As I was heading out during my lunch break I made the mistake of listening to the Diane Rehm show on NPR, where guest host Frank Sesno had author/sociologist Juliet B. Schor as a guest. Schor's book, Plenitude talks about the need to make profound changes in how we live. As I listened I came to realize that while her goals may be laudable, those goals have ignored one thing that she, being a sociologist, should understand: human nature.
How many times over the decades have utopian/progressive/socialist plans for this country or for the world tried to make it sound that if people would only change how they look at things that we could create a perfect society/world? The problems is that people tend to resist change, particularly when they see little return for all the effort that will be required. They have higher priorities, such as providing for their families. Unless people can be shown up front such changes will benefit them and their families directly, they will resist those changes. To rely on altruism to fuel such changes is foolish and a waste of time. As I and many others have come to realize, altruism is something we feel from time to time. It cannot be sustained 24/7/365. Unfortunately far too many of the Left have chosen to ignore that one little truth. Most of there utopian ideals demand altruism from is all day, every day. It's the only way their world will work.
If people like Schor want to see those kinds of changes they shouldn't waste their time appealing to people's better nature. They may not have one, particularly when it comes to their families or businesses. Those are the most important things in their lives. If someone tries to convince them they should sacrifice the well-being of either in the name of some nebulous cause, the response they get will likely be “Screw you and the horse you rode in on!”
More than once during the show Schor lamented the “greed” that seems to drive the Western world and tried hard to guilt us into giving up everything everyone has worked so hard to achieve. I had a hard time figuring out exactly how she defined greed. Was it overweening avarice? Was it profiting from the misfortune of others? Or was it simply making money at one's job or business and having a little left over to do something other than buy necessities? (I get the feeling she didn't differentiate between them at all, with the last one being the worst of the three.) More than once she played the leftist egalitarian card, implying no one should have [place name of item or possession here] unless everyone can have one. But that's a straw man argument because by that logic no one will ever be able to have whatever it is because no one has them. Someone has to be first. Call it the Lowest Common Denominator premise, which always turns out to be false, unrealistic, and impossible to achieve.
One of her favorite targets was the oil companies. Another target was big corporations. While I have no love for either, her remedy (smaller innovation driven companies to replace them) isn't something that can be forced. For one thing, who decides and on what basis? Some things can't easily be done by smaller companies, if at all. Does that mean they shouldn't be done at all? Again, who decides?
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that Schor and those like her seem to think that someone should be making these decisions for us rather than letting things develop on their own. Forcing the issue, either by heavy government intervention or outright government control, never works out and always causes far more problems than such changes were meant to fix. History is rife with examples of how and why we should not to do such things. Yet the Left sees the previous failures not as a flaw in their theories but as poor execution of them. They'll explain that this time they'll get it right...but they never do.
6/03/2010
6/02/2010
These 'Experts' Are Anything But
One thing that has always bothered me about the folks in Congress is their incredible ignorance and arrogance when it comes to technology and science. Very few members of Congress have the background or expertise to make law or policy on science and technology matters. Far too often they get it wrong, meaning the nation and the economy suffer for it. After all, what do they know?
I'm not saying that Congress shouldn't get involved with such issues. But they should be more willing to take the time to learn about them well before deciding anything. There are very few science or technology issues that require immediate action by Congress. Unfortunately Congress doesn't realize this, or worse, they don't care. It's all about posturing and politics and power and not about the actual issues.
People in general have little or no understanding of the technology they use every day, but at least they know they don't understand it and are willing to admit they don't understand it. All they know is that they can use it. Unfortunately Congress doesn't know that they don't know, and that's the problem. This false belief means they will, more often than not, come to the wrong conclusions about some scientific or technological issue. It also means that the rest of us will pay the price for their decisions, one way or another.
The answer, in a word, is obvious: they know pretty much nothing. What's worse is that they don't feel that ignorance should preclude them from talking until there is an initial technical investigation, done by some technically qualified people (from various reputable organizations). (We saw this same rush to judgment by the know-nothings after the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986.)
To me, all this is just another manifestation of the sad, ironic reality that engineers have made the incredibly difficult look way too easy. Everyone thinks it's all no big deal and not very hard, so it's easy to be an expert. It's happened in nearly all engineering and scientific disciplines.
I'm not saying that Congress shouldn't get involved with such issues. But they should be more willing to take the time to learn about them well before deciding anything. There are very few science or technology issues that require immediate action by Congress. Unfortunately Congress doesn't realize this, or worse, they don't care. It's all about posturing and politics and power and not about the actual issues.
Internet Explorer 6 - Well Past Its Prime
OK, dear readers, how many of you out there are still using Internet Explorer 6? If you are, why?
IE6 has to be the most targeted web browser for hacker exploits, even with the security patches provided by Microsoft. If you're still using it, it's time for a change. Just about any modern browser will be more secure than IE6.
We here at The Manse use Firefox 3.6.3 and we update it as soon as new updates are available. Microsoft has IE8. There's Opera, Chrome, Safari, and a whole host of other browsers out there. Pick one, try it, ands if you don't like it, try another one. But get rid of IE6 now.
Note: For full disclosure, at work we use both Firefox and IE6. The decision about IE6 is not ours, but that of our corporate IT folks. About the only thing we (meaning Engineering) use it for is some internal applications (Oracle, Microsoft Project Web Access, and one or two other corporate applications), but never for URLs outside the corporate proxy server.
IE6 has to be the most targeted web browser for hacker exploits, even with the security patches provided by Microsoft. If you're still using it, it's time for a change. Just about any modern browser will be more secure than IE6.
We here at The Manse use Firefox 3.6.3 and we update it as soon as new updates are available. Microsoft has IE8. There's Opera, Chrome, Safari, and a whole host of other browsers out there. Pick one, try it, ands if you don't like it, try another one. But get rid of IE6 now.
Note: For full disclosure, at work we use both Firefox and IE6. The decision about IE6 is not ours, but that of our corporate IT folks. About the only thing we (meaning Engineering) use it for is some internal applications (Oracle, Microsoft Project Web Access, and one or two other corporate applications), but never for URLs outside the corporate proxy server.
6/01/2010
Was It Only A Year Ago?
As Paul Ingrassia reminds us, today was the first anniversary of the GM bankruptcy. You know the one, where the White House subverted the Constitution, stiffing the bond holders and debtors and giving the proceeds to the UAW, who were in no way a debtor. What it was was a payoff to the unions for backing Obama, plain and simple. There's no other explanation I can find that makes any sense.
5/30/2010
Thoughts On A Sunday
Here we are in the second day of the Memorial Day Weekend, and we've had to modify our usual weekend activities. While we often have Sunday brunch at our favorite restaurant, we've decided not to do so this week as we already know it will be packed from the time it opens in the morning until it closes at 2 in the afternoon. (It might also have something to do with BeezleBub working at the farm today. He usually has Sundays off while school is in session, but with the three day weekend, he's working his first Sunday of the season.)
Miley has made the adjustment from a home filled with dogs to one filled with cats. She's already managed to school Henry, one of our more aggressive male cats, that she's no pushover and has sent him running off on more than one occasion. She's used to handling a pair of boxers, so dealing with him is no big deal for her.
She's still a little skittish with the others but has managed to reach a point where she gets along with at least two of her fellow residents: Bagheera (the old man of the bunch) and Pip (the youngest). She's still working things out with Minnie, the one cat that Miley most resembles in regards to temperament, affection, activities, and size.
As Eric writes, “If there's one thing more ridiculous than being King Canute, it's believing in King Canute.”
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
The second item was something quite simple: a boat seat cushion/throwable PFD (Personal Flotation Device). I have two on The Boat now, but a third one will come in handy. It was only one dollar and well worth every penny.
Now if I can find a few 4” fenders for The Boat....
(H/T HughS at Wizbang)
Apparently she wholeheartedly believes the BP oil spill in the Gulf is all George W. Bush's fault!
And Bush Derangement Syndrome lives on and on, a gift that keeps on giving to the Left.
But when have academics from the Left ever let facts get in their way?
New Hampshire has the same problem as the governor and the legislature have so far been unable to close a projected $295 million budget gap. At least the governor appears to understand that raising taxes any further is a non-starter, seeing as earlier tax and fee increases have not raised the revenues expected and have had the not unexpected side effect of hurting already struggling businesses and residents. Most of the people of New Hampshire understand how to fix the problem, but the folks in Concord aren't listening. The answer?
Cut spending until expenditures meet revenues.
The same answer applies in Vermont, but I have no doubt it will be ignored there as well.
Apparently all this stimulus spending is actually costing jobs, not creating them. At least that's what a study by the Harvard Business School reports.
Rather than being a solution to a perceived problem, it has become a problem in and of itself.
This is not what the American people wanted.
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The latest addition to our feline population has been settling in with little fuss.Miley has made the adjustment from a home filled with dogs to one filled with cats. She's already managed to school Henry, one of our more aggressive male cats, that she's no pushover and has sent him running off on more than one occasion. She's used to handling a pair of boxers, so dealing with him is no big deal for her.
She's still a little skittish with the others but has managed to reach a point where she gets along with at least two of her fellow residents: Bagheera (the old man of the bunch) and Pip (the youngest). She's still working things out with Minnie, the one cat that Miley most resembles in regards to temperament, affection, activities, and size.
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As if President Obama is getting hammered enough due to his wishy-washy and long delayed response to the oil spill in the Gulf, he's now being compared to King Canute.As Eric writes, “If there's one thing more ridiculous than being King Canute, it's believing in King Canute.”
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Is it possible claims made in a study about the loss of sea ice are erroneous, overstating the actual loss of summer ice?**********
I have to agree wholeheartedly with this comment to this post about refugees from communism have to say about the efforts of our Dear Leader to lead us down that particular rat hole.Delusion always has its place in the attempted creation of utopian states. The problem is that utopian states always end up being hell on earth. But that doesn't stop the deluded from trying.
Foreigners who have come here to be Americans because they experienced the wonderfulness of socialism and communism are appalled at the stupidity and ignorance of the utopianists here.
What was it like in Russia, the Ukraine, Czechaslovakia (sic), etc.? Was everyone "working together for the common good"? Or, was there a two percent who had fabulous living while the prols (sic) lived in third world misery as documented in their newly opened files?
At least here 10% have fabulous lives, 80% have nice lives, and 10% sit on their ass and bitch that their welfare checks aren't big enough because they only have one large screen color TV.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Skip Murphy keeps us up to date on his youngest's deployment to Afghanistan.**********
While I am not normally one to visit yard sales, I made an exception this weekend. One of my neighbors up the road (actually, up the hill) had a few items that fit in rather nicely with our needs. The first item we picked up was a nice leather office chair that brought our complement to a total of three in the Official Weekend Pundit Office, meaning there's now one chair for every computer in the room. Not bad for $20.The second item was something quite simple: a boat seat cushion/throwable PFD (Personal Flotation Device). I have two on The Boat now, but a third one will come in handy. It was only one dollar and well worth every penny.
Now if I can find a few 4” fenders for The Boat....
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Both Iowahawk and Kim Priestap prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Palin Derangement Syndrome is alive and well within the minds of Liberals.(H/T HughS at Wizbang)
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I knew it was only a matter of time, and Nancy Pelosi did not disappoint.Apparently she wholeheartedly believes the BP oil spill in the Gulf is all George W. Bush's fault!
