tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post2525970604425449768..comments2024-03-28T03:47:46.544-04:00Comments on The Elephant Bar: Seapower in the 21st CenturyDeuce ☂http://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-62983926145489758072007-11-02T05:07:00.000-04:002007-11-02T05:07:00.000-04:00One guy on Coast to Coast says oil's about out, an...One guy on Coast to Coast says oil's about out, and a Madd Maxx world is only months or years away, the other expert says it's abiotic, and the shortage is all political, and if you don't see that you're idiotic for not recognizing the abiotic. In either case I still argue for nukes.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-14719458239887823252007-11-02T05:03:00.000-04:002007-11-02T05:03:00.000-04:00Pudenda Nebulae In Various Stages of Arousal :)<A HREF="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html" REL="nofollow">Pudenda Nebulae In Various Stages of Arousal</A> :)Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-646453531920135702007-11-02T01:48:00.000-04:002007-11-02T01:48:00.000-04:00LOL!Wretch has a French Joke thread, I put my Well...LOL!<BR/>Wretch has a French Joke thread, I put my Wellsley there, so should you!Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-82962917197300648012007-11-02T01:22:00.000-04:002007-11-02T01:22:00.000-04:00Doug: Question:How many Wellsley Girls does it tak...Doug: <I>Question:<BR/>How many Wellsley Girls does it take to change a light bulb?</I><BR/><BR/>This girl enters a doctor's office for her annual physical. The doctor has her disrobe and sit on the examining table. Right off he notices a rash all across her chest in the shape of an "H". "How did that happen?" he asks. She says, "My boyfriend is a big football star at Harvard, and he won't take off his letter sweater when we fool around."<BR/><BR/>Strange, thinks the doctor, but to each his own. Some time later another girl enters the same doctor's office for her annual physical. Same drill, disrobe, and sit on the examining table. The doctor notices an almost identical rash on this girl's chest, only this time, it's in the shape of a "Y". "How did you get this rash?" the doctor asks. The sweet young thing replies, "Oh, my boyfriend is a letter man at Yale, and he won't take his sweater off when we fool around." "Oh" says the doctor.<BR/><BR/>Not a half hour after this young lady leaves, another girl comes in for her annual physical. Again the doctor notices a rash on her chest in the shape of a giant "M". The doctor says, "Don't tell me, your boyfriend goes to Minnesota State!" "No, but my girlfriend goes to Wellesley."Teresitahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05528002521904908827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-48195306234357630562007-11-01T22:05:00.000-04:002007-11-01T22:05:00.000-04:00Hillary Returns to Wellsley.Question:How many Well...Hillary Returns to Wellsley.<BR/><BR/>Question:<BR/><I>How many Wellsley Girls does it take to change a light bulb? </I><BR/><BR/>Answer:<BR/><I>It's Wymin, and that's not funny!</I>Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-77322032806470285632007-11-01T21:29:00.000-04:002007-11-01T21:29:00.000-04:00AlohAl-El Dougal!AlohAl-El Dougal!Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-81323692630407754672007-11-01T21:25:00.000-04:002007-11-01T21:25:00.000-04:00Hiroshima Pilot Dies-TibbitsNearly born in an airp...<A HREF="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_TIBBETS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US" REL="nofollow">Hiroshima Pilot Dies-Tibbits</A><BR/><BR/>Nearly born in an airplane, he dropped candy samples out of the rear seat of a plane over county fairs, as advertising for the candy maker.<BR/><BR/>Which brings up the question, should the US have made a demonstration in Tokyo harbor, before the real one? I remember that talked about over the table when I was growing up. Seems like we only had two or three bombs though, and the generals won the argument.<BR/><BR/>That would be Boberto, El Dougal.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-61831371183106929362007-11-01T21:21:00.000-04:002007-11-01T21:21:00.000-04:00Que Dice, Roberto?Que Dice, Roberto?Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-86610442222125725902007-11-01T21:19:00.000-04:002007-11-01T21:19:00.000-04:00Cutler:B-2's are supposed to be our carriers again...Cutler:<BR/>B-2's are supposed to be our carriers against China.<BR/>Might be nice to have a strategic Air Force of more than 20 Planes, eh?<BR/>F-22 fanatics will act like they could make up the difference.<BR/>Forget how many of them we'll buy.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-8601460977288153902007-11-01T21:17:00.000-04:002007-11-01T21:17:00.000-04:00Thomas Sowell On Muddling ThroughHaving a farm bac...<A HREF="http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell103007.php3" REL="nofollow">Thomas Sowell On Muddling Through</A><BR/><BR/>Having a farm background I might disagree with Mr. Sowell's thoughts on 'making the desert bloom'. In central Washington the desert was made to bloom, from water from the Columbia, and that has worked out well. But then there is a lot of water in the northwest.<BR/>xxxx<BR/>Did Bush speak in English, Doug?Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-25202779130713870562007-11-01T21:14:00.000-04:002007-11-01T21:14:00.000-04:00Bush finally had a good speech, even focusing on I...Bush finally had a good speech, even focusing on Islamofascists.