The images were like angry wasps flying at them.  Mostly they were merely straight lines against the sky slowing growing larger as they angled down at the convoy.  He could see two of them.  They were the ones flying right at them.  He didn’t even look around for others.  Before he could even adjust to the idea that they were coming at him, personally, the ships in the two rows in front of them opened fire.  The tracers from the 50’s and the 20 millimeters were arcing into the sky like streaking meteors through the heavens.  They were all going to low and behind the planes.  That was always the problem he remembered being taught in training school, not leading the planes enough to make contact with them.  A funny thing to remember at that moment especially since he wasn’t even manning either type of gun but the 5 inch.  He had heard no order to open fire and they were always convoy-wide when given. 

He yelled at the gun crew to swing the gun around for open sight firing, anticipating the order to fire any moment.  He knew that firing like that over the open sight was very unlikely to hit anything but at least the extra shot and shell might spook the planes off course.   They were now with a half a mile he guessed and still coming.   The antiaircraft fire wasn’t diverting them at all so far.  He saw a brief twinkling from both of the planes as they opened up with  their on wing mounted cannon.  The enemy tracers struck one of the ships right in front of them.  Was he scared?  Excited? He couldn’t describe his feelings if he had to.  Now they were within a quarter of a mile and more ships were firing from port and starboard.  The sky was literally filled with color and puffs. It was hard to keep up with the flight of the planes.  Albert hollered –”Are we going to open up?”  He didn’t respond.  But then gave the order to open fire without any orders from the Lieutenant.   He briefly wondered if he would get in much trouble for doing that, they were strictly ordered to never open fire without orders from the bridge.  The thought was interrupted by the roar of the gun as it fired the first round.  The crew was working frantically and another round was fired within seconds it seemed.  He saw at least one bomb drop from the plane on the left at the ship directly in front of them but he never saw it hit.  His eyes became focused on the planes as they fired again with their cannon and now the shells were dancing across the water toward his ship.  They fired another round and the order came from the bridge to open fire at the same time.

Faster than he could think the thought, the enemy shells worked their way up to his gun pit.  Then nothing for a few seconds, milliseconds? A few minutes.  All he could discern was a loud sound.  Like being inside a metal barrel and someone banging on the outside with a hammer.  There was color, lots of color.  Something flew past his eyesight, what?  Had he flinched?  Closed his eyes?  He would never  know for sure.  He was leaning against the gun pit railing when he regained his senses and perspective.   Ridiculously he first checked the gun to see if it was still operational, it was.  Much later he would learn that the plane also released a bomb but it hit on the port quarter in the water.  Luckily it only loosened some bulkhead seams in NO. 2 hole and was repaired before he even knew it happened. Smoke from the barrel was drifting back over them he noticed,so only seconds had passed.  He felt something against his foot and leg and looked down.  It was Tom, the back up loader and man on the elevation control. Albert was saying something.   Moose was moaning and leaning against the far side of the pit and holding his arm.  He noticed that something was sticking out of his arm, it was big and reminded him of the cowboy and Indian movies like an arrow had been shot into his arm.  Tom wasn’t moving and blood was sloshing  under him on the gun pit deck.

He bent down to Tom and turned him over.  His stomach and chest were mostly gone and red, raw meat was exposed along with a lot of white stuff he didn’t recognize.  It reminded him of the -were he had worked one summer.  No breath, nothing.  Tom was dead.  Tom had been standing within two feet of him only seconds ago doing his work and now he was a lump of meat on the deck.  “Let’s move him” he told everyone in the crew.  They lifted him outside of the pit and then he looked to Moose.  It was a splinter of wood about 10 inches long and it had gone right through his forearm.  It was between the bones but blood was spurting.  Albert said we have to get that out.  From the gun tool kit he got a pair of pliers and pulled the splinter out.  It had come from some of the crates they carried on topside.  A shell had hit it and thrown the splinter into the gun pit.  He was the pharmacist mate on board.  He had no formal training for that but he had the highest rank of the enlisted men on board and Navy regs required every  ship to have someone fill that duty so the Lieutenant had given him the medial manual and told him to read it and practice his first aid techniques.   He grabbed the first aid kit and poured sulfur on the wound and then wrapped it in a battle bandage.   Moose collapsed onto the deck and was sitting in his own blood and Tom’s. 

He kept looking at Tom’s body, that was all it was now, a body.  He wanted to cry and praise God at the same time.  He had survived but why had Tom taken the hit?  Should he have told them all to duck under the metal railing as the planes got closer?  Would it have made any difference.  He didn’t really know much about Tom other than he as a quiet guy from Iowa.  He had to make sure the gun was manned and ready no matter the problems.  He reported the death and the wounds to the Lieutenant.  He never knew if the Lieutenant was angry about opening fire without orders.  The Lieutenant said he would send help right away and wanted to know if his crew could continue firing.  He said yes.  Within seconds help arrived and two of the merchant marines who were the back up support for the gun in an emergency.   That scared him and worried him because their training was minimal and they would slow down they rate of fire.  He and Albert could make it  but it would be slower.  As they pulled away Tom’s body and lead Moose below the order came for fire toward the starboard quarter and he readied the gun.

to be cont’d….www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Since last fall we have had a great deal of discussion and debate concerning the phrase of too big to fail (TBTF) which was a newly coined term created seemingly just for this current economic mess.  That concept led to the TARP; it also produced the TALF program, remember that?  Likewise, a substantial portion of the Stimulus bill was indirectly to support the same idea that some companies were TBTF.   Additionally, we must recall the Federal Reserve has gone to extraordinary lengths to prop up those institutions with their 1.5 trillion dollar purchase of mortgage-backed securities, treasury bills and the simple act of printing more money and keeping the funds rate a virtually zero.  Yes, some of those actions and some of that money was for the general economy allegedly but huge bundles went directly to those TBTF concerns.

