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There is, ultimately, going to be a post from me about the details of the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review — but the details are probably not what is important. So, let me start with that.

What is important is that the NPR ledes with the notion that the priority goal is to prevent nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism.

That, conceptually, is an important shift. There have always been two views of nuclear weapons: One view holds that nuclear weapons are just another munition, albeit larger, in a modern armory. Ours our good; theirs are bad. Another view, however, is that nuclear weapons represent a shared danger that ultimately compels us to cooperate even with our adversaries.

The Nuclear Posture Review places the deterrent value of nuclear weapons in this much larger context of confronting the shared danger posed by the existence of nuclear weapons, including nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. If I understand Josh correctly, this is what he intends to convey with the image of a tunnel dug from two ends.

Although I will focus on the nitty-gritty details in a bit, none of that will matter a year from now. I suspect we will look back at this period — the release of the Nuclear Posture Review, the signing of the Prague Treaty, the Nuclear Security Summit and the NPT Review conference — and say that this was a pivot point, the moment when we began talking about nuclear weapons on terms that are different from those of the Cold War. The implication of this conceptual shift isn’t fully realized in any of the documents.

But that is usually the case. Historical documents are always less impressive in the details than in memory. Try looking at NSDM 6, Nixon’s decision to seek ratification the NPT. You’ll be surprised at how tentatively he embraced the notion of nonproliferation. It is a turning point, nonetheless.

And, since we have a President whose rhetoric references the civil rights movement, it is important to remember that the Emancipation Proclamation freed only those slaves held in states in rebellion. The 2010 NPR is not nearly as important as the Emancipation Proclamation, obviously, but I still remember how odd I felt when I realized that the details of that document fell so far short of its historical importance.

So, the details are interesting, but I suspect that the important development is how our narrative about the role of nuclear weapons has changed — and for the better. That’s hard to see in the details, love them though I do.

Slacker Radio for BlackBerry has updated their version to v3.0.459. If you use Slacker, don’t slack in updating your Slacker Radio. There’s always a fix or improvement, so keep current on your updates. There’s no changelog available in the Slacker forums yet, but let us know what you find different.

You can get the updated Slacker Radio OTA here

You’re reading a story which originated at BlackBerrySync.com, Where you find BlackBerry News You Can Sync With…

This story is sponsored by the new BlackBerry Sync Mobile App Store. Grab your free copy today at www.GetAppStore.com from your BlackBerry.

Slacker Radio Updates To v3.0.464

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Filed under: Government/Legal, Plants/Manufacturing, GM, Earnings/Financials, UAW/Unions

Once again, General Motors has found itself in hot water with the United Auto Workers. Way back when in 2007, GM signed a deal with Delphi to provide a total of $450 million for the UAW’s Voluntary Employee Beneficiary – a trust set up to provide for retiree benefits, especially health care. So far, GM hasn’t been willing to hand over the dough, and the UAW has decided to take The General to court over the issue.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the lawsuit claims GM denied the UAW its cash when the union asked for it last November and has refused to make payments ever since. As part of the automaker’s bankruptcy filings last year, the company assumed all of its contracts with the UAW, including this one.

Delphi has been feeling the pinch of the economic slowdown in a big way, and found itself in bankruptcy court in 2005. When that happened, the company asked for concessions from the UAW, and managed to negotiate a pay cut of up to $10 per hour as part of the deal. GM has since snapped up four Delphi divisions during 2009, and word has it the automaker is seeking even further concessions from the union.

So far, GM hasn’t said word one about the lawsuit.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

Report: UAW files suit against GM over $450M Delphi debt originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sherif Mohsen, an Egyptian “Conceptual Artist” was so inspired by Windows Phone 7 he created this render of an Alienware-branded device with a 4.2 inch AMOLED screen and 1.3 Gigahertz processor, rounded out by a 5 megapixel camera.

Do our readers like the design, or is it too much of a black slab? Let us know below.

Doesn’t anyone else see what is so obvious to me? Or has Steve Jobs’s diabolical plan for global domination already reached a point that humans don’t even see what is happening to them?

The whole iPhone (and iPod and iPad) thing is starting to sound like a 1950’s science fiction movie. If you’ve ever watched one of these now-totally-camp movies, the story line goes like this: A mad scientist bent on world domination invents a fanciful machine that turns humans into unthinking zombies over whom he has complete control. Now let’s update that storyline. A mad scientist by the name of Steve Jobs invents a fanciful machine called the iPhone that, according to a recent Stanford University survey, turns users into “junkies” allowing him and his evil empire to take over the world (at least the media world, so far). Now do you see it?

