The Braden Files : A Global Intelligence Briefing For CEOs
Excellent!!!!!!!
Saturday, February 24, 2007
An explanation, but not an excuse - Wizbang
An explanation, but not an excuse - Wizbang
An explanation, but not an excuse
Among the (well-deserved) outcry over conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, one question has been repeated over and over: how the hell did things get so bad there? And amidst the muddle, a lot of people have extended that argument in wrong directions: from "how can we treat our veterans so badly" to "how did the Veterans Administration let this happen?"
That little misunderstanding -- that Walter Reed falls under the VA -- was actually a pointer to some people.
Walter Reed is not -- repeat, NOT -- a Veteran's Hospital. It is owned and operated by the United States Army, and is for active duty personnel -- not former service members.
And as part of the Army, it fell under the last round of Base Realignment And Closure (BRAC) cuts.
In 2004, a non-partisan commission took a long, hard look at our military installations, and made recommendations that many of them be reduced, consolidated, or eliminated entirely. And Walter Reed -- the Army's premiere hospital -- has been around for almost a century. The commission recommended that it be closed, effective 2011, and consolidated with the Naval National Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland.
Here are a couple of cold, hard facts that most likely contributed to the deterioration at Walter Reed:
1) The military has a finite amount of money to spend.
2) Any money invested in Walter Reed will, in essence, be "wasted" as the whole facility will cease to exist in about four and a half years.
What SHOULD have happened was that the shut-down should have been modified, with the worst facilities being closed down, modest temporary fixes applied where possible, and patients transferred to other facilities. Administrators of the hospital should have been performing architectural "triage" on the campus, sacrificing the most deteriorated buildings and focusing on their core concerns. Instead, it appears they just watched the clock, betting that things wouldn't get too bad before the whole issue became irrelevant.
That was a losing bet -- and our sick and injured service members are having to cover it.
This in no way excuses what happens there. It needs to be fixed, and fixed NOW. Those who made that bet need to be disciplined, demoted, reassigned, or fired. Courts martial might even be in order.
But the state of matters at Walter Reed are too big to be the result of negligence, of carelessness, of even malice. They are systemic -- and the BRAC decision was a major factor in perverting that system. It should have been anticipated that this might happen when one schedules the shuttering of such a huge hospital, especially during a time of war.
At this point, I don't care if we find someone to blame now, or go looking later. The main thing we need to do first is get those sick and wounded service members the hell out of those conditions. They've suffered far too much already in service to all of us; to leave them there while trying to pin the blame on whoever you don't like is to use them in the most obscene of political theatre.
If I were in their place, if given the choice between staying in the disgusting conditions in parts of Walter Reed and being used as a political prop, I think I'd stay with the rats.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING: Politically Correct ? Or Just Stating a Fact
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING: Politically Correct ? Or Just Stating a Fack
TEXAS FRED may not be politically correct but he is right. It is about time to move past this bullshit about race and move on to protecting the country. Am I biased? You gotdam right. I am a predjudiced sumbitch when it comes to not liking people who are dead set on destroying a country I love. I have no use for ragheads..and until the Moslem population in this country takes to the streets demonstrating against the ragheads that are trying to destroy us ...instead of trying to force the rest of us to abide by THEIR perverted religion ...I will include them as part of the raghead population of the world.
Here's the deal people. I don't give a rats ass about the color of your skin..we all bleed red. I don't really give a rats ass about your sexual choices as long as the goat agrees. I could care less about who, when, where, or how you worship provided you don't require me and mine to abide by your religious rules. But I do care about the government taxing hell out of me to provide housing and subsistance to a sub culture that happens to be primarily black..but there are also so low life whites in this group as well as Hispanics and others. Does this make me prejudiced? Yeah, according to the Politically correct assholes it does. I do care about trying to fight the left wing socialists and try to keep them from taking over the country..but I fear it is a losing battle.
But primarily I care about freedom. I don't ordinarily use the so called hate words suck as Kike and nigger and spick and mick. But I have the RIGHT according to the constitution of the USA to use these words if I so desire. No one has the right to NOT be offended. If I had the right not to be offended Hillary Clinton would be in jail because every time she opens her thieving mouth she offends me. It offends me that Ted Kennedy can get not only get by with manslaughter..the people of his state are stupid enough to keep reelecting him. It offends me that Jessie Jackson gets by with extorting money from big business. It offends me that American corporations rooled over for trade unions years ago and passed the cost on to me..the consumer. Yeah, there are a lot of things that offend me..but I have no right NOT to be offended. Not as long as I still live in a free country.
TEXAS FRED may not be politically correct but he is right. It is about time to move past this bullshit about race and move on to protecting the country. Am I biased? You gotdam right. I am a predjudiced sumbitch when it comes to not liking people who are dead set on destroying a country I love. I have no use for ragheads..and until the Moslem population in this country takes to the streets demonstrating against the ragheads that are trying to destroy us ...instead of trying to force the rest of us to abide by THEIR perverted religion ...I will include them as part of the raghead population of the world.
Here's the deal people. I don't give a rats ass about the color of your skin..we all bleed red. I don't really give a rats ass about your sexual choices as long as the goat agrees. I could care less about who, when, where, or how you worship provided you don't require me and mine to abide by your religious rules. But I do care about the government taxing hell out of me to provide housing and subsistance to a sub culture that happens to be primarily black..but there are also so low life whites in this group as well as Hispanics and others. Does this make me prejudiced? Yeah, according to the Politically correct assholes it does. I do care about trying to fight the left wing socialists and try to keep them from taking over the country..but I fear it is a losing battle.