And Bush Derangement Syndrome lives on and on, a gift that keeps on giving to the Left.
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It appears President Obama is so busy thinking about the Gulf oil spill and planning a tribute concert for Paul McCartney at the White House that he barely has enough time to snub Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. Considering his comments about Arizona's immigration law (the one that mirror's US federal law), one would think he'd at least make some time to talk to her about it when she's in Washington, keeping his continuously broken “reach across the aisle” campaign promise.**********
Claims by the academic Left that domestic terrorist are all a product of the Right notwithstanding, Blue Crab Boulevard looks at the claim and sounds the “B******t!” alarm and breaks down the list of the FBI's Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists and shows that all of them are from the Left.But when have academics from the Left ever let facts get in their way?
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Count Vermont among the states finding out they won't be able to keep all the social spending they've instituted over the years because tax revenues aren't keeping up to expenditures, nor are they likely to any time soon.New Hampshire has the same problem as the governor and the legislature have so far been unable to close a projected $295 million budget gap. At least the governor appears to understand that raising taxes any further is a non-starter, seeing as earlier tax and fee increases have not raised the revenues expected and have had the not unexpected side effect of hurting already struggling businesses and residents. Most of the people of New Hampshire understand how to fix the problem, but the folks in Concord aren't listening. The answer?
Cut spending until expenditures meet revenues.
The same answer applies in Vermont, but I have no doubt it will be ignored there as well.
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Who'da thunk it?Apparently all this stimulus spending is actually costing jobs, not creating them. At least that's what a study by the Harvard Business School reports.
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As the true costs and the non-health effects of ObamaCare have come to light, it has become quite apparent that its unintended consequences will have profound negative effects on the American economy as well as American society.Rather than being a solution to a perceived problem, it has become a problem in and of itself.
This is not what the American people wanted.
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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer has finally begun, the summerfolk have arrived in droves, and where we plan to make use of The Boat as much as possible this summer.5/29/2010
Let The Summer Fun Begin
BeezleBub and I managed to beat the Memorial Day Weekend holiday rush, launching the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout (aka The Boat) Thursday evening. Even so we had to wait in line to use the town boat ramp as there were two other town residents ahead of us, one launching their boat and the other pulling it out of the water. After a 20 minute wait (the fellow pulling his boat out of the water didn't realize he needed to winch it tight up against the bow stop while most of the weight was still supported by the water) we were backing The Boat down the ramp and, just like that, it was afloat and BeezleBub piloted it to one end of the two docks flanking the ramp.
A few minutes later we were motoring slowly to our slip in the nearby cove.
We got The Boat tied up at its slip and headed home.
Yesterday we took it out for a quick 30-minute shakedown cruise to make sure everything was working properly. We did find a couple of minor problems, including a loose connection on the gas gauge sender and a broken bezel on one of the instruments at the helm. One will be fixed over the weekend and the other will be fixed once the new bezel arrives.
All in all, not a bad start to the boating season.
The corporate jets started arriving at the local airport just past noon yesterday, signifying the well-heeled folks owning lakeside McMansions have made their appearances as well. This weekend also means the ever dreaded “summah people” have arrived as well. (I've covered these folks more than once, so I'm not going into any detail other than to describe them as obnoxious boors with some money who lack common sense or manners, and are condescending as hell towards year-round residents, seasonal tourism workers, local business owners, and the 'normal' summerfolk.)
It helps that some of those places happen to be close to where we dock The Boat, meaning we can sample the great summer fare while cruising the lake. There are a few places that are right on the water with their own docks, making it even more convenient.
(Am I being cruel? Not really. Just about every boater has experienced one or both of these oversights at one time or another during their years of boating. That being said, there are only two kinds of boaters out there: those that have done them, and those that will.)
One of the advantages of living here is that we can avail ourselves of the opportunities to head out on the lake during the week when the traffic will be a fraction of what it can be on weekends.
A few minutes later we were motoring slowly to our slip in the nearby cove.
We got The Boat tied up at its slip and headed home.
Yesterday we took it out for a quick 30-minute shakedown cruise to make sure everything was working properly. We did find a couple of minor problems, including a loose connection on the gas gauge sender and a broken bezel on one of the instruments at the helm. One will be fixed over the weekend and the other will be fixed once the new bezel arrives.
All in all, not a bad start to the boating season.
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This weekend also signals the unofficial beginning of summer, meaning a lot of the summerfolk are here, opening their camps and cottages (assuming they haven't done so already). Resort owners have also gotten their lodgings squared away, anticipating a decent summer...if the weather isn't a repeat of the last two summers, which both suffered from a plethora of rainy days in June and July.The corporate jets started arriving at the local airport just past noon yesterday, signifying the well-heeled folks owning lakeside McMansions have made their appearances as well. This weekend also means the ever dreaded “summah people” have arrived as well. (I've covered these folks more than once, so I'm not going into any detail other than to describe them as obnoxious boors with some money who lack common sense or manners, and are condescending as hell towards year-round residents, seasonal tourism workers, local business owners, and the 'normal' summerfolk.)
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This being the 'start' of summer, many of the local ice cream stands/burger-hot dog-lobster roll joints are now open all week long. This makes it easier for those of us working during the week to partake of their offerings during some of those long, nice-summer-day lunches we'll take between now and Labor Day.It helps that some of those places happen to be close to where we dock The Boat, meaning we can sample the great summer fare while cruising the lake. There are a few places that are right on the water with their own docks, making it even more convenient.
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One of our favorite summertime haunts is the town boat ramp. It may sound like a strange place to hang around, but the entertainment makes it worthwhile. The breadth of hilarious events as people launch their boats (or pull them out) never ceases to amaze me. The two most common occurrences that bring on barely suppressed laughter? Boaters forgetting to install bilge plugs that cause their boats to start filling with water the instant they're launched; and failure to remove the tie-down straps attaching at the stern of the boat to the trailer before backing them down the ramp. The ensuing scramble from these two oversights never ceases to amuse.(Am I being cruel? Not really. Just about every boater has experienced one or both of these oversights at one time or another during their years of boating. That being said, there are only two kinds of boaters out there: those that have done them, and those that will.)
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We stayed away from the lake today, and are likely to do the same on Sunday. The last thing we need is dealing with all the other boats out there, generating all kinds of wake-driven chop. It's no fun being out on the lake when the water is rough. It makes for an exhausting trip.One of the advantages of living here is that we can avail ourselves of the opportunities to head out on the lake during the week when the traffic will be a fraction of what it can be on weekends.
5/28/2010
It's Not Malice. It's Incompetence.
Brent stole my thunder, at least a little bit, when it comes to Obama and the increasing appearance that he's in over his head.
Obama talks a pretty good game, but when it comes to actually performing his duties as President of the United States he isn't walking the walk. Seeing that he's sided with Mexican President Calderon against Arizona's immigration law that mirrors the federal immigration law that goes back 70 years doesn't exactly endear him Middle America, either.
The economy was a shambles and what did Obama do? Spent almost a trillion dollars the government didn't have on half-assed 'stimulus' programs that did nothing but stimulate pork-barrel spending on a scale not seen since FDR, but did nothing to create anything but more government jobs. Then, rather than focusing his efforts on actual economic programs that would get government out of the way of economic recovery, he has Congress ramrod through a health care reform package that has had the effect of damaging economic recovery even more than if he did nothing, and in doing so will be spending trillions more the government doesn't have.
If this isn't incompetence, I don't know what is.
Then there's his latest show of incompetence: the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Some have called it Obama's 'Katrina', and they're right. It is just one more example of his many mistakes.
Obama has become a walking, talking object lesson, showing everyone, including the Democrats, how to lose public support in a very short period of time, even among your own party members. He's focused on the wrong issues, gone about trying to fix the wrong things at the wrong time using long disproven methods, while ignoring the public will at every turn. He has tried to ignore problems even the usually supportive MSM have been hammering him about.
Again, his performance during the Gulf oil spill has been, shall we say, underwhelming, as has been his responses to a number of other events. As Michelle Malkin puts it, “America has become accustomed to President Obama's crisis face: eyes glazed over.
Obama talks a pretty good game, but when it comes to actually performing his duties as President of the United States he isn't walking the walk. Seeing that he's sided with Mexican President Calderon against Arizona's immigration law that mirrors the federal immigration law that goes back 70 years doesn't exactly endear him Middle America, either.
The economy was a shambles and what did Obama do? Spent almost a trillion dollars the government didn't have on half-assed 'stimulus' programs that did nothing but stimulate pork-barrel spending on a scale not seen since FDR, but did nothing to create anything but more government jobs. Then, rather than focusing his efforts on actual economic programs that would get government out of the way of economic recovery, he has Congress ramrod through a health care reform package that has had the effect of damaging economic recovery even more than if he did nothing, and in doing so will be spending trillions more the government doesn't have.
If this isn't incompetence, I don't know what is.
Then there's his latest show of incompetence: the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Some have called it Obama's 'Katrina', and they're right. It is just one more example of his many mistakes.
It seems the every day duties and requirements of being President do not interest him. Then again, he's never really needed to actually perform the duties of the various offices he's held, being busy with running for the next higher office and all. But here he is, at the pinnacle of elective office in the United States, and he finds he actually has to work for a change. Somehow I doubt this is what he really signed up for. He's discovered he has to work every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and he's not liking it one bit. He's learned the Utopia he thought he'd be able to create once he got in office is beyond his abilities. The more he tries, the worst his failures become. It doesn't help that he's been leaving much of the decision making in regards to all the 'wonderful' programs and entitlements he believes the taxpayers should be funding in the hands of even less competent advisers and, even worse, Congressional leaders with less economic savvy than the average person on the street. He's living in a dream world.
I don't see how the president's position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president's political judgment and instincts.
There was the tearing and unnecessary war over his health-care proposal and its cost. There was his day-to-day indifference to the views and hopes of the majority of voters regarding illegal immigration. And now the past almost 40 days of dodging and dithering in the face of an environmental calamity. I don't see how you politically survive this.
The president, in my view, continues to govern in a way that suggests he is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen. This is a terrible thing to see in a political figure, and a startling thing in one who won so handily and shrewdly in 2008. But he has not, almost from the day he was inaugurated, been in sync with the center. The heart of the country is thinking each day about A, B and C, and he is thinking about X, Y and Z. They're in one reality, he's in another.
Never mind that history shows that every attempt to 'create' a utopian society has always ended in disaster, sometimes with far reaching consequences outside the society in question. Sometimes those consequences include the deaths of untold numbers of people wishing nothing more than to be left alone to live their lives. Others have tried internationalism (or at least their version of it) and it, too, ended with the deaths of millions. Such societies always have the tendency to appeal to the lowest common denominator, which has never been a good idea as it usually leads to despotism, corruption, diminution of the value of human life, and in the end, horror for those within the society.
An assessment of President Barack Obama's speech on Saturday to the graduating class at the United States Military Academy leads to one of only two possible conclusions:
Either Obama does not live in the real world, or he wants Americans to believe that they don't live in the real world.
Neither possibility is comforting.
The speech has been described as a repudiation of the doctrine of pre-emptive war to prevent attacks on U.S. soil, and so it is.
But it is so much more.
In what it contains, in what it ignores and in what it willfully misinterprets, it stands as a remarkably clear and forthright statement of the utopian mind.
The question of whether the president actually believes what he said is immaterial. The question that matters is how far this wistfully self-destructive longing for an internationalism that works will be allowed to drive American policy.
