After listening to yet another bunch of sanctimonious self-important pseudo-environmentalists in Washington State going on and on about global warming, the failure of the United States to sign on to Kyoto, and how they were going to do their part by greatly reducing Washington's carbon footprint, I felt the need to respond to their recitation of the religious dogma from the House of Gore.
Listening to the properly indoctrinated faithful spout the gospel of anthropogenic global warming, it became clear there was no room in their belief system for contrary views or theories. As more than one of them said, the debate is over, global warming is a fact, and it's all our fault.
If only it were so easy.
Time and time again I have pointed out to the anointed that much of the information they take on faith is based upon unproven theory and discredited studies, all the while ignoring that the computer climate models their high priests have used to 'prove' their beliefs have so far not matched what is actually happening. All the while skeptics have been pointing out factors the true believers have purposely ignored or tried to marginalize.
There's more evidence that recent trends in climate have been driven by solar activity, part of a regular cycle that's been going on for eons. While the cycles have been ongoing, they aren't always regular. There is the short term 11-year sunspot cycle, of which we're at the beginning of Cycle 24. That means that sunspot count on the Sun's surface is minimal, if not non-existent. It also means that the Sun's activity in general is at a minimum. Solar output is down, the Sun's magnetic field is calm, and cosmic radiation reaching the Earth is at its maximum. Because there is a lag between the Sun's activity and its effect on Earth's climate, changes in solar radiance aren't immediately reflected in the weather experienced. But what happens if the Sun enters a prolonged period of minimal sunspot activity? At least one scientist, Dr. Theodor Landscheidt of the Schroeter Institute in Germany is predicting that Cycle 24 will be a particularly weak one, implying global temps may start falling. More than one weak cycle in a row may well put us into yet another Little Ice Age, meaning that it isn't global warming we need to worry about, but global cooling.
Regardless of the predictions above, it is foolish to ignore the solar activity theories of global climate change, particularly in light of climate trends over the past 100 years. Should the global warming of the last few decades turn out to be heliogenic rather than anthropogenic, the billions or trillions of dollars the true believers want us to spend to combat global warming will have been wasted taking measures that will not reverse the trends one way or the other. Rather the money should be spent mitigating the effects of climate change, whether it gets warmer or cooler.
What proof can I offer that it isn't human activity alone driving the warmer temperatures we've seen since the 1970's? Only this: Temperatures on other planets in the solar system have been rising, too.
Somehow I doubt the true believers will be able to point the finger at human activity to explain that. However, I did once have to explain to one of the even less well informed true believers that humans weren't polluting the Martian atmosphere with carbon dioxide, which he claimed was causing the temperature rise, because the Martian atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and had been since long before humans walked the earth.
Other scientists have been able to track climate changes with changes in the sunspot activity over a period of more than 3,000 years using carbon dating of sedimentary layers of soils and peat bogs for sunspot activity and historical records and paleoclimatology findings. (The post linked above only covers back a little over 1,000 years, but other articles linked to in that post go back even farther.)
In the past I've had commenters counter with the argument that the amount of change in solar radiation isn't enough to affect the climate as much as we've allegedly been seeing recently. But that argument misses one of the points about the side effects of decreased solar activity: more lower level cloud formation. More lower level clouds means more solar radiation reflected back into space. The more solar radiation reflected into space, the cooler the temperatures. When solar activity picks up there's less lower level cloud formation but more upper level clouds. These upper level clouds trap the infrared radiation, which in turns cause temperatures to go up. In each case the solar radiance hasn't changed much, but cloud formation has, which has either a subtractive or additive effect depending upon the types of clouds.
So would you consider the debate about anthropogenic global warming is over, or are there still too many unanswered questions?
3/19/2008
Another Retailer Suffers From Credit Card Number Theft
First it was TJX, with over 45 million credit and debit cards put at risk when the numbers were stolen from their computer servers. Banks and credit card companies had to scramble to replace potentially compromised cards.
Now it's Hannaford Bros., a supermarket chain here in the northeastern US, with 4.2 million cards potentially compromised.
I'd seen the story about their trouble, which at first didn't really concern me even though Deb and I occasionally shop at the local Hannaford's. But that changed today when I got a letter from my bank:
The letter went on to explain that they were willing to replace my card free of charge. All I had to do was call their service center number and they'd take care of it. So I did just that and a new card will be on its way to me in about a week.
So let me ask you this: How do you define irony?
Would you believe that Deb and I had replaced our debit cards about 3 weeks ago because we saw charges we couldn't explain or track showing up on out bank statement? We suspected that one of our card numbers had been stolen so we called the bank to cancel our cards and get new ones.
Is that ironic? No, not really. What's ironic is that when we got our new cards and activated them the first place I used mine was at Hannafords!
It figures....
Now it's Hannaford Bros., a supermarket chain here in the northeastern US, with 4.2 million cards potentially compromised.
In the Hannaford case, which is being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, the breach was discovered Feb. 27. Investigators determined irregularities started on Dec. 7. The breach wasn't contained until March 10, the firm said.
As many as 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers were potentially exposed to fraud, and the firm said Monday 1,800 cases of fraud have been related to the breach. But no personal information -- such as names or addresses -- was taken.
The breach involved all of its 165 stores in the Northeast, 106 Sweetbay stores in Florida, and several independent grocers that sell the chain's products, the company said.
I'd seen the story about their trouble, which at first didn't really concern me even though Deb and I occasionally shop at the local Hannaford's. But that changed today when I got a letter from my bank:
Dear Mr. Weekend Pundit,
We have received notification from MasterCard Alert that there has been a compromise at a merchant or retailer. MasterCard is obligated to notify us of such compromises and we wanted you to know that your debit card was included on this list of potentially compromised cards.
The letter went on to explain that they were willing to replace my card free of charge. All I had to do was call their service center number and they'd take care of it. So I did just that and a new card will be on its way to me in about a week.
So let me ask you this: How do you define irony?
Would you believe that Deb and I had replaced our debit cards about 3 weeks ago because we saw charges we couldn't explain or track showing up on out bank statement? We suspected that one of our card numbers had been stolen so we called the bank to cancel our cards and get new ones.
Is that ironic? No, not really. What's ironic is that when we got our new cards and activated them the first place I used mine was at Hannafords!
It figures....
3/18/2008
Thoughts On Heller vs. the District of Columbia
Though I've been paying attention to the Heller vs. The District of Columbia Second Amendment case, I have refrained from commenting other than some vague references now and then. I did catch the oral arguments before the Supreme Court via SCOTUSblog as they live-blogged it, as well as catching their round up of Heller coverage.
Of all the arguments I read, both from in front of the Supremes, as well as on the blogosphere, nowhere did I see any mention of the semantic meaning of the Second Amendment.
The verdict? The Second Amendment enumerates an individual right:
Read the whole thing for a much more definitive breakdown of the semantics of Second Amendment.
Of all the arguments I read, both from in front of the Supremes, as well as on the blogosphere, nowhere did I see any mention of the semantic meaning of the Second Amendment.
"The text of the Second Amendment is, 'A well-regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'
The verdict? The Second Amendment enumerates an individual right:
"The words 'A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,' contrary to the interpretation cited in your letter of July 26, 1991, constitutes a present participle, rather than a clause. It is used as an adjective, modifying 'militia,' which is followed by the main clause of the sentence (subject 'the right', verb 'shall'). The 'to keep and bear arms' is asserted as an essential for maintaining a militia.
“The sentence does not restrict the right to keep and bear arms, nor does it state or imply possession of the right elsewhere or by others than the people; it simply makes a positive statement with respect to a right of the people."
“The right is not granted by the amendment; its existence is assumed. The thrust of the sentence is that the right shall be preserved inviolate for the sake of ensuring a militia."
Read the whole thing for a much more definitive breakdown of the semantics of Second Amendment.
3/17/2008
Yacht Delivery In Australia
Received via e-mail:
65' custom-built motor yacht complete with 4 staterooms, a state-of-the-art galley,
GPS System and radar for navigation, twin supercharged diesel engines, etc:
$4,500,000.00
Champagne, chocolate covered strawberries with cream and music dockside for the excited 'soon to be owners' and a small group of friends:
$500.00
Two corporate representatives, crane, and rigging complete with faulty turnbuckle:
$2,500/hour
(Note the guy in the stern!)
Watching your dreamboat nose dive into the harbor, accompanied by two corporate
representatives just prior to 'inking' the final paperwork...
Priceless!!
3/16/2008
Thoughts On A Sunday
Even with yesterday's snow fall it feels as if winter is losing its grip. More dirty snow is being exposed as the sun and warmer temperatures are starting to have an effect.
That suits me just fine.
Frankly, I'm tired of winter. BeezleBub and I have moved more snow than we care to think about, have gone through three times the amount of gas for the snowblower than we have over the previous two winters combined, and shoveled off the roof of the garage – something we've never had to do in the past. The biggest problem this winter was finding space to put the snow we removing. Hopefully we won't have to do much more of that before the spring weather finally takes hold.
Part of yesterday was spent making arrangements for The Boat's new home port. With the money we'll save by making the move we'll be able to buy gasoline to actually go out on the lake this summer.
I have no doubts we'll see a repeat of last summer here at Lake Winnipesaukee, with little traffic out on the lake during July but a normal amount during August. There might even be less traffic this coming summer considering most folks around here expect gas to cost $4.50/gallon or more at the marinas. Goodness knows high gas prices kept traffic down on the lake for most of the summer.
It was the second round of town meetings here in New Hampshire this past week, with many towns voting on their expenditures for the coming fiscal year.
A lot of towns held the line on spending, some cut spending, and the voters in at least one town spent like drunken sailors.
Some towns held traditional town meetings, where town residents gather at town hall or the local school to discuss and vote on warrant articles that cover everything from the town budget to zoning changes to the addition or deletion or changes of town services. There is also a second town meeting, usually called the school district meeting, where the school budget and education related warrant articles are debated and voted upon.
Other towns run a modified version of town meeting where the discussion and debate portion of the meeting is held in February and the voting portion of the meeting is held in March. Many larger towns have switched to this type of town meeting, referred to as SB2, or Senate Bill 2, the legislation that authorized this type of town meeting.
Regardless of the type of town meeting each town uses, there's one thing in common to both of them that holds true: “If you don't attend or vote at town meeting then you have no right to complain about your taxes.”
One other season tends to coincide with town meeting is sugaring season, aka making maple syrup. The cold nights and warm days get the sap flowing in the sugar maples, so the sugarers tap the maples, setting buckets or plastic tubing to collect sap. From there the sap goes to evaporator to boil away the excess water, which concentrates the natural sugars in the sap. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup, so there's a lot of boiling to reduce the sap to the proper consistency.
The WP Dad-in-Law sugars every year, though his operation isn't big like many of the others in New England. He produces enough maple syrup for the family and maybe just a little bit more to give away as gifts.
One downside to increasing oil prices many people overlook is the effect they have on food prices. As the cost of growing food (fuel for tractors and base chemicals for fertilizer), harvesting food (again, fuel for tractors and harvesters), and transporting the food (fuel for trucks, freight trains, etc), is it any surprise the cost of food has gone up?
The story of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement let a detainee die from a treatable cancer may be a good illustration of what awaits us if we ever end up with a national health care system like that of Canada or the UK.
Just like the detainee in ICE custody, the national health officials will deny you treatment because there have been no tests. And there will be no tests because until tests have been performed you aren't ill. It's a perfect Catch-22, something we call all look forward to if the government takes over health care.
All of the networks have been advertising the return of new series episodes now that the writers are back to work. Some series won't be returning (their ratings weren't good enough). Some shouldn't return despite their ratings because they're plain god-awful. Others won't be returning that should.
But how often do the networks listen to the viewers when it comes to TV shows? Once in a blue moon? CBS tends to be the worst, canceling shows that have better ratings than some shows they keep on the air, Joan of Arcadia being one such example. After receiving Emmy nominations over two seasons, CBS canceled the series. They've also been quick to pull the plug on new series before giving it any kind of chance. When CBS debuted The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire, they gave it four weeks to get a large following. They killed it before they aired the fifth episode. The series might have had a shot if it hadn't been up against perennial hit Law & Order.
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter is slowly losing it's grip, thoughts of boating have shoved aside thoughts of skiing or sledding, and where there's still too damn much snow on the ground.
That suits me just fine.
Frankly, I'm tired of winter. BeezleBub and I have moved more snow than we care to think about, have gone through three times the amount of gas for the snowblower than we have over the previous two winters combined, and shoveled off the roof of the garage – something we've never had to do in the past. The biggest problem this winter was finding space to put the snow we removing. Hopefully we won't have to do much more of that before the spring weather finally takes hold.
********
Part of yesterday was spent making arrangements for The Boat's new home port. With the money we'll save by making the move we'll be able to buy gasoline to actually go out on the lake this summer.
I have no doubts we'll see a repeat of last summer here at Lake Winnipesaukee, with little traffic out on the lake during July but a normal amount during August. There might even be less traffic this coming summer considering most folks around here expect gas to cost $4.50/gallon or more at the marinas. Goodness knows high gas prices kept traffic down on the lake for most of the summer.
********
It was the second round of town meetings here in New Hampshire this past week, with many towns voting on their expenditures for the coming fiscal year.
A lot of towns held the line on spending, some cut spending, and the voters in at least one town spent like drunken sailors.
