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  • ‘A Teachable Moment’

    "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery…" — Winston Churchill

    George Rebane

    Having already posted an update to 'Unlimited Debt Musical Chairs', I woke up this morning to a WSJ editorial that succinctly summarizes the big progressive lie continually drummed into voters for at least the last decade – the lie that Social Security was solvent, and would be for some years to come.  The lie was deeply embedded by politicians like Al Gore and liberal outlets like PBS doing specials on the solid funding of America’s retirement account.  Therefore it’s no surprise that local yokels all over the country repeated it to their friends and neighbors.  But it has been an ongoing surprise, at least to me, that these same people were so dense as not to snap out of it when told what that SS Trust Fund contained.  Their standard parrot-like response was, ‘But that’s just your opinion.’

    And this universal response came even on top of one of their own leaders, Bill Clinton’s budget director Jack Lew, who told the country in 1999 that the they shouldn’t trust the Trust Fund – it was empty, it had in it only a growing stack of IOUs that the government had no plan for redeeming other than borrowing more from the future.

    This should be a teaching moment for all out there who are depending on redistribution of wealth for their quality of life.  But it is not likely that anyone out there or nearby will learn.

    Peggy Noonan delivers a sobering and adult admonition about the current doings in Washington; it’s worth a read.

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  • Comparing and Contrasting Katrina

    George Rebane

    Flood2011A In the last week I received from four correspondents the following as a forwarded email.  So I suppose it is making the rounds in at least the conservative circles.  The important points it raises are the sum and stuff of what is discussed on RR.  No matter how you look at them, the conclusion emerges that culture counts.  I include the somewhat inflammatory conclusions.  The broadcast media does not want to touch this kind of a discussion.  Here is the body of the email –

    After Katrina, the media blamed the lack of response on the Bush administration’s dislike of black people.

    Can we then conclude from the lack of media coverage and response by the Obama administration that Obama doesn’t like white people?

    Where are the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring Iowa and North Dakota and helping the folks affected by the floods? Where is good old Michael Moore?

    Flood2011B Why is the media NOT asking the tough questions about why the federal government hasn’t solved this problem?  ……Asking where are the FEMA trucks and trailers and food services?

    Why isn’t the Federal government moving Iowa people into free hotels in Chicago and Minneapolis ?

    When will Spike Lee say that the Federal government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines ?

    Where are Sean Penn, Bono, and the Dixie Chicks?

    Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes, cases of beer and television sets?

    When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a ‘vanilla’ Iowa … because that’s what God wants?

    Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of shootings at rescuers, of rapes and murder?

    Where are all the people screaming that Barack Obama hates white, rural people? My God, where are Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Oprah, and Ray Coniff Jr?

    Flood2011C How come you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever again? Where are the gov’t. bail out vouchers? The government debit cards?

    More people died in these floods than from Katrina..how come the media doesn’t report that?!!!!! There must be one hell of a big difference between the value of the people of Iowa and value of the people of Louisiana.

    HERE’S THE REAL TRUTH: THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF THE MEDIA, AND SOON TO BE GOV’T. CONTROL OF INTERNET, CELL PHONES, RADIO AND ALL COMMUNICATION AS WELL AS THE PRESENT NETWORK NEWS ON TV.

    WAKE UP, AMERICANS… WHO EVER CONTROLS THE MEDIA CONTROLS THE COUNTRY! THIS IS ONLY ONE OF THE “ARMS” THAT IS NOW IN PLACE TO ACCOMPLISH THE TAKE OVER OF YOUR COUNTRY!

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  • Unlimited Debt Musical Chairs (updated 15jul2011)

    George Rebane

    Our friends on the left are overjoyed with President Obama’s latest gambit to keep the country going toward bankruptcy.  He has floated a hazy vision of $4T spending cuts that comes with at least $1T of tax increases that add on to the $1T tax increases required by Obamacare – our new nationalized healthcare system that is now providing the country with a new bombshell a month in additional costs, reduced care, and rationed services.

    Supposedly this rejects Speaker Boehner’s new proposal to cut spending by $2T with no new tax hikes.