How powerful is this fanciful machine? The research indicated that 44 percent of those surveyed rated themselves as a four or five on a five-point addicted-to-my-iPhone scale. Another 32 percent reported that they were worried that they would eventually become addicted. Here’s a scary stat: 75 percent of respondents said they slept with their phones in their beds. Even more scary is that users felt their iPhones were an extension of themselves and have actually begun to anthropomorphize their phones. Sounds like induced psychotic and delusional behavior to me. That is one powerful device Mr. Jobs and his team of mad scientists have invented!

His plan is as fiendish as it is brilliant, having been years in the making. His release of increasingly more addictive devices, starting with the iPod, then the iPhone, and taking it to a new level with the iPad shows a clear vision and the patience to realize that vision. And Mr. Jobs is an evil genius of great sophistication and nuance, seeing the addictive power of seemingly innocuous little things called apps. The App Store may seem innocent enough selling what appear to be fun and often-times useless applications, but each $.99 purchase and installation of a new app is another nail in the metaphorical coffin of humanity and free will.

This mad scientist has even developed a cadre of Apple uber-zombies, who proudly call themselves Apple Fanboys, who are specially trained to protect the empire whenever it is threatened. This brigade of storm troopers (only a satirical reference to Nazism; no offense intended) has been given special access to this wicked machine through jailbreaking and “unauthorized” apps (wink, wink), giving them super-Apple powers that threaten those as-yet-unaffected survivors daily. These demented guardians of the empire are ever vigilant to attacks from the few remaining humans who have been able to resist drinking the Apple-flavored Kool-Aid. A critical news report, an unsupportive blog post, anything that might question or criticize Jobs or Apple, any sign of resistance or defiance against this new world order is met with swift and ruthless Apple justice.

Going according to Jobs’s wicked blueprint for global supremacy, the population is slowly, but inexorably, falling under his spell. I see it around me every day. First, it was work colleagues and clients. Then, it was acquaintances and a few friends. And now some in my family have gone to the dark side including my mother-in-law who, the horrors, takes care of my children once a week.

What can those of us who haven’t gotten zombified do? Probably nothing given Mr. Jobs’s maniacal mission of world dominion and the Sirens-like allure of Apple products. What hope is there for humanity? Only one perhaps. That the other mad scientist of the technological-industrial complex, Bill Gates, has finally come up with another fanciful technology, Windows Phone 7, that will enable the Microsoft empire (admittedly equally evil) to compete for world domination. How will that help us humans? Well, it seems certain that we’re all headed toward zombieland. At least we can exercise our last vestige of free will by choosing which poison we want to drink before life on Earth as we know it comes to an end.

As for me, to paraphrase a classic Charlton Heston line, I’ll give you my Windows Mobile phone when you take it from my cold, dead hands!

Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. He is the author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them, The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training, and Applied Sport Psychology: Four Perspectives, the Prime Sport book series, Psychology of Dance, Psychological Approaches for Sports Injury Rehabilitation, and Comprehensive Sports Injury Management.

He has has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend, and the major television network affiliates around the U.S..

This post was submitted by drjim.

By Matt Hawes

CBS News has an interesting report out concerning this weekend’s Southern Republican Leadership Conference and the potential impact it could have on the political climate for the next few years.  The article also includes a survey asking people to pick their favorite candidate.

Every four years, in between presidential elections, conservative activists gather to take stock of some of the most prominent names in the Republican Party — and consider which of them has what it takes for a successful run for the White House.

That gathering, the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, takes place this Thursday through Saturday in New Orleans. Among the speakers will be Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Bobby Jindal, Michael Steele, and Sarah Palin, whose speech will be closely watched for signs as to whether the former Alaska governor is serious about a presidential run or is opting instead a lucrative media career….

Read the rest.

If you are in the New Orleans area and have not made plans to attend, click here for more information about obtaining tickets.  Dr. Paul will be speaking to the Conference this Saturday.  Come out and support the liberty message!

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday said he doesn’t expect his call to shut down nonessential city agencies two days a week, if enacted, would continue more than three months.



“We don’t expect that we would be closing City Hall, if you will, two days a week beyond July," the mayor said during a morning interview on CNN.



