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  • Workers’ Rights and Attack on the Middle Class

    George Rebane

    Unionists in Wisconsin and their sympathy demonstrators across the country have been taught new slogans to shout.  These are various forms of ‘violating workers’ rights’, and that cutting back the power of public employees unions is ‘an attack on America’s middle class’.  Both are false, but both are powerful since most listeners don’t have the equipment to parse the lies.

    The notion of ‘right’ has long since lost its useful meaning in public discourse.  Nobody knows what the other means when they use the word.  (More on Rights & Privileges)  The Federal Government, by law, and the Wisconsin government, by law, have given their public employee unions certain rights to negotiate wages and benefits.  What is given by law, can be taken away by law – all the way up to the Constitution.

    Were the Wisconsin government gratuitously to refuse to negotiate with the unions under present law, then the unions and their bussed in demonstrators could argue that their rights were being violated without first being rescinded by due process.  But that clearly is not the case, as the 14 Democratic legislators hiding out in Chicago can attest.

    The ‘attack on the middle class’ shout is not only a blatant lie, it’s 180 degrees out from reality.  It is the middle class that has to bear the tax burden which union fat cats – both leaders and members – enjoy in their outrageous compensation packages that are breaking the fiscal backs of the states.  If anything, what Wisconsin and other states are attempting with their public service unions is to rescue the middle class, and save these non-union workers from the union onslaught that has been going on for years and must finally be brought to a halt.

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  • Report from Hind Tit Road (updated 28feb2011)

    George Rebane

    I’m sure we here on Cement Hill aren’t the only ones in Nevada County who think they live on Hind Tit Road.  But we think of it often enough that we might as well grab the name while it’s still available.  After another freezing night without power, our thoughts turn to Pacific Gas & Electric and our beloved California Public Utilities Commission.  Whenever the wind blows, or the rain’s a bit too hard, or, heavens, some snow falls, it’s Martha man the kerosene lamps, haul in the firewood, and crank up the generator (if you have one).

    TransformerStation Those in the mood for dark humor during the blackout can call 800/273-5002, PG&E’s emergency repair status line.  There a robo-maid will lead you through a menu of choices that always makes you wish you could choose another utility to supply your power.  The ‘information’ they dispense comes from some of the most faulty automated customer service algorithms you can access today.  The story is always the same.  No matter what they say, you get the message that they don’t know what’s going on or what they are doing.

    This time they’re telling us here on Hind Tit that, as of this morning (26feb11), they have no idea when they will know when they can get a grip on the problem, and then tell us how long it will take to fix.  Got that?  That’s like two layers removed from telling us when the power will be restored.  And the snow already stopped yesterday, and today the sun is shining.

    When I first reported the outage last Thursday night, they put out the word on the status line that power would be restored today, Saturday.  When I called yesterday morning, the story changed to ‘It’s an equipment failure, and we’ll be able to tell you Sunday (tomorrow) when we’ll know about when power will be back on.  When I called last night, the confusion at PG&E had grown, and they reported ‘It’s an equipment failure, and we’ll be able to tell you Monday (28feb11) when we’ll be able to tell you when the power will be restored.’  This morning someone up there in the mother temple threw up their hands and admitted that they had no idea what they were doing.  When I called, they said that ‘It’s an equipment failure, and be prepared for an extended power outage.’  Period.

    You have to understand that PG&E reports two kinds of distribution problem – power lines down, and equipment failure – which means that the wires are down or a transformer has blown.  Everybody understands trees falling on power lines, but explaining a blown distribution transformer gets a little too technical and is reduced to “equipment failure”.

    Theoretically, you want hear about ‘equipment failures’ because getting to a fallen tree across power lines on a steep snowy slope is a bit dicey, especially in blowing snow at night.  And let me say right now, that in no way do I want to denigrate the field crews with my bitching and moaning here – those guys do a tremendous job with the direction and equipment they get.  No, my gripe is with PG&E’s middle management on up.  And I mean on up all the way to the PUC.

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  • Winter Wonder? Land – 25 February 2011

    George Rebane

    There’re only a couple of parts of this winter wonderland that folks here in the Sierra foothills are wondering about today – when’s the damn snow gonna stop, and when’s power coming back on?

    25feb2011 I can just see the grins on the faces of certain RR readers living in parts south and southeast.  Yeah, well wait until the hurricanes come and the earthquake shakes your eyeteeth loose.

    Yesterday afternoon started out quietly enough with a light snowfall that didn’t promise to be much.  But looking at the usual weather guesser sites, those people were saying to us ‘just you wait ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait!’  We didn’t have long to wait.  Curled up in bed last night with our books, puppy dog bedded down in her nest, heater blasting out warm air, a little Debussy in the background, perfect setting for a cold winter’s night.  Correctemundo, until 2215 sharp when the world turned black.  (Oh, that’s 10:15PM PST for you civilians.)

    But what the heck, I had run the generator earlier in the day, Jo Ann had all the kerosene lamps and candles in their usual places, and the fireplace was still merrily dancing in the front room.  So we decided to turn in early.  I set the alarm for 3am so I could start the generator to let us pump some water from the well to keep any pipes from freezing in the well house, and to have the house heat up to a low thermostat setting.

