Good Morning America, how are you ...

[Pilgrim]

...and a grand prize will be awarded to the first poster to find a tie-in to WWII aircraft.

Didn't Belushi fly a plane in this movie?

[lowend1]

BTW - both the UN and Fidel Castro have today endorsed our health care reform. Wonderful.

[uwe]

I didn't realize that. He must have finally won then. A legislative Bay of Pigs I shudder to think ...



America is only a few weeks away from this here:

[Denis]

P-51 Mustang production modifications because of contract stipulations with the British?   

By production modifications do you mean the contract given to Packard to built the Rolls Royce Merlin engines which were unreliable until the aforementioned American car company in Detroit was given the contract to build them? 

[gweimer]

By production modifications do you mean the contract given to Packard to built the Rolls Royce Merlin engines which were unreliable until the aforementioned American car company in Detroit was given the contract to build them? 

The show I just watched on cable about the P-51 said that the British insisted on modifications, due to contract terms.  I guess the first models didn't meet British standards.  Beyond that, you guys know more than me.   

[eb2]

I was fascinated when people in Cuba started spontaneously going blind about 15 years ago.  That kind of just fell out of the news.  They are like the old George Carlin routine - "Ok, Johnny, move along. Nothing to see here. Go on home."

Anybody see the Wall St Journal today and yesterday?  Soc Sec has run out of money - again - but this time SIX YEARS earlier than they were guestimating. Deficit spending is so out of control that it is pumping up interest rates.  GDP report is being revised down.  And a fun report on presidential abuse of the constitution as regards aging Japanese Americas who look back on the music from their internment.  I guess no one went blind there, so maybe not as bad as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution as regards Presidential abuse of the Constitution.  The CBO estimates our budget deficits will be so large that in 10 years they will 90% of GDP.  And our current President is going on a tour to promote a health bill that they have already passed. We live interesting times.    

UPDATE: And a couple of days after our current administration breaks protocol in meetings with the Israeli prime minister, which are widely interpreted as humiliating, we announce a treaty to reduce our nuclear arsenal with the Russians.  Following that announcement, our friends in North Korea decide the time is right to fire on and sink a South Korean Navy ship.  Hang on to your freaking hats guys.

[eb2]

P.S.

Maybe keep an eye on Taiwan too.

[drbassman]

Very good discussion guys!  All of you make good points.  The problem is expecting the US government can fix any problem this large.  They simply can't and will be "fixing" and cleaning up this mess up for decades.

[uwe]

"UPDATE: And a couple of days after our current administration breaks protocol in meetings with the Israeli prime minister, which are widely interpreted as humiliating, we announce a treaty to reduce our nuclear arsenal with the Russians.  Following that announcement, our friends in North Korea decide the time is right to fire on and sink a South Korean Navy ship.  Hang on to your freaking hats guys."

Jim, aren't your usually rather precise conclusions and insinuations a bit jumbled here?

1. Re protocol questions look up "Biden visit", "Israel", "more jewish settlements in the Arab part of Jerusalem" and how that is a tried and trusted recipe for not getting things done in the Middle East. Making Israel by far the strongest military power in its region and reading anything from its lips has not brought peace to the Middle East and it never will unless you believe that humilating your neighbour on a daily basis and threatening him with your handgun arsenal will one day make him come over with a present for your kosher Bar-B-Q. And no, the Arabs were not responsible for Auschwitz (if history was just, Israel should now be situated somewhere in Germany) nor for the Western world being too long too idle in doing something against it.

2. I assure you, even after a dozen consecutive arms reductions with your Alaska neighbor, the US will still be able to win a conventional or a nuclear war against North Korea in something like, say, four weeks max. You won last time too (with one hand tied on your back and without dropping a bomb or having a Chinese one dropped on you), just weren't allowed to go all the way.  

3. I wouldn't bet on the victory of the North Korean navy vs. the South Korean one either. Most North Korean sailors would probably jump from their ships if South Korea dropped food rations in the water nearby.

4. What I'm saying is that North Korea's sinking of the South Korean ship had probably very little do with healthcare reform in the US. Unless the GOP financed the whole thing of course.  

[drbassman]

This has been a good discussion, so let's stay way away from ACORN, it's not a government organization and isn't remotely connected to this.

The other things you mention are broken but they're not privately owned. Health insurers are privately owned and will continue to be privately owned.

However this bill winds up affecting American citizens, you can bet the farm that health insurers will continue to make record profits.

And the rest of us will pay for it.

Actually, the majority of private health insurers are non-profit companies that are run by local unpaid citizens who sit on their boards.  The rest are for-profit corporation with shareholders.  In 2008, the year with the latest data, private health insurers made a 2.2% profit.  Hardly the big bad guys they are made out to be by politicians.  Cisco and others made a 20% profit in 2008, let's go after them!!!! 

