Tuesday 23 September 2014
Photo, above: The preserved ruins of a Bronze Age wheelhouse and broch at Jarlshof, described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". See below, Hour 3, Blocks A & B, John Nicolson, Telegraph.
Shetland (Scottish Gaelic: Sealtainn), also called the Shetland Islands, is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies northeast of mainland Britain. The islands lie some 50 mi to the northeast of Orkney and 170 mi southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. Comprising the Shetland constituency of the Scottish Parliament, Shetland is also one of the 32 council areas of Scotland; the islands' administrative centre and only burgh is Lerwick. The largest island, known simply as "Mainland", has an area of 373 sq mi, making it the third-largest Scottish island and the fifth-largest of the British Isles. The archipelago has an oceanic climate, a complex geology, a rugged coastline and many low, rolling hills. Humans have lived there since the Mesolithic period, and the earliest written references to the islands date back to Roman times. The early historic period was dominated by Scandinavian influences, especially Norway, and the islands did not become part of Scotland until the Fifteenth Century. When Shetland became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, trade with northern Europe decreased. Fishing has continued to be an important aspect of the economy up to the present day. The discovery of North Sea oilin the 1970s significantly boosted Shetland incomes, employment and public sector revenues.
The local way of life reflects the joint Norse and Scottish heritage including the Up Helly Aa fire festival, and a strong musical tradition, especially the traditional fiddle style. The islands have produced a variety of writers of prose and poetry, many of whom use the local Shetlandic dialect. There are numerous areas set aside to protect the local fauna and flora, including a number of important seabird nesting sites. The Shetland Pony and Shetland Sheepdog are two well-known Shetland animal breeds. The islands' motto, which appears on the Council's coat of arms, is Með lögum skal land byggja. This Icelandic phrase is taken from Njáls saga and means "By law shall the land be built up".
In AD 43 and 77 the Roman authors Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder referred to the seven islands they call Haemodae and Acmodae respectively, both of which are assumed to be Shetland, In early Irish literature, Shetland is referred to as Inse Catt—"the Isles of Cats", which may have been the pre-Norse inhabitants' name for the islands. The Cat tribe also occupied parts of the northern Scottish mainland and their name can be found in Caithness, and in the Gaelic name for Sutherland (Cataibh, meaning "among the Cats"). Most of the individual islands have Norse names, although the derivations of some are obscure and may represent pre-Norse, possibly Pictish or even pre-Celtic names or elements.
. . . In the Fourteenth Century, Orkney and Shetland remained a Norwegian province, but Scottish influence was growing. Jon Haraldsson, who was murdered in Thurso in 1231, was the last of an unbroken line of Norse jarls, and thereafter the earls were Scots noblemen of the houses of Angus and St. Clair. On the death of Haakon VI in 1380, Norway formed a political with Denmark after which the interest of the royal house in the islands declined.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
Hour One
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Charles Blahous, Hoover and Mercatus Center, in re: Charles Blahous, Hoover and Mercatus Center, in re: Medicare costs will rise due to ageing population; ACA makes it worse by taking money from Medicare and applying it to Medicaid. . . .
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Charles Blahous, Hoover and Mercatus Center, in re: What I have the least problem with is cutting the growth of Medicare spending and the growth of the health exchanges. A lot of doctors say they're not being reimbursed even remotely properly and so are leaving the profession. Dr Mark Sklar says the new record-keeping is so overwhelming that if a patient said, Ignore the insurance, I'll just pay you cash, that would be attractive. As a Medicare trustee, I have to be agnostic. . . . There are different mandates in the ACA of which some are under consideration to be repealed. The individual mandate is now thought to be not the best policy even by some of the left. Financing: if we pass all the health care spending and repeal the provisions to pay for it, we'll have trouble.
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Edward Paul Lazear, Wall Street Journal, in re: The Climate Change Agenda Needs to Adapt to Reality The problem is so big that a carbon tax won't do it. The US is the worlds's second-largest emitter, and most on per-capita basis. Coming primarily fro China and secondarily India; we can’t get control of the situation unless they turn it around. Not likely. We know that he climate is changing but don't know why – oceans, sun spots, many factors; awe aren’t even modeling these. We agree that Man is contributing to it, but enormous uncertainty. In 2009, the Obama Administration picked winners to fund; that turned out not well. Can we ever move forward through carbon tax, EPA, restrictions? Our view was that we could not. The only thing we thought might have an impact is t o put resources into dvpg alternative energy – we picked nuclear; wind is a close second, solar is improving – but green is not likely to solve it. China and India are growing;. China's GDP is less than one-fifth of that in the US. Climate change is not on their agenda They're thinking about 25 million people moving to cities each year and how to get jobs for them. The point I thought Kunin made effectively is that Mother Nature causes most of the changes. I think of this as a low-cost hedging strategy. Even if you accept climate change as a reality, even so it’s almost politically incorrect to speak of adaptation because people think that'll take the wind from our sails on mitigation. (Is this in fact about political control?) Sweden and Denmark have done the most in mitigating their carbon – combined, 15 million people. Does nothing to reduce China's emissions, and you can’t blame them.