First it was Fannie and Freddie, they were followed by AIG and after Lehman collapsed they blinked again even worse and the major banks were brought into the fold along with GM and Chrysler.   The worst of the panic is over.   The economy is still hurting badly and will continue to do so for years to come especially if the current proposals for cap and tax and health care and the other tax increases all take effect.  The theory was that these TBTF’s went down or any one of them it would destroy the economy.  Well, I am not an economist but I have dealt with bad times and struggling companies during my 43 year career and have seen over pretty severe down turns.  The ’70’s were no picnic.  That entire decade was a downer for those of you too young to know about it.  Here is not the place to examine in detail the likely results if we had let those institutions go under or some of them.  If Fannie and Freddie went down there would still be a demand for housing and house loans and a profit to be made there.  The S and L’s made money for decades doing just that.   Lots of big investment houses, many foreign might have lost lots of money on an AIG failure but all those policies would have been honored which is much more important to my mind.  The decision to bailout GM and Chrysler and have them become Government, Inc. entities was clearly a political decision not an economic one.  New smaller companies would have emerged from a Chapter 11 and no one would have been left without a car if they wanted to buy one. 

We made a mess of things by allowing ourselves to be duped with that concept of TBTF.  Yes, things would have been difficult if they had gone down.  But I can argue just like the White House that but for those actions things would have been better by now, not worse.    They say everything would have been much worse if we hadn’t taken all those actions.  An argument can be made to the contrary very cogently.  Remember that only 350 billion of the TARP  money had been spent by inaugural day.  Everything else came after that date.  The GM/Chrysler bailout, the extra money to the institutions, Stimulus, TALF and all the buying by the Fed at the urging of the WH.   Whether you agree or not is not important, but I bet most of you would agree that it hasn’t been handled well.  It could have been done better.  I favor letting any failing company to fail, others would promote more government regulation and takeovers.  Guess a lot depends on your trust level in the free market system vis a vis Government.  Take your pick.  I will trust a businessman any day over a politician.

However we now will soon face another serious problem of the same ilk.  All the current proposals for health care reform will raise taxes greatly and will severely cut back on expenditures to hospitals, insurance companies and doctors.  There will be special taxes assessed against the medical device makers and pharmaceutical companies.  Hospitals do go broke in spite of what you may think about them making way too much money. I have represented three hospitals over the years in Chapter 11.  Yes, the insurance companies will get more customers but they will also have to add many new ones that carry much higher risks and thus larger claim payouts.  Doctors facing cutbacks will make choices.  Many will decide to move locations, probably to the larger urban areas.  Not many will quit practicing altogether but those moves will further deplete the need for medical care in the rural and outlying regions.  Many of the health insurance companies are affiliates or subsidiaries of life insurance companies.  If some of them go under because they can’t make sufficient profits then that will impact the life company they are affiliated with.  Those life policies will be endangered and those annuities that many people bought.

We need to think long and hard now on the front end how we are going to deal with those hospitals, insurance companies and drug makers that are TBTF.  Will we even acknowledge that concept for any of them?  What about the drug company that has promising research for a specific cancer cure but then goes under due to the weight of the new taxes imposed on it and the reduction in the tax breaks for research.  Trust me there will some of these entities that do go under as the Government, Inc. health program develops over the next decade.   They are proposing a 21 % cut just for the doctors.  Would you like a 21% cut in your pay today?  How would that effect you?  For some such a cut would produce bankruptcy.  If you live in an outer suburb and have only two hospitals and one goes under then you might have to drive 50 miles for medical treatment or wait inordinate amounts of time at the survivor hospital.    Are we going to simply bailout these failing hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies like we did GM?  Where is that money allocated in the CBO report.   www.olcranky.wordpress.com

“The lust of government is the greatest lust.”   James Harrington

He noticed that the other gun crews were about done with cleaning their stations and most of the spent casings had been thrown overboard.  His gun was ready and he reported that to the Lieutenant.   What time was it?  He glanced at his watch–09:15.   It seemed like he had been out there longer than that.   That meant there was lots of daylight left and he knew the German planes would have already radioed back their position and more planes would be on their way.   Everyone was tense but alert.  They started talking about the last attack.  Albert was happy they hadn’t come at them.  Moose was really nervous.  No more than anyone else but he showed with his jerky movements and clipped comments.    The enemy planes kept coming in and out  of view off on the perimeter of the convoy.  He didn’t think that any of them had been hit yet with the gun fire.  He felt like they were being stalked.

He wondered when he would get this next letter from his wife.  They got mail on a very irregular basis, usually when they were at a port for a few days.  But often it didn’t arrive even then.  He worried about her.  She was young and with his son at home he was concerned if she could keep up with everything.  His son was a big joy for him.   Much more than he realized it would be.   He had been so worried about her during the pregnancy that he hadn’t given that much thought to the son.  He hated that they had to use the charity hospital but they didn’t have the money for anything else.  He promised her they would never be that hard up for money again no matter what it took.  The boy was quiet most of the time except when he cried for his dinner.   He did love holding him, just holding him and checking out all his features.  He didn’t get to do that very much with work and getting ready to leave.  He had joined up right at the time of birth.   It was time to go.  He would have gone sooner but he wanted to be there until the baby came.  Leaving two weeks after the birth was much harder than he imagined.  It was the worry of the unknown.  Strange he was the one going off to war but he was worried about her taking care of herself and his son by herself.   Somehow he was sure he could take care of himself but he was concerned about her.   She came to the train station downtown to see him off.  He was worried even then about her getting back home on the bus with the baby and the gear.  He seemed to require lots of gear.  

That was a very long two-day train ride to the Great Lake’s Station north of Chicago.   It seemed odd to him that he was in the Navy and going to the middle of the country for his training.  He had thought it would be some port on one of the coasts but no, into the heartland.   It wasn’t the official word from anyone but they could tell directions and they were going almost due north and the scuttlebutt was the Great Lakes Station.  As soon as they boarded the train they read them the Articles of War again just like they had done right after they were sworn in.  He wasn’t used to it then but soon got used to the reading at every new port and every time they boarded a new ship.  He figured they wanted them to have no excuses about knowing the rules of war and what was expected of them.  Obeying commanders, the definition of mutiny, cowardice in face of the enemy and punishments for all manner of malfeasance.  He could almost recite them now by heart. 

