About Obamacare...

An Atmosphere of Violence...

Mexico is a very unsafe place these days.  These stories rarely makes the news here, despite the number of casualties (over 3,000 so far this year).  Many Americans have been injured or killed as well.  Along our border, the Border Patrol has seen a huge increase in the number of incidents involving gunfire, and especially those involving automatic weapons.  Naturally, this has made the Border Patrol – mainly armed with pistols – quite nervous.  So I'm not surprised to read this:

Four people were injured and the busiest border crossing in the U.S. was closed to northbound vehicle traffic for hours Tuesday after federal agents fired shots across nine lanes of traffic to stop three vans suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants from Mexico, authorities said.

But I sure don't like it.

So far as I've been able to discover, the violence in Mexico is 100% driven by the illegal drug trade with the U.S.  And there's a very simple and instantaneous cure for that: legalize these drugs.  Overnight the drug cartels will be out of business, much to the benefit of both Mexico and the U.S...

The Walking Wounded...

I spotted the chart at right in an article about Hyundai's recent market success – but there's something much more interesting visible in there.

To wit: the Big Three American auto makers have been steadily losing market share to the Asian Big Four for over ten years.  Most businesses that have lost market share for even a couple of years are in big trouble; to lose share for ten years is an extraordinary record of failure. 

And companies that have been failing like that are certain to be in very poor health.  The falling market share translates directly in to less cash on hand, less ability to borrow, lower share prices, etc., etc.  All bad.  The Big Three were in very bad shape before the recession ever started, which of course meant they were in worse condition to weather it.  Ford's little uptick last year is completely explained by the combination of their refusal to take bailout money and the cash-for-clunkers theft of our money.  Ford's current numbers (now that the cash-for-clunkers theft program is finished) are in the toilet.

In any righteous business environment, the Big Three would have been left on their own to flounder, or to weather the recession if they could wangle a way.  If there were to be any government involvement, it should only have been to somehow put them out of their misery.  Instead, our government has stolen a vast amount of our future earnings by borrowing to “bail out” these losers that will almost certainly fail anyway – probably taking even more of our stolen cash with them.

There's a reason why politicians so often make me think of trees, rope, and knot practice...

How to Hide a Ship of the Line...

At right is the Dutch man o'war Abraham Crijnssen during its passage through the East Indies in 1942 (World War II).

While we often think of camouflage as mainly colors and patterns, the experts say the most important element is the visual texture – illustrated quite nicely here...