Photo, above: Antarctic dollar.  See  Simon Constable,  Dow Jones, on holiday gifts for the money-minded 

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.

Hour One

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board, in re: David Weil's Record  Obama's Labor Dept. nominee meets some resistance. David Weil will be in charge of minimum wage, overtime pay, what/when to pay employees, according to the Fair Credit Act. David Weil has never had one day's employment in the private sector.

"Since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid killed the filibuster, the Republican minority can't do much to block nominees unfit for office. So it's good to see the business community stepping up to shame lawmakers thinking of voting for a particularly poor choice: David Weil, President Obama's nominee to head the Labor Department's powerful Wage and Hour Division.

"Mr. Weil is a Boston University academic with no private-sector work experience or legal training and a close affinity to labor unions like the AFL-CIO. He also dislikes certain industries, including retailers, homebuilders, janitorial services and fast-food outlets. If confirmed, Mr. Weil will wield enormous power over businesses through the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, among other laws."

September 2013: President Barack Obama announced Tuesday his intent to nominate David Weil ’83 to be administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor.  . . . The Wage and Hour Division is a federal agency tasked with enforcing labor standards and worker protections such as the federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor requirements established by the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the division’s website.

Catastrophic health coverage: the Administrative State, as it was called under FDR, today decrees

-- At breakfast, FDR would choose a price for gold (US had gone off the gold standard momentarily). 

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 1, Block B:   Henry I Miller, M.D., Hoover & Forbes.com, in re: Vaccination is one of the most important advances in public health in recent centuries, and hundreds of vaccines have all but eradicated many of the infectious disease scourges of the past. But two recent college campus outbreaks of Meningitis B (MenB), which is caused by serotype B of a bacterium called Neisseria meningitidis, or meningococcus, show that more needs to be done.  What we need right now is not scientific or technological ingenuity, but more enlightened and responsive government oversight.

Since the first MenB cases were reported at Princeton University nine months ago, the federal government has taken insufficient and piecemeal steps to stem the further spread of the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.  The second outbreak has occurred at the University of California, Santa Barbara over the past month.  Twelve students in all have been infected. Worldwide, there are 20,000-80,000 cases of MenB annually, with a mortality rate of about 10 percent.  Of those who survive, about one-fifth suffer from devastating permanent disabilities such as brain damage, deafness, or limb loss. One UCSB case is a freshman lacrosse player whose feet had to be amputated. [more]

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: Tom Henriksen, Hoover, in re: Over the past five decades, the United States has adapted its international counterterrorist response many times in an effort to deter, preempt, or combat the changing terrorist threat. The results have been mixed. Now, in the shadow of withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan by the end of 2014, America is switching to another geopolitical game plan. Its nascent global counterterrorism strategy rests on a tripod of airstrikes, commando raids, and partner-building initiatives to deal with the metastasizing threat from al Qaeda-inspired movements in the Middle East and Africa. This emerging counterterrorism blueprint sets out to avoid future interventions and occupations as in Afghanistan and Iraq. But its three component parts are not comprehensive enough to turn the tide of a surging Islamist current . . . [more]

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 1, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: The Fantasy of Extreme Weather  . . .  three stories describing new research proving that global warming is going to cause an increase in the number and violence of extreme weather events. Each was published in one of the world’s three most important scientific journals.

Science: Climate change will boost plane turbulence ; American Geophysical Union: Greenhouse-gas emissions raise extreme temperatures in China

Nature: Wild weather can send greenhouse gases spiralling

Sounds gloomy, doesn’t it? Not only will extreme heatwaves, cold waves, and droughts tear apart the very fabric of society, you will not be able to drink your soda in peace on your next airplane ride!   However, one little detail, buried in one of these stories as a single sentence, literally makes hogwash out of everything else said in these three articles.

Pigs in space  [On August 14, 2013, I had] an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, entitled “No liftoff for these space flights of fancy.” It is essentially a more detailed reworking of my rant on the John Batchelor Show on July 30.

My point is that the federal space program mandated by Congress, the Space Launch System (SLS), is never going to go anywhere, and is nothing but pork that should be cut as fast as possible. (See my essay from November 2011 on how NASA and the federal government can better use this money to get more accomplished in space, for less.)