Some towns held traditional town meetings, where town residents gather at town hall or the local school to discuss and vote on warrant articles that cover everything from the town budget to zoning changes to the addition or deletion or changes of town services. There is also a second town meeting, usually called the school district meeting, where the school budget and education related warrant articles are debated and voted upon.
Other towns run a modified version of town meeting where the discussion and debate portion of the meeting is held in February and the voting portion of the meeting is held in March. Many larger towns have switched to this type of town meeting, referred to as SB2, or Senate Bill 2, the legislation that authorized this type of town meeting.
Regardless of the type of town meeting each town uses, there's one thing in common to both of them that holds true: “If you don't attend or vote at town meeting then you have no right to complain about your taxes.”
********
One other season tends to coincide with town meeting is sugaring season, aka making maple syrup. The cold nights and warm days get the sap flowing in the sugar maples, so the sugarers tap the maples, setting buckets or plastic tubing to collect sap. From there the sap goes to evaporator to boil away the excess water, which concentrates the natural sugars in the sap. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup, so there's a lot of boiling to reduce the sap to the proper consistency.
The WP Dad-in-Law sugars every year, though his operation isn't big like many of the others in New England. He produces enough maple syrup for the family and maybe just a little bit more to give away as gifts.
********
One downside to increasing oil prices many people overlook is the effect they have on food prices. As the cost of growing food (fuel for tractors and base chemicals for fertilizer), harvesting food (again, fuel for tractors and harvesters), and transporting the food (fuel for trucks, freight trains, etc), is it any surprise the cost of food has gone up?
********
The story of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement let a detainee die from a treatable cancer may be a good illustration of what awaits us if we ever end up with a national health care system like that of Canada or the UK.
Just like the detainee in ICE custody, the national health officials will deny you treatment because there have been no tests. And there will be no tests because until tests have been performed you aren't ill. It's a perfect Catch-22, something we call all look forward to if the government takes over health care.
********
All of the networks have been advertising the return of new series episodes now that the writers are back to work. Some series won't be returning (their ratings weren't good enough). Some shouldn't return despite their ratings because they're plain god-awful. Others won't be returning that should.
But how often do the networks listen to the viewers when it comes to TV shows? Once in a blue moon? CBS tends to be the worst, canceling shows that have better ratings than some shows they keep on the air, Joan of Arcadia being one such example. After receiving Emmy nominations over two seasons, CBS canceled the series. They've also been quick to pull the plug on new series before giving it any kind of chance. When CBS debuted The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire, they gave it four weeks to get a large following. They killed it before they aired the fifth episode. The series might have had a shot if it hadn't been up against perennial hit Law & Order.
********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter is slowly losing it's grip, thoughts of boating have shoved aside thoughts of skiing or sledding, and where there's still too damn much snow on the ground.
3/15/2008
Investment Banks Feeling The Pinch
Yesterday a co-worker told me about the problem Bear Sterns was facing, requiring a request for funds from the US government to prevent the investment bank from failing. My co-worker's comment: “I thought you said that banks weren't the ones suffering the fallout from the sub-prime and ARM loans! But here's a big one on the verge of bankruptcy!”
But I stand by my statement to my co-worker. You'll find that commercial and 'regular' banks, such as mutuals and so on, aren't suffering much from the effects of foreclosures on homes with sub-prime mortgages or adjustable rate mortgages (or ARMs). Most learned their lessons back in the late 1980's/early 1990's when the housing market collapsed and banks were left with billions in underperforming or non-performing home loans. In New Hampshire alone over $1.3 billion of real estate went into foreclosure and five major banks failed. That happened because the banks gave mortgages to borrowers who weren't qualified for the amounts the banks lent and when the recession hit they could no longer make the payments.
This time around the traditional banks stayed out of the mess. But the investment banks, which are really investment firms or brokers and not what one would normally think of as banks, took the gamble and lost. They saw no problem with taking the risk, seeing the potential for huge profits. But I have to wonder if these firms let visions of huge profits blind them to the downside of the loans and signs of encroaching weakness in the housing market. Those with sub-prime mortgages and ARMs also gambled (though some receiving these mortgages were misled by the mortgage brokers writing the loans), figuring if they got behind they could sell their homes and get out from under the loans. But the housing market cooled off, homes were no longer selling quickly and prices fell. Some mortgagees, even if they were able to sell, found their homes sold for less than what they owed. Even after the sale they still owed the mortgage holder thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars.
Why would anyone in their right mind lend to someone with little or no downpayment and with a poor or non-existent credit history? It was a gamble, no different from laying down a bet in a casino in Las Vegas. They lost and now they want the taxpayers to cover their losses. Frankly, I don't think we should because we'll be setting a bad precedent, sending a signal to financial institutions that they can expect a bailout if they make poor choices and squander the investors' money on questionable loans or enterprises.
But I stand by my statement to my co-worker. You'll find that commercial and 'regular' banks, such as mutuals and so on, aren't suffering much from the effects of foreclosures on homes with sub-prime mortgages or adjustable rate mortgages (or ARMs). Most learned their lessons back in the late 1980's/early 1990's when the housing market collapsed and banks were left with billions in underperforming or non-performing home loans. In New Hampshire alone over $1.3 billion of real estate went into foreclosure and five major banks failed. That happened because the banks gave mortgages to borrowers who weren't qualified for the amounts the banks lent and when the recession hit they could no longer make the payments.
This time around the traditional banks stayed out of the mess. But the investment banks, which are really investment firms or brokers and not what one would normally think of as banks, took the gamble and lost. They saw no problem with taking the risk, seeing the potential for huge profits. But I have to wonder if these firms let visions of huge profits blind them to the downside of the loans and signs of encroaching weakness in the housing market. Those with sub-prime mortgages and ARMs also gambled (though some receiving these mortgages were misled by the mortgage brokers writing the loans), figuring if they got behind they could sell their homes and get out from under the loans. But the housing market cooled off, homes were no longer selling quickly and prices fell. Some mortgagees, even if they were able to sell, found their homes sold for less than what they owed. Even after the sale they still owed the mortgage holder thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars.
Why would anyone in their right mind lend to someone with little or no downpayment and with a poor or non-existent credit history? It was a gamble, no different from laying down a bet in a casino in Las Vegas. They lost and now they want the taxpayers to cover their losses. Frankly, I don't think we should because we'll be setting a bad precedent, sending a signal to financial institutions that they can expect a bailout if they make poor choices and squander the investors' money on questionable loans or enterprises.
The Law Of Unintended Consequences - Sexual Consent - Part I
Tonight's 20/20 was an eye opening look at the problems with the age of consent and sex offender laws. As the report illustrates far too many teens are being caught up by laws that were never intended to criminalize what many see as typical adolescent sexual behavior.
What are the consequences if a teen aged 16 has consensual sex with another teen aged 15? Would you believe prison and a lifelong listing on a sex offender registry? While I do not like the idea of underaged sex, I think it is reprehensible to treat such 'offenders' no differently than pedophiles or violent sexual predators. There have been far too many kids whose lives have been destroyed by many of the sex offender laws throughout the nation. These kids are proof of the Law Of Unintended Consequences.
Another unintended consequence has been the appearance of sex offender vigilantes, some which harass registered sex offenders in their neighborhoods, and others that kill them, regardless of the sex 'crime' of which they've been charged. (Far too often the state sex offender registries don't specify the charges of which the registered offender was convicted.)
This is an issue which will not go away and something must be done to prevent teens from being lumped together with dangerous sexual felons.
What are the consequences if a teen aged 16 has consensual sex with another teen aged 15? Would you believe prison and a lifelong listing on a sex offender registry? While I do not like the idea of underaged sex, I think it is reprehensible to treat such 'offenders' no differently than pedophiles or violent sexual predators. There have been far too many kids whose lives have been destroyed by many of the sex offender laws throughout the nation. These kids are proof of the Law Of Unintended Consequences.
Another unintended consequence has been the appearance of sex offender vigilantes, some which harass registered sex offenders in their neighborhoods, and others that kill them, regardless of the sex 'crime' of which they've been charged. (Far too often the state sex offender registries don't specify the charges of which the registered offender was convicted.)
This is an issue which will not go away and something must be done to prevent teens from being lumped together with dangerous sexual felons.
3/12/2008
Oops!
Have you ever left home or work and at some time during your trip get that niggling little feeling that you've forgotten something? You know what I mean. Maybe you left the water running in the sink, or left the iron on or forgot to turn off a light? Most times that feeling is wrong. But every so often it's right. And sometimes it's really right.
In this case, the forgotten item wasn't a light or a faucet or a burner on the stove or a door left unlocked. It was a prisoner left locked up in a holding cell for 4 days over a weekend with no food or water.
You'd think that before they left for the weekend the bailiff or sheriff would check to make sure the lights were out and all the prisoners shipped off to the county lockup. You'd also think someone from the sheriff's office would be in and out of that place over the weekend because crime doesn't take a break between Friday night and Monday morning.
This certainly illustrates a breakdown in procedure, with no means of checking the status of any detainees via a check-in and check-out process. Leaving it up to the memory of a single person obviously didn't work in Washington County, and no procedure should.
Hopefully the sheriff will take the necessary corrective actions to prevent something like this from happening again. The next time someone locked in the holding cell might not survive, leaving the county in one hell of a legal mess.
In this case, the forgotten item wasn't a light or a faucet or a burner on the stove or a door left unlocked. It was a prisoner left locked up in a holding cell for 4 days over a weekend with no food or water.
An Arkansas woman was left in a secure holding area at the Washington County Courthouse in Fayetteville over the weekend, according to the Washington County [Arkansas] Sheriff's Office.
At about 9:40 a.m. Monday, courthouse staff notified the Washington County Sheriff's Office that Adrianna Torres-Flores, 38, of Springdale, Ark., had been left in a detention room for four days.
Torres-Flores was left in the detention room --- intended for short-term detention only --- with "no water, no restroom facilities. You know, it was a very unfortunate situation," County Judge Jerry Hunton said.
Torres-Flores was transported Monday to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville by emergency medical personnel. However, hospital representatives said she was never admitted to the hospital.
You'd think that before they left for the weekend the bailiff or sheriff would check to make sure the lights were out and all the prisoners shipped off to the county lockup. You'd also think someone from the sheriff's office would be in and out of that place over the weekend because crime doesn't take a break between Friday night and Monday morning.
This certainly illustrates a breakdown in procedure, with no means of checking the status of any detainees via a check-in and check-out process. Leaving it up to the memory of a single person obviously didn't work in Washington County, and no procedure should.
Hopefully the sheriff will take the necessary corrective actions to prevent something like this from happening again. The next time someone locked in the holding cell might not survive, leaving the county in one hell of a legal mess.
3/11/2008
One Down, One To Go
With the media abuzz with the revelations about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's activities, there's been little else to write about. It is said that the great or near great quite often sow the seeds of their own destruction. What I find ironic is Spitzer's downfall was brought about by a banking computer program the then New York Attorney General insisted banks in New York install to help track suspicious financial transactions. The program ended up tracing numerous small payments he made to to an escort service, the regular transactions triggering a flag that informed investigators 'something funny' was going on in the Governor's personal expenditures.
Very few will end up crying any tears over Spitzer's plight. Many who felt his wrath, rightly or wrongly, will undoubtedly delight at his downfall.
Now if we could only do something about Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), known as one of the most intolerant and petty Congressmen serving in Washington.
Very few will end up crying any tears over Spitzer's plight. Many who felt his wrath, rightly or wrongly, will undoubtedly delight at his downfall.
Now if we could only do something about Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), known as one of the most intolerant and petty Congressmen serving in Washington.
3/10/2008
Another Great Rant By The UK's Pat Condell
I've come to really enjoy Pat Condell's video rants, tearing down all the foolishness he sees occurring in the UK, and elsewhere as well.
This clip is actually from last year but it is no less germane than if he'd released it just today. He does a pretty god job of tearing down Islamofascists, the Saudis supporting them, and the ever more lily livered UK government for allowing the aforementioned Islamofascists/Saudis to get away with the crap they've been laying on the UK populace for far too long.
Give 'em hell, Pat!
NOTE: Apparently the video doesn't always render properly depending on which browser is being used, so if you don't see the video frame above you can click here to go directly to the video clip.
This clip is actually from last year but it is no less germane than if he'd released it just today. He does a pretty god job of tearing down Islamofascists, the Saudis supporting them, and the ever more lily livered UK government for allowing the aforementioned Islamofascists/Saudis to get away with the crap they've been laying on the UK populace for far too long.
Give 'em hell, Pat!
NOTE: Apparently the video doesn't always render properly depending on which browser is being used, so if you don't see the video frame above you can click here to go directly to the video clip.
3/09/2008
Thoughts On A Sunday
I started today's post quite late in the day, which is unusual for me. But I have a good excuse.
BeezleBub, one of his friends, and I made a trip to the WP In-Laws to pick up a truckload of firewood to fuel the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove. We borrowed Submarine Tim's 1952 GMC 6x6 deuce-and-a-half, aka 'Clifford' to make the trip. Clifford allowed us to bring a little over 23/4 cords of wood in one trip. The only downside is that Clifford rides like a truck. During our fall trip it isn't a problem. But our trip today was fraught with peril, caused by the poor conditions of the roads.
This winter has been particularly harsh on the roads, leaving far too many of them resembling washboards. Now add a large truck with a heavy suspension.
Our trip was exhausting. Loading Clifford with firewood was the relaxing part. We got back a little after 6PM, realized we were too darned tired to unload the firewood, and decided to call it a day.
Note to self: next time make two firewood trips in the fall!
