Saturday, February 12, 2011

USA Buys More From Canada Than China

And more fun facts...  I am not sure of the point of this website, but it does offer all sorts of fun world trade facts...  nose around and you'll see all sorts of things that would not make sense, unless of course you'd have been indoctrinated by me on small biz int'l trade.  Gold and silver coins the fastest growing import...  Garments from China are roaring back now that quotas have been dropped, nose around for more groovy ideas. The site bills itself as the latest intelligence focusse don comparative advantages, when in fact, in the real world, there is no such thing as comparative advantage, as defined in the economics books, "In economics, the law of comparative advantage refers to the ability... to produce a particular good or service at a lower opportunity cost than another party." What we buy and sell is almost always the result of politically meddling, not econmics laws.  Who cars what the textbooks say, when USA taxpayers support frankenfarming, our gain is cheaper.  End of theory.


Non-Violence

One would get the impression that Christianity is the religion of hate given the wars the USA perpetrates on Moslem countries, and how both Catholics and protestants together have large, vocal contingents that call for ever more war.  We seem to have forgotten the lessons of Jesus, and as far as I can tell the last leader who was pro-peace was Martin Luther King.  And here is what he had to say:

As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government

That was back in 1967.  King was dead shortly thereafter.  Perhaps that is why we have no such leader today.

We need to learn about nonviolence, and one of my top three authors working today, Mark Kurlansky has written a book, Non-Violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea.  Kurlansky opens the book with the observation that on the subject of non-violence, there is no word for it, not in any history or language.  You can read Kurlansky's views on this phenomenon, which are interesting, but it seems to me that the expected synonym for non-violence, peace, is inadequate since peace is an aspect of freedom, especially truth in freedom, and violence is concentrated force, unto its terminal conclusion.  Violence is always based in a lie, and exercised by force. Violence is so specific and limited that its opposite can be expressed only in abnegation: non-violence.

Most of Kurlansky's book are huge, generous, well written, and this book is short and well written, I suspect because the world has had so little experience with non-violence.  The protestors in Egypt are showing it can work (so far) as did the protestors bringing down the Soviet bloc.   The book is a fascinating and quick read, although I could quibble with some observations and analysis, I'd give this five stars.

The last page gave me a bit of a charge.  I am a CO (conscientious objector, different from a draft dodger), Vietnam era, govt certified (as if they would know)... and Kurlansky recounts the tale of a GI who change his mind about war, and applied for CO status.  They asked the lad if he would defend his family from a violent intruder.  He said yes, his application was denied.  See, they do not know.  Jesus defended the temple against violent intruders with force, yet He was nonviolent.  Righteous rejection of immediate and effective danger can be expected, a brace of hearty kicks for the mugger who knocked down an old lady, nothing more than you'd see at a rugby game.  It is qualitatively different to take a job where you train and wait to kill.  There is a difference between saying yes to violence, and saying no but being caught up in the moment.  One can reasonably be a conscientious objector, yet innocently take a life.  You just cannot agree to it. And certainly one cannot join the military, or in any way accept alternative government service.


Friday, February 11, 2011

Egyptians Show How it is Done

Saddam Hussein was USA's best friend until he wasn't.  We spent billions (maybe trillions) thousands of USA soldiers, countless Iraqi lives destroyed, on what the Iraqis could have done themselves.  So Iran got rid of our evil puppet, Egypt got rid of our evil puppet, the Iraqis could have done the same.  What a tremnedous waste of our time, treasure, talent.  And for the next 30 years, we'll reap what we've sown, as those soldiers come back and join our society.


السلام عليكم Islam: The Religion of Peace

Egypt has been the ally of USA in protecting Israel, and in trade USA has propped up the brutal Egyptian regime.  Under USA hegemony, Christians have been attacked (we can never know by whom, since both sets of bad guys benefit) in Egypt, as they have been in Iraq under USA domination.

In Arab countries not dominated by USA, Christians live unmolested.  The revolt in Egypt is not under USA domination, and both Moslems and Christians are peacefully protesting side by side.  Read the book cited to the left "Pathan Unarmed" and watch Moslems in action in Egypt, and you see, contrary to the warmongers, Islam is the religion of peace.  As much as Christianity is.


