Shall we go to war over Transnistria?

This is very obscure, but bear with me. Transnistria is a landlocked part of Moldova bordering on Ukraine.



Why is this important? Because Russia has about 1000 soldiers there who need to be supplied with food, clothing, ammo, etc. and the only way to supply them is by crossing over Ukraine. President Poroshenko of Ukraine (whose shaky regime is backed by the US) has denied Russia permission to cross its territory. Putin is contemplating an airlift (like what we did in Berlin during the Cold War), but what happens if the Ukrainian air defense shoots down a Russian plane? The new cold war could suddenly heat up in a big way, and we would be involved.



This all relates to Kerry's recent visit to Sochi (the Black Sea resort where Putin has a dacha) and the Obama administration's subsequent attack on Kerry for not having rattled sabers menacingly enough during the four hours when he was talking with Putin. It seems that Kerry, who has seen war, is out of step with Obama, who has not.

For details, listen to
http://johnbatchelorshow.com/podcasts/tues-6915-hr-2-jbs-stephen-f-cohen-nyu-princeton-professor-emeritus-author-soviet-fates-and

Today is the anniversary of when D Day was supposed to happen.

The invasion of Nazi-occupied France in 1944 was originally scheduled for June 5 but had to be postponed because of bad weather. The weather forecast for the following day was not quite as bad, so Ike decided that June 6 would be D Day.

A tune to make you feel good

Income Inequality

By now it's common knowledge that inequality in wealth and income has been increasing it the US over recent decades. While wealth inequality is hard to measure, income inequality is relatively easy to measure by such statistics as the percentage of income going to the top or bottom X percentage of households.

A problem with this sort of statistic is that X is arbitrary. We often hear about the bottom 10% and the top 1% or 0.1% or 0.01%, etc. No single value of X captures the whole economic picture.

There's a better way: the Gini index is familiar to people who study income inequality, but not to the general public. The Gini index is obscure because its definition is too mathematical for most people to understand. But for those who know a little calculus, it's simple and it's something well worth knowing about. If this is new to you, please take a look at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient

While the Gini index is generally considered the best single measure of inequality, various refinements have been considered to describe other aspects of inequality. For example, here is an article about a way to define separate Gini indices for the poor and the rich:

http://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/upload_library/2/Jantzen-2013.pdf

Which of our wars were justified?

In other words, in which of our many wars was our participation justified? (where "our" means involving the USA).

A strict pacifist would answer "none", but most of us wouldn't agree. Sometimes, the Friends slogan notwithstanding, war IS the answer. I would list the following as justified: the Revolutionary War (and it's continuation, the War of 1812, but not our invasion of Canada), the Civil War (on the Union side), World War 2, Operation Desert Shield, and our seemingly endless war against al-Qaeda.

I'm not so sure about World War 1, the Korean War, and Operation Desert Storm (at least Bush the Elder had the good sense to stop short of Baghdad).

I view the following as completely unjustified: the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, the Vietnam War, and the Second Gulf War (which was the epitome of Bush the Younger's immorality and stupidity).

Any comments?

A simple way to save water.

Most of the rest rooms at Calif. State U. Long Beach (where I spend a lot of time) have automatic-flush toilets. The damn things seldom work properly. Either they don't flush when they need to, or they flush when they don't need to. So water is wasted, and some toilets are effectively unavailable, including those in stalls designed for people in wheelchairs. The same problem occurs in many other public restrooms in California.

The remedy for this problem is obvious.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-shioiri-clark-drought-phantom-flushes-20150510-story.html

Rock/Blues/Jazz Fusion by Steely Dan

Puzzle From Singapore

Have you ever heard of Charles Avison?

Neither had I until I heard this on the radio:

RIP Stan Freberg

A gifted comic has died. Old farts like me will remember him.