Little Black Boxes

Funny, it doesn't look black!

White House okays Black Boxes for Vehicles

The White House Office of Management Budget said it has completed a review of the proposal to make so-called vehicle "black boxes" mandatory in all cars and trucks, clearing the way for NHTSA to publish its final regulation.

The agency has made it a priority to work toward a proposed standard that would mandate these devices on all passenger vehicles on the nation's roadways," NHTSA spokeswoman Lynda Tran said.

Already in 92% of Vehicles

NHTSA previously issued a new regulation standardizing data collection for event data recorders in August 2006, took effect for the 2013 model year that started Sept. 1, standardizes the information EDRs collect and makes retrieving the data easier. Devices must record 15 data elements, including vehicle deceleration, in specific formats.

The recorders collect data for the seconds of a crash, including whether the driver is wearing a seatbelt, speed and whether the brakes were applied.

Mandating 100% compliance will cost automakers roughly 24 million to implement.

Its Only a Matter of Time

Given the rapid computerization of everything, exponential increases in memory capacity, and the integration of GPS into automotive computer brains, you know it's only a matter of time before location will be tracked as well. The question then becomes, who owns the data and what does the government have to do to access it? 

When will the first case arise where a motorist is cited for failing to wear a seatbelt after the fact from blackbox data?

Big Brother is Watching

What do you think about that?

I think it's time I bought that '33 Ford three-window coupe I've always wanted.

Cheers!

~Finntann

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121206/AUTO01/212060440/NHTSA-gets-White-House-OK-mandate-vehicle-black-boxes-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Obama's Mouthpieces

By Hugh Farnham

Any strongman worthy of the name needs an army - of mouthpieces.  This demagogue is no different.

Call them Plumbers, Mr. Fix-its, or Mouthpieces; their mission is always the same.  Stanch the flow of blood, divert attention, outright lie, or dole out information late Friday night in drips and drabs.

Fast and Furious

The Administration was funneling illegal arms into Mexico over the past few years to create shocking firearm smuggling statistics, in time to justify signing the UN Small Arms Treaty.  This incendiary truth had to be squelched, and right quick.  Bring in Soros and Media Matters, loyal troops in the War Against Truth.

The Daily Caller unveiled  the DOJ's Public Affairs was working closely with Mark Gertz of Media Matters.  This collusion was for a coordinated barrage of attacks against House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, along with others demanding a full accounting of the whole "F and F" operation.

Consider Obama's amazing hypocrisy in light of the Connecticut  murders, for which the Gunrunner-In-Chief squirted tears on TV.  But no wet eyes for hundreds of Mexicans killed by guns purchased by the ATF using Stimulus Dollars.

Benghazi

The Administration didn't send out some State Department bureaucrat to lie to us, but the UN Ambassador Susan Rice.  She regaled us with stories about the casus belli video and supposed protests going on near the consulate.  Both turned out to be lies.

Now You Try Saying It!

ObamaCare

Spin Doctor Sanjay Gupta - you know of him, the didactic MD on CNN telling you to eat your veggies - made the rounds prior to the Supreme Court ruling with a sky-will-fall horror story if ObamaCare was declared unconstitutional. So it was declared "constitutional" and yes, the sky will still fall.  

This list could go on and on, with an endless line of politicians, actors, and socialites the length of a fat plumber's crack.

So what really is that oral appliance?  It's an Asian Face Slimmer!

Other People's Babies

Global Fertility Replacement Rate = 2.33

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. 

 Bill Frezza has a slightly different take on a slightly different problem: Entitlement Democracy. The problem with Entitlement Democracy is that you eventually run out of other people's babies.  If you think the current fiscal cliff is bad, just wait:

The aggregate U.S. federal and state unfunded liabilities required to pay for all the entitlements promised by politicians past-namely Social Security, Medicare, and defined-benefit pensions for public employees-now exceed $100 trillion. Tomorrow's workers, including those yet unborn, have no particular kinship to the people who will be feasting on their paychecks.

And it only gets worse, as you can see on the graph above the world as a whole is hovering just above the replacement fertility rate, the United states is hovering just below.

It takes a live birth rate of 2.1 children per woman to maintain a stable population. Birth rates across Southern Europe have plunged below 1.5, and are expected to drop even further as Euro Zone economies continue to contract. Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan are converging on birth rates closer to 1.0, literally halving their population each generation. Even the Black Plague didn't do that
 

Like the Titanic, we are steaming full speed ahead oblivious that we are about to capsize.  Yes, the support pyramid is about to turn upside down.

The fatal flaw in this scheme is the skyrocketing dependency ratio. The number of young people entering the workforce (should they be lucky enough to find jobs) is not growing fast enough to support the exploding population of non-working 60, 70, 80, and 90-somethings.
 

There is no denying it, as Baby Boomers age out of the workforce, the only way to maintain the entitlement status quo is to either increase revenue or increase debt. The cliff we are approaching is far higher than the "fiscal cliff" we approach today, in fact the "fiscal cliff" is more of a bouncy house than a cliff.  The true cliff we are hurtling towards is more like the Grand Canyon.

Bill Frazza's article can be found here:  http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2012/12/10/will_aging_childless_voters_enslave_my_future_grandchildren_100034.html

.And an interesting study on the global implications can be found here:

 

http://www.newgeography.com/files/The%20Rise%20of%20Post-Familialism%20(ISBN9789810738976).pdf

 

READY, SET, GO !!!

