Author Archives: RF_Alum

Another Attack on GMOs

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A Denver Post editorial describes how Boulder County, Colorado commissioners have bowed to “…a coalition of anti-GMO activists and representatives of the organic and natural food industries…” They voted to phase out GMO crops on county-owned farmland despite “…overwhelming consensus among scientists and prestigious scientific bodies that the foodstuffs are safe.” The president of a group representing the farmers points out an important advantage of GMO crops. “I haven’t sprayed insecticide on my corn in six years.” Crop yields have increased significantly, and, “…in the case of sugar beets, dramatically so.” However, to meet the demand of the activists, the Boulder commissioners ordered its staff to draft a plan to phase out GMO crops on county-owned farmland.

The move apparently is designed to force organic farming, which is “…a risk-fraught option…” The county provides major financial incentives to would-be organic farmers, but “…19 of 24 organic farmers who took advantage of the country’s program have failed in the past five years.” The editorial closes with the comments, “It is one thing to incentivize organic farming to promote agricultural diversity. It is quite another to banish high-quality, high-yield crops because of anti-scientific fears. Boulder County struck the right balance years ago and shouldn’t reverse itself now.”

Sleep Like a Log

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This is a companion expression to the one posted last week, “sleep like a top.” Both mean to sleep soundly, but “sleep like a log” makes more sense to me. Logs truly are immobile while tops only project the image of immobility while they are spinning. The Phase Finder adds that some have suggested “sleep like a long is derived” “…from the sound of sawing being like the sound of snoring.”

Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025

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suicide-of-superpowerBefore I get into the review, I have an announcement for frequent readers. I’ve decided to spend less time on reading and reviewing books and more time working on my new book about the Rocky Flats Plant and the Cold War. We intend to maintain a regular once a week schedule for expressions and commentaries, which might be associated with something that I’m drafting for the book. We will continue to do book reviews when we feel the urge, but it undoubtedly won’t be once a week. That notice made me want to spend more time working on the Rocky Flats book and less time on this review. This might be a short review for such a long and data-rich book.

The book by Patrick J. Buchanan is not a fun book to read. It chronicles numerous aspects of American life and government that are in decline or collapse. It is well over 400 pages of despair. I was curious whether Buchanan would provide any hope at the end of the book, and I must say the hope offered by the final paragraph is tepid, at best. “And the crises that afflict us—culture wars, race division, record deficits, unpayable debt, waves of immigration, legal and illegal, of people never before assimilated, gridlock in the capital, and possible defeat in war—may prove too much for our democracy to cope with. They surely will, if we do not act now.” It’s tough to find a positive message in that, especially with our dysfunctional government and (commentary alert) lack of leaders willing to submit themselves to our increasingly brutal election process.

I must admit that I’ve never been a “Buchanan fan,” although I also admit that reading this book made me admire his ability to identify and explain important historical facts despite that they aren’t fun reading. I’ll give the example of “Fruits of Free Trade” that begins on page 15. Buchannan mentions it could be more appropriately titled, “An Index of the Decline and Fall of Industrial America.”

  • From 2000 to December 2010, industrial production fell for the first time since the Depression and America lost 3 million private sector jobs
  • One in three manufacturing jobs disappeared
  • We ran trillions of dollars in trade deficits
  • China now holds the mortgage on America
  • Etc.

The most disturbing comment is that “…the cumulative current account deficit of the United States from 2000 through the third quarter of 2010 exceeded $6 trillion. To finance it, we had to borrow $1.5 billion abroad every day for ten years.” (Emphasis added) Continue reading →

Inside the Nazi War Machine

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nazi-war-machineThis book by Bevin Alexander has a subtitle, “How Three Generals Unleashed Blitzkrieg Upon the World,” and is an excellent book for people interested in military history. The three generals were Erich von Manstein, Heinz Guderian, and Erwin Rommel, and they developed a military strategy that opposed that of the German high command and Hitler. My simplistic summary is that they refused to fight battles on a wide front. They led with concentrated panzer attacks against the widely-spread “penny packets” of French tanks. They almost always outpaced the infantry divisions that followed. They refused to slow the assault to allow consolidation of the flanks, which the high command believed would be vulnerable to counterattack. The conventional thinking was that the French army, which was “…the most formidable and best-equipped army in Europe…” with their British, Holland, and Belgian allies would pinch in from the sides and capture the tanks and soldiers in the deep penetration. The remarkable outcome was that the massive French army mostly just surrendered at the shock of how quickly the center of their front had been destroyed by Nazi fire power. The Luftwaffe supported the attacks with old and slow Stuka dive bombers that could precisely target French tanks or other forces that stood in the way. Static warfare that had been the norm throughout World War I was replaced by “maneuver warfare,” or Blitzkrieg.

The book portrays how the German generals continually successfully implemented their concentrated assaults and refused to acknowledge orders from the high command to stop and allow the supporting troops to catch up. Overall military organization is also described as being valuable to the Germans and paralyzing to the French. German commanders believed they should lead from the front where they could quickly recognize situations presented by opposing forces and terrain and make immediate adjustments. French units couldn’t deviate from existing orders without written orders, which often took days to be prepared and delivered. The German commanders also had the admiration and support of their soldiers, which resulted in achieving sometimes incredible results. Rommel was said to insist on being in the first vehicle going forward in an assault. Once he insisted on standing on the middle of a bridge important to a planned attack that was under bombardment by British bombers. He wanted it known how valuable the bridge was to German plans and risked his life to demonstrate it. Continue reading →

Keep the Ball Rolling

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Phrase Finder explains that the expression means to, “Maintain a level of activity and enthusiasm for a project.” The American version was preceded by a British phase to “keep the ball up,” or to keep the ball in the air to keep a game active. The American version comes from the presidential election of 1840 that had a campaign song, “Good news and true, That swift the ball is rolling on, For Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” There is a strange explanation for the ball mentioned in the song. Ten-foot diameter balls were made of tin and leather and pushed from one campaign rally to the next. Supporters “…were invited to attend rallies and push the ball to the next town, chanting ‘keep the ball rolling’.” Maybe we could convince one of our current candidates to resurrect the practice, or maybe not?