Is this stupid, or what?
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
This story shows that sometimes the little things mean the most to those you least expect to appreciate them.
Before I forget, I should mention I've started a second blog, one devoted to issues concerning my home town and home state of New Hampshire. While I could cover a lot of those things here on Weekend Pundit, it seemed a separate venue made more sense. I know 99.999% of the readers of Weekend Pundit will have absolutely no interest in the blog whatsoever. That's quite alright with me. It's that 0.001% that might find some value from anything that appears there (all one of you).
On occasion I expect to cross post to both blogs should the topic warrant such an action.
And that's the much abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where town elections and/or town meetings will be taking place, the rains have diminished some of the snow on the ground, and where our wood pile has been replenished.
BeezleBub, one of his friends, and I made a trip to the WP In-Laws to pick up a truckload of firewood to fuel the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove. We borrowed Submarine Tim's 1952 GMC 6x6 deuce-and-a-half, aka 'Clifford' to make the trip. Clifford allowed us to bring a little over 23/4 cords of wood in one trip. The only downside is that Clifford rides like a truck. During our fall trip it isn't a problem. But our trip today was fraught with peril, caused by the poor conditions of the roads.
This winter has been particularly harsh on the roads, leaving far too many of them resembling washboards. Now add a large truck with a heavy suspension.
Our trip was exhausting. Loading Clifford with firewood was the relaxing part. We got back a little after 6PM, realized we were too darned tired to unload the firewood, and decided to call it a day.
Note to self: next time make two firewood trips in the fall!
********
Is this stupid, or what?
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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This story shows that sometimes the little things mean the most to those you least expect to appreciate them.
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Before I forget, I should mention I've started a second blog, one devoted to issues concerning my home town and home state of New Hampshire. While I could cover a lot of those things here on Weekend Pundit, it seemed a separate venue made more sense. I know 99.999% of the readers of Weekend Pundit will have absolutely no interest in the blog whatsoever. That's quite alright with me. It's that 0.001% that might find some value from anything that appears there (all one of you).
On occasion I expect to cross post to both blogs should the topic warrant such an action.
********
And that's the much abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where town elections and/or town meetings will be taking place, the rains have diminished some of the snow on the ground, and where our wood pile has been replenished.
3/08/2008
Anti-War Judicial Prejudice
It appears the anti-military Berkeley Virus has spread from its point of origin.
A Simi Valley, California teen under foster care wanting to enlist in the USMC under the Delayed Entry Program found himself blocked by an anti-war Children's Court judge.
Nope, it's obvious that Marilyn Mackel has no agenda, is totally impartial, corralling a wild and impetuous child from making the mistake of serving his country. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge in New York I want to sell to you.
A judge is supposed to be impartial, making decisions based upon the law, not upon their personal beliefs or biases. This judge let her personal dislike and mistrust of the military get in the way of making an impartial decision. It's not the first time she's done so. She also denied another foster teen the opportunity to enlist in the US Navy.
Just who does this judge think she is?
A Simi Valley, California teen under foster care wanting to enlist in the USMC under the Delayed Entry Program found himself blocked by an anti-war Children's Court judge.
[L]ast fall, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner dashed [Shawn Sage's] hopes of early enlistment for Marine sniper duty, plus a potential $10,000 signing bonus.
In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Children's Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didn't approve of the Iraq war, didn't trust recruiters and didn't support the military.
"The judge said she didn't support the Iraq war for any reason why we're over there," said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office.
"She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.' She said she didn't want him to fight in it."
Nope, it's obvious that Marilyn Mackel has no agenda, is totally impartial, corralling a wild and impetuous child from making the mistake of serving his country. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge in New York I want to sell to you.
[Sage's] foster parents, as well as his social worker, supported his decision to enlist early. Despite being denied, he still shows up for USMC physical training.
"Did they ever kick my butt," he said proudly. "They still do."
When he graduates and turns 18 in June, it'll be all Semper Fi, bonus or no signing bonus, whether he's allowed early deployment or not.
A judge is supposed to be impartial, making decisions based upon the law, not upon their personal beliefs or biases. This judge let her personal dislike and mistrust of the military get in the way of making an impartial decision. It's not the first time she's done so. She also denied another foster teen the opportunity to enlist in the US Navy.
Just who does this judge think she is?
3/03/2008
Are Hillary And Barack Serious About Breaking NAFTA?
I'd like to think the rhetoric about NAFTA being spouted by the two Democratic contenders for the presidential nomination is nothing more than campaign fluff, something to be ignored or repudiated once one of them attains the office they are so desperately seeking.
How could it be that either one, Clinton or Obama, actually believe that free trade has been a bad thing? Or are they pandering to the crowds in Ohio, a state that'd had more than its share of lost manufacturing jobs? Never mind that more manufacturing jobs have been created in Ohio than have been lost, mostly due to trade with Canada and Mexico. Both Clinton and Obama have been pointing the finger at Mexico, as if it's Mexico's fault for any perceived problems with NAFTA. But the problem lies within the Democratic Party, members of which have shown again and again over the decades they have no understanding of economics.
It seems Clinton and Obama want the US to fall under the sway of the same kind of high powered union organizations and ever more restrictive business regulations. Do they really want to destroy America's economy in such a fashion? To listen to them you'd think so. All we can do is hope that their noise is nothing more than campaign rhetoric, otherwise we could be in very deep trouble.
How could it be that either one, Clinton or Obama, actually believe that free trade has been a bad thing? Or are they pandering to the crowds in Ohio, a state that'd had more than its share of lost manufacturing jobs? Never mind that more manufacturing jobs have been created in Ohio than have been lost, mostly due to trade with Canada and Mexico. Both Clinton and Obama have been pointing the finger at Mexico, as if it's Mexico's fault for any perceived problems with NAFTA. But the problem lies within the Democratic Party, members of which have shown again and again over the decades they have no understanding of economics.
The assault on NAFTA is a signal that the Democratic Party thinks the U.S. should abandon its leadership role in pushing for modern, democratic capitalism in Latin America. But that's only the half of it. When Mrs. Clinton says she wants "core" labor standards shoved into the pact, it is code language for forcing on the U.S., by treaty, what the U.N.'s International Labor Organization calls "core principles." The U.S. has signed only two of the ILO's eight conventions precisely because the others would lead to labor-market rigidity à la Argentina. Big Labor bosses would love that but what about the rest of us? Probably not so much.
Canada got a mention Tuesday. But the whipping boy was Mexico, which stands accused of attracting firms by allowing worker exploitation. If an American lost a job in the past decade, the charge goes, it's because in Mexico business has no labor obligations. This claim is not only untrue, it is the opposite of reality. Mexico is home to militant, high-powered unions and the most burdensome labor regulation in North America.
Mexico suffered the tragedy of repressive corporatism throughout most of the 20th century. A one-party system under the Institutional Revolutionary Party -- PRI -- ruled for more than 70 years, making sure there was no economic or political competition. But in the late 1980s and early 1990s a young, educated class of technocrats began to break the chains of protectionism, isolation and monopoly. NAFTA, signed and ratified in 1993, was central to this. Its benefits include greater access to capital and trade for Mexico and also an increase in information flows, which are the source of innovation and progress in any country.
It seems Clinton and Obama want the US to fall under the sway of the same kind of high powered union organizations and ever more restrictive business regulations. Do they really want to destroy America's economy in such a fashion? To listen to them you'd think so. All we can do is hope that their noise is nothing more than campaign rhetoric, otherwise we could be in very deep trouble.
3/02/2008
Thoughts On A Sunday
At least it will be sunny and warm today and tomorrow, allowing for some melting of the snows that have fallen over the past couple of weeks. BeezleBub and I spent a couple of hours on the roof of the garage this afternoon clearing away up to 5 feet of snow. With rain and freezing rain forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning we knew we had to get it down today. All that rain soaked snow would likely have caused the collapse of the garage roof. As it was the 'fluffy' snow was heavy enough put 100 lbs per square foot load (or more) on the roof, which is twice what most roofs around gere are designed to bear.
It became quite apparent a little over two weeks ago we were falling behind in our efforts to remove snow from the driveway, parking areas to the side of the garage, the walkways, steps, landings, decks, and roofs. We'd get about 80 or 90% cleared and another storm would come along. The next time we'd get 70 to 80% cleared before more snow arrived, and so on.
We aren't the only ones worried about the loading on roofs. There have been a number of collapses, including a warehouse just yesterday. It's not surprising considering we're close to reaching record snowfall totals for the winter.
One bright spot this weekend – we've secured yet another year's dockage for The Boat. This time we'll be at a new location, the move being dictated by the expected cost of boating this coming season. The new slip is only 60% the cost of the one we've used the past couple of years. With gas prices on the lake expected to be well above $4 per gallon this coming summer, the savings from the slip rental will allow us to fill the fuel tank on The Boat an additional 8 times over the summer (a fill up will run approximately $120, assuming I never let the tank get below a ¼ full).
Next weekend will entail a trip to the WP In-Laws with Submarine Tim's 1952 GMC 6x6 deuce-and-a-half in order to replenish the supply of firewood to stoke the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove. We're down to a few days supply and then we'll have to rely on $3.37 per gallon propane to heat The Manse. I wouldn't necessarily mind doing that all that much if The Manse wouldn't go through $600+ of propane every month. I'd rather spend the $160 for gasoline to run the deuce-and-a-half to bring 2 or 3 months worth of cordwood back to The Manse.
Could a Clinton or Obama presidency bring back the worst of the Smoot-Hawley era, also known as the Depression? It will if they gut NAFTA.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
Another link from Maggie's Farm – Democrats are in fact the purveyors of modern racism. It is in their best interests to promote victimhood and poverty upon minorities because it gives the Democrats power. That's something I've been saying for years.
Looking over history, it has been the Republicans moving forward with civil rights legislation. As Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association reminds us, “the Republican Party has been at the 'forefront of the struggle for civil rights, which is why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican.' ”
One good thing about this time of year, despite the almost record snowfalls, is that it's sugaring season. Sugarers have started tapping maple trees and collecting sap as part of the yearly ritual of making maple syrup.
BeezleBub and the WP Dad-in-Law spent part of this past week tapping maple trees on his property in southwestern New Hampshire. While the Dad-in-Law's operation is relatively small, making enough syrup for the family, he could easily produce much more if he tapped all the maples on his land.
Making maple syrup takes a lot of sap, requiring 40 gallons to make 1 gallon of syrup.
The Verizon-Fairpoint sale looks like a done deal.
FairPoint is buying Verizon's landline business in northern new England. At first I was all for the sale. Then I got a chance to look at the financial information and realized this sale would be a bad idea. Verizon wanted too much money for a shrinking market and FairPoint was going to be carrying too much debt to make this a good deal. The three states involved – Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont – agreed, which forced the two telephone companies to restructure the deal.
I do have a gripe about the deal, specifically FairPoint's plan to expand DSL, covering areas not presently served by any kind of broadband. I don't mind that part. What I don't like is Fairpoint has no plans whatsoever to go beyond DSL, a mature technology that cannot provide the types of connection speeds seen by Fiber To The Home or the newer high speed cable modems. That lack could easily mean that northern New England could quickly become a broadband hinterland.
The three states had best watch FairPoint closely, making sure they meet their obligations and reconsider deploying Fiber To The Home.
It appears the New Hampshire “Blues” are working hard to outlaw or strictly control things they don't like. They're trying very hard to change the Live Free Or Die state to the Do As We Say state by trying to outlaw transfats, incandescent light bulbs, putting a 60 percent tax on cigars, taxing candy, imposing a $250 dollar fine if someone releases a helium balloon into the air, and forcing gas stations to round up the price of gasoline to the nearest penny, amongst other things. They're doing everything they can to turn New Hampshire into another Nanny state, much like our neighbor to the south, Massachusetts.
Frankly these idiots need to spend their time doing more important things like fixing the budget, which they increased by over 16% and now has a $50 million shortfall with a projected shortfall of $140 million by the end of the fiscal year.
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snow is ever deeper, the legislature is slowly taking away our rights, and where spring is merely a date on the calendar.
It became quite apparent a little over two weeks ago we were falling behind in our efforts to remove snow from the driveway, parking areas to the side of the garage, the walkways, steps, landings, decks, and roofs. We'd get about 80 or 90% cleared and another storm would come along. The next time we'd get 70 to 80% cleared before more snow arrived, and so on.
We aren't the only ones worried about the loading on roofs. There have been a number of collapses, including a warehouse just yesterday. It's not surprising considering we're close to reaching record snowfall totals for the winter.
********
One bright spot this weekend – we've secured yet another year's dockage for The Boat. This time we'll be at a new location, the move being dictated by the expected cost of boating this coming season. The new slip is only 60% the cost of the one we've used the past couple of years. With gas prices on the lake expected to be well above $4 per gallon this coming summer, the savings from the slip rental will allow us to fill the fuel tank on The Boat an additional 8 times over the summer (a fill up will run approximately $120, assuming I never let the tank get below a ¼ full).
********
Next weekend will entail a trip to the WP In-Laws with Submarine Tim's 1952 GMC 6x6 deuce-and-a-half in order to replenish the supply of firewood to stoke the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove. We're down to a few days supply and then we'll have to rely on $3.37 per gallon propane to heat The Manse. I wouldn't necessarily mind doing that all that much if The Manse wouldn't go through $600+ of propane every month. I'd rather spend the $160 for gasoline to run the deuce-and-a-half to bring 2 or 3 months worth of cordwood back to The Manse.