The comments to the article have generally been positive and in agreement. Those who disagree mostly question the $14 billion cost per launch that I claim SLS will cost. That number comes from John Strickland’s very detailed analysis of what it will cost to build, complete, and operate SLS. However, it doesn’t require much thoughtful analysis to realize that this number is not unreasonable.  First, there is . . .

A fundamental truth about America   [On the morning of 18 September, 12013,] Orbital Sciences successfully launched into orbit its commercial cargo freighter Cygnus to bring supplies to ISS. This was also the second successful launch of its Antares rocket. [After] Cygnus berths with ISS as planned, the company will then begin cargo operations, joining SpaceX to give the United States two different freighters for bringing supplies to low Earth orbit.

After Antares’ first successful launch in April, I wrote the following post, which . . . describes how [the] Cygnus launch success reveals a lot about the future.


—————————

Yesterday, Orbital Sciences successfully completed the first test launch of its Antares rocket, developed, designed, and built in less than five years under a commercial contract with NASA to provide cargo to the International Space Station. The launch went like clockwork, perfectly, with no hitches at all, something that is quite remarkable for a new rocket on its first launch. Kudos to the engineers at Orbital Sciences for a job well done!

Besides demonstrating the skill of Orbital Science’s engineers, however, this successful launch illustrated . . .

Hour Two

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-21), in re: Iran deal, sanctions, US-Israel relations, Egypt.  Iran's illicit quest for nuclear weapons; the Senate vote today – 13 Republicans, 13 Democrats – "More than a quarter of the Senate introduced legislation Thursday that could raise sanctions on Iran and compel the United States to support Israel if it launches a pre-emptive attack on the Iranian nuclear program, defying President Barack Obama and drawing a veto threat."

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 2, Block B: Michael Eisenstadt, senior Fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Military and Security Studies Program; in re: Iran, Israel drawn into Syria, Peace process security implications.   Twenty-six Senators – 13 Democrats, 13 Republicans – voted to strengthen the sanctions IF the negotiations fail. Note large-scale war games Iran is doing, and missiles; "dueling narratives" descriptions: Iran no longer speaks of an agreement, but of a "statement of intent."  Means what? Both sides will act on a voluntary basis.  Also missing from  the agreement: diminution of Iran's nuclear military program. White House fact sheet held a lot of fanfare about possible

Building on the Joint Plan of Action: Toward a Sustainable Nuclear Deal with Iran. 

Up to 11,000 Foreign Fighters in Syria; Steep Rise Among Western Europeans Since ICSR published its first estimate in April, the issue of foreign fighters in Syria has become a major concern for Western governments. More reports have emerged since, though few have accurately gauged the full extent and evolution of the phenomenon.

This ICSR Insight provides an update of our April estimate, offering the most comprehensive and richly resourced account of the Syrian foreign fighter phenomenon from open sources. Based on more than 1,500 sources, we estimate that up to 11,000 individuals from 74 nations have become opposition fighters in Syria -- nearly double our previous estimate. Among Western Europeans, the number has more than tripled from (up to) 600 in April to 1,900 now.

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 2, Block C: Professor William Jacobson, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell; in re:  American Studies Association votes to boycott Israel. Lawfare.   ASA is a comparatively small organization, not a major player, but its vote is significant. Boycott/divest/sanctions movement is stronger in Europe than in the US.  First academic boycott in the US was last spring: Assn fore Asian-American Studies? passed a resolution.  ASA prepared for four years, bypassed all mechanisms, packed the annual meeting, got 800 people out of 4,000, did an online vote in which most of the membership didn’t bother voting.  Next: MLA, filled with anti-Israeli zealots.   ASA has 80 institutional members of which Penn State/Harrisburg and one other have withdrawn from ASA.  "We'll boycott any Israeli academic institution, but no individual."  Israeli academics have to pass a test: you can appear only in your individual capacity, not to represent your institution. Iranians and Chinese don’t have to pass any such test.  Reminiscent of a practice 70 years ago called "the Big Lie."  I'm working with an attorney to challenge the 501(c)(3) status of the ASA: when they switched from educational to coercive boycott. Also, a charitable organization has decided to discriminate on the basis of national origin, which is illegal.  Larry Summers pointed out that these organizations survive based on conferences. If universities ceased paying for attendance at conferences, the group would be broke.  At Michigan, students given notice they were being ejected from a dorm based on Palestinian events? The BDS doesn’t care if they get a weak resolution or who supports it; they're bldg a wall around Israel one brick at a time. This is relevant not just to Israelis but to American academics across the board. Massive Iranian war games in Straits of Hormuz, just as Iran threatens the US if it makes any sort of hostile move, while Foreign Min Zarif in JPost said it'd take 24 hours for Iran to get to 20% enrichment of  nuclear material for a bomb.