Obama has become a walking, talking object lesson, showing everyone, including the Democrats, how to lose public support in a very short period of time, even among your own party members. He's focused on the wrong issues, gone about trying to fix the wrong things at the wrong time using long disproven methods, while ignoring the public will at every turn. He has tried to ignore problems even the usually supportive MSM have been hammering him about.
Again, his performance during the Gulf oil spill has been, shall we say, underwhelming, as has been his responses to a number of other events. As Michelle Malkin puts it, “America has become accustomed to President Obama's crisis face: eyes glazed over.
It seemed to me that he really didn't care all that much because dealing with all these pesky Presidential duties is taking him away from the really important things, as he sees them. I'm not sure what those 'important' things are, but I doubt they really have anything to do with the good of the American people. Rather, could they be things that have to do with the good of Barack Obama? If his known history is any indicator, I'd have to say “Yes”. Then again, isn't that like anyone in over their heads, having reached their highest level of incompetence?
At his first press conference in 308 days, Obama fielded questions about the Gulf oil spill, immigration, the war in Afghanistan and the mounting outrage over Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak's job-trading allegations with a sluggishness bordering on geriatric. His aplomb was a bomb.
The commander-in-chief's mumbling, diffident tone contradicted the "I CARE" message of urgency that drifted across the teleprompter screen and rolled languidly off his tongue.
5/23/2010
Thoughts On A Sunday
A busy weekend for us all, especially for BeezleBub. He worked the farm all day Saturday and spent a good portion of the day today driving, working towards increasing the total of hours he needs in order to qualify for his drivers license. A good portion of that time was spent on the road between The Manse and the WP In-Laws in the southwestern part of the state. He also had a driving lesson later in the day.
If he's lucky he'll have his license by the end of June. It also means he'll be driving his Jeep, assuming all the work needed to get it ready to put back on the road is done.
The EPA also has a propensity to kill jobs for no good reason.
As the post says, “Kinsley got sloppy.” I'd say he also got lazy.
Here's a taste of what they have in store for us:
If nothing else this guy is a prime example of why we should lock down our borders and stop the flood of illegal immigrants.
About the only celebrity I've ever come across that also walks the environmentalist walk is Ed Begley, Jr. He doesn't just talk about environmentalism, he lives it.
(H/T Instapundit)
Mexico's protest is hypocritical considering its immigration laws are far more harsh and draconian than US law. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
If he's lucky he'll have his license by the end of June. It also means he'll be driving his Jeep, assuming all the work needed to get it ready to put back on the road is done.
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You know government is broken when bedbugs have more rights than humans.The EPA also has a propensity to kill jobs for no good reason.
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Pun Salad has the right of it: Michael Kinsley's article in The Atlantic about the Tea party and its many supporters was poorly researched and does not reflect the reality of the movement.As the post says, “Kinsley got sloppy.” I'd say he also got lazy.
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Bogie reminds us that if you have to hit a moose with a vehicle, it's best to hit one while driving a truck or SUV. Cars don't do very well against moose.**********
Could the type of rioting we saw in Greece in response to the government's austerity programs happen here? It appears the SEIU is working hard to make sure it does.Here's a taste of what they have in store for us:
As the article also goes on to say, in other parts of the country (specifically flyover country) such an action would be met with well deserved gunfire. That would certainly be the case if a bunch of union thugs tried that here at The Manse.
The SEIU sent four busloads of Washington D C protestors (sic) to a Bank of America attorney's home last week, where they stormed his property and had the homeowner's teenage son hiding in a bathroom until they left. Fortune Magazine's Nina Easton lived next door and documented the attack. As one blog commenter noted, there are thousands of towns and cities in flyover country where this sort of assault would not have ended well for the SEIU thugs. The union's leadership knew that, however (they had a District of Columbia police escort) and terrorized a citizen's home safe in the knowledge that no violence would be visited upon them.
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Cap'n Teach tells us the story of a rapist who also happens to be an illegal immigrant. What makes it worse is that this scumbag has been deported nine times yet he's still walking the streets.If nothing else this guy is a prime example of why we should lock down our borders and stop the flood of illegal immigrants.
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Count musician Dave Mathews as yet another celebrity environmentalist hypocrite.About the only celebrity I've ever come across that also walks the environmentalist walk is Ed Begley, Jr. He doesn't just talk about environmentalism, he lives it.
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In America's present culture war, which side will win: Free enterprise or Washington's version of Euro-socialism?(H/T Instapundit)
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Is it arrogance or hubris driving both Mexico and the racists in Washington DC to condemn Arizona for passing a law identical to federal immigration law? (Yes, I called the leftists in Washington racists because they do not actually believe all races are equal. Therefore, they believe all minorities need to be 'protected' by means of discriminatory laws that do not create equality but institutionalize racial discrimination against non-minorities.)Mexico's protest is hypocritical considering its immigration laws are far more harsh and draconian than US law. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
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Speaking of Arizona's immigration law, what about California's immigration law which closely resembles it? Why isn't Mexico or Arizona or Washington DC making a fuss over their law?**********
BeezleBub and I watched the season finale of Lost, or at least the first two hours of it which consisted of a retrospective of all six seasons. We'll watch the last two and a half hours some time tomorrow evening, as well as the Jimmy Kimmel special that will air after the late Sunday news.**********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer weather has reasserted itself, our boat is almost ready to launch, and where Memorial Day Weekend is fast approaching.5/22/2010
"Green" Economy A Pipe Dream
Isn't it ironic that just as President Obama plans to make a push for Cap-and-Trade in an effort to generate “green jobs” and develop alternative energy sources the Spanish are ready to abandon their efforts to do so?
Apparently the Spanish program has failed miserably, driving up energy costs, putting a big drain on their already fragile economy, while creating very few green jobs. Their intentions may have been good but the actual results have been poor, with none of the promised benefits materializing.
This is the program Obama wants to emulate? Even the Spanish know that isn't such a great idea.
Why is it our President feels the need to do everything he can to cripple the economy with pie-in-the-sky feel-good laws that, in the end, do far more harm than good? Until recently I would have said it was due to his blindness to the evils of socialism. Instead, I have to think that it is something far more basic: he's an incompetent surrounded by incompetents (his advisers).
As the old saw goes, “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
Obama may have book smarts, but he has never exhibited one ounce of intelligence or aptitude when it comes to governing the country. Then again, he never had any executive or economic experience before he was elected to the Oval Office. The only thing he's been good at has been getting elected.
Apparently the Spanish program has failed miserably, driving up energy costs, putting a big drain on their already fragile economy, while creating very few green jobs. Their intentions may have been good but the actual results have been poor, with none of the promised benefits materializing.
This is the program Obama wants to emulate? Even the Spanish know that isn't such a great idea.
But none of this has deterred Obama's plans to lay a heavy burden upon the American people and the American economy all in the name of “saving the planet.”
The president of the United States, Barack Obama, doesn’t seem to have chosen the right model to copy for his “green economy,” Spain. After the government of José LuÃs RodrÃguez Zapatero demonized a study of different experts about the fatal economic consequences of renewable energies, an internal document from the Spanish cabinet that it is even more negative has just been leaked.
The internal report of the Spanish administration admits that the price of electricity has gone up, as well as the debt, due to the extra costs of solar and wind energy. Even the government numbers indicate that each green job created costs more than 2.2 traditional jobs, as was shown in the report of the Juan de Mariana Institute.
Why is it our President feels the need to do everything he can to cripple the economy with pie-in-the-sky feel-good laws that, in the end, do far more harm than good? Until recently I would have said it was due to his blindness to the evils of socialism. Instead, I have to think that it is something far more basic: he's an incompetent surrounded by incompetents (his advisers).
As the old saw goes, “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
Obama may have book smarts, but he has never exhibited one ounce of intelligence or aptitude when it comes to governing the country. Then again, he never had any executive or economic experience before he was elected to the Oval Office. The only thing he's been good at has been getting elected.
5/21/2010
"All Is Well. ALL IS WELL!!"
Isn't it interesting that while the White House is telling us things are so much better that the Dow closed down almost 400 points on Thursday, dragging the rest of the world markets with it? Even with the recovery of one-third of Thursday's losses on Friday, the market is still jittery. Jobless claims are up and businesses are wary of claims that the economy is turning around, not willing to go out on a limb by investing what money they do have on something that so far appears to be wishful thinking.
I don't know about you, but a lot of the business owners I know aren't buying the “Economy's getting better” mantra. While a few of them have seen a slight uptick in business, most haven't.
The price of oil has dropped almost 20% since April. Even gas prices at the pump have been falling at a time when they usually rise. (The price locally hit $2.599/gallon today, down almost 20¢ since last week.) We should keep an eye on the price of gas as we approach Memorial Day weekend, which signals the unofficial start of the summer tourist season. It usually starts heading upwards in earnest in anticipation of the increase in demand usually seen between then and the end of August.
So far I'm not seeing much of a recovery, at least not here in New England.
I don't know about you, but a lot of the business owners I know aren't buying the “Economy's getting better” mantra. While a few of them have seen a slight uptick in business, most haven't.
The price of oil has dropped almost 20% since April. Even gas prices at the pump have been falling at a time when they usually rise. (The price locally hit $2.599/gallon today, down almost 20¢ since last week.) We should keep an eye on the price of gas as we approach Memorial Day weekend, which signals the unofficial start of the summer tourist season. It usually starts heading upwards in earnest in anticipation of the increase in demand usually seen between then and the end of August.
So far I'm not seeing much of a recovery, at least not here in New England.
5/18/2010
It's All George Bush's Fault
Now it's official: It's all George W. Bush's fault!
(H/T Instapundit)
Read. The. Whole. Thing.
Just one year ago, fresh from his inauguration celebrations, President Obama was flying high. After one of the nation’s most inspiring political campaigns, the election of America’s first black president had captured the hopes and dreams of millions. To his devout followers, it was inconceivable that a year later his administration would be gripped in self-imposed crisis.
Of course, they don’t see it as self imposed. It’s all George Bush’s fault.
George Bush, who doesn’t have a vote in Congress and who no longer occupies the White House, is to blame for it all.
He broke Obama’s promise to put all bills on the White House web site for five days before signing them.
He broke Obama’s promise to have the congressional health care negotiations broadcast live on C-SPAN.
He broke Obama’s promise to end earmarks.
He broke Obama’s promise to keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent.
--snip--
Yes, it’s all George Bush’s fault. President Obama is nothing more than a puppet in the never-ending, failed Bush administration.
(H/T Instapundit)
5/17/2010
Has The Laffer Curve Been Surpassed?
On a number of occasions I have mentioned the Laffer Curve, an illustration of the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues and how once tax rates fall above or below a certain point tax revenues fall off. It is a simplistic illustration but no less correct for its simplicity. Simply stated, if the tax rate for a given tax is either 0% or 100%, the amount of revenue collected will be zero. As the tax rate moves away from either extreme the amount of revenue increases. The trick is to figure out the magic tax rate that maximizes the revenue collected. And that magic number will be different depending on what kind of tax is being imposed, meaning the tax rate on income that maximizes revenue will be entirely different from the tax rate on sales of goods and services, and so on.
It can be argued that the taxes we pay to the federal government are well above the sweet spot, meaning that when the government increases taxes the expected revenues will not meet projections. Others seem to believe no tax rate is too high and that the rich, meaning those of us with jobs that actually pay taxes, should have even more of our money taken from us to fund things we neither need or want.