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-14947548472458374932007-11-01T21:09:00.000-04:002007-11-01T21:09:00.000-04:00The French are already about eighty or ninety perc...The French are already about eighty or ninety percent there now, according to what I've heard. Other than the Peugeot cars,nuke pretty much lights up the country. I don't know how we will go. The coal industry is powerful. And the natural gas industry. <BR/>We will muddle though, I quess. We need to cut the approval time for nuclear plants. The ones in the approval process now won't be on line for something like another decade.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-56540482055666334172007-11-01T20:46:00.001-04:002007-11-01T20:46:00.001-04:00Central banks should prick asset bubblesThe proble...<A HREF="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/479f24ba-8892-11dc-84c9-0000779fd2ac.html" REL="nofollow"><STRONG>Central banks should prick asset bubbles</STRONG></A><BR/><BR/>The problem that we have seen in the recent crisis is that the banking sectors were not insulated from movements in the asset markets. Banks were heavily implicated both in the development of the bubble in the housing markets and its subsequent crash. Since the banking system was implicated, the central banks were also heavily involved owing to the fact that they provide insurance to the banks as lender of last resort. Some may wish that central banks would abstain from supplying this insurance. However, central banks are forced to provide liquidity during a crisis because they are the only institutions capable of doing so. Thus, when asset prices experience a bubble it should be a matter of concern for the central bank because the bubble will be followed by a crash, and that is when the balance sheet of the central bank will be affected.<BR/><BR/>There is a second reason that the hands-off approach has been shown to be wanting. During the past few years, a significant part of liquidity and credit creation has occurred outside the banking system. Hedge funds and special conduits have been borrowing short and lending long and, as a result, have created credit and liquidity on a massive scale. As long as this liquidity creation was not affecting banks, it was not a source of concern for the central bank. However, banks were heavily implicated. Thus, the central bank was implicitly extending its liquidity insurance to institutions outside the regulatory framework. It is unreasonable for a central bank to insure activities of agents over which it has no super­vision, just as it would be unreasonable for an insurance company selling fire insurance not to check whether the insured persons take sufficient precautions against the outbreak of fire.<BR/><BR/>So, what should central banks do besides target inflation? First, central banks should recognise that asset bubbles are a source of concern and that they should act on the emergence of such a bubble. The argument that a bubble can never be recognised ex ante is a very weak one. One had to be blind not to see the bubble in the US housing market, or the internet bubble. This is the case for most asset bubbles in history.<BR/><BR/>It has been argued that even if central banks can detect bubbles, they are pretty much powerless to stop them. This argument is unconvincing. It is not inherently more difficult to stop asset bubbles than it is to stop in­flation. Central banks have been highly successful at stopping inflation.<BR/><BR/>Second, central banks should be involved in the supervision and regulation of all institutions that create credit and liquidity. The UK approach of dissociating monetary policy from banking supervision has not worked. Central banks are the only insurers against liquidity risks. Therefore they are the ones who should control those who ­create credit and liquidity. Failure to do so will continue to induce agents to create excessive amounts of liquidity, endangering the financial system.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-7468151846056054352007-11-01T20:46:00.000-04:002007-11-01T20:46:00.000-04:00Cutler looks foreword to giving aide to needy Mill...Cutler looks foreword to giving aide to needy Millionaires!<BR/><BR/>"<I>All applicants would be required to stipulate that family assets did not exceed $1 million. </I>"<BR/><BR/>"Senate Again Passes Child Health Bill"Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-52815424710971463452007-11-01T20:17:00.000-04:002007-11-01T20:17:00.000-04:00What about it, bob?The French are moving forward o...What about it, bob?<BR/><BR/>The French are moving forward on the use of nuclear technology. The US is going to burn coal, seems to me.desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-35637050112261745192007-11-01T20:03:00.000-04:002007-11-01T20:03:00.000-04:00Nobel WinnerA growing ice sheet in the Ant-arctic ...<A HREF="http://terryfrank.net/?p=2725" REL="nofollow">Nobel Winner</A><BR/><BR/>A growing ice sheet in the Ant-arctic can be explained by global warming, as it rains(snows) more, which is occurring to some extent, he says, at the south pole. But we shouldn't be going ballistic, just yet.<BR/><BR/>Meanwhile, the Senate debates carbon credits and so forth, but what about nuclear energy?Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-12505793135484556112007-11-01T19:48:00.000-04:002007-11-01T19:48:00.000-04:00One of the climate scientists on the United Nation...One of the climate scientists on the United Nations climate panel that co-won the Nobel prize with Al Gore is turning down the opportunity, says Savage:) Says whole thing is a fraud. That is to say, the scientist says the whole thing is a fraud, with which Savage evidently agrees.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-52239167397662129902007-11-01T19:38:00.000-04:002007-11-01T19:38:00.000-04:00"73% of regular democrats want the illegals kicked..."73% of regular democrats want the illegals kicked out of the country. They see them at the Dept. Motor Vehicles, at the store, at the clinic. They see them taking money out of their own pockets."