Goals Study 1963 - 1968

Close on the heels of the PSAC Report, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) initiated the study, Goals of Engineering Education - The "Goals Study" - is probably the most ambitious, authoritative, and comprehensive study of engineering education ever undertaken. However, it suffered the misfortune of having been compiled during the very crest of the growth wave stimulated by the PSAC Report. As a result, it followed the 

prevailing philosophy of the time, used the latest data available (1966), and projected that the growth trends in engineering education would continue; it did so almost precisely at the time that the growth was in fact on the verge of being reversed.

Seven uniformed services

The United States has seven federal uniformed services that commission officers as defined by Title 10, and subsequently structured and organized by Title 10, Title 14, Title 42 and Title 33 of the  United States Code.

The seven uniformed services are, in order of precedence by ceremonial formation:

1. United States Army
2. United States Marine Corps
3. United States Navy
4. United States Air Force
5. United States Coast Guard
6. United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
7. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps

Each of the uniformed services is (except the United States Marine Corps) administratively headed by a federal executive department and its corresponding civilian Cabinet leader.

Obama discovers need for strategy

You have to go through life with more than just passion for change; you need a strategy. I’ll repeat that. I want you to have passion, but you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness, but action. Not just hashtags, but votes.

You see, change requires more than righteous anger. It requires a program, and it requires organizing. At the 1964 Democratic Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer — all five-feet-four-inches tall — gave a fiery speech on the national stage. But then she went back home to Mississippi and organized cotton pickers. And she didn’t have the tools and technology where you can whip up a movement in minutes. She had to go door to door. And I’m so proud of the new guard of black civil rights leaders who understand this. It’s thanks in large part to the activism of young people like many of you, from Black Twitter to Black Lives Matter, that America’s eyes have been opened — white, black, Democrat, Republican — to the real problems, for example, in our criminal justice system.

But to bring about structural change, lasting change, awareness is not enough. It requires changes in law, changes in custom. If you care about mass incarceration, let me ask you: How are you pressuring members of Congress to pass the criminal justice reform bill now pending before them? (Applause.) If you care about better policing, do you know who your district attorney is? Do you know who your state’s attorney general is? Do you know the difference? Do you know who appoints the police chief and who writes the police training manual? Find out who they are, what their responsibilities are. Mobilize the community, present them with a plan, work with them to bring about change, hold them accountable if they do not deliver. Passion is vital, but you’ve got to have a strategy.

Capitalist Democracies

All liberal democratic polities have capitalist economies, but not all capitalist economies have been liberal and democratic.  Nazi Germany and current day China are examples.

Regimes which combine capitalism with democracy have all developed into what economists call welfare-state capitalism..  These states have taken a variety of forms.

The Gosta Esping-Andersen model consists of three regimes:

   A.      The conservative regime is most often found in Catholic countries and stresses job protection and high wages in order to allow a male breadwinner to be the sole support of his family.

   B.      The social democratic regime is found in the Nordic countries stresses government provision of social services and income supports to create a more egalitarian society and allow (some say require) both men and women to work.

   C.      The liberal version is found in the United States and, to a lesser degree, in other Anglo-Saxon countries and tries to offer government support for those who can’t work in the job market.  It generally has looser labor laws that make it easier to hire and fire people.

Lecture 35, Course Guidebook for “Thinking about Capitalism”, Jerry Z. Muller, The Catholic University of America, The Great Courses #5665, 2008, page 143.

I expect Pope Francis to favor the conservative regime found in Catholic countries.  This regime would not be expected to support equality of pay for women.

Bernie Sanders likes the Nordic model,  It requires both partners to work.

Could the American Dream be an Unintended Consequence of its liberal version?

The Dream of Utopian Socialists

Is the title of Chapter 5 in The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner a Touchstone Book  published by Simon & Schuster.  I have a copy of the revised seventh edition with a 1999 copyright.

With people “feeling the Berne” recently, it seems appropriate to revisit this.  Young people may not have been here before.

I.  Introduction

II.  The Economic Revolution

III.  The Wonderful World of Adam Smith

IV.  The Gloomy Presentiments of Parson Malthus and David Ricardo

V.  The Dreams of the Utopian Socialists

VI.  The Inexorable System of Karl Marx

VII.  The Victorian World and the Underworld of Economics

VIII.  The Savage Society of Thorstein Veblen

IX.  The Heresies of John Maynard Keynes

X.  The Contradictions of Joseph Schumpeter

XI.  The End of the Worldly Philosophy?

        I.        

Alimony in Florida 61.08

Unless Rick Scott signs SB 668 in the very near future, Florida's alimony laws will continue to be governed by

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0061/Sections/0061.08.html

Paragraph (10)(c) states in entirety:

 "If there is no minor child, alimony payments need not be directed through the depository."

I discussed this with Judge Earpp during a Contempt Hearing.  I said that the statutes said that if there were no minor children, alimony does not have to be directed through the depository.  He said he was aware of that.  Neither of us gave any indication that we were thinking of the statute differently.

I now think that he was thinking that judges do not have to direct alimony payments through the depository.  In my case, Judge Charles J. Roberts did direct alimony payments through the depository.

As a minimum, it was an abuse of discretion for Judge Roberts to award alimony in my case.  His award is not consistent with law.

I thought the legislature was thinking of me when they said alimony does not have to directed through the depository.  Judge Earpp was likely thinking of "the judge" did not have to direct alimony payments through the depository.

I now consider Judge Charles J. Roberts, Jr's directing alimony payments through the depository as just another example of Government Overreach.  In this case, Judicial Overreach.

Govern Scott should do everything he can to prevent more victims in the future.  I believe Govern Scott signing SB 668 into law would be a step in the Right Direction.

Are all Florida Family Lawyers algorithm challenged?

Diane Baccus-Horsley has repeatedly demonstrated that she is date-challenged and I have accused her of being arithmetically challenged.

The arithmetically challenged accusation is based on her calculations related to two withdrawals I made in 2000.  The first was about 10 times the second.  Baccus-Horsley could or did not remember that two withdrawals were involved when checking the percentage of ownership values.

I desired to close my Pioneer II account.  Transactions were limited to $100,000 or less.  My premarital Pioneer II account was over $100,000.00.  Diane Baccus-Horsley had difficulty getting the correct figure for my percentage ownership of an account in my name in which I placed my ex-spouses funds to enable her to earn about 9% interest on her funds.

The Florida Supreme Court specified a five step process in Kaaa v Kaaa.  I blogged on Kaaa vs. Kaaa is this blog on Thursday, July 16, 2015.  After determining the "marital portion", the Florida Supreme Court recommended the Stevens Methodology for allocating the marital portion.

They said that if, for example, one party brings to the marriage an asset in which he or she has an equity of fifty percent, the other half of which is financed by marital funds, half the appreciated value at the time of the petition for dissolution was filed, § 61.075(5)(a) 2, Fla. Stat. (1993), should be included as a marital asset.

[The other half of the appreciated value at the time of the petition is nonmarital.]

Florida Family Lawyers seem to have difficulty with common sense and identifying “half the appreciated value”.  Half the appreciated value is marital.

A typical case would have the marriage beginning about the same time as the purchase of the marital home.  My case had stipulated values beyond what would be available in a typical case.  My case had a stipulated value for the Fair Market Value of my home at the time of my marriage.  An eight year period of appreciation belongs to me as a premarital asset.