Imports and Exports UP

The december trade  reports are out from US Census, and int'l trade, bot imports and exports are almost back up to the highs of 2008.  Here is a link to more details....Graph of International Trade Balances


Thursday, February 10, 2011

Fantastic New Engine Design

Thanks to Dennis for the link, and this is a very cool new engine.  too bad its first use is military, but with 40% oil savings, peak oil moves a little later out.  Innovation is what we need, but a free market so these things can start out as commercial products.


Pantone Honeysuckle

Pantone has announced that honeysuckle is the color for the year 2011, so says FashionNet Asia.  Expect it everywhere.


Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Here is an excellent video on what the democrats are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, under the Obama administration.  We really should look at what we pay for, and vote for.  The last half is narrated by a speech, with which I could not agree more.  For some odd reason, there are no credits in the video, but the speech is by this woman.

The sooner we bring our troops home, and try to make reparations, the sooner we can start doing business with these people, like we do with the Vietnamese, after our pointless and useless war there.


Ron Paul Paul Ryan Rand Paul

Confused?  It is probably not unintentional.  With Ron Paul the granddaddy of honest government and the constitution in the house, his son Rand Paul in the Senate, both shaking things up in particular regarding the FED, the powers that be ran Paul Ryan and made him chairman of the critical House Budget Committee in spite of the fact, that by seniority, it should go to Dr. Ron Paul who was first elected to congress when Paul Ryan was a toddler.  Paul Ryan, and not Ron Paul, gave the Republican response to the Obama state of the union address, since it is important to say nothing much about Obama policy, given that it is merely embracing and extending Bush republican policy.

No Ron Paul means no change. Such is the bitterly unfair practices of the powers that be.  Nonetheless, Ron Paul does serve as Chairman on the house subcommittee on monetary policy, where he can call FED Chairman Bernanke and ask the questions that need be asked, not that the Bernanke need answer.  Follow Ron Paul and his committee if you want to learn how the world really works.


How To Compete Against Craigslist

Leaders in a field have no reason to change things, and so Borders and Barnes & Noble, along with traditional publishers, sat back as Amazon.com came out of no where and slowly, methodically ate their lunch.  Crown Books is reduced to selling remainders, but books you can get on amazon.com anyway.  Good luck with that model.  Google went about crushing undisputed king of search Yahoo.com in a leisurely fashion.  Craigslist seems untouchable, but it has a glaring fault: anyone can flag your ad for removal, but you cannot quite figure out by whom and what for.

Of course the model is the community of users self-police the site, which is good, but in USA we foster and celebrate the poison-pen, the anonymous snitch, as has every degenerating society in history.  It starts with our elite in colleges who are encouraged to write anonymous feedback on instructors, not quite realizing how infantilizing this process is, that is an exercise in anonymous criticism.  (In noncredit ed, students tend to sign their course feedback forms, good or bad.)

Adults and free people stand behind their comments, and take what comes.  I understand that teachers have power over students, thus we have the anonymous criticism, but that is only in accredited schools, where teacher have power make or break a student.  In a free market of education, the teacher has no such power, since a malevolent teacher would be subject to peer pressure and not protected by tenure.

Craigslist would benefit greatly by requiring flaggers to identify themselves and give the reasons why...  this way the community of craigslist users would judge the activity of the flagger and either agree of disagree...  of some such method of policing themselves.

But craigslist, like yahoo, is set in its ways, a victim of survivorship bias.  This is a lesson for anyone wishing to enter any field, wherein you believe the 800 pound gorilla cannot be taken on.  Of course it can.  Just experience a problem with the goods or service, and then come up with a solution, such as the google lads did.  And then, redesign.  As Peter Drucker said, there is no solution that cannot be improved upon.


Conflict Kitchen

Now here is a novel idea, a restaurant that features countries whose people have been targeted by the United States Government.  Iraq and Afghanistan are first, with more coming up.  Food politics art in one quick stop take-out.