********
Could a Clinton or Obama presidency bring back the worst of the Smoot-Hawley era, also known as the Depression? It will if they gut NAFTA.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
********
Another link from Maggie's Farm – Democrats are in fact the purveyors of modern racism. It is in their best interests to promote victimhood and poverty upon minorities because it gives the Democrats power. That's something I've been saying for years.
Looking over history, it has been the Republicans moving forward with civil rights legislation. As Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association reminds us, “the Republican Party has been at the 'forefront of the struggle for civil rights, which is why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican.' ”
********
One good thing about this time of year, despite the almost record snowfalls, is that it's sugaring season. Sugarers have started tapping maple trees and collecting sap as part of the yearly ritual of making maple syrup.
BeezleBub and the WP Dad-in-Law spent part of this past week tapping maple trees on his property in southwestern New Hampshire. While the Dad-in-Law's operation is relatively small, making enough syrup for the family, he could easily produce much more if he tapped all the maples on his land.
Making maple syrup takes a lot of sap, requiring 40 gallons to make 1 gallon of syrup.
********
The Verizon-Fairpoint sale looks like a done deal.
FairPoint is buying Verizon's landline business in northern new England. At first I was all for the sale. Then I got a chance to look at the financial information and realized this sale would be a bad idea. Verizon wanted too much money for a shrinking market and FairPoint was going to be carrying too much debt to make this a good deal. The three states involved – Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont – agreed, which forced the two telephone companies to restructure the deal.
I do have a gripe about the deal, specifically FairPoint's plan to expand DSL, covering areas not presently served by any kind of broadband. I don't mind that part. What I don't like is Fairpoint has no plans whatsoever to go beyond DSL, a mature technology that cannot provide the types of connection speeds seen by Fiber To The Home or the newer high speed cable modems. That lack could easily mean that northern New England could quickly become a broadband hinterland.
The three states had best watch FairPoint closely, making sure they meet their obligations and reconsider deploying Fiber To The Home.
********
It appears the New Hampshire “Blues” are working hard to outlaw or strictly control things they don't like. They're trying very hard to change the Live Free Or Die state to the Do As We Say state by trying to outlaw transfats, incandescent light bulbs, putting a 60 percent tax on cigars, taxing candy, imposing a $250 dollar fine if someone releases a helium balloon into the air, and forcing gas stations to round up the price of gasoline to the nearest penny, amongst other things. They're doing everything they can to turn New Hampshire into another Nanny state, much like our neighbor to the south, Massachusetts.
Frankly these idiots need to spend their time doing more important things like fixing the budget, which they increased by over 16% and now has a $50 million shortfall with a projected shortfall of $140 million by the end of the fiscal year.
********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snow is ever deeper, the legislature is slowly taking away our rights, and where spring is merely a date on the calendar.
2/28/2008
Exchange Student In Hell
Hosting a foreign exchange student can be an enlightening experience, for both the host family and the exchange student. However, that's not always the case, as one young man from Maine found out when he went to Egypt as an exchange student.
When he left his home in Maine in September he weighed 155 pounds. On his return from Egypt four months later he weighed only 97 pounds as was in danger of dying.
So his host family puts him on a starvation diet, forcing him at one point to steal food in order to survive.
I don't know about you but think that's one bit of cultural exchange our kids could do without.
When he left his home in Maine in September he weighed 155 pounds. On his return from Egypt four months later he weighed only 97 pounds as was in danger of dying.
[Jonathan} McCullum says he was denied sufficient food while staying with a family of Coptic Christians, who fast for more than 200 days a year, a regimen unmatched by other Christians.
Friends and teachers at his English-speaking school in Egypt urged him to change his host family, but he stayed put after being told the other home was in a dangerous neighborhood of Alexandria.
McCullum said his host family gave him only meager amounts of food, and his condition worsened during the last seven weeks, when the family observed a fast limiting the amount of animal protein he was given.
He said he never got breakfast and his first food of the day usually was a small piece of bread with cucumbers and cheese that he would take to school for lunch. There was a late-afternoon dinner consisting of beans, vegetables and sometimes fish, and a snack of bread later in the evening.
So his host family puts him on a starvation diet, forcing him at one point to steal food in order to survive.
I don't know about you but think that's one bit of cultural exchange our kids could do without.
2/27/2008
Interesting Energy News
It seems I'm on a technology kick this week, particularly when it comes to energy. Why I'm at it, I'll make this one a twofer.
First, a company called Nanoptek says they have developed a method that uses sunlight and water to generate hydrogen.
This could change the equation when it comes to creating a hydrogen economy, creating a cheap and easy way to generate hydrogen that could be used to run fuel cells to generate electricity for homes and autos or to heat buildings.
Next, there's a development that could greatly increase the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries by a factor of 10.
I don't know about you, but I think it would be very cool being able to run our laptop for almost a full day on a single charge or to see an electric car run for 1000 or more miles between charges.
First, a company called Nanoptek says they have developed a method that uses sunlight and water to generate hydrogen.
The Maynard, Mass.-based company...has come up with a low-cost, durable titania electrode that can split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Sunlight hits the electrode, and the electrode splits the light into a positive charge (called a hole) and an electron. Before the two charges can rejoin, the electron gets captured by the electrode and then is exploited to split water. Silicon solar cells operate on the same principle.
Other companies have tried to use titania electrodes for this job in the past, but they broke down relatively rapidly, according to Nanoptek. The company's electrodes work better because, ironically, they are more brittle. The crystal lattice in the electrode is stressed, i.e. additional materials are added. (Semiconductor makers similarly stress their chips with germanium to create strained silicon, which improves performance.)
This could change the equation when it comes to creating a hydrogen economy, creating a cheap and easy way to generate hydrogen that could be used to run fuel cells to generate electricity for homes and autos or to heat buildings.
Next, there's a development that could greatly increase the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries by a factor of 10.
Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.
The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery power for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers.
The greatly expanded storage capacity could make Li-ion batteries attractive to electric car manufacturers. Cui suggests that they could also be used in homes or offices to store electricity generated by rooftop solar panels.
I don't know about you, but I think it would be very cool being able to run our laptop for almost a full day on a single charge or to see an electric car run for 1000 or more miles between charges.
2/26/2008
When Wind Turbine Brakes Break
As much as I like the idea of alternative energy sources such as wind power, they do have vulnerabilities. One such example is the video below, which shows what happens when a wind turbine brake doesn't work properly in high winds.
(H/T EDN magazine)
(H/T EDN magazine)
2/25/2008
Is The Hydrogen Economy One Step Closer?
If a company called QuantumSphere, Inc. has their way, we may be driving fuel cell cars a lot sooner than anyone had anticipated.
QuantumSphere claims they have found a means of greatly increasing the efficiency of electrolysis through the use of highly reactive catalytic nanoparticle coatings.
The increased efficiency of electrolysizers, which split apart the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water molecules, means far less energy would be required to generate a given amount of hydrogen. High efficiency conversion can help make the hydrogen economy become a reality. There would be no need to pipe or truck hydrogen supplies to filling stations or transfer stations. Each filling station would have its own electrolysizer, eliminating the need for a massive distribution system. All that would be needed is a good electricity supply, something that is already in place. (Of course we would probably have to build more power plants because demand for electricity would skyrocket as the changeover from petroleum to hydrogen took place. But that's what nuclear power plants are for.)
If the efficiency can be raised to the level QuantumSphere claims, it could be as simple as having electrolysizers in ever home, making the fuel we use to power our cars and trucks.
It doesn't get much simpler than that.
QuantumSphere claims they have found a means of greatly increasing the efficiency of electrolysis through the use of highly reactive catalytic nanoparticle coatings.
Boasting 1,000 times the surface area of traditional materials, the coatings can be used to retrofit existing electrolysers to increase their efficiency to 85 percent--exceeding the Department of Energy's goal for 2010 by 10 percent. The scheme holds the promise of 96 percent efficiency by the time cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells hit automobile showrooms, according to the Santa Ana, Calif., company.
The increased efficiency of electrolysizers, which split apart the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water molecules, means far less energy would be required to generate a given amount of hydrogen. High efficiency conversion can help make the hydrogen economy become a reality. There would be no need to pipe or truck hydrogen supplies to filling stations or transfer stations. Each filling station would have its own electrolysizer, eliminating the need for a massive distribution system. All that would be needed is a good electricity supply, something that is already in place. (Of course we would probably have to build more power plants because demand for electricity would skyrocket as the changeover from petroleum to hydrogen took place. But that's what nuclear power plants are for.)
If the efficiency can be raised to the level QuantumSphere claims, it could be as simple as having electrolysizers in ever home, making the fuel we use to power our cars and trucks.
It doesn't get much simpler than that.
2/24/2008
Thoughts On A Sunday
Friday's snowfall did little to deter any Weekend Pundit activities, seeing how only 3 inches of the light fluffy stuff fell at The Manse. However, that hasn't meant we've been able to sit on our bottoms doing nothing. With another snowstorm forecast for Tuesday, BeezleBub and I have been trying to clear away the leavings of the storm from two weeks ago (mainly a lot of ice to chop through) to make it easier for us to clear way the upcoming snow.
It doesn't help that Beezlebub headed off to the WP In-Laws for the week, it being the February school vacation week. It will be up to yours truly clean up the aftermath of any snowstorm while he's gone.
Yesterday was a busy day, including a run to the transfer stat....uh...the dump. I saw a lot of my neighbors there, something which is a bit unusual. But an unusual event meant a lot of us had to make the trip to the regional...er...dump to dispose of our household trash.
On our usual trash pickup day the barrels remained full and the trash bags undisturbed. Instead we were greeted with a letter stating the contractor would no longer be servicing our neighborhood due to ill health.
A little advanced notice would have been nice.
We'll be looking at another contractor to haul our trash, but if the cost exceeds that of making the trip ourselves (it's a $5 fee per trip to dispose of our trash at the dump) we'll continue to make the weekly or bi-weekly dump run rather than pay someone else to do it for us.
It seems the rhetoric between Hillary and Barack has picked up considerably. I find it interesting Hillary is slamming Barack about Obama campaign flyers that seem to come out of the old Clinton Dirty Tricks Handbook. Maybe she's pissed off because he beat her to the punch.
We must remember that Hillary is not as pure as the driven snow. Both she and Bill have campaigned dirty in the past. All one needs to do is ask Bob Dole about that, having been on the receiving side of Clinton dirty tricks during the 1996 Presidential campaign.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has an eye-opening article about how our court system is in danger of becoming less about enforcing our laws and more about politics.
The last thing we need is a judiciary for sale to the highest bidder.
Does the so-called “campus rape crisis” really exist? According to the piece in the LA Times, it is so far overblown as to be ludicrous.
Our friend Jon Henke tears apart Paul Krugman's claim that poverty in America is on the rise, that it is impossible for people today to work themselves out of poverty, implying another LBJ-esque “War On Poverty” is needed.
Jon points out a few inconvenient truths, such as LBJ's War On Poverty stalled the decline of the poverty rate in America for over 30 years. Only once major welfare reforms were enacted in the late 1990's did the poverty rate continue its interrupted decline.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
As the oil business has been waning in Texas, wind energy has been stepping in big time.
Texas now has the largest wind energy generation capacity in the US, blowing past California in that regard. The amount of wind energy capacity in Texas is expected to more than triple over the next few years. A lot of dying oil towns in the state have been revitalized as wind turbines have been built, bring jobs and money back into the local economy.
Alternative energy is making a resurgence in New Hampshire, with biomass energy becoming a growing business, particularly with the pulp/paper mills in New Hampshire's North Country and Great North Woods shutting down. It's getting so good a mothballed wood-chip generating plant is being renovated and will soon restart. It is expected more plants will be planned and built to replace the closed paper mills...as long as NIMBY and BANANA responses can be kept to a minimum.
Now this is the kind of affirmative action I can support.
A big problem from this winter's heavy snowfall has been making itself felt throughout New Hampshire.
The heavy snows collapsed roofs in a number of towns and cities around the state. The amount of snow itself isn't the problem. It's when the snow is followed by rain, causing the snow to become waterlogged and very heavy, the load on the roof exceeds its capability to carry it and down it comes.
We have more snow forecast for Tuesday evening.
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the woodpile is getting too small, more snow is on the way, and my supply of ice melt is darn near exhausted.
It doesn't help that Beezlebub headed off to the WP In-Laws for the week, it being the February school vacation week. It will be up to yours truly clean up the aftermath of any snowstorm while he's gone.
********
Yesterday was a busy day, including a run to the transfer stat....uh...the dump. I saw a lot of my neighbors there, something which is a bit unusual. But an unusual event meant a lot of us had to make the trip to the regional...er...dump to dispose of our household trash.
On our usual trash pickup day the barrels remained full and the trash bags undisturbed. Instead we were greeted with a letter stating the contractor would no longer be servicing our neighborhood due to ill health.
A little advanced notice would have been nice.
We'll be looking at another contractor to haul our trash, but if the cost exceeds that of making the trip ourselves (it's a $5 fee per trip to dispose of our trash at the dump) we'll continue to make the weekly or bi-weekly dump run rather than pay someone else to do it for us.
********
It seems the rhetoric between Hillary and Barack has picked up considerably. I find it interesting Hillary is slamming Barack about Obama campaign flyers that seem to come out of the old Clinton Dirty Tricks Handbook. Maybe she's pissed off because he beat her to the punch.
