DECISION ENGINEERING: an emerging field?

It’s time for companies to stop relying solely on spreadsheets to make decisions and start using new methods, according to several management experts.

Decision engineering is a field that designs decisions themselves as if they were tangible projects, such as building robots or computer systems, using the same engineering methodologies and techniques. Professionals are needed now in this area more than ever due to complex issues that go beyond generating revenue. Government policies, global growth, environmental impact, and a society with needs that constantly change are just some of the factors that need to be considered when helping organizations making smarter choices.

It's a pile of steaming claptrap, and I'm sorry to say that the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, of which I'm a Life Senior Member) has fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker. But go ahead, read it anyway.

SAD BUT TRUE: Small-town airports close as fewer pilots take to skies.

Once upon a time I was a private pilot. It was great fun, but today flying is practically beyond the means of any but the wealthy and the most dedicated. I used to go to every air show I could find; today I avoid them, the memories are too bitter.

NOEMIE EMERY: Temperament counts.

President Obama, wrote the Washington Post's Greg Jaffe in a recent story about the president's view of his country, articulates "his vision of a nation that can acknowledge and, learn from, its mistakes." Would that this vision applied to himself.

Not only does Obama never learn from mistakes, he doesn't think that he makes them, and he denies that they even exist. Any regrets for the way he passed healthcare? Not that you'd notice. Any regrets about leaving Iraq? Nope — he still thinks he "ended two wars," which the other side keeps on fighting.

The conventional view of what has gone wrong — that Obama lacked experience, and that first-term senators should be viewed with suspicion — is undercut by the fact that he has had six years of experience, and failed to learn from it. At home and abroad, Obama makes mistakes over and over, with the same result, and takes nothing from them. He disses his friends, placates aggressors and seems surprised that aggressors advance and whole regions catch fire.

He refuses to bargain with Congress, insults opponents, imposes unpopular policies by fiat and seems surprised when his measures result in court challenges, when polarization increases, opposition solidifies, divisions harden and gridlock prevails. Deal-making is the essence of politics, but Obama finds it demeaning, so he resorts to brute force when he has the means to (as in the still-festering matter of healthcare). Alternatively, as with immigration, Obama resorts to executive actions that stir angry resistance and are frequently halted by courts.

This has gone on since 2009.

Like most progressives, Obama lives in a 'reality world' where one must only think or say something is so for it to be so. He is completely incapable of recognizing the world as it exists.

FEDERALIZING VOTING. The Democrats have been 'federalizing' voting for years, and look where it's gotten us -- incompetents voting for incompetent government.

I'm old school. Voters should have to register in person to prove their bona fides for voting, and elections should be on a single day, in person, on paper ballots. Absentee ballots should be limited to those who can prove necessity, not convenience.

I'd perhaps even go so far as to require a 'proof of competence' test to vote. One must prove competence to drive an automobile lest one endanger fellow citizens; shouldn't one prove onself competent to vote for the same reason?

OF HILLS AND DALES: a 2015 commencement address.