Still, he said, Los Angeles residents should expect to see significant cuts to services and the city’s workforce as he and the City Council struggle to close a $212-million budget deficit, predicted to double next year.



He blamed the shortfall on a recession-fed decline in tax revenue and the city’s expanding payroll costs, and again called on city employees to accept a 15% pay cut.



“There’s no scenario where we don’t have to trim our services and the cost of our payroll," Villaraigosa told CNN’s chief business correspondent Ali Velshi.



Some city officials raised doubts about Villaraigosa’s ability to order such a sweeping shutdown. Gerry Miller, the council’s legislative analyst, said the mayor "does not have the unilateral authority to do that" under the city charter.

Villaraigosa has been taking his budget message to the airwaves all day, appearing on national cable news shows and local radio programs.



The media blitz comes amid his escalating political feud with the Council, which last week rejected a Villaraigosa-backed hike in electric bills. In response, the Department of Water and Power is refusing to transfer $73.5 million to the city’s decimated general fund. Utility executives said that without a rate hike, which they said is necessary to cover the fluctuating cost of coal and the mayor’s renewable agenda, the DWP cannot afford to make the payment.



Without the money, City Controller Wendy Greuel has warned that the city could run out of cash within weeks.



Villaraigosa called Tuesday for non-essential services, such as libraries, parks and senior centers, to be shut down twice a week, saying the loss of $73.5 million had forced his hand.



The Coalition of L.A. City Unions, which represents roughly 22,000 city workers, questioned whether the mayor has the authority to carry out the plan and complained that its members — and the public — had become "collateral damage" in a political fight over electric rates. Coalition representatives said their contract prohibits the city from laying off or furloughing members though the end of the fiscal year, June 30.



— Phil Willon at Los Angeles City Hall

Below, from C-SPAN….Sessions are in Chicago time

LIVE on C-SPAN

Southern Republican Leadership Conference

Hilton New Orleans Riverside

Thurs, April 8 7:30 – 10pm ET

2010 Convention- Opening Session

Mary Matalin-Welcome/Intro 6:37
Liz Cheney 6:42
Newt Gingrich 7:00
Gingrich Q&A 7:45
JC Watts 8:03

Fri, April 9 1 – 4:30pm ET

2010 Convention- General Session

Tony Perkins 12:10
Sarah Palin 12:28
Chris Wilson 1:18
Gary Johnson 1:43
Bobby Jindal 1:53
Andrew Breitbart 2:33
Rick Perry 2:48

Sat, April 10 1-6pm ET

2010 Convention- General Session

Joseph Cao-Invocation/Welcome 12:01
David Vitter/intro 12:11
Rick Santorum 12:21
Steve Scalise/intro 12:46
Mike Pence 12:56
Rodney Alexander/Intro 1:21
Haley Barbour 1:26
Herman Cain 2:01
Bill Cassidy/Intro 2:21
Tim Pawlenty (video speech) 2:21
Ron Paul 2:29
John Fleming/Intro 3:09
Michael Williams 3:14
Thaddeus McCotter 3:24
Jan Larimer/intro 3:34
Michael Steele 3:39

Yesterday I noted L.A. Controller Says City Could Run Out of Cash by May 5

After raising taxes and fees, again and again and again, the city is broke and Mayor Villaraigosa is blaming the city council for not hiking fees yet again.

Having run the city into the ground, Villaraigosa calls for shutting down some city departments amid budget crisis

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Tuesday for all city agencies — except for police, other public safety and revenue-generating departments — to close for two days a week starting April 12 because of the city’s continuing budget crisis.

“We have to act, and we have to act quickly,” Villaraigosa said at a press conference.

Villaraigosa’s call comes one day after executives with the city’s Department of Water and Power said they would recommend not sending a promised $73.5-million contribution to the city’s beleaguered treasury because the City Council recently declined to grant a desired electricity rate increase.

Union contracts and pension benefits are the biggest city problem and Villaraigosa is ignoring police and fire departments, the worst problems of the lot.

DWP Digging

I have been doing a bit of digging into where those DWP rate hikes go. Here is an interesting article from way back in July 2008: L.A.’s best jobs: Average utility employee earns $76,949 per year

As the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power seeks a hefty taxpayer rate hike, a Daily News review of salary data shows the average utility worker makes $76,949 a year – or nearly 20 percent more than the average civilian city worker.