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Polisario Front claims ownership of Western Sahara (immed south of Morocco); Mohammed Abdul Aziz, the head, is closely associated with terrorists -  at a time when US relations with Morocco are extremely delicate, Pres Obama poses for a photo with Abdul Aziz in South Africa at Madiba's funeral. Syria: 120,ooo refugees; former head of Free Syrian Army has decamped.  The current "rebels" are all associated with Zawahiri.  American officials offered to meet the Islamic Front, which rejected the American. (Not a smooth US move.) 

Hour Three

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Obama Adminsitration pushing hard vs the Senate, which voted in favor of a sanctions regime "pending the failure of " Geneva II, led by Menendez and Schumer.   WH pushing much harder against Congress than against Iran.  Cameron (UK) and Laurent Fabius (the French foreign minister) spoke against Iran's enrichment;  Khamenei saying it'll take 20 years to reach an agreement  What got Iran to the table was sanctions, so Congress favors sanctions. WH calls that "sabotage." Foreign Min Zarif in JPost said it'd take 24 hours for Iran to get to 20% enrichment of  nuclear material for a bomb. Twenty-six Senators – 13 Democrats, 13 Republicans – voted to strengthen the sanctions IF the negotiations fail.   At a time when US relations with Morocco are extremely delicate, Pres Obama poses broadly smiling for a photo with Abdul Aziz  of the Polisario in South Africa at Madiba's funeral. Eleven thousand foreigners fighting in Syria today; Europeans there now number 1,900. When they return to Europe, mene mene. A thousand Saudis fighting in Syria – being encouraged to do so by Saudi king, Turkey : major domestic problems; Gul in the US.  Weapons gone to al Q when Idriss fled; Turkey allowing more advance weapons to go to al Q. 

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 3, Block B: IDF Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael (Mickey) Segall, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, in re: It's  too late to prevent Iran from getting the bomb; were you to do so, you must take all enrichment ability (19,000 centrifuges), uranium – deprive Iran of all its capabilities. Now can go on the nuclear track any time it wants to do so. It’s already a nuclear power without the bomb, Just a matter of decision of Iranian regime. A wide gap between two Iranian camps  as a public game between IRGC and the Foreign ministry or a real division of opinion?  Exchange of blows between Zarif and Jafari, head of IRGC: "Zarif is unable to understand anything military or to negotiate with the West."  Zarif explains that he taught these matters for two decades and has lived in and studied American military.   Saudis feel betrayed by the US and are going nuclear.

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Peter Berkowitz, The Hedgehog Revie, Book Review: The Harm in Hate Speech

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 3, Block D:   Tamar Lewin, NYT, in re: After Setbacks, Online Courses Are Rethought

Hour Four

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 4, Block A: Terry Kerby, University of Hawaii submarine pilot, in re:  Finding Japan’s Aircraft-Carrier Sub The I-400, an enormous World War II submarine, was sunk by the United States — in 1946, after the war, to keep it out of the hands of the Soviet Union. The submersible Pisces V found it. (1 of 2)

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 4, Block B: Terry Kerby, University of Hawaii submarine pilot, in re:  Finding Japan’s Aircraft-Carrier Sub The I-400, an enormous World War II submarine, was sunk by the United States — in 1946, after the war, to keep it out of the hands of the Soviet Union. The submersible Pisces V found it. (2 of 2)

