Fireside Hangouts... Time for a New Communications Director

I was looking up the date and time of the 2013 State of the Union Address and ran across this text ... have I really been missing the 'Fireside Hangouts?' How did I miss this title?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/11/state-union-2013-president-obamas-speech-just-beginning

On Thursday, President Obama will join the latest in a series of "Fireside Hangouts" – a 21st century take on FDR’s famous radio addresses – to talk about his State of the Union Address. During a completely virtual conversation hosted by Google, the President will answer questions from Americans across the country about the issues and policies laid out in the speech. Anyone can submit a question for the President and vote on your favorites on the White House YouTube channel. Then, be sure to watch the hangout live on Thursday, February 14th at 4:30 p.m. ET on WhiteHouse.gov, the White House Google+ page, and YouTube.com/whitehouse.

Care for the Mentally Ill

I thought you would want to know more about how to keep the mentally ill from being wrongfully held against their will. Look at the link below.

http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/mlr70&div=60&id=&page=

For public safety the only alternative is for your mother, the kindergarten aid, to keep guns in her house to protect herself from her mentally ill child.

I don't know why God has sent us the mentally ill. I do know that in the name of individual liberty we are killing them, and letting them kill us.

Model Gun Control Legislation

1.  No one can own a gun without providing a reason for gun ownership: collecting, hunting, sport shooting whatever. Security guards could get special permits.
2. Allow special rules for collectors of guns. Collectors could purchase almost any type of weapon but could not take them out of the house in working order or fire them without additional review by the police. All sales/trades between collectors would have to be registered.
3. No matter where the weapon is purchased the police department in the purchaser’s home town must review the application.
4. Any sober and responsible adult could own a rifle or shotgun. Children under 18 could get rifles and shotguns if their parents approve (and if they have a reason to get them).
5. Handguns would be more restricted. No one under the age of 21 could have one. Of course all the purchases would still have to go thru local police.
6. Local police would have to be notified if anyone inherits a weapon. They would decide if the legacy could be honored.
7. A clean police record would be required. The definition of “sober” would apply to mental problems as well as drug and alcohol problems

This is my paraphrase of the gun control legislation in Norway that was in place when Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, mostly children, after he exploded a bomb in Oslo to distract the police. He brought all of his weapons legally. He joined sporting clubs and was a regular participant in club meetings so he could keep his status as a sportsman and obtain weapons. He successfully created a fake company to legally buy chemicals for the explosives.

All it takes is a hard heart to kill. Laws do not stop committed criminals.

Our gun control problem is not a failure to regulate weapons. Our opportunity to prevent murder is care for the mentally ill.

SNAP, Corey Booker, and ETHANOL

November 29, 2012

Corey Booker, the very admirable mayor of Newark, NJ has accepted a challenge to live for a week on a prorated SNAP allowance for a fairly large family. The allowance he intends to use is $1.40/meal. (SNAP used to be called Food Stamps.)

I say a fairly large family because the SNAP allowance for a family of four is $668/Month. At ninety meals per person per month, 360 meals for a family of four, that works out to $1.85 per meal. The allowance per person drops as the number of people in the household increases. The plan assumes some efficiency of scale. His plan for $1.40 per meal would be for a family of six or eight. I won't do the math.

It won't be enough money. But not just for the reasons you might think of right away. The world price of corn has gone up 25% because 40% of the US corn crop goes to ethanol so the United States can have "greener(1)" fuel for cars. Beef farming, as it is done today, depends on corn for getting to market weight in a hurry (a crappy poisonous diet for a perfectly decent animal). Beef prices are out of sight. I have no idea what the impact of corn prices are on other foods.

The SNAP allowance has not been adjusted to reflect the rapid climb in corn prices because the US Government has not passed a budget in three years. The House passes a budget each year but the Senate does not enact it or amend it. At the last possible moment both houses agree to pass continuing resolutions.

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Want to know how to feed a family on $1.85 per meal, cooked at home, and meet USDA guidelines for nutrition? Look no further...