<BR/><BR/>"Giuliani is a self-serving, self-aggrandizing stradler whose campaign manager is a former bar-tending thung, an illiterate."<BR/><BR/>"A candidate that would close that border and kick them out would beat Hillary by 10 percentage points. If Giuliani can get his act together and become a conservative he can beat Hillary by 10%."<BR/><BR/>Michael Savage<BR/><BR/>:) The quotes are awfully close, just reporting.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-56140328593343757712007-11-01T19:13:00.000-04:002007-11-01T19:13:00.000-04:00Anyone's interesting, this is a CBO report on futu...Anyone's interesting, <A HREF="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/72xx/doc7232/05-31-Navy.pdf" REL="nofollow">this</A> is a CBO report on future options for the Navy. Page 69 have the simplest table, projecting the number of ships of various classes under different options.<BR/><BR/>In class we concluded that the CBO had probably overestimated the amount that's probably going to be available for shipbuilding, so that's why I eventually came up with under 200 numbers.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10089498195545182330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-30411922524847822352007-11-01T18:59:00.000-04:002007-11-01T18:59:00.000-04:00"carriers are useless fanatics"Just to make it cle..."carriers are useless fanatics"<BR/><BR/>Just to make it clear I'm not beating strawmen to make myself seem reasonable - there are actuallly people out there who think that modern cruise missiles and stealth aircraft have basically made carrier groups obsolete in a shooting war. Basically "networking" and "fifth generation warfare" theory brought to sea.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10089498195545182330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-44084405247811703142007-11-01T18:52:00.000-04:002007-11-01T18:52:00.000-04:00"A CV sits in the middle of a picket of destroyers...<I>"A CV sits in the middle of a picket of destroyers and frigates who will jump in the way of a torpedo or cruise missile to protect the queen bee. With all the advanced AEGIS anti-air defenses on the accompanying cruisers, it would take another carrier to take out out of our carriers (that's been true since the battle of Coral Sea), and even then it would be a knock-down-drag-out."</I><BR/><BR/>We're getting rid of the last of our frigates (Perry Class), with their high frequency sonars. Regardless, a relatively advanced submarine, Russian Akula, Sierra, or whatever, could do the deed. So too could an enemy diesel submarine under the right conditions if it hit with most of a spread, especially considering most of our prospective enemy's subs have at least half a dozen torpedo tubes a piece, unlike our own. <BR/><BR/>And an enemy cruise missile could get through Aegis (which has never been seriously tested in combat) and wreck the flight deck, which is all you need to do to put a carrier out of action. <BR/><BR/>I'm not one of these "carriers are useless fanatics," but they're not <I>that</I> invulnerable, especially considering that against a serious enemy (i.e. China) they'd be operating on that country's turf and within range of land-air power (operating off Taiwan is like them operating off Florida). As a weapons system, they are also miraculously inefficient when it comes down to do it. Billions of dollars to construct and protect roughly 2-3 attack/fighter squadrons. It is nice to have, but a fragile tool against serious opposition. We're just we don't current have much serious opposition above 15,000 feet.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10089498195545182330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-82183943755423425762007-11-01T17:37:00.000-04:002007-11-01T17:37:00.000-04:00That's interesting, Ms. T., I wouldn't have quesse...That's interesting, Ms. T., I wouldn't have quessed quite like that. Very few people in between. Well, that blows (!) that theory all to hell:) The we're all bi defense.<BR/><BR/>And I see I know nothing about naval warfare either.:) But I do remember a Secretary of the Navy saying, in a real war, after 1/2 an hour, all that will be left in the ocean will be US and USSR subs hunting each other under the arctic ice cap, or what's left of it these days. This was a statement made before the breakup of the USSR--back in the stare down the gun barrel days.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-36058512144625803082007-11-01T17:23:00.000-04:002007-11-01T17:23:00.000-04:00I'll buy that.I'll buy that.trishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14139410627244875589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-22901340299911946442007-11-01T17:20:00.000-04:002007-11-01T17:20:00.000-04:00i dunno...they are a bunch of wussies holding thei...i dunno...they are a bunch of wussies holding their fingers up trying to gauge which way the wind is blowing?Ashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06232405130481114127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-76002606163297927222007-11-01T17:18:00.000-04:002007-11-01T17:18:00.000-04:00"...rather than the clear and specific prohibition..."...rather than the clear and specific prohibitions against torture, humiliation and cruel treatment embedded in American and international law."<BR/><BR/>Common Article 3.<BR/><BR/>Try and pin it down as an objective matter.<BR/><BR/>In any event, Congress does not want to. And has handed the responsibility to the Executive. Now they want the Executive to forswear an operation that they themselves chose not to.<BR/><BR/>And why did they choose not to?trishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14139410627244875589noreply@blogger.com