We must remember that Hillary is not as pure as the driven snow. Both she and Bill have campaigned dirty in the past. All one needs to do is ask Bob Dole about that, having been on the receiving side of Clinton dirty tricks during the 1996 Presidential campaign.
********
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has an eye-opening article about how our court system is in danger of becoming less about enforcing our laws and more about politics.
The judiciary currently is experiencing unprecedented pressure from interest groups to make decisions that are based on politics. In Washington, D.C., we hear a lot about federal judges, and they have a critical role in upholding the Constitution. But having been a state judge and a state legislator, I know that the vast majority of law is state law. Ninety-five percent of litigation takes place in state courts. Many legal issues are primarily decided there, including divorce, property rights, employment law, product liability and medical malpractice.
Political pressure is a big problem in a number of our state courts. More than 89% of state judges go through some form of election process. Many of these elections recently have become full-fledged political battles, fueled by growing sums of money spent by candidates and special-interest groups to attack, defend and counterattack.
The last thing we need is a judiciary for sale to the highest bidder.
********
Does the so-called “campus rape crisis” really exist? According to the piece in the LA Times, it is so far overblown as to be ludicrous.
********
Our friend Jon Henke tears apart Paul Krugman's claim that poverty in America is on the rise, that it is impossible for people today to work themselves out of poverty, implying another LBJ-esque “War On Poverty” is needed.
Jon points out a few inconvenient truths, such as LBJ's War On Poverty stalled the decline of the poverty rate in America for over 30 years. Only once major welfare reforms were enacted in the late 1990's did the poverty rate continue its interrupted decline.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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As the oil business has been waning in Texas, wind energy has been stepping in big time.
Texas now has the largest wind energy generation capacity in the US, blowing past California in that regard. The amount of wind energy capacity in Texas is expected to more than triple over the next few years. A lot of dying oil towns in the state have been revitalized as wind turbines have been built, bring jobs and money back into the local economy.
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Alternative energy is making a resurgence in New Hampshire, with biomass energy becoming a growing business, particularly with the pulp/paper mills in New Hampshire's North Country and Great North Woods shutting down. It's getting so good a mothballed wood-chip generating plant is being renovated and will soon restart. It is expected more plants will be planned and built to replace the closed paper mills...as long as NIMBY and BANANA responses can be kept to a minimum.
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Now this is the kind of affirmative action I can support.
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A big problem from this winter's heavy snowfall has been making itself felt throughout New Hampshire.
The heavy snows collapsed roofs in a number of towns and cities around the state. The amount of snow itself isn't the problem. It's when the snow is followed by rain, causing the snow to become waterlogged and very heavy, the load on the roof exceeds its capability to carry it and down it comes.
We have more snow forecast for Tuesday evening.
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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the woodpile is getting too small, more snow is on the way, and my supply of ice melt is darn near exhausted.
2/22/2008
Suburban Slums?
When we hear the word “slum” we think of run down urban areas with unmaintained buildings bearing broken or boarded up windows, trash filled vacant lots, and an active and rampant criminal element. But how often has the word been applied to the suburbs? In the past, never. Bit these days, slums are more likely to be found away from the cities and in the suburbs. Perhaps it can be blamed on the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Empty homes become tempting targets for the homeless and drug users and dealers. No one is around to stop them from forcing their way in and setting up residence. It's a cycle we've seen in cities, where abandoned buildings attract the criminal element, which in turn drives law abiding residents to leave, which means even more empty buildings and homes for the squatters to take over. A once vibrant neighborhood becomes a dangerous place, crime rates soar, and entire blocks decay into something looking like films we've seen of bombed out cities during World War II.
As urban neighborhoods have been gentrified - rehabilitated and renovated – the criminal element has been driven out. As homes in suburban areas have become vacant due to the mortgage crisis, in many cases in newer developments, denizens once seen only in urban slums have moved out to the suburbs where the pickings are easy.
Also, many of the larger suburban homes, so-called McMansions, may end up being renovated and turned into apartments. They will become the new tenements, bringing the problems that go along with them out to the 'burbs.
While this isn't likely to occur everywhere, it will happen in enough places to make the suburbs in a lot of areas less than desirable places to live.
I don't expect something like that to happen here in central New Hampshire as we're probably too rural and many of the McMansions around here are second homes, not the type that would be affected by the sub-prime loan crisis.
Not all the blame can be laid at the feet of the sub-prime mortgage debacle. Living patterns have been changing which are also contributing the problem.
People like the convenience of urban living. Everything is within walking distance, unlike the suburbs where you have to get in your car to do anything. Only suburban areas with a similar set up to urban areas – everything within walking distance – will continue to see an in-migration. Of course we've had something like that here in New England for a long time. They're called villages.
The stereotypical New England village had just about everything one needed close by. There are shops, restaurants, and many businesses in a central area, with residences mixed in or along the periphery of the 'downtown' part of the village. Just about everything was within walking distance, even the schools.
But that changed in the late 1940's when the first suburban housing development was built in Levittown, New York. The model created by that housing development hasn't changed much in 60 years, and that's one of the causes of what we're seeing in the 'slummification' of the suburbs. Maybe it's time shed ourselves of that broken model and take a step back to something that worked for a couple of hundred years, namely that stereotypical New England village.
Of course I've gone off on a tangent, but it is germane to the post. Maybe the best thing that could happen to these developing suburban slums is for them to be bulldozed, much as vacant buildings in urban slums were demolished to prevent them from being used by the more unsavory members of our society. Squatters should be evicted and, if necessary, jailed, much as what happened in urban areas. Suburban slums are not inevitable, but all it takes to create them is neglect. That's a lesson that was learned some time ago in the cities. Now it's time for the suburbs to learn the same thing.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
Strange days are upon the residents of many a suburban cul-de-sac. Once-tidy yards have become overgrown, as the houses they front have gone vacant. Signs of physical and social disorder are spreading.
In the first half of last year, residential burglaries rose by 35 percent and robberies by 58 percent in suburban Lee County, Florida, where one in four houses stands empty. Charlotte’s crime rates have stayed flat overall in recent years—but from 2003 to 2006, in the 10 suburbs of the city that have experienced the highest foreclosure rates, crime rose 33 percent. Civic organizations in some suburbs have begun to mow the lawns around empty houses to keep up the appearance of stability. Police departments are mapping foreclosures in an effort to identify emerging criminal hot spots.
Empty homes become tempting targets for the homeless and drug users and dealers. No one is around to stop them from forcing their way in and setting up residence. It's a cycle we've seen in cities, where abandoned buildings attract the criminal element, which in turn drives law abiding residents to leave, which means even more empty buildings and homes for the squatters to take over. A once vibrant neighborhood becomes a dangerous place, crime rates soar, and entire blocks decay into something looking like films we've seen of bombed out cities during World War II.
As urban neighborhoods have been gentrified - rehabilitated and renovated – the criminal element has been driven out. As homes in suburban areas have become vacant due to the mortgage crisis, in many cases in newer developments, denizens once seen only in urban slums have moved out to the suburbs where the pickings are easy.
Also, many of the larger suburban homes, so-called McMansions, may end up being renovated and turned into apartments. They will become the new tenements, bringing the problems that go along with them out to the 'burbs.
While this isn't likely to occur everywhere, it will happen in enough places to make the suburbs in a lot of areas less than desirable places to live.
I don't expect something like that to happen here in central New Hampshire as we're probably too rural and many of the McMansions around here are second homes, not the type that would be affected by the sub-prime loan crisis.
Not all the blame can be laid at the feet of the sub-prime mortgage debacle. Living patterns have been changing which are also contributing the problem.
But the story of vacant suburban homes and declining suburban neighborhoods did not begin with the crisis, and will not end with it. A structural change is under way in the housing market—a major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work. It has shaped the current downturn, steering some of the worst problems away from the cities and toward the suburban fringes. And its effects will be felt more strongly, and more broadly, as the years pass. Its ultimate impact on the suburbs, and the cities, will be profound.
For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay.
People like the convenience of urban living. Everything is within walking distance, unlike the suburbs where you have to get in your car to do anything. Only suburban areas with a similar set up to urban areas – everything within walking distance – will continue to see an in-migration. Of course we've had something like that here in New England for a long time. They're called villages.
The stereotypical New England village had just about everything one needed close by. There are shops, restaurants, and many businesses in a central area, with residences mixed in or along the periphery of the 'downtown' part of the village. Just about everything was within walking distance, even the schools.
But that changed in the late 1940's when the first suburban housing development was built in Levittown, New York. The model created by that housing development hasn't changed much in 60 years, and that's one of the causes of what we're seeing in the 'slummification' of the suburbs. Maybe it's time shed ourselves of that broken model and take a step back to something that worked for a couple of hundred years, namely that stereotypical New England village.
Of course I've gone off on a tangent, but it is germane to the post. Maybe the best thing that could happen to these developing suburban slums is for them to be bulldozed, much as vacant buildings in urban slums were demolished to prevent them from being used by the more unsavory members of our society. Squatters should be evicted and, if necessary, jailed, much as what happened in urban areas. Suburban slums are not inevitable, but all it takes to create them is neglect. That's a lesson that was learned some time ago in the cities. Now it's time for the suburbs to learn the same thing.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
2/21/2008
Navy Successful In Satellite Interception
It comes down to a case of “Do as I say, not as I do!” in regards to the US Navy's success at shooting down a disabled spy satellite early Thursday.
While the US was shooting down the malfunctioning satellite that posed a danger to those on the ground should it have reentered Earth's atmosphere intact, the Chinese were saying that we were escalating the militarization of space by doing so. Never mind the Chinese military has destroyed one of their defunct weather satellites in anti-satellite tests, leaving debris in orbits that endangers existing and future spacecraft. The defunct US spy satellite's debris will reenter the atmosphere over the next 40 days, posing little, if any danger to anyone. But that's not the point.
The Chinese have pressed forward with the militarization of space. Now that we've responded to their efforts we've somehow become the bad guys. So what else is new?
The Chinese did their tests in secret. The US was open about it, not hiding anything.
But then again, maybe we have hidden something.
Some of the proverbial “talk around the water cooler” at work brought forth the proposal the malfunctioning spy satellite was nothing of the sort. Instead, it was a purpose-built target for testing the new Navy Standard Missile-3 against a spaceborne target to prove it could be used to intercept incoming ballistic missiles or warheads. It may have also served another purpose.
It will certainly give our enemies and potential enemies something to think about in the near future.
While the US was shooting down the malfunctioning satellite that posed a danger to those on the ground should it have reentered Earth's atmosphere intact, the Chinese were saying that we were escalating the militarization of space by doing so. Never mind the Chinese military has destroyed one of their defunct weather satellites in anti-satellite tests, leaving debris in orbits that endangers existing and future spacecraft. The defunct US spy satellite's debris will reenter the atmosphere over the next 40 days, posing little, if any danger to anyone. But that's not the point.
The Chinese have pressed forward with the militarization of space. Now that we've responded to their efforts we've somehow become the bad guys. So what else is new?
Contrast this operation with what happened a year ago January, when Beijing surprised the world by shooting down one of its weather satellites in a test of its antisatellite capabilities. Not only was the test unannounced, but it took China days to concede that it had happened. Because the satellite was destroyed at an altitude of approximately 850 kilometers, it left countless hazardous particles drifting in orbit that could harm future space flights.
Meanwhile, Washington has gone out of its way both to alert other countries of this operation and to avoid the kind of dangers posed by Beijing's last launch. The satellite was hit at a low altitude to ensure that most of the debris re-enters either to burn up during descent or to land in the ocean. The Pentagon hosted a press conference last week to discuss the diplomatic and technological aspects of the operation. A military spokesman said this week that a press statement will be issued "within an hour" of the missile launch.
The Chinese did their tests in secret. The US was open about it, not hiding anything.
But then again, maybe we have hidden something.
Some of the proverbial “talk around the water cooler” at work brought forth the proposal the malfunctioning spy satellite was nothing of the sort. Instead, it was a purpose-built target for testing the new Navy Standard Missile-3 against a spaceborne target to prove it could be used to intercept incoming ballistic missiles or warheads. It may have also served another purpose.
Hitting a satellite the size of a bus in a predictable orbit has to be easier than destroying a ballistic missile launched by an enemy. Even so, the successful shootdown is a useful warning to countries such as Iran, Syria and North Korea that are building ballistic missile programs. In the U.S., it might even silence diehard critics, who still say missile defense is impossible despite a string of successful tests. By the way, the systems used in the satellite shootdown wouldn't be up to the job had the U.S. not withdrawn in 2002 from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which imposed serious technological constraints.
It will certainly give our enemies and potential enemies something to think about in the near future.
2/20/2008
Castro's Legacy - An Economic Basket Case
It's worth looking back at Fidel Castro's legacy now that he's retired. I think I can safely say that he had very few high points and more than a few thousand low points during the 49 years of his reign.
Forty nine years of misery visited upon the Cuban people by a government incapable of understanding the basics of economics, the same government which cared little for basic human rights. The same government that built a cult of personality around Fidel Castro. (At least they never carried it too far as has been done in places like North Korea, just to name one.)
Cuba had the potential to be an economic power house until Castro took Cuba down the road of failed socialist ideologies and economic policies. Even as other Latin American countries see their economies grow and flourish, Cuba remains an economic basket case and would be in even worse shape if Hugo Chavez wasn't pissing away billions of dollars of Venezuela's oil wealth propping up his mentor's nation. So that begs the question: What happens to Cuba's economy if/when Chavez loses power and the Venezuelan petrodollars are no longer available?