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Half Step Forward back To Freedom

All hail the democrats (and a few republicans) who voted against, and prevented the necessary majority, to renew parts of the odious, anti-american and mendaciously named "patriot act."  Nothing short of a total rejection of the entire act will do, but this is a step foreward.  Now, if they will just get rid of the TSA, we can travel and bit safer.


Monday, February 7, 2011

Fewer Science Fairs: Obama's Fault

I did not watch the State of the Union address, I prefer nonfiction, but from this article apparently Obama called for more grade school science fairs...  but according to this article, fewer fairs is Obama's fault.  Sheesh... what's the score?

Google

Obama to blame - 25 million hits

Bush to blame - 21 million hits

Things are improving for Obama!

Ooops..

Blame bush - 1.7 million hits

Blame Obama - 25 million hits...

Never mind... he is still the fall guy.


North On How the Judiciary Works

Gary North explicates USA politics and the judiciary,

In Article III, Section 2, on the powers of the Federal judiciary, we read this:
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in only three areas, two of which are arcane. In all other areas, its jurisdiction is delegated by Congress.
Does this mean that Congress – without the consent of the President – can remove the Court's jurisdiction? Yes. Are there any limits on this? Yes. "In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." Any others? No.
The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in the Obamacare case in the Florida District Court. States brought suit. Congress cannot touch that authority. But such cases are rare.
Then why doesn't Congress get its way when the Court overturns a law? Because of tradition. In the Republican Party-dominated period of Reconstruction, Congress did remove the Court's jurisdiction over a case involving the military rule over the South. The case was Ex parte McCardle (1869). Wikipedia's account is accurate.
During the Civil War Reconstruction, William McCardle, a newspaper publisher and professional soldier in the Confederate Army reaching the rank of sergeant, published some "incendiary" articles which advocated opposition to the Reconstruction laws enacted by the Republican Congress. He was jailed by a military commander under the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, a law passed by the United States Congress. Mr. McCardle invoked habeas corpus in the Circuit Court of the Southern District of Mississippi. The judge sent him back into custody, finding the military actions legal under Congress's law. He appealed to the Supreme Court under the Habeas Corpus Act of 1867, which granted appellate jurisdiction to the Supreme Court to review denial of habeas petitions. After the case was argued but before an opinion was delivered, Congress suspended the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over the case, exercising the powers granted to Congress under Article III, section 2 of the Constitution.
If ever there has been a Constitutional case that has not made it into the American history textbooks, it is this one. This case makes it clear that Congress is in charge. If Congress wants to keep the Court's nose out of Congressional business, it can tell the Court to fly the proverbial kite.
Yet Congress refuses to do this. Congress passes laws that are clearly unconstitutional. Members justify this by means of this excuse: "If it's unconstitutional, the Supreme Court can say so." Congress has delegated to the Court original jurisdiction over everything: county laws, state laws, and Federal laws. Only in the case of treaties, over which the House has no jurisdiction, does the Court keep its hands off laws.
How did this come about? How was the judicial sovereignty of Congress removed completely by the Supreme Court? Because of the lawyers' guild. The law schools teach the doctrine of judicial sovereignty. This has mandated the teaching of the Court's original jurisdiction as unbounded. This extends to nine unelected representatives of the legal guild the power to overrule the masses, meaning a majority of the voters.
The Constitution says that the Congress has original jurisdiction. The lawyers say otherwise. The textbooks do not raise the issue. This includes textbooks in Constitutional law.
The Supreme Court has arrogated to itself the right to interpret the Constitution. For about a century, the Supreme Court has operationally ignored the Constitution's clear teaching regarding original jurisdiction. The Constitution has been allowed to die, section by section, according to "changing conditions," to quote Chief Justice Burger. The Court cuts off life support to those sections that interfere with the opinion of five members at any given time.

The solution is simple, instead of lawyer-bashing, why not just follow Kant and make the implicit conflict of interest for a lawyer serving in the legislative or  executive branch explicitly a conflict of interest.


Sunday, February 6, 2011

New Product Introduction - Plan B

I've put up a new video on youtube, this time on Plan B.

If you want to see all 77 videos on Small Business International Trade, you can visit here...