He wasn’t familiar with any psychological concepts but he understood after a while that the Navy understood what it took to motivate men.  Mostly fear of punishment and an indifference to any differences among men.  Being thrown in with thousands of others at the Great Lakes was a learning experience like no other.  He was amazed at what frightened some men and what they would do with their idle time.  He learned after one day how to avoid trouble and being idle.  He smiled even now thinking about that first couple of days.   He and four others were ordered to go around back and clean the ladder.  They went their but saw nothing but steps.  They decided to sit down and take a smoke break.  It wasn’t their fault if the ladder wasn’t there.  A Chief Petty Office came by and saw them smoking and asked what they thought they were doing.  They told him they couldn’t find the ladder to clean.  He informed them they were sitting on it!   He decided then to learn all those code words.  Having to clean the latrine for 12 hours that night focused his mind.

They all had to swim the length of a pool.  It was snap for him.  He was an excellent swimmer and diver and had even won some local city contests at the Fair Park pool.  Some guys had never learned to swim.   They were given a lesson.  It took about an hour.  Then they were expected to swim the pool.  Time didn’t matter but completing it did.  The Navy wasn’t concerned if you didn’t finish.  They informed the group that anyone who didn’t finish would simply be re-assigned to the next new batch of recruits and they would start their basic training all over again.  It was alright.  They could spend the entire war there going through basic.  When all was said and done only one guy out of his training battalion didn’t make it.   He hadn’t made any effort to draw attention to himself during basic, he just wanted to get it over with and move on.  He did take to seamanship, it seemed to come naturally to him and for some reason he enjoyed all the details and even excelled at the knot- tying lessons for the ropes.  He never realized there were so many ways you could tie a knot.  All the guys in his barracks were asking him for pointers on how to remember to do them because they had to pass that test too or start over.

His reverie was interrupted by the sound of gun fire.  The ship ahead and one in the starboard quarter had opened fire.  He had been given no orders but they had opened up.  He followed the direction of their tracers and quickly saw those angry bees coming in pretty low again.  They were straight line smudges against the pale sky, that meant their were coming head on.  

to be cont’d …..www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Some in Congress seemed determined to pass any legislation they can to affect our economy and the use of carbon based energy sources.  Likewise they are moving hard to empower the EPA and every other agency of government with any additional powers they can conjure to enhance the same agenda.  It strikes me as more of an ideological or religious crusade than it does a thoughtful program to meet any real or merely perceived danger to our planetary environment.  The Cap and tax legislation will have an enormous influence on our economy and it won’t be on balance a positive one.  Every modern industrial society or even one heavily weighted toward service and IT services require huge amounts of electrical energy.  The use of energy and the ready availability of it is the hallmark of all advanced societies. 

You can track standards of living and income and productivity output with the use of energy.   The nations that use the least amount of energy are the poorest on earth.   They don’t use much energy in Sudan or Yemen or  and take a look at their standard of living.  It takes lots of energy to run these modern factories and even our homes with the conveniences and durable goods everyone in the West takes for granted.   The exotic energy sources such as wind and solar are decades away from development.  Don’t take my word for it.  Look at the data from the EIA (Energy Information Agency).  Even with all the resources and money they could ask for it will still be years and years before those methods will produce significant amounts of energy.  Nuclear energy is a great way to go but we have the same problem there.  It will take decades to get the number we would need online.  You can’t build one of those puppies and a kid’s playhouse in the backyard.  The paper work, red tape and permitting requirement alone take years for approval before the first shovel of dirt is even moved.

What I find ironic and frustrating about all  this is that I am the type person who should be a natural “ally” of the movement for alternative sources of energy.  Since I was young I have always had a fascination with and admiration for the sciences.  Physics, chemistry, botany, etc, and yes meteorology.  My math was never strong enough for me to excel in any of the sciences but my love for them and the scientific method has endured throughout my life.  I always was up for good science fiction like “2001″ ,not those silly horror type movies or books.  To this day I still enjoy reading about science and the scientists who changed our world.  I have read at least two large books on Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity but still only have the vaguest notion of how those theories impact our world and function and a vibrant element in our universe.   The point of all this is that I would be ready to accept a scientific assessment of our climate. 

The promoters of such a movement should take heed.  I mean if one such as I have very strong reluctance then there are millions more out there who will be downright hostile or skeptical.  They should not be so secretive with their research.   To the contrary like all good science it should be shared openly.  I mean the raw data and the experiment set up and methodology.  They should walk everyone through the process rather than pumping out conclusions and demanding that everyone take their conclusions on faith.  Remember that all the information regarding climate change is based on computer modeling.  It is not a fixed experiment that can be replicated.  Indeed that is one of the problems they have with their research, it can’t be replicated with like results.  Biases are in each computer model and the modeling is at best an imperfect science.  So much of what we are given as a “fact” is actually the result of nothing more than a computer simulation.  Those are facts.  Those are postulations and there is a huge difference.  Don’t treat us like we can’t tell the difference.   Also there is this fixation on carbon  based energy sources rather than research on other factors that influence our weather and climate.  I wish there was as much time spent on the effects of El Nino and Sunspots and ocean currents as there is on the emission of carbon.  We are carbon based creatures after all.  Carbon is what gives us life.  We are carbon.  Remember your Star Trek episodes.  

It doesn’t help when they use someone without credentials to promote their cause such as Al Gore.  He also was the big promoter of the Internet during the ’90’s you are reminded.   He was out there daily telling everyone about the new day, the new age and the new economy.  That enthusiasm was great but it was a direct contributor to the dot com bubble at the end of the Clinton years.    I don’t think his predictions pass the reliability test very well either scientifically or politically.  Doesn’t help his cause that he and his cronies are invested in the green revolution with the energy companies and car company. 

