Insanity Continued

Earlier I posted on the refusal of our national leaders to see that continuing the denial fpr any form of energy exploration in the US can only cause continued dependence on foreign energy. Here is an example of the convoluted reasoning that leads to this situation. Southern Californians are very aware of the decades-long effort to restore the condor to its historic place in the skies. They aren't very beautiful birds, particularly up close, but they are big and endangered. Now with a proposal to drill for oil in a tiny portion of the Los Padres National Forrest, we learn that the red legged frog, the steel head trout and the beloved condor may be affected. Therefore we should do nothing to make that oil available. And so it goes everywhere drilling is proposed. No matter how small the area affected, no matter how trivial the threat, we hear that this drilling must be stopped. From the LA Weekly, an example of how our energy policy is foiled by well-meaning people who understand threats to nature but not to their future.

The Definition of Insanity

..is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. In yet another example of the insanity of our elected leadership, let's look at our energy dependence. What should we be doing? Actually using oil and gas we know exists in the US might seem obvious.

Pierre DuPont calls it an adiction to regulation.

So expanding America's energy production is the obvious priority. Common sense would suggest that we should begin tapping into the estimated 102 billion barrels of oil sitting under America's Outer Continental Shelf and in Alaska. That domestic supply could replace America's importation of foreign oil for some 25 years.

But what we see from Congress is a continuation of the past 25 years blocking any new drilling.

But our country's political establishment, from Congress to the press and the presidency, has worked for a quarter century to prevent increases in our energy supply.

And they are not about to stop now even though these policies take us farther and raather away from energy indepence.

Technorati Tag Congress energy

Who Watches Soccer in the US?

It's apparently the American intellectual.

Soccer has become a favorite pastime of the American intellectual. "Many people would say that soccer is the latte or the Subaru of the sporting spectrum," says Matt Weiland, who, with Sean Wilsey, is co-editor of The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup, a new compilation that reads like a roll call of the soccer intelligentsia.

And Laer thinks he know why.

Yeah, all well and good, but if you as me (and since you're reading this, I guess you have) it's really just the intellectual elites' herd mentality. They won't admit to it, of course, but they are social wildebeasts, thundering along in tight packs of each other, swinging this way and that with remarkable unity. Today, they're hoofing for the World Cup.

Haircut courtesy of The Manolo

Technorati Tag world cup style

Bad News for Lincoln?

From the Providence Journal June 17:

More than 14,500 Rhode Island Democrats have switched their voter affiliations within the past six months to participate in the Sept. 12 Republican primary, a figure that experts say will probably help incumbent Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee in his campaign against Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey.

Anchor Rising has more.

Technorati Tag lincoln chaffee RINO

Lincoln Chaffee - Primary Update

Rhode Island bloggers sense desperation in the Chafee Republican primary campaign for reelection to his Senate seat. Chaffee is the quinessential RINO, opposing Republican posistions andjudicial nominations with impunity from Republican leadership and receiving money from the Senate Republican Committee while making a mockery of the Republican platform. Anchor Rising notes the lies that Chaffee is using in his campain against Steve Laffey for the Republican nomination. And check out the comments.

Technorati Tag lincoln chaffee RINO

Airbus Loses Altitude

Airbus is undoubtedly losing altitude while Boeing is gaining. In the past 18 months, for example, Boeing has been winning more new orders in the long-haul market. It is the success of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner that is forcing Airbus to move to an all-new design for its A350 passenger jet.

Meanwhile the 380 is requiring major overhauls at airports it will service. Read about it at the Financial Times.

Home Schooling Under Siege

Brussells Journal editor threatened with prosecution over homeschooling his child. It seems the Belgians regard homeschooling as parental neglect.

A chilling quote from his wife's post.

The fact that a growing group of children seems to be escaping from the government’s influence clearly bothers the authorities. Three years ago a new school bill was introduced. The new bill refers to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and it obliges homeschooling parents to fill out a questionaire and sign an official "declaration of homeschooling" in which they agree to school their children "respecting the respect [sic] for the fundamental human rights and the cultural values of the child itself and of others."