Now comes what is being called Hauser's Law, which states that regardless of the total tax burden of the American taxpayers (this includes all taxes imposed, and not just on individuals), the revenues collected will be less than 20% of Gross Domestic Product. The chart below, created by using the National Income Accounting method rather than the CBO or OMB methods, shows that since 1929 the revenues collected have always been below 20% of the GDP. (The chart isn't all that clear, but it is readable...sort of.)
Click on image to enlarge
As tax rates increase economic activity slows when billions are siphoned out of the economy and used for non-wealth producing activities. The more money siphoned out of the economy, the more economic growth declines and the less revenue is collected by the government. Hauser's Law implies the Laffer Curve, showing revenues fall as taxes rise or fall above a certain point.
But we know that won't stop our tax and spend Congress from taxing the hell out of everything that moves in an effort to pay for all the 'free' programs they and the President are trying to shove down our throats. Too bad they'll be limited by Hauser's Law, meaning they'll keep spending far more than they will ever be capable of collecting in taxes.
It can be argued that the taxes we pay to the federal government are well above the sweet spot, meaning that when the government increases taxes the expected revenues will not meet projections. Others seem to believe no tax rate is too high and that the rich, meaning those of us with jobs that actually pay taxes, should have even more of our money taken from us to fund things we neither need or want.
Now comes what is being called Hauser's Law, which states that regardless of the total tax burden of the American taxpayers (this includes all taxes imposed, and not just on individuals), the revenues collected will be less than 20% of Gross Domestic Product. The chart below, created by using the National Income Accounting method rather than the CBO or OMB methods, shows that since 1929 the revenues collected have always been below 20% of the GDP. (The chart isn't all that clear, but it is readable...sort of.)
As tax rates increase economic activity slows when billions are siphoned out of the economy and used for non-wealth producing activities. The more money siphoned out of the economy, the more economic growth declines and the less revenue is collected by the government. Hauser's Law implies the Laffer Curve, showing revenues fall as taxes rise or fall above a certain point.
Far too often those projections fall victim to the Law of Unintended Consequences, where higher taxes on some economic activity discourages that activity, in turn lessening the activity being taxed and reducing the revenues expected. (Ayn Rand wrote about that over 50 years ago in Atlas Shrugged, though she's not the first to do so.)
What's the origin of this limit beyond which it is impossible to extract any more revenue from tax payers? The tax base is not something that the government can kick around at will. It represents a living economic system that makes its own collective choices. In a tax code of 70,000 pages there are innumerable ways for high-income earners to seek out and use ambiguities and loopholes. The more they are incentivized to make an effort to game the system, the less the federal government will get to collect. That would explain why, as Mr. [W. Kurt] Hauser has shown, conventional methods of forecasting tax receipts from increases in future tax rates are prone to over-predict revenue.
But we know that won't stop our tax and spend Congress from taxing the hell out of everything that moves in an effort to pay for all the 'free' programs they and the President are trying to shove down our throats. Too bad they'll be limited by Hauser's Law, meaning they'll keep spending far more than they will ever be capable of collecting in taxes.
5/16/2010
Thoughts On A Sunday
It's been a good weekend with great weather. While we didn't do anything earth shattering, at least the housework got done and BeezleBub made a big dent in the work needed to get the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout ready for launching on the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend.
But for the most part I was really lazy, not doing all that much yesterday (some laundry and dishes were the about the extent of my exertions), I mostly read and napped. I'm not usually the napping type, but I've been dragging ass since Friday afternoon and felt tired even after a good night's sleep.
Do I feel guilty about it? Nope, not one bit. It's not like I do this on a regular basis so I figure a day like this once or twice a year can't hurt.
Yeah. Right.
I have to admit that it will be a bittersweet moment for me when he finally gets his driver's license because I won't have to get up quite so early to drive him to school during the week or to the farm on the weekends and during the summer. But it also means that he won't need me or Deb to drive him anymore, meaning he will be far less dependent on his parents than he has been.
While I have never denied that climate change has been taking place, I have been a firm skeptic when it comes to the claim the general warming trend over the past 100 years or so Is-All-The-Fault-Of-The-Evil-Humans.
Being the engineering type that I am, I have a pretty good head for analyzing data (though not nearly as good as Burt Rutan) and for understanding trends, both short and long term. How anyone can say “We're all DOOMED!” because warming has been taking place over the past 150 years is beyond me. Temps have been warmer than what we see now and human civilization didn't end (the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods). But the little Ice Age damn near did, particularly as it helped bring on the Black Plague which wiped out a sizable percentage of the European population.
Another thing, no one, and I mean no one has been able to prove the claim that warmer temperatures will bring about all the weather cataclysms. It's all conjecture based upon wishful thinking. (Remember the claims that the warmer weather we've seen will bring about more devastating and powerful hurricanes in greater numbers? But instead we've been seeing smaller storms and fewer of them.
I could go on and on, but that's best left for a future post.
I wish these guys would make up their minds.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
But for the most part I was really lazy, not doing all that much yesterday (some laundry and dishes were the about the extent of my exertions), I mostly read and napped. I'm not usually the napping type, but I've been dragging ass since Friday afternoon and felt tired even after a good night's sleep.
Do I feel guilty about it? Nope, not one bit. It's not like I do this on a regular basis so I figure a day like this once or twice a year can't hurt.
Yeah. Right.
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BeezleBub had his first driving lesson today with the Driver's Ed teacher. He's been driving with me for the past few months and has been doing pretty well. It helps that he's been driving various farm machinery over the past couple of years at the farm, including a number of the larger tractors, as well as his grandfather's tractor over the past seven or eight years, so he's had the basic mechanics of it down pretty well.I have to admit that it will be a bittersweet moment for me when he finally gets his driver's license because I won't have to get up quite so early to drive him to school during the week or to the farm on the weekends and during the summer. But it also means that he won't need me or Deb to drive him anymore, meaning he will be far less dependent on his parents than he has been.
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I still see the regular 'reports' on the MSM about anthropogenic global warming and how we have to “do something” to keep us from destroying the planet. One would thing these bozos would be pulling back from that old propagandist mantra now that much of the 'science' has been unsettled.While I have never denied that climate change has been taking place, I have been a firm skeptic when it comes to the claim the general warming trend over the past 100 years or so Is-All-The-Fault-Of-The-Evil-Humans.
Being the engineering type that I am, I have a pretty good head for analyzing data (though not nearly as good as Burt Rutan) and for understanding trends, both short and long term. How anyone can say “We're all DOOMED!” because warming has been taking place over the past 150 years is beyond me. Temps have been warmer than what we see now and human civilization didn't end (the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods). But the little Ice Age damn near did, particularly as it helped bring on the Black Plague which wiped out a sizable percentage of the European population.
Another thing, no one, and I mean no one has been able to prove the claim that warmer temperatures will bring about all the weather cataclysms. It's all conjecture based upon wishful thinking. (Remember the claims that the warmer weather we've seen will bring about more devastating and powerful hurricanes in greater numbers? But instead we've been seeing smaller storms and fewer of them.
I could go on and on, but that's best left for a future post.
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On the other hand there are scientists warning that there will be food and ethanol shortages as Earth's climate cools.I wish these guys would make up their minds.
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I wonder when/if the Obama Administration will stop blaming Bush for every failure that has occurred during Obama's time in office? It seems folks are even trying to lay the blame for the BP oil platform disaster and following oils spill on Bush. By that kind of reasoning, the claim could be made that 9/11 was all Bill Clinton's fault. But you never once heard the Bush Administration making such a claim, did you?(H/T Pirate's Cove)
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And that's the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we don't have an oil spill to deal with, the weather is warm again, and boating season starts (for us) sometime in the next two weeks.5/14/2010
Innovation - Being Bred Out Of America?
In the years I've been working in the high tech industry I've seen wondrous innovations created by a select few that were truly mind-boggling. Sometimes it would be the application of a new technology or the use of an existing technology in a fashion the creators had never envisioned.
It is innovation that has driven the US economy for decades, something that rolled on year after year. Unfortunately the conditions that allowed Americans to innovate such things has slowly been dismantled, primarily by those not understanding the creative process. They have tried to mandate innovation and schedule it, all to no avail. It doesn't work like that.
Today not enough people are asking either of those questions because they would never make it past management, so they don't bother.
There's a story told about Henry Ford when he was showing some stockholders around one of his factories. As he was escorting them around they passed by an office in which a man was sitting behind a desk, leaning back in his chair, his feet on top of the desk and his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. When asked by one of the incredulous stockholders why the man they saw wasn't working, Ford replied, “He is working. He's thinking. The last time he thought he saved this company almost $2 million.” ($2 million back then was equivalent to $23 million today.) The man was an innovator, finding new and better ways to do things. Most of his innovation process consisted of sitting back and pondering over a problem until he came up with a solution. It didn't matter if it took him a lot of time to do so, because in the end he helped the company make more money by making it less costly to build automobiles.
It is innovation that has driven the US economy for decades, something that rolled on year after year. Unfortunately the conditions that allowed Americans to innovate such things has slowly been dismantled, primarily by those not understanding the creative process. They have tried to mandate innovation and schedule it, all to no avail. It doesn't work like that.
Innovation isn't always about asking “What if?” It's also about “Why not?”
Managers need to hire innovative people if they want to get innovative ideas. But innovative people will be dreamers and tinkerers who often make mistakes and are not rigorous in their documentation or calculations. They refuse to wear the blinders required to complete day-to-day tasks. They become obsessed with ideas and work in bursts. If they can be paired with detail-obsessed workers who will document and keep projects on track, companies will get good products.
Unfortunately, we are plagued with managers who traded imagination for ambition and got ahead through aggression and checking boxes. These people create innovation programs that require committee approval before each step, so only the safest and most-obvious changes ever get through.
Today not enough people are asking either of those questions because they would never make it past management, so they don't bother.
There's a story told about Henry Ford when he was showing some stockholders around one of his factories. As he was escorting them around they passed by an office in which a man was sitting behind a desk, leaning back in his chair, his feet on top of the desk and his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. When asked by one of the incredulous stockholders why the man they saw wasn't working, Ford replied, “He is working. He's thinking. The last time he thought he saved this company almost $2 million.” ($2 million back then was equivalent to $23 million today.) The man was an innovator, finding new and better ways to do things. Most of his innovation process consisted of sitting back and pondering over a problem until he came up with a solution. It didn't matter if it took him a lot of time to do so, because in the end he helped the company make more money by making it less costly to build automobiles.
5/11/2010
"Liberal" Defined
From IMAO comes this present day definition of the term liberal:
One of the comments breaks it down even more with this:
Someone who’s still angry about slavery 145 years after it ended, but wants you to “get over 9/11″.
Yup. I'd say that pretty much says it all.
“So, you going to tell me that demanding that everyone has proof of health insurance on them is constitutional, but expecting proof of citizenship is not?”
5/09/2010
Thoughts On A Sunday
It's been a not so great weekend, weather wise. It was rainy and windy yesterday and cold and windy today, meaning neither day was good for working out of doors. No yard work was done, nor any
pre-launch work on the boat completed.
About the only thing we managed to get done was the week's laundry.