I agree we have reached a tipping point in this debate but it is not one based on science but rather one based on ideology and zeal to control economies.   I hope we will demand a real debate and scientific one and even fund it if necessary.  I don’t know what a true examination would reveal.  But I am confident that a legitimate scientific inquiry would reveal the truth, remember the truth is out there.

Supposedly we are told the Stimulus package created 325,000 new teacher positions this year.  Hmm.  Let’s do a little math.  Assume that each new teacher was assigned only 20 new pupils, which would be really low but let’s go with that, then we are talking about 6.5 million students.  Did we really get that many students in just one year?  Did the student population explode overnight and we didn’t notice?  One wonders how many of these “new” positions were nothing more than the natural turnover of teachers retiring or quitting and being replaced.  Are those really new teacher positions?    How could we possibly need that many new teachers in one year.   Me thinks I smell a rat with those numbers.  The books have been cooked.   www.olcranky.wordpress.com

They announced the bearing and heading for the aircraft and he looked in that direction.  It was where the clouds were breaking up and the sun was about mid way up its morning passage toward noon.  He couldn’t find anything.  He kept scanning the skies over moving up and down from the water’s horizon up and then moving over a couple of degrees and starting over.  Then he saw them, he could count 6 and they were larger so they were Dorniers most likely, bomers.  They were still a few miles off and weren’t heading directly for the convoy.  They appeared to be skirting around the edge of it.  No sooner than he spotted the aircraft than the klaxen rang again for battle stations.  He immediately begain moving to his spot.  It was only about 30 feet away to the gun mount for the 5 inch.  Moose was right behind him.  Others from the merchant marine crew would take their spots as lookouts while they manned the guns.  Most of the time the battle station alerts were false alarms or at least nothing ever happened except sitting there in the cold for hours at a time.  He checked and removed the muzzle cover, made sure the sand buckets were full and in their spot and as the other 3 crew members of the gun unit arrived he made sure they open the ammo ready box and had the hatch open for the ready room extra ammo.  They were all there within a minute or so.  They had practiced this drill so many times and everyone knew how to drop everything and get to their station quickly.  Even Albert was there; he usually was the last to arrive.  Guess it was that slow moving New Orleans weather or something that made him move like molasses.

He applied the flash cream to his face.  This was the first time they had used it.  New orders.  He wondered if it really would help in a fire or just cause the heat to be retained and bake his skin even more.  No good to worry about that now because it was on and he had no choice.  The cream gave them all a comical appearance even though there were no smiles to be seen.   He put on his communications helmet and announced No. 1 was manned and ready.  Moose had opened the breach and was ready with the first round.  Now they waited.  He looked back to where he had seen the planes before but couldn’t see anything out there.  The only word from now on would be through the helmet from the Lieutenant.   He twisted around and finally saw planes.  There were only three but he knew there had been at least six before.  Where were the other three?   They seemed to still be circling, he thought they were like buzzards waiting for things to be just right to come down for dinner.  Then a warning.  A flight of three aircraft were coming in lower from the south.  That would be on the far side of the convoy.  He looked that way but saw nothing.  But the order came to set the gun at a 170 degree reading and to elevate it to 40 degrees and the proximity fusses were to be set for 4 seconds.  That meant they would be firing at about  7 thousand feet.  He readied the gun per orders.  Albert swung the gun into position.  Moose and his helper were setting the fusses and attaching them to the shells. Then the order came to open fire at will and maintain fire.  They slammed in the first round and he ordered “fire”.  The blast and sound always gave him a fright that first round especially.  It was so loud and he always remembered those stories about short shells or malfunctions where the shell blew up in the barrel and killed the gun crew.  They were working now and he was watching were the shells were taking effect.  It was  brief delay but then the sky lit up over the convoy with puffs of black and gray.  He still couldn’t see any planes but they were sure throwing up what seemed to him tons of shell.  The tracers were arcing through the sky also and they always seemed such a crazy quilt pattern.  He never could tell if they were really aiming at anything or just shooting up to the detonation of the bigger guns like his. 

Then he saw the planes, they were flying lowering than the pattern of shot from the big guns.  They were more like only  2 thousand feet and moving at a diagonal to his ship.  He was relieved to see they weren’t heading directly for him.  It was very personal now.  He wondered why they werern’t being ordered to change the heading for the antiaircraft pattern.  It only took a few seconds.   He could even see the bombs as they dropped from the bellies of the planes.  They were about a half mile away and going after the ship in the second line up from them.  He never saw the bombs hit because the scream came from the helmet that other aircraft were coming in from the  bow.  He would never see them because of the super structure even if he tried.  They were ordered to reset the gun for as elevated a position as it would go and the fusses were set for one second.  Firing point blank essentially right over head and he knew the truth was that they would hit anything that way but might scare them off with the blasts and smoke.  Those enemy pilots were scared too and didn’t like flying into shrapnel if they could avoid it.  They were firing about 5 rounds a minute now.  The gun was already so hot you could feel the heat from the barrel even in this weather.  The planes came over but they were thankfully off the starboard beam and at least a quarter of a mile away.  Some other poor soul was having to sweat it out.  He did see the bombs this time as they dropped and hit.  They were close but none of them hit their companion ship starboard. 

The order to cease fire came but he knew it was not over.  Everyone could plainly see that the Dorniers were circling again waiting for the moment they chose to attack again.  How long had all that lasted?  He was sweating hard now and the sweat was making his face and hands cold.  He had to clear the gun pit and make sure everything was ready for the next order.  They couldn’t relax now.  They wouldn’t be standing down for a while.   To be cont’d……

Check out Hud,,,it is a great movie, maybe Newman’s best effort.  Read a bit of Shakespeare.  They aren’t called Classics for nothing.   www.olcranky.wordpress.com

The following are worth what you paid for them but the asking price is still 2 cents per each as they say on the loading docks.