Technorati Tag home schooling

Up With Whole Foods

For years I avoided Whole Foods Market. I refuse to pay more for ugly organic produce and am repulsed by eco-freaks. One trip to Whole Foods, however, turned me around. The organic produce wasn't ugly. They have great fish - most markets fish is marginal- and gorgeous meats. They have bakery goods and prepared meals to take out and the stores are beautiful. So I shoped at Whole Foods until I moved 25 miles away from the only store in Sacramento. I never felt good about shopping there because I did not want to provide funds for crazy people. I refuse to eat Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream even though I know that the two lefties who started it sold out. Well now I feel better about Whole Foods.

On May 13, 2004, John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, spoke at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. He defended business and explained his path from lefty to the dark side.

Were we profitable? Not at first. Safer Way managed to lose half of its capital in the first year — $23,000. Despite the loss, we were still accused of exploiting our customers with high prices and our employees with low wages. The investors weren't making a profit and we had no money to donate. Plus, with our losses, we paid no taxes. I had somehow joined the "dark side" — I was now one of the bad guys. According to the perspective of the Left, I had become a greedy and selfish businessman. At this point, I rationally chose to abandon the leftist philosophy of my youth, because it no longer adequately explained how the world really worked.

Read the whole thing and head right over to Whole Foods.

HT Right Wing News

The Legalistic Left

Jay Tea has some thoughts about the left's dependence on the legal system for it's victories. He concludes with this comment about viewing the war through legal glasses:

the legalistic model for the war on terror is a comforting one. It is reassuring to think that no matter what happens, justice will prevail. That there is always a calm, reasoned, civilized venue for the settling of grievances. That the law is supreme, and that all men and women are equal before the bench.

Congress is Mad

Not angy mad but insane mad. They dither and rant about energy dependency on foreign oil and refuse to drill for the oil we know is here. No other country in the world is this crazy. Paul Dreissen compiles the insanity.

Canada is drilling in the Great Lakes. China and Cuba are planning to drill 45 miles off the Florida coast. In 60 years of drilling off our shores, there has only been one accident where significant oil reached shore (1969 off Santa Barbara). We cle
arly need the oil and gas. And yet Congress won’t budge.

But the governor of Oregon has the solution. It's the CAFE standards. All we have to do is legislate them higher and then nobody can buy anything but econoboxes

Losing WW IV

Shrinkwrapped looks at what it would mean to lose the war.

In the short to medium term, losing does not necessarily mean that Shariah law is instituted in the United States, though that would certainly be incontrovertible evidence that we have lost. I think we can lose in many other ways, smaller but in the long run just as deadly; in the next 5-10 years, losing the war would include any of these possibilities:

1) Europe descends into chaos or surrenders to Shariah.

2) Tel Aviv is destroyed by a nuclear weapon and/or the state of Israel is effectively destroyed.

3) Western nations descend into chronic recession and depression because the price of oil reaches unbearable heights.

4) The United States surrenders to isolationism and abandons Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

5) The worst case scenario is one in which the United States ceases to be a functioning Democratic Republic after a series of attacks which kill enough and terrify enough.

Now possibly these seem like extreme possibilities to you but consider that there are many who believe that:

The United States economy, as currently constituted, cannot maintain itself without an international enemy. The defeat of one enemy, Soviet Communism, did not result in a "peace dividend." Instead it led to a desperate search for a new enemy to justify a continuation of the Military-Industrial-(Political-Academic-Media) complex. Then Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and "Islamo-Fascism" – George Bush’s “Axis of Evil” – obligingly stepped forward to fill this role. And so we continue to build multi-billion dollar aircraft carriers and submarines, and an unworkable missile defense system, and we have reinvigorated our atomic weapons program, to fight the new enemy: fanatics armed with box-cutters, and armed brigands hiding in the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

So long as self-defence is regarded as unnecessary, we are in serious danger. Read Shrinkwrapped here and the moonbat here.