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/usdafoodplanscostoffood.htm
FoodPlansRecipeBook.pdf

The recipes meet all USDA dietary guidelines. The SNAP plan is intended to cover the price of basic, cook at home foods necessary to meet those guidelines. The plan is developed by food scientists at Penn State.

The are some force multipliers for the SNAP allowance. No deductions are made from the SNAP allowance for USDA free breakfasts and lunches at schools (20 to 40 meals per school age child).  SNAP is not reduced for recipients of  WIC allowances. WIC is a program solely for mothers and infants from pregnancy thru age 2ish. The WIC allowance is solely for protein/dairy foods necessary for early childhood development.

Just for drill I intend to see if the recipes in the USDA booklet above make for a decent diet. Maybe during Lent?

(1) "Greener" is in quote marks because by most estimates it takes more energy to make a gallon of ethanol from corn than you get from burning it.

The Fiscal Clifffff OmMiGodOhMIGodOhMiGod

Creskin Predicts....(Or is that copyrighted?)

No solution. The House and Senate will agree to extend the deadline until after the new congress is seated. Much acrimony and great gnashing of teeth, but no action. Maybe some action on the debt ceiling but even without an extension the US Treasury will act by executive order to increase the debt to cover legislative obligations.

Legal arguments to exceed the debt ceiling will point out contradictory legislation; Nixon era laws that obliges the Executive Branch to spend the money budgeted by congress and prohibiting executive sequestration, the other that prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury from borrowing money beyond the debt ceiling without congressional approval. In other words, The President has to spend the money as laid out in budget legislation but may not borrow money to do it. Bad legislation, bad policy.

The United States Government has been operating on Continuing Resolutions for almost three years. This nominally violates several laws but in common law the legislature cannot be bound by its own laws.

Why has this occured? Because the House of Representatives was also elected. Not just the President. The House is the only source of legislation empowered to create legislation to raise revenue.

Update Nov 29
http://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/timothy-geithner-end-debt-ceiling-for-good-84428.html

Tom Wolfe's California by Michael Anton, City Journal Autumn 2012

Tom Wolfe's California by Michael Anton, City Journal Autumn 2012

Sociology's greatest contempory observer...Tom Wolfe is scary observant.

Three Rows Ought To Be Enough...

One of these generals in the photos below directed the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy, and Southern France, liberated western Europe, and accepted the surrenders of Italy, Germany and the Axis powers. The other is a modern four star general.

Can you tell the difference by the rows of medals? If one row of ribbons was enough for Eisenhower then three rows of ribbons and two badges ought to be more than enough for a modern officer. Serious men and women should not dress like the chorus of a Junior College production of The Student Prince.

I wrote this on the 13th. I see now I was late to the party. Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Beast and Peggy Noonan commented on the same thing, only better.

Since I got out of the Navy in the early 70's I noticed the crapification of all military uniforms. Device after device was added for recognition and morale. The Navy was getting bad but the Army and Air Force seemed to be the worst.

The crapification seemed to come from "achievement/service/good job" medals. Where the Legion of Merit was the recognition of a successful career in all assignments, the various achievement medals are so prolific now they only say "She worked here for a while and we didn't have to fire her." As achievment medals grew, medals like the air medal got pushed further and further down the orders of precedence.

There are 32 colonels on active duty for every brigadier general by my estimation. The first star is a huge jump and getting it should carry all the recognition a fellow or gal would need. Getting four stars ought to speak volumes about competence and excellence.

General Petraeus, thank you. You have been seriously injured twice in the line of duty. You went to scary places and got shot at because we asked you to go.You jump from airplanes and eat snakes in the jungle. You uprooted your family 29 times because we asked you to move. You successfully lead shooting engagements and fought to redesign the way we fight insurgencies. We are a safer people now because you, and thousands of others like you,  served when we called. You earned every honor and recognition that has been awarded to you. But frankly your uniform, and those of your peers in the USAF and the USN, make you all look like Soviet Colonels at a May Day Parade. Or is that the look you were going for?