When you have spent an hour on the tarmac with no word from the cockpit about take off or pulling up the the gate, you wonder if those pilots were “distracted” with their computers and heated discussions about company policy.  Like the policy for keeping passengers informed.

The current health care proposal to have a public option but with a provision to allow States to opt out of the program has one glaring fault.  The folks in Kansas might not want to have anything to do with a Federally run and mandated health care program and decide not to participate.  But, but, but, the new Federal taxes of all stripes being implemented to pay for the program will still be in place so those good folks in Kansas will still pay the taxes and the people in Michigan will get the benefit of the program with a subsidy from Kansas.  That’s a real Hobson’s choice opt out if I ever saw one.

One wonders sometimes if the US will survive the length of the Roman Empire.  The myth of Remus seeing the 12 buzzards flying over Rome supposedly meant that the empire was to last for 12 centuries and that turned out to be pretty close to the facts.  Will the US enjoy ascendency for 12 score of years?

You watch the news and see our troops and allies training Afghan soldiers with modern weapons and how to use proper infantry techniques.  Then sometimes they are firing larger weapons like machine guns.  It is usually some scruffy looking fellow who looked like he just came in from the fields.  Am I the only one that has a concern that all we may be doing is supplying and training our future adversary on the field of battle?

Now our good friends at GMAC are back asking for more money.  This time it appears to be about 3 or 4 billion more in addition to the 12 billion it has already received to make loans for Government, Inc.’s autormobile industry.  Hmm, let’s see if GMAC went out of business then folks would have to get their car loans from a local or regional bank or even a credit union.  Wouldn’t that be a good deal for everyone.  I thought we were all worried about those too big to fail banks.   Why don’t we let the local banks have that business and stir the local economies.  Government, Inc. is subsidizing GM and Chrysler and they are subsidizing GMAC and there is no end in sight.  You really think the UAW will ever agree to meaningful changes to their contracts to make our auto industry truly competitive as long as Government, Inc. will be there to pick up their tab with taxpayer money from throughout the nation?

Interesting to see that someone finally is reading our Constitution.  Note the recent letter from some members of Congress to the guy in the White House that he can’t accept the Noble prize without approval of Congress.  They are right.  Hate to rain on anyone’s parade but one would hope that occasionally the current gang in Washington would follow the law and the press would hold them to it.  The provision is not comlicated.  Art. 1, section 9….”No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no person holding any Office or Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or Foreign State.”  It is not a big deal if followed but it is our law and either it should be followed or not.  Maybe we will ignore it jsut as we do our own immigration laws and pretend they don’t exist.

Speaking of Art. 1, section 9, it requires that there be a “regular Statement and Account of the Receipt and Expenditures of all public money”….. Do you think the off books accounting used for Medicare, Social Security and soon the other like comports with that Constitutional requirement?  Don’t we have the right to demand under that section as legitimate an accounting as is required by other public companies regulated by the SEC?  Government, Inc. official would be prosecuted for fraud if that were held to the accounting standards of the private market.   They make “material misrepresentations” with every alleged budget and accounting they submit. 

Rather than give money to big banks and GM why not use that money to fund big increases in the NASA programs.  It would create thousands of new and well paying jobs.  It would continue the true nature and purpose of Man to venture out and test the new and explore.  It would have side benefits not yet imagined.  We could send a manned crew to Mars.  The scientific knowledge alone would pay for it down the road.  What are we getting for our money in GM or Citigroup?

When you go to the hospital and they make you put on one of those darn gowns with your rear end exposed wouldn’t you prefer to be dressed as you like and tell them you will be glad to undress for their exams or check ups everytime they need one?  I mean those gowns are not a medically necessity it is for the convenience of the staff which I appreciate but gee whiz.  They are so demeaning.  I would rather dress and undress 8 times a day but be able to look normal between times.  It would sure elevate my mental state, don’t know about you.   Then you probably have a cuter rear end than I do.

How is it that the Holidays seem so far away at Easter and then you get hot and before you can blink they are only 7 weeks away?

“The Democratic Party has a vested interest in depression at home and war abroad.  Its leaders are always troubadours of trouble; crooners of catastrophe.  Public confusion on vital issues is Democratic weather.  A Democratic President is doomed to proceed to his goals like a squid, squirting darkness all about him”….  Hard to believe but that is from the New York Times, February 1959.   It could apply to their headline for tomorrow.    www.olcranky.wordpress.com

It seemed like every big guy was called Moose just like all the radio operators on board were called “Sparks or Sparky”.  He was big, came in about 230 or so and that was much bigger than anyone else on the ship by far.  Moose played the violin and woe to the fellow who referred to it as a fiddle.  Moose  made it clear from day one that it was a violin not a fiddle played in some hayseed barn dance.   He had secretly shed a tear more than once in his bunk listening to him play, especially when it was Amazing Grace.  It just brought up too many strong emotions of better times and hopes yet unfulfilled.

His thoughts turned to his ports and his earlier voyages for something to fill in the time and tedium.  He liked New Orleans best but only because it was the closet one to home and he could hitch hike there in a day and have a few hours with his wife and the hitch rides back.  One of the few benefits of being in uniform as an enlisted man was that rides were easy to come by.  Almost everyone would stop to give a serviceman a lift on the highway.  Norfolk was just a busy place with industry and port activity everywhere.  In New York he got off the ship only long enough to spend an afternoon wandering around the city and saw Times Square.  The noise and rush of the place unsettled him a bit.  This was his fourth trip to somewhere.  He had already been to North Africa twice and England once.  Liverpool it was.  He thought it was a really grimey place and there wasn’t much to do except for the pubs which didn’t interest him because he didn’t drink.  The one memory that he did relish was a trip out in the country for a day with a shipmate to ride horses.  They had met the farmer in town waiting for a bus and he mentioned he lived out a few miles.  One comment led to another and soon they had a deal to have two horses to ride for 2 dollars for the afternoon.