Price Gouging 101

Betsy has more faith in our legislators than I do. She thinks they are ignorant.

Prices at the gas pump must be some of the hardest prices for sellers to manipulate through monopoly and gouging. They're posted in large letters right there at the pump for everyone to see. If politicians would learn some basic economics, they would stop making these wild accusations just so they can demonize someone and make political points.

I think they are sniveling, lying miscreants who will say or do anything do get reelcted. Excluding, of course, being straight with their constituents.

If they really wanted to learn, Betsy has the introductory course from Walter Williams.

Technorati Tag politicians

We Are a Nation That Has a Government

Mark Steyn writing on the tone-deaf legislators in Washington is reminded of a great line from Ronald Reagan.

''We are a nation that has a government -- not the other way around.''

He skewers the legislative disasters produced by Congress - like the oppressive Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements that are driving businesses out of the country and then produces this zinger of a comment:

I said the other day that McCain and Specter and Sarbanes and Lott and the rest were presidents-for-life of the one-party state of Incumbistan. ... Incumbistan is a government that has a nation.

Don't miss the rest.

Bad Idea

Arizonans will consider a proposition to award $1 million to one random voter after each primary and general election. I agree with John.

Maybe Fences Do Make Good Neighbors

The illegal immigrant problem in the US is coming to a head here, but it is having an impact in Mexico too.

Ah, but there are new voices of change, of reason, of self-awareness in Mexico, in place of the hoary anti-gringo rants: the beginnings of a transformation of the debate.

Read it here.

Good Advice

In the idyllic Sierra foothills, this time of year, it's good to know your snakes.

Legal System Musing

I went to court with my son this week. He was caught in a sting at his job for selling alcohol to an under aged decoy. Naturally they had to fire him and end his six-month career as a convenience store clerk. (This could lead me into a long diatribe about the law-maker's fixation on alcohol and tobacco as the twin peaks of evil in our society but that is not where I am headed today). The court scheduled his arraignment this week and my son, in his ignorance, asked his dad for advice.

I gave him suggestions based on my understanding of court processes. Dress up, admit that you did incorrectly read the ID and that you did sell alcohol to a minor, be contrite and respectful to the judge. I was hoping that for a first offence, there might be a waived or reduced fine and a stern warning about another offence. This was based upon an understanding that the job of a judge was to make a judgment. Silly me. My understanding of the court system is based on an old vision of the courts that possibly never existed.

We get to the court, pass the metal detector and take our place in the chamber. Looking around I see two other well-dressed young men sitting with a parent. The remaining people are dressed like they just rushed in from digging a cesspool. Well, I think, so much the better for my son.

Then the judge appears. He just sidles in and sits. No "ll Rise". No robe. No ceremony. I don't think we would have noticed if he didn't start talking. He begins to tell us why we are here. What to expect and what not to expect.

“You see”, he explains, -and I am paraphrasing here-"You have two choices. You can plead guilty or not-guilty. No contest has the same result as pleading guilty." Of course he is a lawyer, so it took him much longer to say. He went on for a long time about other issues related to sentences essentially saying that he might offer something special and if he did you would have to take it now. And that if you choose 'not guilty' you had better get yourself a lawyer.

Well, my son had decided that he was guilty and unless there were mitigating circumstances regarding the 'sting''there was no way he could argue not guilty. So no problem, we sit and wait for our turn.

The first person called been arraigned for the same offence as my son (or almost, she had sold tobacco to a minor but apparently that is just as evil as alcohol). She pled guilty. The judge asked it she really meant it. She repeated that she really really meant it so he sentenced her to a fine of $724 and two year's probation during which time if she broke any other laws something bad would happen.

Well, we picked up our jaws from the floor and discussed the $724 fine. How was he going to pay it now that he has lost his job. We almost missed the judge offering payment options to the woman. It seems that he would give her payments of $50 per month until it is paid. She took his offer and the clerk called the next miscreant.