Miley, a three-legged cat originally belonging to a friend of ours needed a new home because she wasn't getting along with our friend's dogs. So we told her we'd take Miley where the worst thing she might have to deal with was the crowding around the supper dishes when we doled out The Wonderful Food (IAMS wet cat food, given more as an appetizer rather than the main course).
We picked her up this afternoon and once here she quickly made her initial rounds. Then holed up behind the washing machine for the rest of the day.
At least the other felines here didn't seem to have any problems with her. Charlotte, our last addition to the family, already knew Miley because the same friend had found her abandoned in a foreclosed home and fostered her until we were able to take her.
I think the school principal should be fired for caving to such racist PC bulls**t. He doesn't seem to realize that in this country we have something called free speech. Wearing the American flag on a tee shirt in America is part of that freedom of speech.
Skip Murphy over at GraniteGrok and I have been in a competition to see which one of us will reach our target weight of 195 pounds first. (I think it will probably be him.) The only thing I did for my diet was cut out as many processed carbohydrates as I can and I've watched the weight drop off my frame. The few times I slipped the weight loss stopped or even reversed slightly. The rest of my diet has included both saturated and unsaturated fats, protein (in the form of beef, chicken, and pork), and some of the dense nutrition carbohydrates (broccoli, spinach, kale, green beans, etc).
There's also this: both my total cholesterol and HDL/LDL ratio have improved greatly since I dropped the processed carbs from my diet.
That doesn't mean I won't avail myself of cake, ice cream, or fries now and then, but those times will be few and far between.
(H/T Volohk Conspiracy)
I have to agree with both the article and some of those commenting that my home state of New Hampshire is totally bad-ass as compared to Vermont. Heck, it's bad-ass as compared to most states. Even our state flag is bad-ass.
Those states more bad-ass than New Hampshire? Texas and Alaska.
(H/T Bogieblog)
Unlike some states, this one believes in the freedom of speech and freedom of the press, even if the 'press' is some guy in his pajamas blogging about the events of the day.
I have to agree with a number of points brought up in the post. I also have to add that far too many times I've been in a debate with a self-professed liberal and more often than not they've prefaced their 'talking points' with the phrase “I feel that....” I've responded to that phrasing with the retort “I don't care how you feel about [place subject du jour here]. I want to know what you think about it.” And more often than not they've responded with “What's the difference?”
At that point I know any further discussion is a waste of time because they are incapable of using logic. All they have going for them is emotion and that's an always disastrous basis for making any kind of decision that affects dozens/hundreds/thousands/millions of people. It doesn't have anything to do with their level of education as they let their emotions override their thinking.
pre-launch work on the boat completed.
About the only thing we managed to get done was the week's laundry.
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Believe it or not we've added yet another feline member to our family here at The Manse.Miley, a three-legged cat originally belonging to a friend of ours needed a new home because she wasn't getting along with our friend's dogs. So we told her we'd take Miley where the worst thing she might have to deal with was the crowding around the supper dishes when we doled out The Wonderful Food (IAMS wet cat food, given more as an appetizer rather than the main course).
We picked her up this afternoon and once here she quickly made her initial rounds. Then holed up behind the washing machine for the rest of the day.
At least the other felines here didn't seem to have any problems with her. Charlotte, our last addition to the family, already knew Miley because the same friend had found her abandoned in a foreclosed home and fostered her until we were able to take her.
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I still haven't figured out the reasoning behind this, where apparently it's disrespectful to wear an American flag tee shirt...in America.I think the school principal should be fired for caving to such racist PC bulls**t. He doesn't seem to realize that in this country we have something called free speech. Wearing the American flag on a tee shirt in America is part of that freedom of speech.
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This is something I've known for quite some time: Carbs are worse for us than fat.Skip Murphy over at GraniteGrok and I have been in a competition to see which one of us will reach our target weight of 195 pounds first. (I think it will probably be him.) The only thing I did for my diet was cut out as many processed carbohydrates as I can and I've watched the weight drop off my frame. The few times I slipped the weight loss stopped or even reversed slightly. The rest of my diet has included both saturated and unsaturated fats, protein (in the form of beef, chicken, and pork), and some of the dense nutrition carbohydrates (broccoli, spinach, kale, green beans, etc).
There's also this: both my total cholesterol and HDL/LDL ratio have improved greatly since I dropped the processed carbs from my diet.
That doesn't mean I won't avail myself of cake, ice cream, or fries now and then, but those times will be few and far between.
(H/T Volohk Conspiracy)
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If you have a problem telling New Hampshire and Vermont apart, here's a guide that will help you do just that.I have to agree with both the article and some of those commenting that my home state of New Hampshire is totally bad-ass as compared to Vermont. Heck, it's bad-ass as compared to most states. Even our state flag is bad-ass.
Those states more bad-ass than New Hampshire? Texas and Alaska.
(H/T Bogieblog)
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Speaking of New Hampshire, here's another thing that can be considered bad-ass: The New Hampshire Supreme Court has handed down a decision that states bloggers have many of the same rights as the conventional media, i.e. the Main Stream Media.Unlike some states, this one believes in the freedom of speech and freedom of the press, even if the 'press' is some guy in his pajamas blogging about the events of the day.
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Also from Wizbang: Could it be that maybe liberals are just plain stupid?I have to agree with a number of points brought up in the post. I also have to add that far too many times I've been in a debate with a self-professed liberal and more often than not they've prefaced their 'talking points' with the phrase “I feel that....” I've responded to that phrasing with the retort “I don't care how you feel about [place subject du jour here]. I want to know what you think about it.” And more often than not they've responded with “What's the difference?”
At that point I know any further discussion is a waste of time because they are incapable of using logic. All they have going for them is emotion and that's an always disastrous basis for making any kind of decision that affects dozens/hundreds/thousands/millions of people. It doesn't have anything to do with their level of education as they let their emotions override their thinking.
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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has not been cooperating, the good weather is returning for the workweek, and where once again Monday has returned all too soon.5/08/2010
Greece - An Object Lesson For Anyone Paying Attenetion
It's bad when the folks running the government here in the US choose to ignore what's happening in other socialist countries (something they're trying very hard to turn the US in to) in regards to what occurs when the socialist system runs out of other people's money to pay for all the services and entitlements the system put into place.
Greece is merely the latest example of that, where the government can no longer support all those people they've made dependent upon the state for everything. The proles are upset now that the Greek government is broke and is putting austerity programs into effect, cutting budgets with a meat ax and doing likewise with entitlements (pensions, health care, unemployment, graft, corruption, and a whole host of other things that go along with a socialist state).
When the proles found out that the nanny state could no longer pay for all those neat things they were used to getting for 'free', they revolted, rioting in the streets and burning a bank (or two or three). It is somewhat reminiscent of the collapse of the ultimate socialist state, the Soviet Union, when the biggest socialist experiment in history came to an end after 74 years because their economy collapsed, mostly because of their economic model was seriously flawed (We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us). Unfortunately Greece followed a similar model and we can all see how that's worked out.
Now Greece expects the rest of the EU (and the US) to bail them out of the economic problems of their own making. Frankly, I don't think anyone should bail them out because they won't learn anything if we do. All a bailout will do is delay the inevitable: another request/demand for another bailout later. Greece will have no real incentive to fix their economic problems if they know the EU and/or the US will come to their rescue. All it will do is make them as dependent on us as their people have become dependent on them. They'll still be using other people's money to fund their bankrupt policies. It will be a vicious cycle that will merely prolong the pain.
It's a scenario we could easily fall into if we follow the same path. But we'll have no recourse but to bite the bullet and discard socialism as the failed experiment it is because there will be no one out there capable of bailing us out. Greece is an object lesson that far too many in Washington are ignoring as much as possible because it goes against everything they've been indoctrinated to believe. Heaven forbid if their utopian vision should be proven to be nothing more than a pipe dream.
Greece is merely the latest example of that, where the government can no longer support all those people they've made dependent upon the state for everything. The proles are upset now that the Greek government is broke and is putting austerity programs into effect, cutting budgets with a meat ax and doing likewise with entitlements (pensions, health care, unemployment, graft, corruption, and a whole host of other things that go along with a socialist state).
When the proles found out that the nanny state could no longer pay for all those neat things they were used to getting for 'free', they revolted, rioting in the streets and burning a bank (or two or three). It is somewhat reminiscent of the collapse of the ultimate socialist state, the Soviet Union, when the biggest socialist experiment in history came to an end after 74 years because their economy collapsed, mostly because of their economic model was seriously flawed (We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us). Unfortunately Greece followed a similar model and we can all see how that's worked out.
Now Greece expects the rest of the EU (and the US) to bail them out of the economic problems of their own making. Frankly, I don't think anyone should bail them out because they won't learn anything if we do. All a bailout will do is delay the inevitable: another request/demand for another bailout later. Greece will have no real incentive to fix their economic problems if they know the EU and/or the US will come to their rescue. All it will do is make them as dependent on us as their people have become dependent on them. They'll still be using other people's money to fund their bankrupt policies. It will be a vicious cycle that will merely prolong the pain.
It's a scenario we could easily fall into if we follow the same path. But we'll have no recourse but to bite the bullet and discard socialism as the failed experiment it is because there will be no one out there capable of bailing us out. Greece is an object lesson that far too many in Washington are ignoring as much as possible because it goes against everything they've been indoctrinated to believe. Heaven forbid if their utopian vision should be proven to be nothing more than a pipe dream.
5/06/2010
Blacks Running For Congress...As Republicans
Could this be President Obama's worst nightmare? Could it be the Democrats may suffer from their own version of A Nightmare On Elm Street?
The answer is yes should these Republicans succeed in their efforts to gain the title of House Representative.
Of course should a wholesale defeat of a large number of Democrats take place in November I expect the Democrat leadership to say something along the lines of “Obviously the electorate didn't understand our plans and failed to appreciate the new direction we're trying to move this country,” or “The voters were stupid and bought the TEA party rhetoric hook, line, and sinker.” But they would never admit they were wrong or that the American people didn't want this country to become another dystopian socialist economic hellhole the Democrats have been trying so hard to create.
The answer is yes should these Republicans succeed in their efforts to gain the title of House Representative.
While Democrat leaders try to downplay the chances of black Republicans running against incumbent Democrats, they are overlooking the increasing anger against Congress, and Democrats in particular. I have a feeling far too many Democrats feel that the American people will have gotten over the anger caused by Democrats in Congress (and the White House) ignoring the will of a majority of Americans and shifting the course of US hard to the left. Come November quite a few Congressional Democrats may find they're out of a job, with some of them replaced by conservative blacks.
Among the many reverberations of President Obama's election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials.
The House has not had a black Republican since 2003, when J. C. Watts of Oklahoma left after eight years.
But now black Republicans are running across the country — from a largely white swath of beach communities in Florida to the suburbs of Phoenix, where an African-American candidate has raised more money than all but two of his nine (white) Republican competitors in the primary.
Of course should a wholesale defeat of a large number of Democrats take place in November I expect the Democrat leadership to say something along the lines of “Obviously the electorate didn't understand our plans and failed to appreciate the new direction we're trying to move this country,” or “The voters were stupid and bought the TEA party rhetoric hook, line, and sinker.” But they would never admit they were wrong or that the American people didn't want this country to become another dystopian socialist economic hellhole the Democrats have been trying so hard to create.
5/04/2010
Road Rage Incident: Cops 2, Miscreants 0
Who says there's never a cop around when you need one?
As these two teens found out, a cop could be the guy in the car in front of you that you just harassed and threatened in a road rage incident.
