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.

IRS FINDS 6,400 Lois Lerner emails but won't hand 'em over. At least not until they've been thoroughly scrubbed to remove anything even potentially incriminating.

You can expect the two remaining emails to be available in mid-2017....

THE EASIER TO HACK YOU, MY DEAR: Congress wants to consolidate communication acquisition systems.

TRUMP-DOLEZAL 2016: “a pigment of your imagination”. PowerLine’s Week in Pictures is up. My favorite this week:

Reality check.

BE SURE TO THANK THE DEMOCRATS: Pension tidal wave is about to crash down on taxpayers. And thank Republicans, too; they're almost as guilty.

Then bend over to get your reward....

THE FEDERAL RECORDS HACK: a cyber Pearl Harbor?

[T]he lesson is that we should probably think twice before entrusting the federal government with our own information. Because if the feds can't protect their own sensitive data, on behalf of people who work for the federal government, how good a job are they likely to do on behalf of the rest of us mere citizens?

Good question: My SF-86 shows someone so straight he could be used for a ruler, but as a 52-year security clearance holder, I know many, many top-level clearance holders whose backgrounds are not nearly so pristine. Most (99-plus percent) are absolutely trustworthy, but a few are vulnerable.

HEH. Nancy Pelosi to Barack Obama: Drop dead.

The bloom is off the rose.

IT'S OUR LAND: The case for Israel is rooted in more than security.

GUN NEWS: mostly stupid, possibly bad.

NO SHIT, SHERLOCK: Clinton Foundation donors have a bribery problem.

AS CRIME SOARS IN BALTIMORE, the police are partly to the blame.

Nonsense! No police officer in his (or her) right mind is going to risk life, limb, and future knowing that their 'superiors' are willing to sacrifice them on the alter of political correctness at the first available opportunity.

The good people of Baltimore demanded an end to aggressive policing; now let make them suffer the consequences.

JON STEWART explains energy independence in a way that even environmentalists should be able to understand.



But the most dedicated will continue to willfully ignore the obvious.

HAS THE federal government ever had sex? Nope; they prefer rape.

OH, JOY: Congress looks to protect grid from hackers. God help us if they do as good a job as OPM has done protecting employee privacy.

On the (heh) 'bright' side, the EPA and its environmentalist friends want everyone off the grid 'to protect the environment'....

CARLY FIORINA FOR PRESIDENT: Here are the reasons why.

HEALTH NEWS: some good, some bad, some stupid. You make the calls.