    And now Minority Leader Sen McConnell’s desperate response (with sparse Republican support) is to pass a law allowing Obama to unilaterally increase the debt limit by $2.5T in three tranches with equivalent TBD spending cuts.  The only caveat is a no-caveat that these debt limit increases could be over-ridden only by super majorities in Congress.  This puts the ball back in the Democrats’ court, and they would continue to own the country’s downward spiral as 2012 rolls around.

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  • The Measure of Victory (updated 16jul2011)

    George Rebane

    Panetta2011 New SecDef Leon Panetta claims that we are close to “strategically defeating” Al Qaeda, and thereby close to winning the war on terror.  This gives the appropriate backing to the administration’s just launched policy of bringing home the troops from the Mideast, else no one would give a big yawn about whether or not we “defeat” Al Qaeda.

    I believe this is all part and parcel of the BS we have been told about the “war on terror” for the last ten years.  As these pages have long declared, we are in a war with Islam, and Islam is using terror as the only weapon available to it today to resume its scripturally commissioned battle against the west.  It is a war between starkly different civilizations, and, as always, its name will be determined by the victors.  If we win, these will be known as the Islamic Wars; if they do, then history will record them as something like ‘The Final Jihad’.

    To the extent that the western countries believe they are only waging a war ON terror, we are doomed to lose; just as if in 1941 the Allies would have characterized WW2 only as a war ON the mechanized division.  Bigger things were/are at stake than the means by which our enemy chooses to attack us.

    In the current phase of the Islamic War, its militant factions can and are achieving their objectives by simply causing us to abandon our way of life in as many ways as possible – freedom of speech, freedom of movement, ideological polarization, state managed markets, restriction of capital flows, trade protectionism, enforced global redistribution of wealth, environmental restrictions, … .

    Islam knows that it could never achieve its goal of Khilafa (the global Caliphate) were the west to remain dynamic, strong, and free.  So its phase one objective is to first hobble us, or more correctly, have us hobble ourselves.  And promoting our recent tendency to trade our liberties for the misguided pro quo of safety and security, is part of the plan that has worked exceedingly well given that the secular progressives of the west were already committed to realizing that bargain.

    In planning and evaluating our strategy to counter Islam (of which there is no evidence),  I would ask ‘how can we tell if we are winning?’ – more formally, what is the measure of victory?

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  • Large Scale Emergencies to Prepare for

    George Rebane

    [This is the submitted form of my July column in the 9jul11 Union.  Its online version is available here.]

    Have you thought about what you and your family will do in the face of a large scale emergency that directly impacts Nevada County?  Most people hereabouts think of the Forty-Niner Fire of 1988 as an example of a large scale emergency.  Wrong.  A large scale emergency (LSE) is one that can result from a magnitude 9 earthquake (‘The Big One’) near the coast, a pandemic of Bird Flu or some other communicable dreaded disease, terrorists detonating a dirty nuclear device in the Bay Area, and so on.

    One of the reliable ways you can tell if Nevada County is impacted by a LSE is by just picking up the phone and dialing 911.  If no one answers, you got yourself a large scale emergency.  The other more horrendous indicator of a such an emergency is when you hear of or witness tens of thousands of people ‘heading for the hills’.

    This escape destination has been used since biblical times by people living in more populated areas.  The everlasting hills are a beacon of safety, survival, and hope.  But people heading for the hills don’t usually arrive with the right stuff to shelter, feed, and medicate themselves – they had other things on their minds when they left home.

    West county has always planned on taking care of about 3,000 arrivals on the fairgrounds property.  The planning from there becomes a bit more vague since the food in our local stores will feed county dwellers for at most three days, and during a LSE we can expect the distribution system (‘the grid’) to be down.  Add to that the fact that only a small fraction of our citizens are prepared for anything beyond hunkering down during a storm for a couple of days, and you begin to see a real problem here.

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  • Votes Bought and Paid For

    George Rebane

    [This is the transcript of my regular bi-weekly commentary that aired 8 July 2011 on KVMR-FM.]

    What kind of First Amendment rights should institutions have; institutions comprised of people getting together for a purpose?  The question is again coming to public attention as the 2012 election season is now officially off and running.  Actually, the question is really much more focused than that.  The progressive left is pointedly asking about what rights do corporations have to be heard during an election season as they promote candidates and issues.  The conservative right is similarly asking what rights do unions have – especially public service unions – in promoting their candidates and issues.

