this.
      • Bruce A. McHenry Everyone who consumes any media paid for by advertising, not just Fox News, ought to watch this ten minute video.
        April 7 at 8:58am ·
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  • Bruce A. McHenry via Alex Lightman
    I am going to stop fretting about being awake in the middle of the night. But first, I am going to get up and out of my chair.
    7 Basic Things You Won't Believe You're All Doing Wrong
    www.cracked.com
    Congratulations: Chances are that if you're reading this, and you're not a ghost, you've managed to figure out breathing. On the other hand, chances are you're also doing it wrong.
    April 6 at 11:41am · · · ·
  • Bruce A. McHenry via Sergio Tarrero
    Former CIA analyst says Libyan rebels likely Mujahideen who would be less palatable than Gadaffi. Also that the no fly zone will probably fail and then ground troops would be needed to prevent mission failure.

    CNN hosts laughed at when they cite claim that Arabs supported the intervention. The supporting regimes tyrannize their own citizens. Then CNN hosts deny connection between the weak economy and the cost o
    Former CIA Analyst Laughs at CNN Host
    gdata.youtube.com
    FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the US Copyright Law.
    April 5 at 8:59pm · · · ·
    • Alex Beltchev and Lars Bjorck like this.
      • Bruce A. McHenry ‎(Why does FB still truncate posts without warning? How lame is that?)
        April 5 at 9:03pm ·
      • Bruce A. McHenry ‎... Then CNN hosts deny connection between the weak economy and the cost of wars. Laughable indeed.

        The US is in the mid to late imperialist phase. Wars will exhaust us just as they did the European imperialists.
        April 5 at 9:04pm · · 1 person
      • Alex Beltchev Fantastic! The guy calls a spade a spade and the media babes go into spin frenzy! Loved it!
        April 6 at 9:42am · · 1 person
      • Bruce A. McHenry Studies show that people who watch TV are more depressed. Are they depressed to start with, or is TV depressing? Either way, I have given up on it.
        April 6 at 10:31am ·

posted by Bruce A. McHenry  # 12:18 AM
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