Will the Cuban people become even more victimized should this scenario come to pass? Will economic collapse become Fidel's legacy to the Cuban people?
Fidel's legacy includes ruthless oppression, but less widely appreciated is that he was also an economic incompetent. In January 1959, Cuba had the third highest per-capita GDP in Latin America. Today the island is a malnourished backwater where staples like milk, sugar and eggs are rationed, severe shortages exist in the medical system and electricity is a luxury. Formerly a dependent of the Soviet Union, Cuba now begs at the feet of Venezuela, which gives it as much as $2 billion in aid annually. The nation nonetheless struggles to get by, and young Cubans routinely take their chances with the security police and shark-infested waters rather than face life under the Castro brothers.
Forty nine years of misery visited upon the Cuban people by a government incapable of understanding the basics of economics, the same government which cared little for basic human rights. The same government that built a cult of personality around Fidel Castro. (At least they never carried it too far as has been done in places like North Korea, just to name one.)
Cuba had the potential to be an economic power house until Castro took Cuba down the road of failed socialist ideologies and economic policies. Even as other Latin American countries see their economies grow and flourish, Cuba remains an economic basket case and would be in even worse shape if Hugo Chavez wasn't pissing away billions of dollars of Venezuela's oil wealth propping up his mentor's nation. So that begs the question: What happens to Cuba's economy if/when Chavez loses power and the Venezuelan petrodollars are no longer available?
Will the Cuban people become even more victimized should this scenario come to pass? Will economic collapse become Fidel's legacy to the Cuban people?
2/19/2008
Castro Retires - Cuba Remains The Same
Unless you've been cut off from the rest of the world, you know that Fidel Castro has stepped down as the leader of Cuba. His younger brother Raoul has been designated to replace him.
While some people seem to think this change in leadership will bring changes to Cuba, I doubt it. There will be some small cosmetic changes, primarily in economic policies, but for the most part it will be a case of “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
The Cuban exile community certainly understands this, greeting the news of Fidel's retirement with muted excitement. They know that Raoul was the hatchet man for his older brother and was the most feared man in Cuba. I doubt he's changed all that much and would be more than willing to silence the opposition by any means necessary. But Raoul isn't a young man at 76 and won't be in power all that long as compared to Fidel. There are other, much younger men waiting in the wings, some which might be able to bring much needed reforms to Cuba. Their time has not yet come.
Can Cuba continue on the path they've followed for almost 50 years and remain an economic backwater? Or will Cuba start on the kinds of reforms the People's Republic of China have pursued, which hopefully will also lead to democratic progress in both nations?
Only time will tell. Hopefully we won't have long to wait.
While some people seem to think this change in leadership will bring changes to Cuba, I doubt it. There will be some small cosmetic changes, primarily in economic policies, but for the most part it will be a case of “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
The Cuban exile community certainly understands this, greeting the news of Fidel's retirement with muted excitement. They know that Raoul was the hatchet man for his older brother and was the most feared man in Cuba. I doubt he's changed all that much and would be more than willing to silence the opposition by any means necessary. But Raoul isn't a young man at 76 and won't be in power all that long as compared to Fidel. There are other, much younger men waiting in the wings, some which might be able to bring much needed reforms to Cuba. Their time has not yet come.
Can Cuba continue on the path they've followed for almost 50 years and remain an economic backwater? Or will Cuba start on the kinds of reforms the People's Republic of China have pursued, which hopefully will also lead to democratic progress in both nations?
Only time will tell. Hopefully we won't have long to wait.
2/17/2008
Thoughts On A Sunday
Just when we thought we might catch a break in regards to the weather, my hopes are dashed.
BeezleBub and I have spent time every day since Wednesday cleaning up after the snowstorm and we're still not done. If all of the precipitation had been snow we wouldn't have been having so much trouble. But with the sleet that came in towards the end of the storm, which then changed over to freezing rain and rain, we ended up with heavy sodden and frozen snow. It's required a lot of backbreaking work to clear it all away, making sure to make room for future snowfalls as well as ensure that melt water or rain won't work its way under roof shingle or siding.
The weather forecast says we have another bout with snow to sleet to rain coming tonight.
Sometimes you just can't catch a break.
We're not the only ones dealing with this endless cycle of one snowfall after another.
It appears the Battle of Berkeley goes to the pro-military protesters merely due to the calm and reasoned protests and support they gave the USMC. The Left, on the other hand, showed how out of touch and deluded so many of them have become.
While many on both sides of the issue of the USMC Recruiting Office have complained the Berkeley Police Department showed favoritism to the other side, it is apparent they handled things properly, not giving either side any excuse to escalate things and clamping down on any misbehavior.
The housing market is still in the dumps, with sales off as much as 26% as compared to a year ago. The sub-prime/ARM debacle is still nowhere near over, with a large number of them heading for foreclosure as interest rates reset. Too many unethical lenders abetted by buyers with too little understanding of what they were getting themselves into led to this problem. Many buyers probably figured they could always sell their homes if they ever got into trouble, not foreseeing the hot real estate market would cool off, leaving them with no way to unload their homes and avoid foreclosure.
Another problem adding pain to many homeowners is some mortgage service companies lack of service, in many cases putting homeowners into default even though they've never missed a payment. The number of consumer complaints about mortgage service companies has been climbing rapidly as too many homeowners have had their homes and credit ratings put into jeopardy by the incompetence of these companies.
About the only part of the real estate market still performing well is for second homes (vacation homes). The sales pace of second homes never reached that of primary homes, with many of them on the market for six months to a year before they sold. That hasn't changed. For the most part second home sales aren't time sensitive, with sellers willing to wait to get their asking price. But the second home market is a small fraction of total homes sales, having little effect on the overall sales figures.
Despite claims by certain Presidential candidates to the contrary, Americans have never had it so good.
Are there still problems with poverty in America? Certainly. But with few exceptions, the level of poverty in America would be considered middle class or wealthy in a lot of other developed or developing countries.
Is modern liberalism a form of mental illness? There may be a case to made for it.
'Nuff said.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
It figures.
It seems that every winter we suffer the breakdown of one appliance or another. Last winter it was our refrigerator. The winter before that it was our clothes drier. This winter it's the washing machine. Apparently the water pump that drains the tub has failed, meaning we had to pull out a load of sodden clothes and take them over to the WP Parent's to run them through a spin, rinse, and spin cycle. Then it was back to The Manse to pop the now wrung out clothes into the drier.
The WP Mom offered to wash and dry the rest of our clothes, so we won't have to worry about running out of clean clothes before the washing machine is repaired.
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter seems endless, the snow banks do nothing but get higher, and the woodpile is getting smaller all too quickly.
BeezleBub and I have spent time every day since Wednesday cleaning up after the snowstorm and we're still not done. If all of the precipitation had been snow we wouldn't have been having so much trouble. But with the sleet that came in towards the end of the storm, which then changed over to freezing rain and rain, we ended up with heavy sodden and frozen snow. It's required a lot of backbreaking work to clear it all away, making sure to make room for future snowfalls as well as ensure that melt water or rain won't work its way under roof shingle or siding.
The weather forecast says we have another bout with snow to sleet to rain coming tonight.
Sometimes you just can't catch a break.
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We're not the only ones dealing with this endless cycle of one snowfall after another.
********
It appears the Battle of Berkeley goes to the pro-military protesters merely due to the calm and reasoned protests and support they gave the USMC. The Left, on the other hand, showed how out of touch and deluded so many of them have become.
While many on both sides of the issue of the USMC Recruiting Office have complained the Berkeley Police Department showed favoritism to the other side, it is apparent they handled things properly, not giving either side any excuse to escalate things and clamping down on any misbehavior.
********
The housing market is still in the dumps, with sales off as much as 26% as compared to a year ago. The sub-prime/ARM debacle is still nowhere near over, with a large number of them heading for foreclosure as interest rates reset. Too many unethical lenders abetted by buyers with too little understanding of what they were getting themselves into led to this problem. Many buyers probably figured they could always sell their homes if they ever got into trouble, not foreseeing the hot real estate market would cool off, leaving them with no way to unload their homes and avoid foreclosure.
Another problem adding pain to many homeowners is some mortgage service companies lack of service, in many cases putting homeowners into default even though they've never missed a payment. The number of consumer complaints about mortgage service companies has been climbing rapidly as too many homeowners have had their homes and credit ratings put into jeopardy by the incompetence of these companies.
About the only part of the real estate market still performing well is for second homes (vacation homes). The sales pace of second homes never reached that of primary homes, with many of them on the market for six months to a year before they sold. That hasn't changed. For the most part second home sales aren't time sensitive, with sellers willing to wait to get their asking price. But the second home market is a small fraction of total homes sales, having little effect on the overall sales figures.
********
Despite claims by certain Presidential candidates to the contrary, Americans have never had it so good.
Are there still problems with poverty in America? Certainly. But with few exceptions, the level of poverty in America would be considered middle class or wealthy in a lot of other developed or developing countries.
********
Is modern liberalism a form of mental illness? There may be a case to made for it.
“The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind,” he says. “When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious.”
'Nuff said.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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It figures.
It seems that every winter we suffer the breakdown of one appliance or another. Last winter it was our refrigerator. The winter before that it was our clothes drier. This winter it's the washing machine. Apparently the water pump that drains the tub has failed, meaning we had to pull out a load of sodden clothes and take them over to the WP Parent's to run them through a spin, rinse, and spin cycle. Then it was back to The Manse to pop the now wrung out clothes into the drier.
The WP Mom offered to wash and dry the rest of our clothes, so we won't have to worry about running out of clean clothes before the washing machine is repaired.
********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter seems endless, the snow banks do nothing but get higher, and the woodpile is getting smaller all too quickly.
2/14/2008
The Left Sees Success In Iraq As A Failure
It seems that Nancy Pelosi can't get past the fact that the surge in Iraq is working. No matter what she clings to the belief it's been a dismal failure.
Yup. Nothing shows incompetence more than victory against an intractable enemy. See, it says so right here in my Left Wing America-Is-Always-Wrong indoctrination pamphlet!
The Left doesn't want to be shown as wrong. Therefore they try to spin the news coming out of Iraq to make it look like every step gained in achieving a peaceful Iraq is a failure.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of it.
On Sunday, Nancy Pelosi was asked on CNN whether she feared squandering the success of President Bush's "surge" in Iraq with a hasty withdrawal. "There haven't been gains, Wolf," the House Speaker told anchor Wolf Blitzer. "The gains have not produced the desired effect which is the reconciliation of Iraq. This is a failure. This is a failure."
We'll assume Ms. Pelosi isn't actually disappointed by the latest good Iraq news. Yet the political calendar in Washington, with its noisome demands for benchmarks and timetables, is increasingly out of step with the strategic calendar in Baghdad.
At this point in the Democratic primary season, even a declaration of surrender by al Qaeda in Iraq would probably be treated as further evidence of Bush Administration incompetence. Speaking of which, this week the Times of London published remarkable excerpts from letters by two al Qaeda chieftains in Iraq that were seized late last year in a U.S. military raid.
Yup. Nothing shows incompetence more than victory against an intractable enemy. See, it says so right here in my Left Wing America-Is-Always-Wrong indoctrination pamphlet!
The Left doesn't want to be shown as wrong. Therefore they try to spin the news coming out of Iraq to make it look like every step gained in achieving a peaceful Iraq is a failure.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of it.
2/13/2008
Biofuels Not So Environmentally Friendly After All
Is it any surprise legislation passed in response to concerns about global warming turns out to cause more problems than it solves? Not to me, it isn't. But I think a number of Congresscritters and members of the It's-All-The-Fault-Of-The-Evil-Humans™ cabal just got a rude awakening when two different studies, one by Princeton and Woods Hole Research Center, and the other by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy, show that biofuels do more harm to the environment than fossil fuels.
A number of factors were overlooked when debate on the aforementioned legislation was taking place. The environmental consequences of biofuel were never studied, something that has no come back to bite Congress in the ass.
So what else is new?
A number of factors were overlooked when debate on the aforementioned legislation was taking place. The environmental consequences of biofuel were never studied, something that has no come back to bite Congress in the ass.
So what else is new?
2/12/2008
Taxes Drive Relocations
For many years New Hampshire has had what has been come to be called “The Advantage.” This so-called advantage? No state income or sales tax. For just as many years there have been those in New Hampshire that see the lack of such broadbased taxes as a travesty, preventing all of the liberal social programs they love so much from coming to fruition. But the lack of those broadbased taxes has provided New Hampshire residents and businesses an advantage over other states in the Northeast, attracting new businesses and the jobs that go with them to the state.
As much as the “New Hampshire Advantage” has been slammed by the tax-and-spend socialists, now there's proof that states without an income tax are attracting jobs and residents, while states with an income tax are losing them.
High taxes are driving out residents, who pick up and move to states with low taxes.
New Hampshire does have taxes, of course. Between business taxes (relatively low compared to most other states), property taxes (high in some towns, moderate or low in others), as well as what are called “bed and belly taxes” (meals and room tax), the state and municipalities do a pretty decent job of raising the revenues needed, for the most part. The fact that tax revenues are limited forces the legislature and the towns to keep spending in check. Or at least most of the time they do. The overall tax burden in New Hampshire is among the lowest in the nation. But as I mentioned before, there are folks working to change all that here in New Hampshire.