My son is acquainted with one of the teens involved in the incident and was not surprised to find out he was involved. I know the police officer they threatened (he lives just down the street from us), and know he's a pretty cool customer.
Let's hope these two jerks learned a valuable lesson. But if what my son told me about one of them is true, it's unlikely.
As these two teens found out, a cop could be the guy in the car in front of you that you just harassed and threatened in a road rage incident.
Apparently they didn't like seeing the officer's car in front of them even though he had passed them while they were driving well under the speed limit. So they sped up, followed him home, and threatened him with a baseball bat once he pulled into his driveway.
Two teens who allegedly followed, then threatened an off-duty police officer at his home after a road rage incident were arrested Friday night.
My son is acquainted with one of the teens involved in the incident and was not surprised to find out he was involved. I know the police officer they threatened (he lives just down the street from us), and know he's a pretty cool customer.
Let's hope these two jerks learned a valuable lesson. But if what my son told me about one of them is true, it's unlikely.
5/02/2010
Thoughts On A Sunday
The farm where BeezleBub works opened its farm stand yesterday. Goodness knows it was perfect weather for it, with temps in the 80's and mostly sunny from mid-morning onwards.
BeezleBub put in a full week in at the farm this past week, it being school vacation week. He's already looking forward to the end of school and the start of summer, as are Deb and I.
It would have been nice if it had been ready to go this weekend, considering the great weather we've had the past three days. But there's no way we could have gotten it ready to go in such a short time.
Still it would have been nice.
The most egregious? How about this:
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
It appears Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has asked the World Court to overturn the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
What's next, the First Amendment?
Apparently Daley has forgotten he swore to protect and defend the Constitution when took the oath of office...unless the Chicago oath is a whole lot different from those in the rest of the nation. (That might explain a few things if true.)
Daley is learning the same lesson the folks in Washington, DC learned so long ago: An unarmed population insures a high violent crime and murder rate.
When it comes to what a great majority of Americans believe are important (jobs, the economy, the deficit), the Democrats choose to ignore those concerns and instead tackle issues that Americans see as secondary or tertiary issues (health care reform, financial reform, cap-and-trade).
With that kind of focus is it any wonder why it's possible Democrats could be tossed out of Congress in large numbers come November?
BeezleBub put in a full week in at the farm this past week, it being school vacation week. He's already looking forward to the end of school and the start of summer, as are Deb and I.
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The Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout is finally out from under the winter storage cover. The support frame is still up but will be dismantled some time during the week. Over the next two or three weeks the post-storage maintenance and clean up will be done and, assuming no setbacks, it will make its trip to the lake and its summer berth right around Memorial Day weekend.It would have been nice if it had been ready to go this weekend, considering the great weather we've had the past three days. But there's no way we could have gotten it ready to go in such a short time.
Still it would have been nice.
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Bogie relates tales from her census training, listing some of the things the students in the class knew to be true...but weren't.The most egregious? How about this:
Not surprising, somehow. But it's disappointing to see how many people out there have been thoroughly brainwashed and are now incapable of thinking for themselves.
Tea Partiers: They are likely to shoot any Census worker (or government employee for that matter) as to look at them. You will be lucky to leave with only a couple of scratches if you have to interview one of THOSE people. They will be hostile because they hate government and want to have anarchy.
No, this wasn't taught by the Census Bureau or any of it's Supervisors or Crew Leaders. This was common knowledge amongst the students. Out of 17 students, the only people that had a different opinion were myself and a farmer (as far as I could tell, I didn't really stick my neck out on this) Also, I couldn't tell about a couple of the college kids - but everyone older than 25 (besides myself and the farmer) were very addament (sic) that Tea Partiers were basically the lunatic fringe and dangerous.
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One more than one occasion recently, the Obama Administration's response to the oil rig disaster and the resulting oil leak may be seen as its version of Hurricane Katrina. In other words, the government response has been damn slow. That's surprising considering the administrations quick actions in other areas over the past 16-some months.It's one thing when they can posture and make moves to take over entire industries. It's another thing when the government actually has to perform and fails to do so.
This administration has plans to use or already has used its power to muscle its way into the business of public and private institutions with impunity.
Now, when a serious accident happens, where the federal government has a responsibility to get involved, act quickly, mobilize its assets, and obtain the best, most comprehensive information it can possibly get, we are lead to believe that this particular administration is willing to take the word of British Petroleum with no follow-up procedures or tools to prove the veracity of this information?
Amazingly hypocritical when one considers just how hostile this administration has been in its demonization of "Big Oil."
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Senator Chris Dodd's (D-CT) financial reform bill is supposed to help protect taxpayers from future bank and insurance company bailouts, amongst other things. But as one looks at the details, it appears it rolls back a number of existing protections and gives a number of insurance companies a pass. Coincidentally, those insurance companies are headquartered in Dodd's home state.**********
It isn't just American citizens who are fed up with illegal immigrants. So are legal immigrants.(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Oh, yeah, like this will play well in Peoria.It appears Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has asked the World Court to overturn the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
What's next, the First Amendment?
Apparently Daley has forgotten he swore to protect and defend the Constitution when took the oath of office...unless the Chicago oath is a whole lot different from those in the rest of the nation. (That might explain a few things if true.)
Daley is learning the same lesson the folks in Washington, DC learned so long ago: An unarmed population insures a high violent crime and murder rate.
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Q&O asks “Why are Democrats so tone deaf?”When it comes to what a great majority of Americans believe are important (jobs, the economy, the deficit), the Democrats choose to ignore those concerns and instead tackle issues that Americans see as secondary or tertiary issues (health care reform, financial reform, cap-and-trade).
With that kind of focus is it any wonder why it's possible Democrats could be tossed out of Congress in large numbers come November?
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Frank J. gives us some interesting facts gleaned from Fred Thompson's new book, Teaching The Pig To Dance.As the saying goes, Read The Whole Thing.
FUN FACTS ABOUT YOUNG FRED THOMPSON
* Young Fred Thompson was always getting in trouble for sneaking up and tackling grizzly bears, and it got to the point that they could never maul anyone in peace.
* Young Fred Thompson’s elementary school science project nearly destroyed the sun.
* The first time Young Fred Thompson experienced taxes was when he was charged sales tax on a pack of gum, and he became so enraged that eventually the national guard had to be called in to stop him. The incident was what Rambo: First Blood was loosely based on.
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And that he news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer-like weather has returned, farm stands and ice cream joints have opened for the season, and where boats have been venturing out on to the lake.5/01/2010
An Employer's Memo To Employees Explaining The Law Of Unintended Consequences
Back in June 2008, I predicted the Law of Unintended Consequences would assert itself in regards to the increase of the minimum wage.
Time has proven me right.
A sign of those unintended consequences can be seen in a memo from an employer to his employees, explaining why he's cut back on their hours across the board even though he wishes he could give them all the hours they'd like.
This is yet another example of how government intervention in the economy has a negative effect that far outweighs any possible positive effect that was the justification for such intervention. Something as simple as raising the minimum wage 40% over three years can turn a money-making business into a money-losing business is very short order. I don't of any business (other than government) that can absorb a 40% increase in labor costs and not suffer the consequences.
Time has proven me right.
A sign of those unintended consequences can be seen in a memo from an employer to his employees, explaining why he's cut back on their hours across the board even though he wishes he could give them all the hours they'd like.
This is yet another example of how government intervention in the economy has a negative effect that far outweighs any possible positive effect that was the justification for such intervention. Something as simple as raising the minimum wage 40% over three years can turn a money-making business into a money-losing business is very short order. I don't of any business (other than government) that can absorb a 40% increase in labor costs and not suffer the consequences.
4/27/2010
Tech Tuesday - I Thought It Was Supposed To Protect Computers
Like any bit of software, there are times when updates or upgrades can cause far more problems than they were meant to prevent. Sometimes the new problems are minor in scope and very few users will notice them. Other rimes the new problems will bring a computer system to its knees.
Such was the case with a recent update pushed out by the the folks at McAfee, the anti-virus software company.
Fortunately my recently resurrected main computer was still off-line when the accidentally malicious software update was released, so it did not suffer the fate of so many other XP machines. (A note: my main computer also runs Linux, thank goodness). None of the other machines here at The Manse use McAfee (Deb's computer uses AVG and the other computers, which run Linux, use ClamAV).
Such was the case with a recent update pushed out by the the folks at McAfee, the anti-virus software company.
Um...Oops?
Many companies and people on Thursday [April 21] were fixing thousands of Windows PCs that went haywire as a result of a seriously flawed software update sent by antivirus vendor McAfee.
The update distributed at 3 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday misclassified a critical Windows XP system file, called svchost.exe, as a malicious program. As a result, McAfee's AV software was instructed to detect and remove the threat, sending affected PCs into fits of rebooting that made the machines useless.
Fortunately my recently resurrected main computer was still off-line when the accidentally malicious software update was released, so it did not suffer the fate of so many other XP machines. (A note: my main computer also runs Linux, thank goodness). None of the other machines here at The Manse use McAfee (Deb's computer uses AVG and the other computers, which run Linux, use ClamAV).
4/25/2010
Thoughts On A Sunday
BeezleBub's school vacation started this weekend and he headed off to the WP-In Laws for a couple of days before spending the rest of the week working at the farm.
He spent Saturday and Sunday working on his Jeep, getting it ready to head to the body shop for a paint job. Being a John Deere fan, he's having it painted JD green with yellow striping and yellow wheels. I expect he'll get vanity license plates for it with some reference to John Deere on them.
One thing you have to say about him – he doesn't do anything half way.
I'm hoping all is fixed now. Only time will tell.
Ridicule is indeed the best response.
The so-called “Coffee Party” has quickly gone from civility to outright hatred towards the TEA parties.
As one commenter put it, “The Left's motto: If you can't beat 'em, BEAT 'em.” (spelling corrected – ed.)
Apparently they had a major dislike for the idea, unlike far too many of Obama and his fellow travelers.
As if we didn't see this coming.
“Absolutely nothing!” (With apologies to Edwin Starr.)
Check out the photo included with the linked post if you doubt it.
He spent Saturday and Sunday working on his Jeep, getting it ready to head to the body shop for a paint job. Being a John Deere fan, he's having it painted JD green with yellow striping and yellow wheels. I expect he'll get vanity license plates for it with some reference to John Deere on them.
One thing you have to say about him – he doesn't do anything half way.
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I admit to having a love/hate relationship with computers. I love using them, but I hate having to troubleshoot them. My main computer has been problematic over the past few months and it took until today to figure out the intermittent problem I've been having was due to a faulty power connector. There were times when it wouldn't boot and the BIOS would send out an ear-splitting high-low beep, telling me a voltage supply was out of spec. The faulty connector was the one that connects the power supply to the motherboard. One of the sockets was spread too much, making the connection intermittent, so whenever I moved the wiring harness out of the way the connection would either make or break.I'm hoping all is fixed now. Only time will tell.
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Add Chris Muir to the list of those poking a finger into the eye of Islamic fanaticism.**********
As if Chris Muir's finger poke weren't enough, then this bit of website hacking ought to get their attention.Ridicule is indeed the best response.