She was a nicely dressed woman appearing for DUI. Same script, only her fine was $1,000. Then my son was called. Same script again. Same fine as the first woman. We picked up the paper work, left the court house and drove home.
The whole process leaves me with several thoughts, not one of which is favorable to the justice system.

First, what was the point of the judge? There was no 'judging' going on in that courtroom. Everything was black and white, yes and no. There was no reason for the judge to be present, particularly since his salary and office expenses were probably costing $150/hour or more. There was no justification for a person of any sort. The process could have been handled by a computer program or even a dumb form. There was no reason to even go to the court house.

Second, if you insist on making people appear in a courtroom, then give it some posture. Dress the judge in a robe. Have all rise when he enters the court and treat the court process as something important rather than a borinh administrative excercise

Third, what is really important here? Do we want people to respect the law and the legal processes? Or is this just another excuse to pad government revenue? What is happening to our legal system? The only experience most people I know have with the legal system is to extort money. The only time you see a cop is when he is ticketing you for a seat belt violation or other trivial nanny state offense. And when you go to court, it is just to grind you through the process and take money. It won't be long before normal citizens start resenting the money spent on law enforcement because you can't find a policeman when you actually have a crime but you know he is right there hiding behind a tree when you forget your seatbelt.


Technorati Tag judges justice

Phil Ochs Remembered

One of the reasons that I enjoy Shrinkwrapped is that we share coming of age in the seventies and the perspective it gives to understanding today. First of all, many of the leadership shared this with us although most seem not to have graduated to the real world after leaving the shelter of college. Second, he is a smart guy, trained in understanding the human mind and a clear writer.

Today he ties a recent appearance of Anthony Weiner, a congressman from Brooklyn on the O'Reilly Factor with the anti-Viet Nam War protest activists of the 60's and 70's and specifically Phil Ochs, about whom he says:

The signs of the Narcissistic egocentricity so much a part of the Baby Boomer generation were unmistakable in his music, but at the time we were relatively unaware of our provincialism, safe in our anti-War moral superiority and unconcerned about the fate of our brown brothers in Vietnam who we were all sure would be much happier with us gone and the country under the peace loving and justice committed Communists of the North.

Weiner told the nation that the "War is Over" and that in so many words we should leave now. So little has changed. Shrinkwrapped deserves a full read. Find it here.

Working with the Senate

Jay Tea thinks the Senate has it almost right.

...if this proposal is good enough for illegal aliens who broke our laws coming here, and break other laws by working under the table, why isn't it good enough for Americans like me who obey the laws and follow the rules? I'd gladly pay $2,000 a year for those kind of salary and job security guarantees. In fact, I'm already paying it.

After all, I'd hate to think that the government would engineer a situation where it's actually better to be an illegal alien than an American citizen...

No kidding!

More Here.

President Carter

Wins second book award.

....the conservative panel that annually awards the J. Gordon Coogler Award for the Worst Book of the Year has conferred the 2005 prize on Jimmy Carter. Jimmy published a book; he wins the Worst Book of the Year Award -- once again. This is not Jimmy's first Coogler. He has now won the award twice. No other literary impostor can make that claim.

To this point I have always inserted 'arguably' when I describe Jimmy as the worst President in our country's history. Now that I find others who agree, I will never qualify that statement again.

Be sure and read more about this nasty man like this:

In fact no prior president has spoken as rudely and dishonestly of his successors or of his country as has Jimmy. The acerbic Harry Truman came to loathe President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In public, however, Harry minded his tongue. Jimmy's presidential achievements were even more modest than those of Bill Clinton and of Gerald Ford, and his blunders on the domestic and foreign policy fronts are unsurpassed and possibly unsurpassable. What is more, he writes bad books.

And don't forget that son Jack is running for Senate in Nevada. We can have too much of a bad thing. And Carters are a bad thing!

Technorati Tag jimmy carter