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 4, Block C: Mark Leibovich, Sunday New York Times Magazine, in re: How John McCain Turned His Clichés Into Meaning  . . . x“I am very angry,” McCain says through a smiling grimace. He hands me a photocopied compilation of old quotes from the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, from back when Democrats were in the minority and Republicans were threatening to enact a rule — the so-called nuclear option — that would require only a 51-vote majority to confirm most presidential and judicial nominations. Turns out Reid believed this was a bad idea when the Republicans were in charge but was a good one now, and McCain is packing bullet points. [more]

Thursday  19 December 2013 / Hour 4, Block D:   Simon Constable,  Dow Jones, in re: Holiday Gifts for the Money-Minded  The Priciest: a $10,000 Economics Text  If there's one time of year when people are apt to break the budget, it's Christmas. Here are some gifts that at least stand a chance of nurturing the money-savvy gene. What's more, we have a gift idea for pocketbooks of all sizes.

1. One Antarctic Dollar ($1)  Giving cash is an old standby, but often not special. So what about beautiful currency from far-flung lands?

Consider buying Antarctica dollar bills, at one per U.S. dollar (plus shipping direct from www.bankofantarctica.com). These notes, produced to commemorate the centennial of the 1911 Amundsen expedition (the first humans to reach the pole), sport stunning pictures of penguins in their natural habitat, the Antarctic.  But there's a catch: "Our bills are not legal tender money of Antarctica or anywhere else," states the Antarctica Overseas Exchange Office, which controls the funny money.  That said, the notes are redeemable one-for-one for U.S. dollars until their expiration date (printed on each bill).

2. Piggy Bank ($20)    There is a reason that piggy banks remain popular with young and old alike. They help make saving pennies, nickels and dimes easy, and—dare I say it—fun.

But why pay shedloads of cash for a fancy one—and violate the penny-pinching spirit—when you can decorate your own for less?  Instead, consider one with a chalkboard surface that you can draw on, clean and then redraw to your heart's content. There is a wide selection, including the CapitaLIST Pig. It's available from various web outlets, including Fab.com, Fancy.com and Amazon.com.

3. Vintage Monopoly Set from the 1930s to 1940s ($40+).   Who doesn't love playing Monopoly? The board game was born in the Depression years and provides instant lessons in how to make a buck. If regular Monopoly is fun, then surely a vintage set dating back decades has to be better.

You'll find buying an old or vintage set surprisingly inexpensive: You can get a used set from the 1930s for around $40 on eBay.com. You can also pay into the hundreds of dollars for mint-condition sets.

4. Sterling-Silver Tiffany TIF -1.14% Money Clip ($170 plus $30 to engrave)  Few things say "stylish, Old World gentleman" and "financial responsibility" quite like an engraved money clip. (Sterling means the silver is at least 92.5% pure.)

Expect this potential heirloom to get better with age as it develops a soft patina from rattling around your loved one's pocket. That "soft" shine comes from lots of tiny scratches in the surface of the metal. Make it extra special by giving an Antarctica dollar bill with it (see above).

5. Rare Economics Books ($7,500 to $10,000)      If you're willing to drop a small fortune, consider giving a rare and collectible economics book. A 1936 first edition of John Maynard Keynes' classic "General Theory" will set you back around $10,000, says Matthew Raptis, proprietor of Brattleboro, Vt.-based Raptis Rare Books. Of course, Keynes famously argued that government spending could rescue a flagging economy, a contentious assertion to this day.

If Keynes doesn't fit your ideology then try a first edition of Milton Friedman's classic, "A Monetary History of the U.S.," at around $7,500. Along with coauthor Anna Schwartz, Friedman gave birth to the monetarist school of economic thought. So-called free-marketeers tend to love Friedman and Schwartz. Buyers of these classic texts are generally hedge-fund managers and other Wall Street executives, and they tend to favor Friedman over Keynes, Mr. Raptis says.

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

Music

Hour 1:  Painted Veil. Tomorrow Never Dies. Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy.

Hour 2:  Gears of War 2. Lion in Winter. Hurt Locker. 

Hour 3:  Phillip Glass. Downton Abbey.

Hour 4:  Person of Interest. Downton Abbey. Michael Clayton.