Moose came into the watch station.  They only exchanged the comments about each other’s area of responsibility and went about their work in silence.   Moose’s size made the space more cramped and he had to move over to the railing.  The clouds were definitely clearing.  There was a clean break now in the eastern sky with only scattered clouds behind them.  He started practicing again his aircraft recognition procedure.  They first started drilling that into them at gunnery school in Virginia.  They would spend hours looking a flash cards with outlines and pictures of the various German aircraft the were likely to see.  The pictures were easy to identify in that setting.  He rarely missed and passed that easily.  He knew a Dornier from ME 109 or a Junkers 152 on sight.   It was very helpful but in reality it was much harder than he had every imagined.  When they first saw planes on that first convoy to Bizerte they were not much more than smudges in the sky–a dark cigar looking object and they didn’t hold still like the pictures did in the classroom back in Virginia.  When they were close enough to recognize either their guns were firing or the bombs were dropping.  The truth is they had to rely on whoever that mysterious person was that made the call that the aircraft were enemy and that all ships could open fire.  No one on any of his voyages so far had ever turned in a report of enemy aircraft; they just reported unidentified aircraft at such and such a location.

As he viewed the eastern sky where things were clear enough to see something he wondered how effective the IFF signals were.  He thought that if you ask, Identify Friend or Foe, that they would answer if the latter with an attack and if the former they might not have heard the message anyway.   He supposed it made sense to try but he remembered the large flight of planes over the convoy as it left North Africa and the entire convoy and escorts opened fire on them.  The sky turned dark with the exploding shells broken by the streaking reds and yellows of the tracer rounds.  They took down some planes.  He saw a couple for sure going down but he was too frightened and busy to notice anything else except for momentary sense of relief and even elation at the sight of the “enemy” craft plunging.   Later they heard the skuttlebutt about how all those planes were friendlies.  That some big shot admiral was in deep trouble and an air force general for not working that out.  The Navy said they had no notice of friendlies flying over and the air force said they were incompetent not to recognize their own aircraft.  If it was true those were our guys it made him feel really bad.  They were just trying to get through all this same as he was and they got blown out of the sky by their own guys.  Of course they never were told anything official this was all just ship board rumor but he had a terrible feeling it might be true.  He remembered the command to open fire seemed hestitate and was given he suspected only because the other ships had already started firing.

Moose commented that he had just heard that an escort had picked up some survivors from the Uboat attack two nights before.  All they saw from their ships was a flash and billowing fire and smoke on the horizon.  Susuposedly the word was that two ships had gone down.  They had been repeatedly told they wouldn’t survive more than about 15 minutes in the water that cold and that is why they constantly practiced the abandon ship drill and the lowering of the lifeboats.  He hoped they did get some but the seas were pretty rough that night and finding them and then pulling them up the boat’s side would have been difficult.  Men that fell into the water were doomed.  They all knew that even the escorts could not and would not turn about to attempt a rescue with subs in the area.  At best you had one chance when they came by.  The convoy would not stop.  They moved slow enough as it was, making no more than 8 knots with the zig zagging and the full loads on most of the Liberty ships.  His thoughts were interrupted with the sight of a new flag and the PA address of enemy planes spotted.

to be continued….www.olcranky.wordpress.com

When he opened the hatch and stepped out the cold wind bit into his face but it was not as bad as he expected.  The spray from the waves was only a fine mist.  The ocean was pretty quiet compared to what it normally was, the swells were only about 3 or 4 feet and the wind was light.  He noticed how everything was gray.  Sometimes there was a contrast with the sky, sea and the ships in the convoy but today everything was gray.  The sky had high thin clouds and the sea itself was gray, no hint of green or blue.  The ship and everything afloat was gray.   The crew had added a fresh coat of paint in port just before they set sail two weeks ago from Norfolk.   That old adage he had heard from the salts was really true when there was nothing else to do they made them paint.  If it didn’t move, it got painted.  It didn’t matter if the paint was hardly dry from the last coating.  Where did the Navy get that much paint?  The supply seemed endless.

He locked the hatch back in place.  They did that everytime they came out even if the seas were relatively calm because they could change quickly and all the outer hatches had to remain watertight at all times.  He made his way along the railing toward the stern and his watch station.  It was near the number one gun on the afterdeck.  The watch was normal.  No high alert or battle stations which was better than having to sit with the gun and break out the ammo and prepare the ready room and gun.  He first went to check the gun as was his habit and job.  Sure enough the trigger was caked over with ice.  Albert forget to clear it from the last watch.  Damn!  It would get him in trouble if the Lieutenant saw that.  He got out the hammer and tapped the ice free and added solvent to keep it from freezing again, at least not right away.  He learned that trick himself on his first voyage from an older sailor.  He looked over the gun to make sure it was secure and no loose items were in the gun pit.  Then he made his way to his watch station.  It would be a longer, “normal” watch, since the weather was mild–in the mid twenties.  When it got much colder the watches were cut back to two hours.  It was great to get out of the weather but then it just messed up the schedule for trying to get some sleep because you had to go back on duty that much sooner.

As he settled in his watch post he checked the binoculars.  He wondered how much they cost.  They were very large and heavy and well made.  You could see all the way across the convoy  in clear weather and distinquish the men on deck and what they were wearing.  The convoy was in a “row” formation and stretched across several miles of sea even with the spacing of only a quarter mile between ships.  On the perimeter he could see the destroyer escorts.  He could only see one but assumed and hoped there were more than that.  They were told only what they needed to know to do their job.  Often he couldn’t see any escorts but was told they were there.  As usual he didn’t even know where they were going.  He assumed it was somewhere in England because they were so far north that surely they weren’t going to North Africa, at least not directly.  It took almost a week to go from Norfolk up to St. John’s where they had formed up with the rest of the convoy.  He had “been” to St. John’s three times now but it had never been more than a gray smudge on the horizon.   He wondered what that town was like having been so close but never seeing anything.  He thought it might be pretty big since so many ships went into port there.