More than 1,140 of the utility’s employees – or about 13 percent – take home more than $100,000 a year. And General Manager Ron Deaton, who is on medical leave, rakes in $344,624 a year – making him the city’s highest- paid worker.

DWP salaries are on average higher than city and far higher than private-sector workers’ even as the utility has come under fire for recent power outages and another round of rate hikes: A 9 percent, three-year electric-rate hike and a 6 percent, two-year water-rate hike.

While DWP workers have long been some of the highest-paid in the city, salaries got even more lucrative two years ago with a five-year contract guaranteeing 16.8 percent raises and up to 28 percent depending on inflation.

According to a study by Huron Consulting Group earlier this year, the total cost per full-time employee in fiscal 2007 was $142,400 a year including health care, death benefits and disability, workers’ compensation, medical services, employee health benefits and training.

That’s expected to rise to $151,000 in just five years.

“The increase in cost per employee is primarily due to wage increases dictated by the union contract,” the study said.

Meanwhile, even though a city report concluded nearly four years ago that the pay disparity between DWP workers and civilians in some jobs was as much as 55 percent, the Daily News review of current DWP salaries shows the issue has remained unaddressed.

Bear in mind that is from July 2008. The DWP now wants a 22% hike for businesses and up to a 28% hike for residential customers.

Amazingly Mayor Villaraigosa has the gall to blame the city council for the budget crisis, for not approving those rate hikes.

Repeating a snip from the first link …

Reckless, Irresponsible Spending

The mayor is now blaming the city council. Instead, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ought to look in a mirror to see who is to blame.

The city is broke because Mayor Villaraigosa led the City down a path of reckless and irresponsible spending says blogger Phil Jennerjahn in Petition to Recall Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Despite record income over the last five years, Mayor Villaraigosa has led the City down a path of reckless and irresponsible spending that would have been avoided by a more professional and logical City Official. In the face of a crushing recession, the Mayor actually accelerated spending and hiring to the point that the City may have to declare BANKRUPTCY before the end of 2010.

While he is now asking City officials to eliminate 1000 city jobs, the Mayor has selfishly refused to fire a single member of his enormous staff – including 16 Deputy Mayors and 93 personal staff members.

In 2009, the Mayor offered a 3.9 BILLION dollar contract to the IBEW (Electricians Union) for the potential construction of solar panels. The no-bid contract, awarded without competition to his political supporters, creates the appearance of corruption and collusion, and would have increased costs for citizens of Los Angeles.

DWP Salary Schedule

Here is a list by name and title of DWP Salaries.

Unfortunately the list is from 2007 and severely out of date. I am sure salaries are much higher now.

The Price Of Power

Inquiring minds are reading SoCal Connected Investigates The Price of Power

In the middle of the worst budget crisis in Los Angeles history, one department is thriving without mandatory job cuts, furlough days or loss of the perks they’ve come to enjoy. In fact, thanks to a new contract approved by the L.A. City Council in December, most of its already well-paid workers will get salary increases over the next five years. Which department is it? It’s the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) and this week SoCal Connected Anchor Val Zavala looks into how the DWP stays immune from L.A.’s fiscal problems.

In a rare sit-down interview, Brian D’Arcy, powerful head of the IBEW Local 18 (the union representing 9 out of ten DWP workers) defends the deal, saying the higher salaries paid DWP workers are merely the price of attracting talent in a competitive job sector. Confronted with the complaints of angry ratepayers, he responds that “…generally how they feel is not relevant.”

According to a former DWP commissioner, some L.A. residents should soon expect their utility bill to exceed their monthly mortgage.

IBEW Local 18 Head: “How Taxpayers Feel Is Not Relevant”

Sadly that appears to be the attitude of L.A.’s politically and morally corrupt mayor as well.

L.A. desperately needs to dump Villaraigosa and elect a mayor and city council willing to stand up to union thugs.

Better yet, the city should declare bankruptcy immediately and seek to overturn those contracts in court on grounds the bargaining was not in good faith. Clearly, no one was representing the taxpayer.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Complete Guide To Every Genius Who Got This Ridiculous Rally Completely Wrong
• Greenspan Humiliates Himself Again
• The Most Amazing Feature Of Apple’s iPad (That No One’s Talking About)

Last month, I told you about the book The Serotonin Power Diet, and now I’m happy to be hosting a giveaway for the book. One lucky MomCooks reader will get a copy of The Serotonin Power Diet, the eating plan that boosts levels of the feel-good chemical serotonin, which improves mood and can help with weight loss too. The recipes are for meals and snacks that use ordinary grocery store items and foods you probably already buy. It’s just a matter of eating them at the right times of the day to boost serotonin.