    Both sides have similar views about the critical thinking skills of the average voter – namely that he doesn’t have any critical thinking skills, at least none that will be applied to questions of governance.  Both sides have a gut feeling that the overwhelming slice of voters hold on to a few tenets or beliefs that number less than their fingers.  In popular socio-economics, tenets is the fancy word for ‘slogans’ or ‘sound bites’ that represent some fundamental truths.  There is a smaller fraction of more sophisticated voters that may push the number of their tenets into the mid-teens, but don’t push too hard.

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  • Obama’s ‘Shared Sacrifice’ (Updated)

    George Rebane

    You have to be a progressive or recently arrived from Mars if you don’t know that this president is the least qualified to ever have held the office, and one who reaffirms it daily.

    ObamaOOPS By now we have all heard that this administration has had no clue on how to bring the economy out of its government engineered recession.  Instead, by continuing to ‘stimulate’ at astronomical levels, this ideologically calcified president has presented the country with the Great Recession that now looks like its heading for Depression2.

    Through its creation and maintenance of the most uncertain business climate since the eve of WW2, the Democrats have suppressed job creation to historically low levels (unemployment is back up to 9.2% this morning), while piling on regulations that promote the progressive fictions of how society is supposed to work.

    These people are not as butt stupid as they try to make themselves out to be.  I don’t believe that anyone in the Obama administration thought that spending another almost $2T would get this country going again.  All of them are aware of Henry Morgenthau telling Congress in 1939, “We are spending more than we ever spent before, and it does not work.”  FDR’s New Deal Treasury Secretary was referring to the then 19% unemployment rate, to which it had climbed from its low (yes, low) point of 14% during the Depression.  None of this history is admitted by the dirt bags, nor has it been taught or is known to the sheeple.

    The latest attempt by this administration to weaken America is Obama’s current ‘shared sacrifice’ initiative, proposed to re-administer tax hikes on the “millionaires and billionaires” that were such a disaster in 1990 when a Democratic Congress last tried it with the help of ol’ Read My Lips.  The class envy spewed out of Washington works like a charm on the poor and ignorant when it is pointed out that it is the rich who just buy more jets and boats with all that squandered money which should be redistributed to them.

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  • KVMR and Nevada Theater Partnership: 2 + 2 = 5

    George Rebane

    KVMR-FM and Nevada Theater have come up with a match made in heaven.  This is indeed good news that is a win-win for both organizations and another feather in our community's cultural cap.  (RR readers are aware that I do a bi-weekly radio commentary on this station.)  The press release below tells it all.

    FOR RELEASE July 7, 2011
    CONTACT: Briana Ezzell  (530) 265-9073
    Kathy Dotson (530) 210-9343
     