The broadbase tax proponents have been selling the idea that a sales or income tax will somehow ease the property tax burden on state residents. But history has shown over and over again that it doesn't work out that way. The residents end up with the same or higher property taxes as well as a sales or income tax. This means the state spends more, usually on things it doesn't really need, and the taxpayers now have even less control over spending at the state and local level. It's been a losing proposition every place it's been implemented. And once such a tax is imposed it is damn near impossible to do away with. The legislature will have a new flow of revenue and they won't likely give it up. At that point a major thing that attracted new residents and businesses to the state will be gone and people will look elsewhere to live. It's a lesson our neighbor to the south is learning the hard way.
Massachusetts, also known pejoratively as Taxachusetts, has seen their population shrink over the past 10 years as residents and businesses seek greener pastures. Some come here to New Hampshire. Others head to the South or the West. As taxes in the “Pay State” continue to rise, so will the outflow of jobs and residents. The only question is whether the governor and legislature of Massachusetts will do something about it before it comes to resemble Michigan in regards to joblessness, plant closings, and business relocations. (The same thing happened there back in the 1970's, with businesses closing due to a deep recession or relocating to escape the increasingly onerous tax burden, and a general outflow of people to follow the jobs because there were none to be had in Massachusetts.)
Is the tax system in New Hampshire perfect? Not by any means. But it is a far sight better than most of the others, attempting to keep control of the state spending by keeping the legislature and state agencies lean.
As much as the “New Hampshire Advantage” has been slammed by the tax-and-spend socialists, now there's proof that states without an income tax are attracting jobs and residents, while states with an income tax are losing them.
An old adage says high taxes don't redistribute income, they redistribute people. For new evidence look no further than migration patterns within the United States, as documented in a new survey by the moving company United Van Lines.
The United Van Lines study finds that the biggest population loser last year was Michigan, where two families moved out of the state for every new family that moved in. Americans are also fleeing New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Without interviewing the departed, it's impossible to know the reasons for this outward migration. No doubt overall economic prospects, climate, quality of life and housing prices play a role.
But one reason to conclude that taxes are also a motivator is because the eight states without an income tax are stealing talent from other states. They are Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming, and each one gained in net domestic migrants. Each one except Florida -- which has sky-high property taxes on new homesteaders -- also ranked in the top 12 of destination states.
High taxes are driving out residents, who pick up and move to states with low taxes.
New Hampshire does have taxes, of course. Between business taxes (relatively low compared to most other states), property taxes (high in some towns, moderate or low in others), as well as what are called “bed and belly taxes” (meals and room tax), the state and municipalities do a pretty decent job of raising the revenues needed, for the most part. The fact that tax revenues are limited forces the legislature and the towns to keep spending in check. Or at least most of the time they do. The overall tax burden in New Hampshire is among the lowest in the nation. But as I mentioned before, there are folks working to change all that here in New Hampshire.
The broadbase tax proponents have been selling the idea that a sales or income tax will somehow ease the property tax burden on state residents. But history has shown over and over again that it doesn't work out that way. The residents end up with the same or higher property taxes as well as a sales or income tax. This means the state spends more, usually on things it doesn't really need, and the taxpayers now have even less control over spending at the state and local level. It's been a losing proposition every place it's been implemented. And once such a tax is imposed it is damn near impossible to do away with. The legislature will have a new flow of revenue and they won't likely give it up. At that point a major thing that attracted new residents and businesses to the state will be gone and people will look elsewhere to live. It's a lesson our neighbor to the south is learning the hard way.
Massachusetts, also known pejoratively as Taxachusetts, has seen their population shrink over the past 10 years as residents and businesses seek greener pastures. Some come here to New Hampshire. Others head to the South or the West. As taxes in the “Pay State” continue to rise, so will the outflow of jobs and residents. The only question is whether the governor and legislature of Massachusetts will do something about it before it comes to resemble Michigan in regards to joblessness, plant closings, and business relocations. (The same thing happened there back in the 1970's, with businesses closing due to a deep recession or relocating to escape the increasingly onerous tax burden, and a general outflow of people to follow the jobs because there were none to be had in Massachusetts.)
Is the tax system in New Hampshire perfect? Not by any means. But it is a far sight better than most of the others, attempting to keep control of the state spending by keeping the legislature and state agencies lean.
2/10/2008
Thoughts On A Sunday
Morning greeted us with yet more snow, something that is beginning to seem never ending. We've received about a foot over the past week with another 8 inches forecast to fall by this evening.
It isn't that I'm tired of moving snow. That doesn't bother me. It's the problems associated with the all of the snow.
One problem: BeezleBub and I are running out of places to put the snow. We're limited to blowing it onto the side of the hill in front of The Manse, which makes it more difficult to clear the driveway and the area in front of the garage.
Another problem: one of the town plow crews are becoming more reckless. During this past storm this particular plow crew took out our mailbox. They didn't hit it, but with the speed they were coming down the hill the force of the snow they were plowing was such that it broke the post upon which the mailbox was mounted. The 4” X 4” post broke off just above ground level, giving you an idea of the force of all that flying snow. On the storm previous to the last one they damn near killed me in the same fashion, their plow throwing snow 25 feet past the snow bank and almost burying me in my own driveway.
We did a little shopping yesterday, looking for a new woodstove for The Manse. It's not that our present one isn't any good, only that it's inadequate for our purposes. We made the decision to do a little remodeling inside The Manse once we're past the heating season, which will allow us to use a more traditional woodstove rather than the fireplace insert we're using now. The new woodstove will heat better than the present one and won't require as much wood for the amount of heat it will throw.
That works for me.
The Winnipesaukee Ice Fishing Derby came to an end today, and at the time I'm writing this the biggest catch so far has been a 10.5 pound lake trout.
The winner of the Derby gets a new fishing boat and trailer. Not bad for a weekend's worth of fishing.
This weekend also saw another derby taking place here in the Lakes Region.
The annual Laconia Sled Dog Derby started Friday, bring sled dog teams from all over the US and Canada.
It's a good thing criminals are so dumb.
Thomas Dipirro's 1994 Ford F-250 pickup truck was stolen in Haverhill, Massachusetts, just over the border from his home town of Plaistow, New Hampshire.
Two days later he spots a truck that looked a lot like his driving down Rte 125 in Plaistow. A closer look at the license plate showed Dipirro it was his stolen truck. He didn't have a cell phone so he couldn't call the police. So he did the only thing he could do:
He confronted the driver of his stolen truck when they both stopped at a traffic light.
The police did arrest Valle after he fled on foot.
The lesson to be learned? Don't drive a stolen vehicle in the hometown of the owner unless you want to get caught.
Are the Clintons planning to steal the Democratic nomination? It certainly appears that way.
It's been a long time since I've linked to Ben Kepple's blog. It's also been a long time since I checked it out, so the fault is entirely mine.
So I click on the link to check it out and what do I find? One of my favorite Ben Kepple features:
Your Search Engine Queries Answered!
The NFL Pro-Bowl was played today. Frankly, I had no interest at all. After the disappointing loss of the Super Bowl by the Patriots I have no desire to watch football again until next season.
Is it any surprise that the so-called “anti-war” Democrats were anything but? Instead they hijacked the anti-war movement in order to ensure the election of Republicans. But now their duplicity is out in the open. Could it be that there will be another change in the make-up of Congress after elections in November?
Is Hugo Chavez in trouble?
(H/T Instapundit)
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter continues, the ice fishing is great, and where thoughts of summer boating are starting to intrude.
It isn't that I'm tired of moving snow. That doesn't bother me. It's the problems associated with the all of the snow.
One problem: BeezleBub and I are running out of places to put the snow. We're limited to blowing it onto the side of the hill in front of The Manse, which makes it more difficult to clear the driveway and the area in front of the garage.
Another problem: one of the town plow crews are becoming more reckless. During this past storm this particular plow crew took out our mailbox. They didn't hit it, but with the speed they were coming down the hill the force of the snow they were plowing was such that it broke the post upon which the mailbox was mounted. The 4” X 4” post broke off just above ground level, giving you an idea of the force of all that flying snow. On the storm previous to the last one they damn near killed me in the same fashion, their plow throwing snow 25 feet past the snow bank and almost burying me in my own driveway.
********
We did a little shopping yesterday, looking for a new woodstove for The Manse. It's not that our present one isn't any good, only that it's inadequate for our purposes. We made the decision to do a little remodeling inside The Manse once we're past the heating season, which will allow us to use a more traditional woodstove rather than the fireplace insert we're using now. The new woodstove will heat better than the present one and won't require as much wood for the amount of heat it will throw.
That works for me.
********
The Winnipesaukee Ice Fishing Derby came to an end today, and at the time I'm writing this the biggest catch so far has been a 10.5 pound lake trout.
The winner of the Derby gets a new fishing boat and trailer. Not bad for a weekend's worth of fishing.
********
This weekend also saw another derby taking place here in the Lakes Region.
The annual Laconia Sled Dog Derby started Friday, bring sled dog teams from all over the US and Canada.
********
It's a good thing criminals are so dumb.
Thomas Dipirro's 1994 Ford F-250 pickup truck was stolen in Haverhill, Massachusetts, just over the border from his home town of Plaistow, New Hampshire.
Two days later he spots a truck that looked a lot like his driving down Rte 125 in Plaistow. A closer look at the license plate showed Dipirro it was his stolen truck. He didn't have a cell phone so he couldn't call the police. So he did the only thing he could do:
He confronted the driver of his stolen truck when they both stopped at a traffic light.
Dipirro asked the man behind the wheel, later identified as Angel Valle, 49, why he was driving his truck.
The two then got into a scuffle in the middle of the intersection, prompting several calls from passersby who thought they were having a fight after an accident, police said.
The police did arrest Valle after he fled on foot.
The lesson to be learned? Don't drive a stolen vehicle in the hometown of the owner unless you want to get caught.
********
Are the Clintons planning to steal the Democratic nomination? It certainly appears that way.
********
It's been a long time since I've linked to Ben Kepple's blog. It's also been a long time since I checked it out, so the fault is entirely mine.
So I click on the link to check it out and what do I find? One of my favorite Ben Kepple features:
Your Search Engine Queries Answered!
********
The NFL Pro-Bowl was played today. Frankly, I had no interest at all. After the disappointing loss of the Super Bowl by the Patriots I have no desire to watch football again until next season.
********
Is it any surprise that the so-called “anti-war” Democrats were anything but? Instead they hijacked the anti-war movement in order to ensure the election of Republicans. But now their duplicity is out in the open. Could it be that there will be another change in the make-up of Congress after elections in November?
********
Is Hugo Chavez in trouble?
(H/T Instapundit)
********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter continues, the ice fishing is great, and where thoughts of summer boating are starting to intrude.
2/08/2008
More Homeowners Walking Away
It seems I've seen this before.
More and more often, homeowners are just walking away from their mortgages and leaving the bank or other mortgage holder to deal with the property.
If a homeowner has little or no equity in a home and their mortgage payments are ballooning, they have no incentive to stick it out, particularly if they are “upside down” on their mortgage, meaning they owe more than their home is worth. Instead, the homeowner walks away, in effect handing the keys to the mortgage holder and telling them “Good luck!”
Something very similar occurred during the housing bust back in the early 1990's, though the nation was in a recession, where people were walking away from their mortgages because some housing values had dropped up to 50% and many homeowners had lost their jobs. No one was buying homes and too many homeowners were upside down on their mortgages.
While there isn't a recession this time around (though we are teetering on the brink at the moment), people are still walking away. Most of them have sub-prime mortgages and their payments have gone up to a point where they no longer have the ability to pay them.
Fortunately my wife and I made a rather substantial down payment for The Manse, which kept our mortgage to a reasonable level at a good fixed rate. Even though we qualified for a much larger mortgage, we didn't want to end up being “house poor”, spending every spare penny on the house and leaving very little for anything else other than food, clothing, and other necessities. We didn't buy too much house. (Frankly, I think we could have gone for something even less expensive, but the missus wanted what she wanted and I didn't protest. Maybe it's just the Yankee frugality in me, making an effort to keep our payments small.)
How many more walk aways will there be? I have a feeling there will be more than there have been over the past two years, and then the trend will reverse as those still holding sub-prime and adjustable rate mortgages will have either given up their homes or refinanced.
Only time will tell.
More and more often, homeowners are just walking away from their mortgages and leaving the bank or other mortgage holder to deal with the property.
If a homeowner has little or no equity in a home and their mortgage payments are ballooning, they have no incentive to stick it out, particularly if they are “upside down” on their mortgage, meaning they owe more than their home is worth. Instead, the homeowner walks away, in effect handing the keys to the mortgage holder and telling them “Good luck!”
"The apparent willingness of borrowers to 'walk away' from mortgage debt," the analysts noted, "has contributed to extraordinary high levels of early default" on loans issued during the 18 months before the mortgage bubble burst. It expects losses to reach 21% of initial loan balances for subprime mortgages issued in 2006 and 26% for those issued in early 2007.
Something very similar occurred during the housing bust back in the early 1990's, though the nation was in a recession, where people were walking away from their mortgages because some housing values had dropped up to 50% and many homeowners had lost their jobs. No one was buying homes and too many homeowners were upside down on their mortgages.
While there isn't a recession this time around (though we are teetering on the brink at the moment), people are still walking away. Most of them have sub-prime mortgages and their payments have gone up to a point where they no longer have the ability to pay them.