But primarily I care about freedom. I don't ordinarily use the so called hate words suck as Kike and nigger and spick and mick. But I have the RIGHT according to the constitution of the USA to use these words if I so desire. No one has the right to NOT be offended. If I had the right not to be offended Hillary Clinton would be in jail because every time she opens her thieving mouth she offends me. It offends me that Ted Kennedy can get not only get by with manslaughter..the people of his state are stupid enough to keep reelecting him. It offends me that Jessie Jackson gets by with extorting money from big business. It offends me that American corporations rooled over for trade unions years ago and passed the cost on to me..the consumer. Yeah, there are a lot of things that offend me..but I have no right NOT to be offended. Not as long as I still live in a free country.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING: RECORD TRADE IMBALANCE..AGAIN
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING: RECORD TRADE IMBALANCE..AGAIN
People, there ain't no free lunch. Business is in business for one reason and that is profit..not to provide social services nor jobs but PROFIT. When government and unions make the cost of doing business so high there is not enough profit business either has to shut down or move out of the country..either means loss of jobs. The public just can't seem to understand that all of the "feel good" laws that are passed for labor such a family sick leave and maternity leave adds to the cost of doing business and as such adds to the cost of the finished product to the consumer. The public demands all of these benefits and gets laws passed to mandate them and then wonders why business moves off shore. The problem in this country is that everyone wants $70,000 a year in wages but wants Wally World prices..
People, there ain't no free lunch. Business is in business for one reason and that is profit..not to provide social services nor jobs but PROFIT. When government and unions make the cost of doing business so high there is not enough profit business either has to shut down or move out of the country..either means loss of jobs. The public just can't seem to understand that all of the "feel good" laws that are passed for labor such a family sick leave and maternity leave adds to the cost of doing business and as such adds to the cost of the finished product to the consumer. The public demands all of these benefits and gets laws passed to mandate them and then wonders why business moves off shore. The problem in this country is that everyone wants $70,000 a year in wages but wants Wally World prices..
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Cafe Hayek: Let's Have Less Hot Air About Global Warming
Cafe Hayek: Let's Have Less Hot Air About Global WarmingLet's grant (if just for the sake of argument) that environmental scientists have proved that Earth's ideal average temperature was reached about a century ago and that the temperature is rising because of human activity ("Just the facts," Op-Ed, yesterday).
The truth remains that these scientists have no expertise to judge whether government can be trusted with the power and resources to "combat" global warming. Nor can these scientists tell us how a free market likely would deal with global warming's consequences.
Contrary to widespread belief, environmental scientists can legitimately say nothing about whether, or how, to respond to global warming.
DONALD J. BOUDREAUX
Chairman
Department of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING: Something to Think About...
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING: Something to Think About...: "'A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.' .....................by Marcus Tullius Cicero"
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING
CHARMING, JUST CHARMING: "Charles Krauthammer has made the right call in THIS COLUMN. The 'hate America'..'blame America'..crowd is quick to criticize anything that our forces do in Iraq. But as Krauthammer writes:
We have made a lot of mistakes in Iraq. But when Arabs kill Arabs and Shiites kill Shiites and Sunnis kill all in a spasm of violence that is blind and furious and has roots in hatreds born long before America was even a republic, to place the blame on the one player, the one country, the one military that has done more than any other to try to separate the combatants and bring conciliation is simply perverse.
It infantilizes Arabs. It demonizes Americans. It willfully overlooks the plainest of facts: Iraq is their country. We midwifed their freedom. They chose civil war."
We have made a lot of mistakes in Iraq. But when Arabs kill Arabs and Shiites kill Shiites and Sunnis kill all in a spasm of violence that is blind and furious and has roots in hatreds born long before America was even a republic, to place the blame on the one player, the one country, the one military that has done more than any other to try to separate the combatants and bring conciliation is simply perverse.
It infantilizes Arabs. It demonizes Americans. It willfully overlooks the plainest of facts: Iraq is their country. We midwifed their freedom. They chose civil war."
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
CONTROLLED GREED.com: Book Values: Self-Help
The four books I've enjoyed are:
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
How to Win Friends & Influence People
Succeeding, by John T. Reed. This gem isn't available in book stores or on Amazon. You have to buy it from Reed's website. Reed is a West Point grad, former Army Ranger, Harvard Business School grad, football coach, former real estate investor and author of numerous books, mostly on real estate investing. His style might not appeal to some, and you or I might not agree with all his views, but we can all find this work worthwhile.
The Templeton Plan
Of course, you may have benefited from works by folks like Norman Vincent Peale, Stephen Covey, Les Brown and many more. Like I said, the bookstores are packed this time of year with people looking at bookshelf after bookshelf of these books. I could never begin to read them all -- I'd never have to time to read anything else. Or do anything, either.
But getting a bit of inspiration here or there, and gaining a few nuggets of wisdom, can only impact our lives for the better. And wouldn't that have left Samuel Smiles with a grin on his face? ;-)
CONTROLLED GREED.com: Book Values: Self-HelpHerb Greenberg
Herb Greenberg: "'No. We've been here before, and the consequences -- though not always immediate -- have invariably been bad. There is not a single instance in historical data since 1871 when the S&P 500 traded above 18-times record earnings and there was not a low a year or more later that erased every bit of advantage over Treasury bills. Not one.'
He concludes, 'Simply put, there is no investment merit to the stock market at these valuations.'"
He concludes, 'Simply put, there is no investment merit to the stock market at these valuations.'"
Monday, February 05, 2007
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