The Climate Change Agenda Needs to Adapt to Reality The Obama administration is instituting a variety of far-reaching policies to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change. Are any of these capable of making a difference? Simple arithmetic suggests not. Given this reality, we would be wise to consider strategies that complement and may be more effective than mitigation—namely, adaptation. According to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, in 2012 the world emitted a little over 31 gigatons of carbon dioxide. China was the No. 1 emitter, accounting for more than one-fourth of the carbon produced. The U.S. was second, emitting about one-sixth. China and India, among other developing countries, argue that they should be allowed to increase carbon emissions. They're still developing and require higher rates of economic growth. Moreover, they aren't responsible for previous emissions, and on a per capita basis U.S. emissions are much higher. These arguments have merit but must be measured against the reality of carbon growth. Consider China: Its carbon emissions increased by an average 8.6% a year between 2002 and 2012. Were China to continue at this pace for 27 years until it reaches today's U.S. GDP per capita, it would emit 99 gigatons of carbon in 2041 alone, or three times the world's current emissions. This scenario is too pessimistic. As countries develop, they become more efficient in energy use. But even if China tapered its emissions growth from 8.6% to zero over the same 27 years, it would still . . . [more]
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Scott Gottlieb, MD, in re: Ebola could infect 1.4 million people; doubling every twenty days. Might never be controlled, might present an ongoing endemic condition where West Africa will forever be plagued . Early estimates were so conservative as to be wrong We didn’t put enough resources in swiftly; with tens of thousands, we don’t have enough personnel and material to put there. The WHO did a very poor job: estimates on faulty information and putting them out as accurate; because of this many countries didn’t contribute. WHO said expect 20,000 cases when in fact it'll be a high multiple of that. Once it infects a large population it’s hard to clean it out. Money that flows to ebola treatment is all govt money so far, in cost-plus grants. Grants don’t pay for the rewards that you’d see in the marketplace; until then, large pharma won’t work on drugs. Instead, small firms that find grants attractive. Long-term strategy is to put incentives behind dvpg therapeutics; short term, is [jumpstarting that]. A lot of extant drugs are farther along than is widely understood. New England Journal of Medicine says: "Endemic" – always with us, like malaria.
Wall Street Journal: Ebola could infect 1.4 million by end of January, CDC says The number of Ebola cases in West Africa could reach 1.4 million by the end of January if trends continue without an immediate and massive scale-up in response, according to a new estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report released Tuesday is a tool the agency has developed to help with efforts to slow transmission of the epidemic and estimate the potential number of future cases. Researchers say the total number of cases is vastly underreported by a factor of 2.5 in Sierra Leone and Liberia, two of the three hardest-hit countries. Using this correction factor, researchers estimate that approximately 21,000 total cases will have occurred in Liberia and Sierra Leone by Sept. 30. Reported cases in those two countries are doubling approximately every 20 days, researchers said.
Hour Two
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re: Two strategic bombers, Bear H, over Alaska. The Cold War of the Twenty-first Century. Two nuclear powers. JBS music, Search for Red October.
A day later two more Bear bombers were intercepted by Canadian CF-18 jets in the western area of the Canadian air defense identification zone near the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, he said.
The Russian bombers did not enter U.S. airspace but flew within 63 miles of the Alaskan coast and 46 miles of the Canadian coastline, Davis said. In both instances, the Russian bombers . . .
US Ramping Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Arms Obama to Renew Drive for Cuts in Nuclear Arms FEB. ... While the Kansas City plant is considered a success — it opened ahead of ... the improvements to the nuclear arsenal are vital to making it smaller . . .
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus (2 of 4) in re: Pres Obama endorses a trillion-dollar modernization of the American nuclear arsenal. Nukes are cheaper to build and maintain than conventional. but when Putin first came into power, he had no incentive to press forward on nukes. Now we see the dismantling of several generations of nuclear-reduction treaties. I submit this is all [caused by] NATO expansion right up to Russia's borders. Moscow Kremlin holds that the whole Ukrainian "project" was to put NATO there. This bolsters the Kremin hawks. Death toll from Ukraine conflict exceeds 3,500 people — UN The number of officially registered internally displaced persons has reached 275,500 people, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic says. / Sikorsky's resignation signals the [end] of the Polish effort to [confront] Russia and back-door plan to get Ukraine into NATO . . .