His undershirt was chafing again on his neck.  As he idly watched his quarter of the sky and sea he wondered how he could get dressed quicker and easier for his watches.  It took almost fifteen minutes now to dress for watch.  They started with their skivies and then an extra undershirt and extra long johns.  Then came the pants and blouse as the Navy insisted on calling their shirt.  Then the overalls and last the parka jacket with hood and the sailor’s  wool cap–hell everything was wool, that was why it was always so itchy and chafed.  Then a scarf for those who had one and goggles were provided but you never could use them because you had to constantly be using the binocs so it was pointless with having to take them off every ten seconds.  Then they got the boots for outside.  They reminded him of those worn by the firemen back home in the real world.  He prided himself on being organized and efficient but he still hadn’t figured out how to reduce the time to dress for watch.  At least this was a morning watch.  Morning came about 5:30 at these latitudes in May.   He beat those dog watches in the middle of the night when you more often than not couldn’t see much beyond the bow of the ship anyway.   Silhouettes against a moon maybe of other ships.  With a blackout in force it was darker on cloudy moonless nights than anything he could imagine.  He really wondered why they had them out there on those nights because if they did see anything it would be too late to do anything.

The clouds were nice because it reduced the odds of enemy aircraft being around.  On the other hand it made it very difficult to see Uboats painted gray in the gray water and a gray background.  He had heard about others spotting periscopes in the seas by lookouts.  He had some doubts about those stories.  He found it hard to believe anyone even with the best eyesight could see one of those in the waves.  But maybe it did happen on occasion.  He heard one of the officers last night mention something about Iceland so he thought they must be near there and beginning to make the turn southward toward Scotland and England.  The skies were beginning to break some.  There was light streaming in low on the eastern horizon.  You might know it was dead in the middle of his watch quadrant so he would have to be looking that way all morning.  If the skies did clear then there was always the chance of planes.  He heard that they had air cover sometimes for the convoy but he had never seen any friendly planes or head anyone else on any ship he had been on talk about seeing them personally.  They were always reported by someone else from someone else.   He wondered if they would have beans and cheese sandwiches again for lunch.  He hoped for something else.  They usually had that in heavy seas when cookie couldn’t prepare anything much on the galley stove.

The klaxen sounded with its ear shattering screech and pitch and then he noticed the “sub in vicinity” flag being run up.  It was up most of every voyage.  The PA announced double watch.  So he would have company in a few minutes but at least it was not battle stations.  It would be Moose joining him.

to be continued…………..www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Sometimes the current economic pundits talk about our current debt and indicate that it is not as severe a problem as others think.  This in spite of the fact that even those in the current administration do give lip service to the notion that the deficits and debt growth are “unsustainable”.    They just want to sustain them for the indefinite future–however long that might turn out to be.  The existing projections from the CBO and administration don’t indicate when there will be any downturn in the debt growth or the deficits.  Indeed the projections show nothing but a continuing debt growth all the way to 2019.  That is ten more years with deficits growing exponentially.    Those seemingly unconcerned about the debt at the moment often speak of the debt not being that bad compared to the debt we had right after the end of WWII.

They use that debt after the War as an indicator that things really aren’t so bad and that we can work down the debt just like we did at that time.  After the War our debt was indeed more than 100% of our GDP.  Other than that fact though the analogy breaks down rather quickly and the circumstances now extant are not similar at all to those existing in the ’40’s after the War.  The first huge difference is the fact that almost all of that debt after the War was owed to ourselves.  Almost all that debt had been incurred to finance the War itself.  You have seen those old movies about the War Bond rallies and surely have at least heard that buying War Bonds was pushed very hard as a patriotic duty.  Besides they were also  promoted as a great way to save for the future.  It is true that millions of Americans during the War bought those War Bonds and even after the War many continued the habit of buying government bonds, the old E bonds.  Just as we have regular auctions now selling our Treasury bonds on the open market to finance our government expenditures we financed them then with those War and E bonds. 

But those bonds were bought and owned by Americans.  They were not owned by foreigners.  Remember the situation during and right after the war.  England and the rest of Europe was devastated both physically and certainly financially.  Europeans couldn’t afford to buy US bonds.  They needed every cent they had to rebuild their infrastructure and societies after the war.  Asia was a very poor place.  The Japanese weren’t buying any US bonds for sure.   We were having to spend money in both Europe and in Japan and throughout other parts of Asia to help them out.  The Middle East was not flush with money yet from oil production.   Believe it or not the US was energy independent in those days.  We didn’t really have to have their oil production to meet our energy and economic growth needs.  Latin Americans didn’t have any money to buy anything to speak of at that time.  The Soviets weren’t buying anything.  They were completely dominated by their communist philosophy and they wouldn’t and couldn’t buy any bonds.  All that debt was owed to ourselves after the war.

Today a very substantial portion and indeed a majority of all our recent debt is owned by foreigners.  They are the ones buying US Treasury bonds and notes.   Yes, we buy some too, no doubt about it, but foreigners now are a very significant creditor group we have to deal with.   Many of them are not necessarily our friends.  The Chinese are not our friends.  They are nothing more than trading partners and they definitely have their own interest at heart with every economic move they make.  Those moves never forget are still controlled by the Communist Party in China.  They will be doing what it their best interest.  They will always be tough creditors.  Yes, they have an incentive to work with us some because we are their major customer for their exports but that willingness will extend only so far. 