 

 

The problem with Entitlement Democracy is you eventually run out of other people's babies.

 

 

Photo: DonVick, Acapulco's La Quebrada Cliff

 

Cheers!

 

~Finntann

Happy New Years !!!

        Spike Jones and the City Slickers - 1948

Times Gone By

Auld Lang Syne

Performed by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, on bagpipes.  Well, it is Scottish after all!  The lyrics most familiar today were penned by Robert Burns, or perhaps edited is better term, for the song predates Burns.

Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne.
 

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.  Robert Burns 1788

Of course while the Robert Burns version is the most familiar, and while he undoubtedly simplified the song, one is left wondering if it is indeed better compared to earlier versions.

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never thought upon; The flames of love extinguished, and fully past and gone: Is thy sweet heart now grown so cold, that loving breast of thine; That thou canst never once reflect on Old long syne.

On old long syne my Joe, in old long syne, that thou canst never once reflect, on Old long syne.  James Watson 1711
 

Caledonia 

For you Caledonians out there, perhaps a bit more modern, from one of my favorite Scottish performers, Dougie MacLean.  You may be familiar with his most famous work, The Gael was adapted as the main theme of Last of the Mohicans.  This piece is titled Caledonia:

The End of the Drone?

With the supposed capture of another American drone in early December, Con Coughlin declared…

The End of the drone is nigh

“…the drone is no longer the undisputed master of the skies (Con Coughlin) 

He may be jumping the gun a bit, but the longer we use any technology, the greater the odds the bad guys will figure out ways around it or how to defeat it.

And I say good. Why? Because doing anything with impunity makes you lazy and stupid. There is no cheap and easy way to kill people, even people who need killing. There is always a price to be paid. If your force is overwhelming, but the enemy is good at propaganda, your successes will become moral failures as they perform PR jujitsu on you. Like Gary Cooper in High Noon, you’ll soon find the townsfolk have all turned against you.

We lack humility, and wielding a multi-billion dollar sledgehammer has contributed to our lack of imagination. Yes, we must sometimes do violence, but only when absolutely necessary, and we need to do it with eyes wide open, and well aware of all the consequences. 

 May God grant that always and forever we are the most powerful nation on the planet, but may he grant us humility and wisdom to unsheathe the sword only when absolutely necessary.

Saturday Sessions: Campbell

Don't Look Under the Bridge: This One's For Our Resident Troll

Fred August Campbell and The Spur of the Moment Band, I think. although I believe Jimmy Buffet also did a cover.

OBAMACARE...LESS

Let the Repercussions Begin

Employers

Pennsylvania's Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is slashing the hours of 400 adjunct instructors, support staff, and part-time instructors to dodge paying for Obamacare.  "It's kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don't have the money to pay for it," said adjunct biology professor Adam Davis.  On Tuesday, CCAC employees were notified that Obamacare defines full-time employees as those working 30 hours or more per week and that on Dec. 31 temporary part-time employees will be cut back to 25 hours. The move will save an estimated $6 million.  "While it is of course the college’s preference to provide coverage to these positions, there simply are not funds available to do so," said CCAC spokesperson David Hoovler. "Several years of cuts or largely flat funding from our government supporters have led to significant cost reductions by CCAC, leaving little room to trim the college’s budget further."

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Darden Restaurants, Inc., operator of casual dining chains such as Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and LongHorn Steakhouse, is doing just that. ObamaCare requires companies to provide “affordable” health insurance to employees working at least 30 hours per week or pay fines of up to $3,000 per employee who instead obtains taxpayer-subsidized insurance on a state exchange. Darden, therefore, is experimenting with limiting most of its employees to 28 hours per week, thus freeing it from the mandate and its accompanying fine.
Pillar Hotels & Resorts this summer began to focus more on hiring part-time workers among its 5,500 employees, after the Supreme Court upheld the health-care overhaul, said Chief Executive Chris Russell. The company has 210 franchise hotels, under the Sheraton, Fairfield Inns, Hampton Inns and Holiday Inns brands.

Kroger: beginning in January, any employee who is not full-time at that point,will be limited to 28 hours per week and all new hires will be subject to the same policy.

Like many franchisees, Robert U. Mayfield, who owns five Dairy Queens in and around Austin, Tex., is always eager to expand and — no surprise — has had his eyes on opening a sixth DQ. But he said concerns about the new federal health care law had persuaded him to hold off.

Doctors

The study, which appears in the medical-education-themed Dec. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, fuels concerns that there will be a shortage of primary-care doctors available when patients need them most.  Researchers surveyed internal medicine residents about their career plans. Of nearly 17,000 third-year residents, only 21.5 percent were planning on a career as an internal medicine doctor.  "This is worrisome," said study author Dr. Colin West, an internist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "In the next decade, we will be 50,000 primary-care physicians short for the needs of the country."

Compounding the likely shortage is health care reform under the Affordable Care Act, which is expected to flood the system with new patients in the coming years.  "We will need even more primary-care physicians as the foundation of care and we are not generating enough," West said. And, in addition to fewer residents choosing internal medicine and more patients having access to health care, many providers are getting older and heading to retirement.

There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Welcome to the part-time doctorless world of liberal progressives.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/21/Surprise-PA-College-Slashes-Hours-To-Avoid-Obamacare
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/13160-restaurant-giant-cuts-hours-to-avoid-employer-mandate
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/ccac-obamacare_n_2165383.html
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/12/04/study-foresees-shortage-of-primary-care-doctors