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Tom Bowler questions the timing of the SEC's move against Goldman Sachs, seeing it as a purely political move by the Obama Administration purely to gain favor with an increasingly angry American public even though the actions won't fix anything. Never mind that a lot of the problems can be laid at the feet of Congress, and particularly Democrat members of Congress.**********
Are TEA party supporters racist? Apparent so...but no more so than non-TEA party Americans. But you wouldn't know it from the way the media is reporting on the results of both the CBS/NYT and University of Washington polls.**********
Color me unsurprised.The so-called “Coffee Party” has quickly gone from civility to outright hatred towards the TEA parties.
As one commenter put it, “The Left's motto: If you can't beat 'em, BEAT 'em.” (spelling corrected – ed.)
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Bill Whittle answers the question: “What did the Founding Fathers think of a strong central government?”Apparently they had a major dislike for the idea, unlike far too many of Obama and his fellow travelers.
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Jea Tea delves into an uncomfortable subject for the multi-culti Left, but makes some valid points about Western Civilization and how it is too often seen by the Left as somehow inferior to all other cultures despite a plethora of evidence to the contrary.**********
Nigerian lottery/bank transfer scams are so yesterday. Today, scammers are using ObamaCare as a means to steal by offering fraudulent health insurance policies to 'protect' themselves from the bad effects of health care reform.As if we didn't see this coming.
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Back in May of last year I predicted the Cash for Clunkers program would screw up the used car market. It turns out I was right.**********
“Public Unions! Huh! Good god! What are they good for?”“Absolutely nothing!” (With apologies to Edwin Starr.)
Check out the photo included with the linked post if you doubt it.
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Stephen Hawking thinks we should avoid contact with extraterrestrials at all costs because they may be just like us. Think of what happened to the Indians after Columbus arrived, except that this time we'd be the Indians and the ET's the Europeans.**********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where warm weather has returned for now, boats are repopulating slips, and where thoughts of boating intrude constantly at work.4/24/2010
When Equality Isn't Fair And Self-Esteem Trumps Ability
When is reward detrimental to the wellbeing of of those receiving it?
When it is undeserved.
Unfortunately the mindset of too many of our educators is that rewards are needed to build self-esteem, and self-esteem was far more important than actual achievement. The side effect of this esteem building? Increasing academic failure because there are no negative consequences for failure. With no consequences no one bothers to try. Such a system is set up to ensure failure and minimize success. That's no way to build a future for our kids.
Leland Teschler writes:
Self-esteem only gets you so far. Beyond that you actually have to know something and know how to perform, no matter what type of job you have.
When it is undeserved.
Unfortunately the mindset of too many of our educators is that rewards are needed to build self-esteem, and self-esteem was far more important than actual achievement. The side effect of this esteem building? Increasing academic failure because there are no negative consequences for failure. With no consequences no one bothers to try. Such a system is set up to ensure failure and minimize success. That's no way to build a future for our kids.
Leland Teschler writes:
The “everyone wins” philosophy is nothing more than means of imposing leftist egalitarianism, where equal outcome is far more important than equal opportunity. Far too often (every time, actually) the “equal outcome” is worse than if actual competition were allowed. Even the 'losers' in a competitive atmosphere will, more often than not, perform better than the 'equal' outcome of the “everyone wins” scenario. The equal outcome scenario always pulls everyone down to the lowest common denominator, which is usually pretty bad. The true competition scenario tends to pull everyone up, though not to exactly same level. Call it an effect of the Law of Unintended Consequences, sort of. It's like a scene out of Harrison Bergeron, where everyone is forced to be equal.
“When I was a kid, we’d just have first, second, and third-place winners for stuff like this,” he remarked. “Most of the time you didn’t win anything. When that happened, you’d just shrug and go out for a milkshake. I’m not sure giving everybody a prize is healthy.”
There is a body of research that shows that accolades handed out too generously may cause kids to underperform. In one case, researchers did a series of experiments on 400 fifth-graders, some of whom were praised for their intelligence, others for their effort. It turned out that kids praised for their intelligence tended to give up when confronted with tough tasks at which they didn’t excel. They assumed their poor performance was evidence they weren’t really smart after all. Kids praised for effort, however, reacted to failure differently. They generally just assumed they hadn’t focused enough and bore down on the problem.
It seems all kinds of bad ideas, particularly when it comes to education and social engineering, start in California. The self-esteem movement started there and spread like a cancer. Self-esteem became more important than actually learning anything useful. Self-esteem became more important than performance. When I'm flying in a commercial airliner, give me a pilot that knows what he's doing over a pilot that is a marginal performer but has great self-esteem.
I suspect the everybody-gets-a-gold-star movement arose from misguided attempts to bolster kid self-esteem. After all, the self-esteem bandwagon started rolling downhill with such momentum that in 1984 California created an official self-esteem task force. But there’s evidence that performance doesn’t rise with self-esteem. One study in particular conducted by social psychologist Roy Baumeister concluded that having high self-esteem didn’t improve grades or career achievement. Nor did it reduce alcohol usage or use of violence. (In fact, other studies show that criminals have plenty of self-esteem.)
Self-esteem only gets you so far. Beyond that you actually have to know something and know how to perform, no matter what type of job you have.
4/21/2010
Air Pollution - Bad Is Bad, But Good Is Worse?
The willful ignorance of some people when it comes to pollution of the air and water never ceases to amaze me. I don't know how often I've heard people say something along the lines of “Pollution is getting so much worse, poisoning the land, air, and water.” It's mostly some of the younger people under the age of 45 saying that because they didn't experience what it was like back in the 60's and early 70's, when the air was dirty and the water in rivers and lakes was unfit to drink or swim in. One river, the Cuyahoga in Ohio, was so polluted it actually caught fire. The old joke went that New Yorkers didn't trust air they couldn't see.
Seeing pictures of a number of cities around the US back in the 60's and early 70's it was easy to see the heavy brown haze that hung over them day after day. Looking at pictures at those same cities today the first thing most people will notice is the lack of the brown haze that was so prevalent 40 and 50 years ago.
Rivers and lakes that were dangerous to be exposed to for any length of time are now clean and are being used for recreation and as water supplies again.
Have all the polluting sources been eliminated yet? No, but progress is still being made in reducing or mitigating what sources still exist. That sounds good, right? But to some the reduced pollution, and specifically air pollution, is a bad thing, particularly when it comes to global warming.
We just can't friggin' win, can we? No matter what we do, even if it leads to cleaner air and water, it's the wrong thing as far as the AGW faithful are concerned. So the only way to slow global warming is for us to undo the last 40 years of air pollution control? They have got to be kidding, right?
Unfortunately, they are entirely serious.
Seeing pictures of a number of cities around the US back in the 60's and early 70's it was easy to see the heavy brown haze that hung over them day after day. Looking at pictures at those same cities today the first thing most people will notice is the lack of the brown haze that was so prevalent 40 and 50 years ago.
Rivers and lakes that were dangerous to be exposed to for any length of time are now clean and are being used for recreation and as water supplies again.
Have all the polluting sources been eliminated yet? No, but progress is still being made in reducing or mitigating what sources still exist. That sounds good, right? But to some the reduced pollution, and specifically air pollution, is a bad thing, particularly when it comes to global warming.
Here it is, we've spent around 40 years and a lot of money to greatly reduce air pollution and now the AGW folks are saying that because of the cleaner air we're making global warming worse?
You’re likely to hear a chorus of dire warnings as we approach Earth Day, but there’s a serious shortage few pundits are talking about: air pollution. That’s right, the world is running short on air pollution, and if we continue to cut back on smoke pouring forth from industrial smokestacks, the increase in global warming could be profound.
Cleaner air, one of the signature achievements of the U.S. environmental movement, is certainly worth celebrating. Scientists estimate that the U.S. Clean Air Act has cut a major air pollutant called sulfate aerosols, for example, by 30% to 50% since the 1980s, helping greatly reduce cases of asthma and other respiratory problems.
But even as industrialized and developing nations alike steadily reduce aerosol pollution — caused primarily by burning coal — climate scientists are beginning to understand just how much these tiny particles have helped keep the planet cool. A silent benefit of sulfates, in fact, is that they’ve been helpfully blocking sunlight from striking the Earth for many decades, by brightening clouds and expanding their coverage.
We just can't friggin' win, can we? No matter what we do, even if it leads to cleaner air and water, it's the wrong thing as far as the AGW faithful are concerned. So the only way to slow global warming is for us to undo the last 40 years of air pollution control? They have got to be kidding, right?
Unfortunately, they are entirely serious.
4/18/2010
Thoughts On A Sunday
Winter returned to New Hampshire, dropping sleet and snow starting on Friday. So much for late-spring weather coming early and giving us an early start on summer.
I was planning on pulling the winter storage cover off of the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout, but the winter weather changed that plan. If the weather had remained warm and sunny I would have considered launching the boat at the beginning of May rather than over the Memorial Day Weekend. But this latest bit of winter weather has convinced me stay with the usual schedule.
There's lots of bloggy goodness to be found!
Despite massive efforts by the UN IPCC to explain away the deficiencies and outright falsehoods in their 2007 report, the people and the scientific community aren't buying it. It doesn't help that the IPCC is trying to use more knowingly tainted data from the CRU to prove their report is correct.
I'll bet they'll also find a link between AGW and the Boston Red Sox not making it to the World Series the past couple of years, too.
Now it's increased volcanic activity in Iceland, expected to continue for the next 60 years.
Between the two of them we can expect cooler temperatures, particularly in the northern hemisphere. We can also expect some colorful sunsets for the next year or two as the ash from the latest volcanic eruption in Iceland circles in the upper atmosphere.
Another effect of the higher volcanic activity: disruptions of air travel across the Atlantic on a more frequent basis. Both Steven Den Beste and Glenn Reynolds believe such disruptions will increase the use of teleconferencing.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
A TV ad slamming Lynch's failure to keep his promises about controlling state spending, not raising taxes, and vetoing a gay marriage bill has been airing for a couple of weeks on local stations . Lynch doesn't like the ad (big surprise there), claiming the organization paying for the ads are “attack on New Hampshire and an attack on the people.”
Frankly, I don't see how this ad is slamming either the state or the citizens. It is accurately targeting Lynch's failures to wield his veto pen as he promised he would to control state spending (which has increased by over 30% over the past two budgets) and control taxes (which have increased dramatically because of overly optimistic revenue estimates used to justify increased spending). He also supported the state's efforts to confiscate $110 million surplus funds of a private agency set up to provide medical malpractice insurance, claiming that because the state passed the legislation to create the agency they owned the funds. (The state Supreme Court decided otherwise, stating that since no state funds, personnel, or facilities were provided to the agency and because the legislation that set up the agency stated any surplus premiums had to be returned to the policyholders, the state had no claims to the surplus funds.)
Reading an original address made to the House of Representatives back in 1963, it is easy to see far too many of their goals have been achieved.
I was planning on pulling the winter storage cover off of the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout, but the winter weather changed that plan. If the weather had remained warm and sunny I would have considered launching the boat at the beginning of May rather than over the Memorial Day Weekend. But this latest bit of winter weather has convinced me stay with the usual schedule.
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Lori Inghham has a final link round up of the TEA party protest in Manchester, NH that took place this past Thursday.There's lots of bloggy goodness to be found!
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Is there another GOP upset in the offing in the Bay State? Considering Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's tumbling numbers, recent tax hikes, and even more profligate deficit spending by the state, is it possible he might be defeated by a GOP challenger in November?**********
And speaking of upsets, is it possible the Democrats could lose over 70 seats in the House this coming November?**********
ClimateGate: The gift that keeps on giving and giving....Despite massive efforts by the UN IPCC to explain away the deficiencies and outright falsehoods in their 2007 report, the people and the scientific community aren't buying it. It doesn't help that the IPCC is trying to use more knowingly tainted data from the CRU to prove their report is correct.