A decade ago, most people started off with enough equity in their homes to make foreclosure irrational from a financial standpoint. Consider: If you made a 20% down payment on a house, prices would have to fall by 20%, almost immediately, before you lost all your money and had much incentive to walk away. This scenario was unlikely, particularly since an independent appraiser had assigned a clear value to the home. Foreclosure was remote, absent a personal financial crisis, for another reason: Every month your mortgage payment would reduce your debt and increase your equity, giving you more room for prices to fall.
But over the past few years -- until last spring -- banks and the mortgage-backed securities investors who bought the loans the banks packaged weren't demanding substantial down payments; they were happy with 5% or even nothing down. They also didn't worry about whether or not borrowers were building up equity. "Interest-only" loans, quick mortgage refinancings to cash out any equity, and other inventions often led to just the opposite.
Fortunately my wife and I made a rather substantial down payment for The Manse, which kept our mortgage to a reasonable level at a good fixed rate. Even though we qualified for a much larger mortgage, we didn't want to end up being “house poor”, spending every spare penny on the house and leaving very little for anything else other than food, clothing, and other necessities. We didn't buy too much house. (Frankly, I think we could have gone for something even less expensive, but the missus wanted what she wanted and I didn't protest. Maybe it's just the Yankee frugality in me, making an effort to keep our payments small.)
How many more walk aways will there be? I have a feeling there will be more than there have been over the past two years, and then the trend will reverse as those still holding sub-prime and adjustable rate mortgages will have either given up their homes or refinanced.
Only time will tell.
More Thoughts On A McCain Stategy
It appears that more than one conservative out there in the GOP has given some thought to how John McCain can garner support from the conservative branch of the party. So far all of them have suggest the same thing: select a conservative running mate.
This will help pull the conservative voters towards supporting McCain without losing the moderates within the party. The right choice can help boost McCain's chances against the Democrats in November.
My choice, as I've mentioned before, would be Fred Thompson.
This will help pull the conservative voters towards supporting McCain without losing the moderates within the party. The right choice can help boost McCain's chances against the Democrats in November.
My choice, as I've mentioned before, would be Fred Thompson.
2/07/2008
America In Decline?
How many times have we heard one pundit or another proclaim America is in decline, has passed its peak, and will slowly wither away to a shadow of its former self? Far too many, as far as I'm concerned.
This has been an ongoing claim since the Republic was formed over 231 years ago. You'd think if this were true we'd never have attained greatness to begin with, wouldn't you?
Have there been disturbing changes in our country over the years? Without a doubt. Many of those changes have been for the good. Many have not. But America has endured, somehow.
If that's but one example of American decline, then I say let's see more of it!
This has been an ongoing claim since the Republic was formed over 231 years ago. You'd think if this were true we'd never have attained greatness to begin with, wouldn't you?
Have there been disturbing changes in our country over the years? Without a doubt. Many of those changes have been for the good. Many have not. But America has endured, somehow.
American "decline" is the foreign-policy equivalent of homelessness: The media only take note of it when a Republican is in the White House. Broadly speaking, declinists divide between those who merely accept America's supposed diminishment as a fact of life, and those who celebrate it as long overdue. As for the causes of decline, however, they tend to agree: declining (relative) economic muscle, due in large part to the rise of China; an overextended military bogged down needlessly in Iraq and endlessly in Afghanistan; the declining value of America's "brand" on account of Bush administration policies on detention, pre-emption, terrorism, global warming -- you name it.
Yet each of these assumptions collapses on a moment's inspection. In his 2006 book "Überpower," German writer Josef Joffe makes the following back-of-the-envelope calculation: "Assume that the Chinese economy keeps growing indefinitely at a rate of seven percent, the average of the past decade (for which history knows of no example). . . . At that rate, China's GDP would double every decade, reaching parity with today's United States ($12 trillion) in thirty years. But the U.S. economy is not frozen into immobility. By then, the United States, growing at its long-term rate of 2.5 percent, would stand at $25 trillion."
If that's but one example of American decline, then I say let's see more of it!
2/06/2008
A Good McCain Strategy For November
How can John McCain ensure a win against the Democrats in November? By making sure Fred Thompson is his running mate.
In one fell swoop McCain will gain street cred with the staunch conservatives in the Republican party, making him far more palatable to them. It also gives him something else:
It works for me.
(H/T Instapundit)
In one fell swoop McCain will gain street cred with the staunch conservatives in the Republican party, making him far more palatable to them. It also gives him something else:
Behind the scenes, Vice President Thompson offers President McCain private counsel, guided by our Founding Fathers, without drawing attention to himself. Mr. Thompson seems eminently qualified for such a role, eschewing publicity and advancing the cause which impelled him to mount his own White House bid.
It works for me.
(H/T Instapundit)
2/05/2008
A Coincidence?
Is it coincidence, or acts of deliberate sabotage?
Four undersea fiber optic cables in the Middle East and South Asia have been cut over the past few days, all of them owned by the same company. While some may say it is just a coincidence, I am not one to believe in coincidences like this.
One of these cuts have been attributed to weather. Another to a ship's anchor dropping on the cable in question. The cause of the failures of the other two cables have not been determined, but they occurred far offshore.
If these failures had occurred to cables owned by different companies I might believe it was coincidence. But after checking a map of undersea cable routes and the owner/operators of those systems, I find it hard to believe that only the cables of Flag Telecom have been taken out of service by “failures”. It smacks more of deliberate acts.
If enough cables can be taken out, Internet and phone service into and out of the Middle East and South Asia will be disrupted. If nothing else it will cut off outside news and information from reaching the denizens of those areas.
The question is, who benefits from the failures? It shouldn't be hard to figure that one out.
Four undersea fiber optic cables in the Middle East and South Asia have been cut over the past few days, all of them owned by the same company. While some may say it is just a coincidence, I am not one to believe in coincidences like this.
One of these cuts have been attributed to weather. Another to a ship's anchor dropping on the cable in question. The cause of the failures of the other two cables have not been determined, but they occurred far offshore.
If these failures had occurred to cables owned by different companies I might believe it was coincidence. But after checking a map of undersea cable routes and the owner/operators of those systems, I find it hard to believe that only the cables of Flag Telecom have been taken out of service by “failures”. It smacks more of deliberate acts.
If enough cables can be taken out, Internet and phone service into and out of the Middle East and South Asia will be disrupted. If nothing else it will cut off outside news and information from reaching the denizens of those areas.
The question is, who benefits from the failures? It shouldn't be hard to figure that one out.
2/03/2008
Thoughts On A Sunday
It's Super Bowl Sunday and it has been impossible to escape coverage of the pre-game activities. TV, radio, newpapers, and web sites have been nothing but Patriots, Patriots, Patriots for two weeks.
We're headed over to one of Deb's friends to catch the game on their oh-my-GOD sized HDTV, though we'll only be staying until halftime. With a 6:20PM kickoff, we can't stay until the end of the game, it being a school night.
Unless you've been hiding some place without Internet access, you must have heard of the madness of the Berkeley's city Council and their minions, Code Pink and World Can't Wait.
The two protest groups have been holding almost daily protests outside the Marine Recruiting office. They've been doing so with the support of the Berkeley City Council, which passed a resolution calling the Marines “uninvited and unwelcome intruders in the city.” To his credit, one council member disagreed with the decree. Councilmember Gordon Wozniak was the only dissenting voice in the city council.
And here's a libertarian view of the whole kerfuffle.
The last bit of winter weather we experienced on Friday was what many called “a useless storm.” Lots of sleet and freezing rain created hazardous travel conditions in a very short time. The clean up afterwards was lengthy and painful for many, yours truly included.
It wasn't a matter of firing up the trusty Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower and removing the frozen precipitation. Oh no. Instead it required the use of chemical intervention to loosen up the frozen mess and a lot of muscle power to move the two to three inches of icy cover.
BeezleBub and I spent quite a bit of time breaking up and shoveling the ice to clear the driveway and the area in front of The Manse's garage. Once the sun had moved and was no longer working to melt the area we were trying to clear, the work stopped. We were hoping for more sun today to help us continue the work, but it looks like we'll be out of luck. Sunshine isn't expected until later in the day when the cloud cover will move off and by that time the sun won't hit the area we still need to clear.
The Barrister at Maggie's Farm asks the question: “How come liberals never talk about liberty?”
Yeah, why is that?
Do you need any more evidence that any kind of government run health care would be a very bad idea? If so, all you need to do is look at Massachusetts to see one possible future of health care.
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're still chipping ice, dreams of spring are starting to intrude, and where Monday will get here all too soon.
We're headed over to one of Deb's friends to catch the game on their oh-my-GOD sized HDTV, though we'll only be staying until halftime. With a 6:20PM kickoff, we can't stay until the end of the game, it being a school night.
********
Unless you've been hiding some place without Internet access, you must have heard of the madness of the Berkeley's city Council and their minions, Code Pink and World Can't Wait.
The two protest groups have been holding almost daily protests outside the Marine Recruiting office. They've been doing so with the support of the Berkeley City Council, which passed a resolution calling the Marines “uninvited and unwelcome intruders in the city.” To his credit, one council member disagreed with the decree. Councilmember Gordon Wozniak was the only dissenting voice in the city council.
And here's a libertarian view of the whole kerfuffle.
********
The last bit of winter weather we experienced on Friday was what many called “a useless storm.” Lots of sleet and freezing rain created hazardous travel conditions in a very short time. The clean up afterwards was lengthy and painful for many, yours truly included.
It wasn't a matter of firing up the trusty Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower and removing the frozen precipitation. Oh no. Instead it required the use of chemical intervention to loosen up the frozen mess and a lot of muscle power to move the two to three inches of icy cover.
BeezleBub and I spent quite a bit of time breaking up and shoveling the ice to clear the driveway and the area in front of The Manse's garage. Once the sun had moved and was no longer working to melt the area we were trying to clear, the work stopped. We were hoping for more sun today to help us continue the work, but it looks like we'll be out of luck. Sunshine isn't expected until later in the day when the cloud cover will move off and by that time the sun won't hit the area we still need to clear.
********
The Barrister at Maggie's Farm asks the question: “How come liberals never talk about liberty?”
Yeah, why is that?
********
Do you need any more evidence that any kind of government run health care would be a very bad idea? If so, all you need to do is look at Massachusetts to see one possible future of health care.
********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're still chipping ice, dreams of spring are starting to intrude, and where Monday will get here all too soon.
2/02/2008
A Preview Of Universal Health Care
Have you ever wondered what health care in the US would be like if Hillary gets her way and forces universal single payer medical coverage upon the American people? If you think it's a good idea, perhaps you'll change your mind after you see this.
If you think this case is atypical of the Canadian health care system, you're wrong. It's all too common. In fact, in the Quebec lawsuit brought before the Canadian Supreme Court mentioned in this video, the Court declared “Access to a waiting list for health care is not access to health care.”
Other examples abound in the UK, where the NHS (National Health Service) has increasingly provided poor, long delayed, or non-existent medical treatment to British subjects. Waiting lists are 18 weeks long or longer. Medical conditions that are readily curable if immediate treatment is rendered become life threatening or fatal if delayed for that long. To paraphrase an American aphorism, “Medical treatment delayed is medical treatment denied.” Of course, if patients die before treatment is administered the government saves a lot of money. If you think they would never be so callous, think again.
If you think this case is atypical of the Canadian health care system, you're wrong. It's all too common. In fact, in the Quebec lawsuit brought before the Canadian Supreme Court mentioned in this video, the Court declared “Access to a waiting list for health care is not access to health care.”
Other examples abound in the UK, where the NHS (National Health Service) has increasingly provided poor, long delayed, or non-existent medical treatment to British subjects. Waiting lists are 18 weeks long or longer. Medical conditions that are readily curable if immediate treatment is rendered become life threatening or fatal if delayed for that long. To paraphrase an American aphorism, “Medical treatment delayed is medical treatment denied.” Of course, if patients die before treatment is administered the government saves a lot of money. If you think they would never be so callous, think again.
2/01/2008
Saddam's WMD Bluff Backfired
Isn't it ironic that Saddam Hussein was brought down by a miscalculation on his part in regards to WMDs?
In a piece on the Wall Street Journal's Editorial web page Review & Outlook section, we find a brief look into Saddam's interrogation by FBI agent George Piro.
Never mind Saddam had every intention of restarting his WMD programs once sanctions were lifted, as he admitted during interrogation. He gambled the threat of his then non-existent WMDs would keep Iran from getting any ideas. He saw Iran as the greater threat. He was wrong.
His smoke and mirror games convinced the wrong people he still had weapons of mass destruction. The world's intelligence agencies were fooled as well, so their reports to their governments said he still had them. In the end it proved his undoing.
In a piece on the Wall Street Journal's Editorial web page Review & Outlook section, we find a brief look into Saddam's interrogation by FBI agent George Piro.
The FBI interrogator says that, while Saddam said he no longer had active WMD programs in 2003, the dictator admitted that he intended to resume those programs as soon as he possibly could.
Iraq's active WMD program had been destroyed, mostly by U.N. weapons inspectors, sometime in the 1990s, but Saddam told Mr. Piro that he maintained a pretense of having those weapons mainly to keep Iran at bay.
Never mind Saddam had every intention of restarting his WMD programs once sanctions were lifted, as he admitted during interrogation. He gambled the threat of his then non-existent WMDs would keep Iran from getting any ideas. He saw Iran as the greater threat. He was wrong.
His smoke and mirror games convinced the wrong people he still had weapons of mass destruction. The world's intelligence agencies were fooled as well, so their reports to their governments said he still had them. In the end it proved his undoing.
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