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus (3 of 4), in re: [Paul Gregory: Ukraine Is More of an Existential Threat than ISIS, Because It Could Destroy NATO. ] US Dep Secy of Defense: "The US Department of Defense is embedded in the Ukrainian dept of defense." . . .
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 2, D: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus (4 of 4), in re: The New Cold War and the Necessity of Patriotic Heresy US fallacies may be leading to war with Russia.
Hour Three
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block A: John Nicolson, Telegraph, in re: The Union of the Parliaments in 1707 turned “Scotlanistan” into the Silicon Valley of 18th-century Europe, with Glasgow University as Stanford. The Union was a success partly because it sublimated these bitter Scottish divisions in a larger United Kingdom, while at the same time launching the country on an extraordinary economic boom that only really ran out of steam in the Sixties.
As in every heavy industrial economy, Scotland’s coalmines, steelworks and shipyards were bound to be shuttered or shrunk in our time. Pittsburgh, Essen and Turin did not fare much better than Glasgow. Yet somehow the story took root that Scotland’s economic restructuring was all the fault of the arch-bampot Margaret Thatcher. And then came Alex Salmond with his fairy tale that an independent Scotland could become a Scandinavian paradise.
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: John Nicolson, Telegraph, in re: Scottish Independence: 20 voters and their reasons Last Thursday millions of Scots voted on whether their country should break away from the United Kingdom. Patrick Sawer asked voters from the Shetlands to the Borders, from Glasgow to the glens, how they voted and for their views on the result
andy_murray Andy Murray Huge day for Scotland today! no campaign negativity last few days totally swayed my view on it. excited to see the outcome. lets do this!
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: US airstrikes target Al Nusrah Front, Islamic State in Syria Jihadists on Twitter have posted pictures of Al Nusrah Front locations struck in the US bombing campaign in Syria. The strikes are aimed at the so-called Khorasan group, which has been planning attacks against the US and its interests, as well as a number of other targets. Jihadists claim that al Qaeda veterans have been killed in the bombings.
US air war against jihadists in Syria begins Airstrikes targeted Islamic State command and control centers in Raqqah, the jihadist group's de facto capital in eastern Syria, as well as arms caches, supply depots, and ground units near the Iraqi border. Also, the US hit al Qaeda's Khorasan Group near Aleppo.
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re: Trust Is Key Issue in Florida Governor's Race While much of the media pay attention to movement in this year's U.S. Senate races (you know the drill; one of those moves two points, and everyone reacts as if it's an avalanche), few are watching a contest with 2016 implications and a huge swing — the race for governor of Florida.
Less than a year ago, Republican incumbent Rick Scott was down 20 percentage points (58-38) to challenger Charlie Crist. Crist is the former GOP governor who resigned to run for the party's U.S. Senate nomination. When he lost in that primary, he became an independent to run in the general election. When he lost in the general, he became a Democrat to try to win back the seat he originally left.
Today, Scott not only has closed the gap but pulled a couple points ahead of Crist. Now, no way is this race a done deal for Scott; it likely will go down to the wire. It also will come down to one word — trust. Not trust of Scott; like him or not, everyone knows who he is and what he stands for. Yet no one knows who Crist is or . . . [more]
Hour Four
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Paul R. Gregory, Hoover and Forbes, in re: Ukraine Is More of an Existential Threat than ISIS, Because It Could Destroy NATO
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Mark Schroeder, Stratfor, in re: Russians start $3bn mine in Zimbabwe Mugabe, Lavrov condemn West sanctions, launch platinum ...
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Paul Floyd, Stratfor, in re: The U.S. Copes With Complex Logistics in Syria The United States is managing a complicated air campaign involving long distances and regional allies.
Tuesday 23 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: The People’s Climate March leaves New York a mess “Their love for the Earth is so real, they couldn’t even use a trash can.” The images of the trash left scattered on the streets of New York is striking, especially when compared to the very clean remains after the 2010 Tea Party march in DC, and provide more evidence that the loud cries of “Save the Earth” by these demonstrators were shallow and insincere.
Nonetheless, this apparent hypocrisy to me is less significant than the actual agenda of these fascists as stated by them, before, during, and after the march. They want to imprison their opponents and than impose their will by force on everyone else. It is far more important to note this fact than the fact that these demonstrators are sloppy hypocrites. Mangalyaan’s engine test a success Indian engineers have successfully test-fired Mangalyaan’s engine in preparation for its Mars orbital insertion on Wednesday.