    At about 1am the lights went on and the world came alive again – you know the drill, in our office every printer, computer, UPS, phone system, … went through its start up sequence.  The happy sound of whirring, buzzing, and clicking as all the gizmos rejoined the land of the living.  Yay! that was a short one we thought.  Not so fast, in less than five minutes all went dead again.  And the same drill was repeated just before 3am, after which I went outside into some very deep drifts that the wind had sculpted around the house to switch on our dependable Kohler 12K watter.  I had to push back some serious snow that almost covered the entire machine before I could open the door behind which was the switch.  Never had that problem before.

    This morning we surveyed what could be seen from the windows and porches, and both decided that this was the biggest snowfall since we moved here in 2002.  And the wind was still blowing and more snow falling.  We got about 18 inches with drifts in the 3 to 4 foot range, you can see that the regular 10ft basketball rim doesn’t quite look that high.   The radio said that the white stuff wafted way down to 1,000 feet, so this will be a storm to remember.  I’m waiting for some of that global warming to save the day since all the cold in recent years and this winter is just “weather” and has nothing to do with climate change.  OK, then where do I sign up for that warmer weather?  Meanwhile my pal Russ Steele keeps mumbling about something called the Dalton Minimum.

    They’re telling us that the snow will stop later in the day, and after a cold night we are promised sunshine tomorrow.  And the power coming back on? fuggedahboutit.

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  • ‘We Have No Guns’

    George Rebane

    That was the lament from a businessman and demonstrator on NPR’s morning coverage of the Libyan crisis.  He told of the government hired mercenaries riding through the streets of Tripoli, machine gunning anyone caught in the open.  The death toll is over a thousand with thousands more wounded.  And this is not even the real story of what the Libyan people have had to endure for 41 years.

    GunControlWorks Governments like Gadhafy’s take a hideous toll on their people over the years which is totally ignored by our lamestream media.  I’m talking about the thousands of lives that have been snuffed by Gadhafy and his henchmen as a ‘natural cost’ of operating a tyranny.  Add to that the millions of lives that have been stunted along every dimension imaginable, and you begin to get just a glimmer of the impact that tyrants all over the world inflict on their populations.

    In Libya, Gadhafy is using Stalin’s old trick to stay in power.  He saw how Egyptian and then his own military could become unreliable executioners of street demonstrators.  So he brought in mercenaries from other parts of the country and other parts of Africa.  These thugs have no inhibition in spraying AK-47 fire into crowds or people looking out of their windows.

    Stalin’s standard operating procedure was to station troops from faraway places in the USSR where they were essentially foreigners.  This served two purposes – they would be reliable executioners to hold down local uprisings, and they would not collude with the local population against Moscow.  For example, in the Baltics the Red Army troops stationed there were natives of USSR’s central Asian ‘republics’ like Kazakhstan.

    But the common denominator of all tyrants is to have a disarmed citizenry.  They all know along with Stalin that you have to “crack a few eggs to make an omelet”, and the egg cracking goes on year in and year out.  Nobody notices such a steady stream of killings because it occurs within the boundaries of a sovereign nation-state and is considered an ‘internal affair’.  Imagine the decades long murder of millions that is the internal affair of North Korea.  No one gives a big rat’s ass about those humans, most certainly not the progressives of ‘civilized’ western nations.

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  • The New Nevada County Brand – Really! (updated)

    George Rebane

    Today the Board of Supervisors accepted the proposal by Switchback Public Relations + Marketing Inc to develop a county tourist promo website and spread the word that henceforth the following image will indelibly remind the prospective visitor of Nevada County and its manifest pleasures.  This shall be the case in perpetuity, or until one of us is brave enough to soak himself in gasoline, sit in the paved circle in front of the Rood Center, and light a match.

    NCbrandFor more details, the well-intentioned people of Switchback also gave a PowerPoint presentation that must have had the desired effect on our Supervisors.  On 1 March 2011 you can see the fruits of their labors at http://gonevadacounty.com/presentation.

    [update]  A correspondent sent me a copy of the PowerPoint presented to the BoS this morning.  You can download it here Download Power Point 2.22.11.

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  • Ruminations – 22feb2011

    George Rebane

    The role of public employee unions in the sacking of America has long been denied by the socialists.  This is the political crowd that is regularly elected to office through the support of these same labor organizations.  They are the closest thing the left has to a franchised criminal class in our society.   Their extortions and fraudulent practices over the decades have become legend.  My own position on such organizations is well known to RR readers (latest here).

    Now, thanks to a mid-western governor attempting to save his state from fiscal ruin, the entire question of how the public unions have bilked the populace may get a proper hearing.  My hope is that the union bosses and their political lapdogs will spread their demonstrations across the land.  Then all will be able to see what has been festering under their local state house or county administration center.  For more see Steven Malaga’s ‘The Showdown Over Public Union Power’.

    If Second Amendment rights were not such a serious matter, the latest leftwing hypocrisy on gun control would draw a bit of chuckle, and we would leave it at that.  It seems that rabid gun control advocate and North Carolina state senator R.C. Soles shot one of the two intruders that recently entered his home.  As part of the ruling class, the good senator does not have to worry about his gun rights, but he and his kind worry very much about our gun rights.