           NEVADA CITY, CA — KVMR community radio 89.5 fm and the historic Nevada Theatre will join forces to build a new home for the station in downtown Nevada City and to expand backstage space and increase programming in the 146-year-old theater.
          The two organizations will reconstruct the three "tin sheds" behind the theater, creating a building to house KVMR's operations, with additional dressing and green rooms for the theater.
          The unique collaboration between two of Nevada County's most respected non-profits will strengthen them while maintaining their independence and personalities, and will create an exciting opportunity for the two to work together in unprecedented ways.         "This is such an exciting marriage – the theater of the stage meets the theater of the mind," said Michael Young, president of KVMR's board of directors. "We will construct a building that will be the pride of the community and underscore downtown Nevada City as the go-to place for arts and entertainment."
           The move enables KVMR to stay in downtown Nevada City and form the center of a "theater district" connecting the Nevada Theatre with the nearby Miners Foundry. The building entrance at Bridge and Spring streets will be designed as a "community corner."
           The radio station plans to add a control booth and equipment to the 350-seat theater, enabling it to broadcast large music groups, choirs and orchestras, drama, holiday productions, special events, radio theater and community forums.
           KVMR will support Nevada Theatre and its productions with publicity and live broadcasts, thus increasing the theater's profile in the region and building broader support for the theater's programs.
            "This is an exciting opportunity for the Nevada Theatre which enables us to further our mission of providing the community with an accessible, usable and valuable cultural asset," said Paul Drake, president of the Nevada Theatre Commission. "We will be able to make the most out of the strengths of two different but complimentary non-profit organizations."
          Under a letter of intent signed recently, the two groups plan to set up a partnership, managed by both, to hold the land, the new building and the "Ice House" structure also on the property.
            The new building, to be designed by Nevada City architect Jeff Gold, will be a modern, state-of-the-art facility inside, while the exterior will remain faithful to Nevada City's historic architecture. The building will include meeting space for community groups, non-profits, and arts and environmental organization.
          The project will soon begin feasibility studies and the city's permitting and approval process. KVMR's capital campaign, which has been working quietly for more than two years to raise about two-thirds of the required funds, will be expanding in the coming months in cooperation with the Nevada Theatre Commission. Construction could begin as early as summer, 2012.
           "It will be a great accomplishment to get KVMR a new home and it's something the community really needs to get behind.  I'm happy to be part of the campaign," said Michael Funk, chairman of KVMR's capital campaign.
            The Nevada Theatre is California's oldest original-use theater. As California Historic Landmark No. 863, it has seen thousands of presentations since it first opened in 1865 including performances from Mark Twain and Emma Nevada to Mötley Crüe and The Second City comedy troupe. Today it remains a vital part of the community, used for live theater, movies and special events.
           KVMR community radio 89.5 fm (105.1 fm in the Truckee/Reno area) started in 1978 in a tiny shack on Banner Mountain by two of the community's most ardent preservationists, artists Charles Woods and David Osborn. It was named after the Victorian Museum (the VM of KVMR), which the two created in the Miners Foundry. It eventually moved to the Foundry and now rents space in an office building across the street at 401 Spring St.
           Both organizations have not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable status and rely on small staffs and community volunteers. KVMR is an independent non-NPR community station, one of only about 350 nationwide.
            "Through the astounding generosity of our community, the collective vision of a new KVMR home will be a reality," said David Levin, KVMR's general manager.  This state-of-the-art facility will serve as a community hub."               
           KVMR is fueled by more than 700 volunteers who function as broadcasters, office staff and help for events such as the Celtic Festival in October. It is the only media in the region staffed live 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and functions as the county's official emergency broadcast station. New equipment planned as part of this project will help guarantee that the station stays on the air as it did during the recent severe winter weather, providing critical and timely information to the community.
          The construction of a new station with new equipment and technology will enable KVMR to increase sound quality to its broadcast listeners, increase syndication of its cutting edge programming and improve its stream on the web to listeners outside its transmitted listening area.
         KVMR long ago outgrew its rented space across the street from the theater. The new building will provide space to store the station's vast music library and will also include more computers for future storage needs. And, it will provide modern and efficient office space necessary for the staff and volunteers to perform their duties.
          "KVMR will now be a pristine model of radio's future-the go-to destination." Levin said.

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  • Class Warfare a la Joe the Lip

    George Rebane

    This Sunday VP Joe Biden was speaking to fellow travelers at a Washington meeting of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union.  He didn’t have to hold back on his deep-seated belief that more socialism is better, and he let it all hang out.  To his audience our Vice President incredulously characterized the conservatives with –

    They believe that one percent of the wage earners, controlling 24% of the wealth in this country, is a vehicle by which you can spur economic growth, because those with the wealth know the most and will know best what to do with that wealth.

    Yes, the ones earning the wealth have always known what best to do with it.  Our country has believed that for over two centuries.  And now other countries are picking up on this principle of economic freedom, as our own memory of its blessings begins to fade.  You bet your sweet butt Joe – you really nailed it with that little piece of class warfare demagoguery.

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  • ‘An Exceptional Fourth’

    George Rebane

    OldGlory 

    In his Independence Day message Victor Davis Hanson summarizes again what these pages seek to communicate about our country.  As you celebrate today, think of how exceptional and blessed is America, and that we, who are lucky enough to be its citizens, are entrusted with passing ‘it’ on to our children and their children.  What is that ‘it’ that you want to pass on intact?

    And here’s a poignantly humorous video essay about our flag delivered by a much younger Robin Williams that will also pull out some deep thoughts about the meaning of America.

      

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19 comments on ‘A Teachable Moment’