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I'll bet you didn't know that AGW causes volcanic eruptions, slavery, and was caused in ancient times by bad Native Americans.I'll bet they'll also find a link between AGW and the Boston Red Sox not making it to the World Series the past couple of years, too.
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First it's a new period of low solar activity, expected to last the next 30 years or so.Now it's increased volcanic activity in Iceland, expected to continue for the next 60 years.
Between the two of them we can expect cooler temperatures, particularly in the northern hemisphere. We can also expect some colorful sunsets for the next year or two as the ash from the latest volcanic eruption in Iceland circles in the upper atmosphere.
Another effect of the higher volcanic activity: disruptions of air travel across the Atlantic on a more frequent basis. Both Steven Den Beste and Glenn Reynolds believe such disruptions will increase the use of teleconferencing.
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Does any of this look like economic recovery to you? I guess it does if your intention is to tank the economy with useless 'stimulus' spending and future confiscatory tax rates to pay for it all.(H/T Pirate's Cove)
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It appears crime is causing problems in one small New Hampshire town. The local police department has been receiving investigative help from the state police.**********
It appears New Hampshire Governor John Lynch has a thin skin.A TV ad slamming Lynch's failure to keep his promises about controlling state spending, not raising taxes, and vetoing a gay marriage bill has been airing for a couple of weeks on local stations . Lynch doesn't like the ad (big surprise there), claiming the organization paying for the ads are “attack on New Hampshire and an attack on the people.”
Frankly, I don't see how this ad is slamming either the state or the citizens. It is accurately targeting Lynch's failures to wield his veto pen as he promised he would to control state spending (which has increased by over 30% over the past two budgets) and control taxes (which have increased dramatically because of overly optimistic revenue estimates used to justify increased spending). He also supported the state's efforts to confiscate $110 million surplus funds of a private agency set up to provide medical malpractice insurance, claiming that because the state passed the legislation to create the agency they owned the funds. (The state Supreme Court decided otherwise, stating that since no state funds, personnel, or facilities were provided to the agency and because the legislation that set up the agency stated any surplus premiums had to be returned to the policyholders, the state had no claims to the surplus funds.)
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From Gateway Pundit: Obama & Dems make great strides...in achieving Communist goals in America.Reading an original address made to the House of Representatives back in 1963, it is easy to see far too many of their goals have been achieved.
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The focus on self-esteem and feel-good advocacy has replaced actually studying subjects like science in our schools. As this Forbes op-ed piece states, such a focus is doing our kids a great disservice.Ah, yes, the “ends justifies the means” doctrine so prevalent amongst the PC/Socialist crowd. Never mind that it's theft. Never mind that the unintended consequences may be far worse than whatever such theft is intended to 'cure'. Never mind the kids won't learn the critical thinking skills they'll need to succeed once they get out of school...unless they decide to go into education or politics.
Every schoolchild these days seems to be a devoted environmentalist, able to spell "sustainable" before "dog." However, much of the indoctrination about environmentalism--especially in schools--is of the passion-is-more-important-than-fact variety. These kids are being misled and shortchanged, to their own and society's detriment.
For last year's Earth Day, for example, sixth-grade students at a tony private school near San Francisco were given this bizarre assignment: Make a list of ways Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates' fortune could be spent on environmentally friendly projects. There was no hint that systematic market-based incentives for people and businesses could protect the environment--merely that it is OK to appropriate wealth from someone as long as it's for a good cause. (emphasis added)
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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter has returned, the woodstove is running, and where we're waiting for spring to return.4/17/2010
Tax Day Tea Party - Manchester, NH
Thursday I attended one of the hundreds of TEA party protests held around the nation. Turnout was around 1000, which was similar to last year's Tax Day TEA Party protest.
Of the myriad of speakers at the protest, only one was a sitting member of the House of Representatives and he was visiting from Michigan. A number of Congressional hopefuls were there, but none spoke, preferring to press the flesh and speak one-on-one with TEA party supporters. Not surprisingly, only GOP candidates showed up even though invitations were extended to candidates from all parties.
Three of the more inspiring speakers included former US Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH), Thom Thomson – son of the late New Hampshire governor Meldrim Thomson, and former New Hampshire Senator Greg Lovejoy.
Senator Humphrey related his experiences of serving in the Senate for two terms. (He promised when he was elected that he'd only serve two terms, then come home. He kept his promise.) The one thing he said that stuck in my mind was his comparison of Congress to “a pit of vipers.” He also warned that even those with the best of intentions when they arrive in Washington are eventually seduced by the power their office confers. It doesn't happen quickly, but it does happen, which is why he has supported term limits. He also led the call to “Throw the bums OUT!”, something the crowd quickly picked up and chanted with increasing volume. Humphrey said we shouldn't discriminate as there were plenty of Republican bums deserving to be thrown out as much as their Democrat colleagues.
Both Thom Thomson and Senator Lovejoy spoke about the fiscal problems visited upon the people of New Hampshire by both the legislature and the governor, with legislative Democrats willing to spend money the state doesn't have, implementing tax hikes that hit the people most affected by the recession, and attempting to 'appropriate' private funds from a medical malpractice fund in an effort to fund the runaway budget. The governor also failed to protect the taxpayers in the state by refusing to use his veto pen to stop the 30% increase in state spending over the past 2 budgets.
While other TEA party protests drew some number of infiltrators/agitators, the Manchester protest drew only one 'visitor' from the New Hampshire Democrat Party, and he pretty much just watched the activities.
All in all it was a great gathering with appreciative crowd all sharing the same message: “We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more!”
Of the myriad of speakers at the protest, only one was a sitting member of the House of Representatives and he was visiting from Michigan. A number of Congressional hopefuls were there, but none spoke, preferring to press the flesh and speak one-on-one with TEA party supporters. Not surprisingly, only GOP candidates showed up even though invitations were extended to candidates from all parties.
Three of the more inspiring speakers included former US Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH), Thom Thomson – son of the late New Hampshire governor Meldrim Thomson, and former New Hampshire Senator Greg Lovejoy.
Senator Humphrey related his experiences of serving in the Senate for two terms. (He promised when he was elected that he'd only serve two terms, then come home. He kept his promise.) The one thing he said that stuck in my mind was his comparison of Congress to “a pit of vipers.” He also warned that even those with the best of intentions when they arrive in Washington are eventually seduced by the power their office confers. It doesn't happen quickly, but it does happen, which is why he has supported term limits. He also led the call to “Throw the bums OUT!”, something the crowd quickly picked up and chanted with increasing volume. Humphrey said we shouldn't discriminate as there were plenty of Republican bums deserving to be thrown out as much as their Democrat colleagues.
Both Thom Thomson and Senator Lovejoy spoke about the fiscal problems visited upon the people of New Hampshire by both the legislature and the governor, with legislative Democrats willing to spend money the state doesn't have, implementing tax hikes that hit the people most affected by the recession, and attempting to 'appropriate' private funds from a medical malpractice fund in an effort to fund the runaway budget. The governor also failed to protect the taxpayers in the state by refusing to use his veto pen to stop the 30% increase in state spending over the past 2 budgets.
While other TEA party protests drew some number of infiltrators/agitators, the Manchester protest drew only one 'visitor' from the New Hampshire Democrat Party, and he pretty much just watched the activities.
All in all it was a great gathering with appreciative crowd all sharing the same message: “We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more!”
4/14/2010
Incentives To Not Work Are Working
The axiom goes, “If you tax it, you get less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more of it.” A number of times throughout our history we have seen that axiom proven true. Starting prior to the Great Depression, and running the gamut from FDR's numerous 'recovery' programs in the 1930's, LBJ's Great Society programs in the mid 60's, and extensions of those programs that placed ever greater burdens on the taxpayers supposedly for the benefit of the poor, we've seen the government providing all kinds of incentives for people to remain poor and unemployed.
The welfare programs as envisioned by Woodrow Wilson and FDR and attempted by LBJ did more to subject otherwise productive Americans to abject poverty than any economic or natural disaster. Of course I would expect proponents and recipients to claim otherwise. But history shows many of the programs designed to 'help' the poor did nothing more than trap them into government subsidized poverty with little hope of getting out from under the government thumb.
One of the more insidious programs that has been turned into a political football recently has been unemployment compensation.
While in and of itself unemployment isn't necessarily a bad thing, the extension of benefits that have been piled on one after another have been used for political gain and not for the benefit of those receiving them.
All these serially extended benefits have done is work as an incentive not to work. That isn't supposed to be the way unemployment works. They were supposed to be a short term temporary bridge between jobs. But they are in danger of becoming more long term and, if some in Congress had their way, to become permanent. That would be a disaster for the American economy, just as a similar program devastated the the British economy as increasing numbers of unemployed ended up staying 'on the dole' rather than actively seeking work.
Whenever jobless benefits have been extended in the past, any recovery in the jobs market has slowed because the unemployed won't start looking for jobs in earnest until just before their benefits run out. All extending the benefits does is move that time out by weeks or months and add to the cost of providing those benefits.
The welfare programs as envisioned by Woodrow Wilson and FDR and attempted by LBJ did more to subject otherwise productive Americans to abject poverty than any economic or natural disaster. Of course I would expect proponents and recipients to claim otherwise. But history shows many of the programs designed to 'help' the poor did nothing more than trap them into government subsidized poverty with little hope of getting out from under the government thumb.
One of the more insidious programs that has been turned into a political football recently has been unemployment compensation.
While in and of itself unemployment isn't necessarily a bad thing, the extension of benefits that have been piled on one after another have been used for political gain and not for the benefit of those receiving them.
All these serially extended benefits have done is work as an incentive not to work. That isn't supposed to be the way unemployment works. They were supposed to be a short term temporary bridge between jobs. But they are in danger of becoming more long term and, if some in Congress had their way, to become permanent. That would be a disaster for the American economy, just as a similar program devastated the the British economy as increasing numbers of unemployed ended up staying 'on the dole' rather than actively seeking work.
Yeah, that ought to be a real winning campaign strategy. “If you vote for me I'll make sure the likelihood of you actually getting a job remains small because we'll do what we can to discourage you from looking for one.”
Democrats seem to think that extending jobless benefits for another 20 weeks is a big political winner. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin recently roared, "Is there any compassion at all left with Republicans for people whose checks are going to run out?" New York's Chuck Schumer calls Republicans "inhumane."
But do these Senators really think it's compassionate to give people an additional incentive to stay out of the job market, losing crucial skills and contacts? And how politically smart is it for Democrats to embrace policies that keep the jobless rate higher than it would otherwise be? How many Democrats share Mr. Harkin's apparent desire to defend a jobless rate near 9% (today it is 9.7%) in the fall election campaign.
Whenever jobless benefits have been extended in the past, any recovery in the jobs market has slowed because the unemployed won't start looking for jobs in earnest until just before their benefits run out. All extending the benefits does is move that time out by weeks or months and add to the cost of providing those benefits.
'Nuff said.
If Republicans were really cynical, they'd let the new benefits pass and run against the higher jobless rate in the fall. In any case, no one should be surprised that when you subsidize people for not working, more people will choose not to work.
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