    It is an old story in the annals of collective governance.  Their greatest fear is the armed law-abiding citizen.  It is not the criminal that worries the left wing; hell, the higher the crime rate, the higher taxes and more government spending they can justify.  But it is the armed citizen who strikes fear into the heart of all insipient autocrats, for that citizen will be pushed only so far before he bands with his fellows to resist tyranny.  And if they have the tools at hand to put up a fight – well, you know the rest.  To counter that, all of us must be disarmed by whatever subterfuge our would-be masters can muster.  But the picture of the 74-year-old senator, shootin’ iron in hand, blasting away while defending his home, does bring up a chuckle or two.  You think the incident has changed his mind any?  Me neither.

    Meanwhile, a happier piece about guns is the role that a particular air rifle had in implementing our ‘manifest destiny’.  Take a look at the above video (H/T to RR reader) to get the full story.  But Lewis & Clark in 1803 made it clear across the American west and back to St Louis by not trading shots with the Indians, but by showing them the power and glory of one particular firearm, and an air rifle at that.  Historian Stephen Ambrose mentioned that weapon in his Undaunted Courage, but the full story of this unique weapon was not known to me until I saw the video.

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  • Russ Steele makes the New York Times

    George Rebane

    Russ Steele, pre-eminent Nevada County blogger and author of NC Media Watch , was prominently featured in a NYT article about the impact of social media on blogging.  Russ, who has been an inspiration to many of us lesser lights in Nevada County, spoke for those of us who have not chosen to use Facebook or Twitter when he characterized blogs as the internet medium for more considered and expanded presentation of ideas and commentary.   Of the more abbreviated versions of such communication media, Russ said he is not interested in telling people whenever he goes to the grocery store.  I’ll add an Amen to that.

    Congratulations my friend, you cast a long shadow and are an inspiration for the rest of us.  Write on!

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  • Assaulting Public Sector Unions (updated 21feb2011)

    George Rebane

    The Wisconsin teachers union imbroglio promises to get uglier before it is resolved.  The left is accusing Republicans of launching an “assault on the unions”, as if that were akin to committing some kind of sacrilege.  Given what public sector unions have done to the nation and its several states, it seems appropriate to acknowledge that yes, an assault has finally been launched to curb the corruption and fiscal drain on the public purse that is endemic with these labor organizations.

    WI union protesters Their emotional charge that we taxpayers are attacking their families and democratic rights is scurrilous and cynical.  We too have families who have to do with less because they get more.  The union members are state employees who have corrupted our elected officials that now represent their interests in opposition to ours.  For some long years these sinecured union members, in the aggregate, have ceased to deliver value.

    And these people know the dimensions of their deficit, and what will happen if Wisconsin goes through with its stated reforms.  They cannot argue their case on merit, merit that would justify their over-generous compensation packages.  Because of this the leftwing is sending in its big guns from all over the land.  Notables from Jesse Jackson to Nancy Pelosi to President Obama are answering the Wisconsin unions’ call to arms.

    Given the current financial mess the country is in, I believe that the debate on the continued role of public service employee unions should be joined.  Demonstrably these organizations do not serve the public interest.  They have become what FDR warned the nation about many years ago.  After emptying the public coffers, these unions now threaten ‘job actions’ that will cripple or shut down government functions.

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  • Additive Manufacturing and its Aftermath

    George Rebane

    Another quiet revolution is taking place that will impact all of our lives in ways known and unknown.  Its big name is additive manufacturing (AM), but we used to know it as 3D printing.  Stereolithography, the technology behind AM and 3D printers, was first invented by Charles Hull in 1984.  These printers take in a CAD (computer aided design) file that describes a part or gizmo, then it computationally decomposes the object into layers like individual slices of your head in an MRI scan, and finally lays down, layer by layer, each of its various materials until the entire thing is built.  (more here)

    And these things are not just simple pieces like a vase or toy truck.  Today people have printed complex objects such as a copy of a Stradivarius violin and a pendulum clock.  The violin plays beautifully, and the clock ticks and tells time.  But even these feats are not the punch line of the game changing story in how things will be made – a process we usually call manufacturing.

    3Dprinting 

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  • The Suicide of Jeopardy

    George Rebane

    [This is the transcript of my 18feb11 commentary broadcast bi-weekly on KVMR-FM 89.5.  A related post 'Epochal My Dear Watson' was posted on 17feb11.]

    We Americans have always loved winners, and see ourselves as winners, especially in this age of universal self-esteem.  Oh yes, there is that phase we sometimes go through when we root for the underdog.  But that lasts only as long as we can see the underdog eventually coming out on top, or at least making good.  For popular champions, we seldom stick with the perennial loser – all of us look forward to Lucy’s annual snatch of the football that once more lands Charlie Brown on his back.

    Something momentous happened on TV’s Jeopardy this week.  And I’m talking about ‘momentous’ as in momentous for Mankind.  But let’s go back a little bit before we examine what a computer called Watson did to the best that we humans could deliver.

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