When the US debt was owed to ourselves we had much greater flexibility about how we were going to deal with it.  Also we were on the verge of a big boom in our economy as everyone could tell with about 13 millions men returning home and wanting to buy everything from cars to  TVs.  The rest of the world was dependent on us for a great deal of our manufactoring output.  They needed the US for everything at that time and their were all very glad to have US dollars contrary today when our currency is weakening in value against all major foreign currencies.   There isn’t a good analogy between that time frame and today at all.  Any attempt to do so is sophistry at best or an outright effort to mislead and hide the ball from the American people about our current debt crisis.  It is a crisis.  Unless it is brought to heel we face either huge inflation risks or taxes so high that our economy will struggle and sputter for decades to work down the debt load. 

How we want to spend our money is our choice.  How much debt we want it our choice.  The consequences of those choices are also ours.   The Chinese and Europeans will not bear the brunt of unwise decisions, we will.  I don’t propose here the exact remedy.  But we all have some semblance of common sense and lowering expenditures by Government, Inc. is essential if we are going to reduce the debt.  Do the politicians have the gumption to face that reality and disappoint their constitutients who are expecting largese from the government?

Divide 300 million into 11.3 trillion and that is your share of the National debt and that is before it doubles by 2019.  Think about it.  How is it going to be paid?   www.olcranky.wordpress.com

This is not a polemic on politics but rather a discussion about economics, numbers and the international relations and effects of the US currency and its perceived worth around the world.    In the Wall Street Journal and other economic news outlets there has been substantial discussion of recent days about the decline of the dollar against foreign currencies.  There has been virtually no mention so far in the so called mainstream media.  They are busy covering health care and whether Obama is loved enough.   The US dollar has lost purchasing power around the world in the last 6 months at an alarming rate.  It has declined about 20% during this period. 

Some of the reasons are very obvious but not getting much attention yet in the headlines.  Since we have what is called a fiat dollar that means essentially that the dollar only has value to the extent that others believe it is important and valuable to them to have dollars so they can buy US goods and services at the end of the day.   The dollar is not backed by anything tangible thing as it was for most of our history when it was gold based.  That dollar bill is nothing more than a promissory note from the local Federal
Reserve Bank.   If you are in Japan that dollar has not meaning or value unless it can be converted into something you want like a car, clothes or a direct investment in something in the US like real estate or the stocks of US companies.   The point is that for the dollar to ultimately be worth anything to a foreigner they have to bring the dollar to the US shores literally or at least figuratively by investing it in the US or buying US goods.  

Because of the monetary policy of the current administration we pay very low rates of interest on our government issued notes and bonds.  The Federal Funds rate is virtually at zero where it has been now for more than 6 months.    Further everyone who can do basic math sees that we are spending more than we are collecting as a nation and that our debt and the growth rate of that debt continues to climb and all estimates indicate that the pace of those items will only accelerate in the future.  Next week the Congress will pass a new limit on the national debt which is already over 11 trillion.   Even Moody’s made a statement this week that there was no guarantee that the US bond rating would always be AAA.    From a historical perspective that is earth shattering.  We have always honored our debts and other around the world believed that we would and could do that.  That goes back to the founding of our nation and the Constitution when we acknowledged and agreed to pay all outstanding debts of the Confederation of States before the Constitution.   With the proposals on tap for cap and tax and the huge new expenses for health care, however it ends up, plus the new taxes to come which will diminish economic growth many of the smart folks around the world are starting to question seriously our ability to pay our debts.  At least that is pay our debts in money that has some sembalance of value.  The threat of inflation is real if the present course is continued.

Our current policies and the projected policies only enhance the power of foreign entities to enforce their will on our activities here and abroad.  It won’t start off with a headline.  But on the back pages you will note some day that China for example did not buy 20 billion worth of our bonds but only 15 billion and they invested the rest in gold, oil, copper or even in other countries bonds like maybe Brazil or how about Iran.   China is a our largest creditor and we are they biggest customer for their goods and services so they will be careful and not percipitate anything rashly.  But they will start hedging their economic bets.   To make us really pay attention they could not by any of our bonds at a weekly or monthly auction.  They could simply say they were deferring the purchase not stopping with their buying of our bonds.  Behind the scenes however they could play hardball with us.  They could start making long term agreements even more aggressively with those that are not our pals around the world or our pals in name only.  They could start taking their extra cash and rather than buy US bonds they could invest directly in Iran, Indonesia and throughout the Middle East.   We would be needing their money.  Too quick a stop in supporting our debt would wreak havoc with our economy. 

Is it too hard to imagine that the Chinese would tell us they want us to take a particular position with Iran vis a vis Israel for example, or that they should be allowed hegemony throughtout the Indonesian islands with it rich natural resources in oil, gold, silver and copper for their own industrial growth for the future.  They also are clearly not committed to any “green” initiatives whatsoever.   They intend to us oil and coal for decades to come so they can continue their own economic expansion.  Thus they might well seek to replace us as the dominate influence in the Middle East.  It could happen especially if the Middle East states also percieve the US dollar as not “being worth a dollar”.   Why would they want to sell oil to us when the dollars they get in exchange are declining in worth every day.

The really smart people know this is a problem and there are ways to fix it and reverse the trend line in our debt and deficits.  We need to focus on growing jobs and our economy for a while and drop the other issues.  Otherwise we might end up with the benevolent welfare state but one that is so destitute that it can’t afford do all those “do gooder” actions it has promised.   The Nanny state will see that it doesn’t have the coins in its purse to buy the kiddies anymore ice cream and candies.

I am not shocked often at my age. But I was shocked at that lady in the current administration talking about Mao being her favorite philosopher.  Philosopher?   He was a butcher.  She either doesn’t know her history very well at all or if she does then that is even a more frightening thought.  He killed millions.  I can’ remember clearly the scenes on the news during the Cultural Revolution he fomented of those children holding up their little Red Book of thoughts of Chairman Mao and singing his praises literally singing.  Same as those German kids in the ’30’s singing the praises of Hitler.  The world will never know how many teachers, small business owners, scholars, doctors, military leaders and others he slaughered like Stalin to impose his view of the world.  Go visit Taiwan and ask around.  They remember.   www.olcranky.wordpress.com