WIN IT: For your main entry, read my previous review of  The Serotonin Power Diet,  then come back here and tell me which of the serotonin- friendly snacks listed in the post are your favorites.  Enter by Friday, April 16 at 1:00 PM EST.

BONUS ENTRIES: You can earn additional entries in this giveaway by doing any of the following after you’ve posted your main entry. Leave a separate comment for each that you do or have done –

• Mention this giveaway in a blog post with a link back. Not a blogger? No problem! Add the giveaway URL to any giveaway “round-up” and leave the URL in your comment.
• Tweet the giveaway, you can do this ONCE PER DAY, leave a separate comment for each tweet. Here’s a sample tweet you can use:

Win the book “The Serotonin Power Diet” from @mom_cooks, enter by 4/16/10 http://bit.ly/ba3LG6 #giveaway

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Get your entries in by Friday, April 16th. Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

Today, Nicolas Cage’s Bel Air mansion will be auctioned off, according to Stewart Penn of Penn Properties. The minimum bid is $11,000,000 for a home that Cage bought from singer Tom Jones in 1998 for nearly $6.5 million. And to add to the home’s pedigree, it was also once owned by actor Dean Martin.

Cage has listed this home several times — once, for as much as $35 million, then $29,999,000, then $17.5 million. More than $17 million is owed on the property.

The actor’s financial woes are no secret. The actor Cage foreclosed on his two beloved New Orleans homes last November and his former Vegas home sold for half of his purchase price in January.

Cage is suing his former business manager, Samuel Levin, for mismanaging his fortune, but Levin claims he warned Cage about his lavish spending, which included the purchase of two castles, 15 mansions, several yachts and Rolls Royces.

> See more celebrity foreclosures.

Consumerist reader Jacqueline recently took a pair of old computers to be recycled at her local Best Buy in Virginia because, after close examination of the chain store’s recycling policy, she understood that it would be free. Alas, as she quickly found out — What Best Buy says in writing may not be true in reality.

According to Best Buy’s stated recycling policy for Virginia, “most things are recycled absolutely free, with a few restrictions.” In a box listing the products they will and won’t accept, the only specific items mentioned that will be charged a fee for recycling are “televisions and monitors.”

The sole mention of a charge for computers is a $9.99 fee for them to remove the hard drive, which is why Jacqueline and her husband removed the drives themselves before heading to Best Buy.

And that’s also why they were surprised when they were told there’d be a charge for accepting the computers:

When the CSR told me that it would cost $10 for each PC, but that they’d give me a $10 Best Buy gift card in return, I questioned that, and pointed her to the web site. She first brought me an old printout from 2009 of the recycling policy, which was different from the current one, allowing only two items per household per day and charging $19.99 for certain items. I brought up the current version on my PDA, and asked her to look at it as well.

She read the page on her PC (though I had to point her to the Virginia-specific page), and she told me that just because computers aren’t listed as requiring a $10 payment, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t required. “It costs us money to ship them back. We only take for free small items like cellphones that can be dropped in the bins at the front door.”

In the end, Jacqueline took the two $10 gift cards, but should she have had to?
If you’re not a Best Buy shopper and don’t intend on using the cards, aren’t you really just out $20?

NPR ran an article today, Fruits and Veggies Prevent Cancer? Not So Much, It Turns Out…

Excerpts:

“A huge nine-year study of diet and cancer, involving nearly a half-million Europeans in 10 countries, finds only a very weak association between intake of fruits and vegetables and cancer incidence. The study is in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Those who get an extra two servings of fruits and veggies a day lower their cancer risk by only four percent.”

Not the best news, but at least it cuts the risk by 4%. I’m inclined to think this study is correct, that fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer, but not by a lot. Good news is later in the article:

“But meanwhile, there’s a pretty strong reason for everybody to continue eating lots of fruits and vegetables. It’s called cardiovascular disease. A 2004 study in the JNCI found that eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day is associated with a 28 percent lower risk of heart disease and stroke, compared to people who eat fewer than 1.5 servings a day.”