I've stayed out of this discussion thus far because it's what I teach for a living, but I have decided to chime in because you guys are really having an excellent, peaceful discussion here and I appreciate that.  The sad thing in all of this reform stuff is we can't sustain the current increases in spending that we've experienced over the last 30 years, but I have no faith that the federal government can actually fix something they help create via Medicaid and Medicare spending.  Also, we are out of money frankly and the claim their plan will reduce the deficit is the most astounding lie I've heard yet in this debate.

We need to address health care inflation and providing care to the needy.  This bill doesn't cut it.

[eb2]

No, I make no direct connection to health care specifically.  But as we are all good students of history, we can draw some conclusions.  Although granted, the North Korean regime - and I think they even distort the term regime - are less than stable and probably cause the Chinese as many fits as Benny in Israel does to Barry in DC.

However, there is no doubt that the world view of the current administration is a bit different than the past Republican AND Democrat administrations.  Like the Carter administration, the focus has been domestic and more left than ever, and the international has been somewhat unique.  There have been approaches made to less than friendly regimes, and snubs of traditional allies, along with domestic deficit spending that are completely unsustainable.  

In short, we are ass-deep in the middle east, over-extended militarily, broke a thousand times over, in hock for generations to China and Japan, and economically following a less than sustainable mindset.

If you had territorial ambitions, now would be a great time to challenge a pacifistic and bankrupt regime.

And, I would never suggest we beat North Korea with one hand tied behind our backs.  They took Seoul.  They massacred the Frozen Chosin.  They pretty much beat the US until Inchon which was a crap shoot.  And they have a big mean best friend that helped out last time, and they can do a hell of a lot worse now.  And, oh yeah, THEY OWN US.

[Pilgrim]

I rather figured that the way Obama treated Netanyahu was payback for the trick the Israelis pulled on Joe Biden by announcing new settlements when he was over there a few weeks ago.

It seems to me that many people critized Obama for "sucking up" to foreign leaders, then criticize him again when he does something calculated to tell a foreign leader we disapproved of his country's actions.  The message I get is that nothing he can do will meet with their approval.

I personally tend to think that the admin overreacted with Natanyahu and that it will create unnecessary tension, but I figured it was essentially tit for tat. I agree that this admin has a different world view than recent ones (something I'm personally grateful for), but we're only a year+ into this admin, so I expect their approach to evolve as they gain international experience.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

And, oh yeah, THEY OWN US.

...which is why they're less likely to back their beligerent "ally" against a US spanking. North Korea and China are tenuous neighbors at best, with the border being manned on the Korean side of the river with machine gun nests to gun down refuges escaping to the relative "freedom" of China. And besides, you don't kill your milk cow to make hamburgers. While I think Uwe is perhaps a bit too optimistic regarding a second Korean War's duration, it is well worth noting that they have not test fired any more missles in awhile.

along with domestic deficit spending that are completely unsustainable.

...only if it fails to perform as intended and does not prove a functional investment in revitalizing the US economy, which by all economic indicators, is not the case.  Thomas Jefferson made a very strong case FOR deficit spending that still holds true to this day: a nation indebted is a customer to be exploited, not an enemy to be conquered.

 The very same arguments levied against the current administration were offered up 70 years ago, too. And the 'horrible socialist' that was FDR brought this country out of an agrarian past into winning a world war and dominating the globe in finance, culture, and technology. No one stays on top forever, but if you're constantly looking over your shoulder out of insecurity, you're going to be tripped up by obstacles that would otherwise be easily avoided. My feeling is that since the staus quo is almost universally agreed to be broken, doing nothing, which, make no mistake, is the actual alternative, is the worse tack. It's about time America bet on itself again. The last time brought the world into the modern era.

[uwe]

"If you had territorial ambitions, now would be a great time to challenge a pacifistic and bankrupt regime."

I assure you, even the Führer never wanted to conquer your good country. He thought you were handy in keeping the Japanese at bay and that a demise both of the British Empire and the US wouldn't benefit ze Reich at all.

Please define the sending of even more troops to Afghanistan as "pacifist" to me, Jim! Aren't we getting a little carried away?

And as regards much maligned former dove Jimmy Carter, I think his reaction to the SU invading Afghanistan left little to be desired as regards clarity. Whether in hindsight it wouldn't have been better to have Russia turn it into a satellite state rather than nurturing what came home to roost on 9/11 is another matter though. I'm unaware of the KGB ever blowing up Manhattan skyscrapers or making dive bomb attacks on Langley.

I do miss the Cold War. It was unfortunate that you won it. It had a semblance of decorum and ethics at least. And it was essentially tidy.

[uwe]

"And the 'horrible socialist' that was FDR brought this country out of an agrarian past into winning a world war and dominating the globe in finance, culture, and technology."

Good point.