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  • Scattershots – 27nov2010

    George Rebane

    – Forest for the Trees – Al Gore’s Epiphany
    – Another Chapter from the Religion of Peace

    These entries struck me as having religion for their common denominator.

    After years of ignoring ample financial, environmental, and engineering data about the inadvisability of turning corn into ethanol, Al Gore has admitted to seeing the light.  In his epiphany he also admitted that part of his enthusiastic promotion of the ethanol fiasco might have had something to do with getting elected to political office.  But what the sumbich still doesn’t see is that ethanol is just one scraggly tree in a forest of stunted and stillborn ecological sacraments.  More here.

    PortlandTerrorist The FBI sprung the trap on Mohamed Osman Mohamud, another American Muslim who was caught in the act of attempting to trigger what he thought was a devastating car bomb parked in the middle of a throng of people mostly consisting of women and children.  They had gathered in downtown Portland, Oregon for the annual lighting ceremony of the city’s big Christmas tree.  In his own words the bomber wanted people “attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays”.

    This 19-year-old naturalized US citizen of Somali extraction was apparently radicalized through the internet.  Fortunately the FBI intercepted and played along with his intentions as the car bomb was constructed and emplaced.  Had the device been real, this Muslim would have shredded the bodies of tens of holiday celebrants, and the lives of hundreds of their relatives.

    That the raghead was apprehended by the FBI in such a sting operation may indicate that our country’s security infrastructure is finally beginning to include the ‘religion of peace’ in their profiling (gasp!) of most likely terrorists.  It is clear now that they live among us and share some telling characteristics.  The Reverend Bayes lives!  More here.

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  • The Latest Volley from the Local Left

    George Rebane

    Yesterday morning, while waiting on PG&E’s ‘extended outage’ line listening to elevator music, I received an email from Russ Steele that contained a copy of the latest effluent directed at me personally by Jeff Pelline and his friend Steven Frisch.  For your edification you can read the original and its comment stream on Pelline’s blog here.  The piece contained the usual characterizations that regular readers have seen many times before in these pages and, presumably elsewhere.  The added descriptors worth noting were “slimy” and “pseudo-intellectual masturbation”.

    Libertarian Yet reading that screed, one comes away with the feeling that somewhere in the bowels of it there is still a desire to bring us in from the frozen world of ignorance into which we have been consigned.  I don’t know whether that is really possible in this “hyperpartisan country”, because the ‘in’ into which they want to bring us is a world of misery beyond belief.

    We are now a nation with a widely recognized broken educational system whose publicly supported part is outputting its third generation of graduates in the humanities who have been grounded in the collectivist anti-American mantra.  These people open their eyes every morning and see a very different world from the one that I see.

    They see themselves in a country that has been a scourge on mankind, one whose selfish consumption has deprived other peoples of their just due, and in the process visited on them all sorts of evils and bedevilments.  Also a country that generates obscene amounts of wealth which it allows to be husbanded in the most inequitable of ways.  In short, a country that needs radical social salvation possible only through a strong and thriving central authority with the wisdom to regulate and redistribute ‘fairly’ throughout the land.  And that is a land whose people are yearning for collective world order, where each will produce according to his abilities and receive according to his needs.  Of course, such abilities and needs will be determined by distant councils wherein lies all beneficial knowledge and wisdom.

    Against such ‘educated’ legions of the left, there remain voices such as mine.  And no matter how insignificant, small, ignorant, evil, and irrelevant we are judged to be, somehow our very existence remains a constant irritant to those whose collectivist stratagems we reject.  As if, upon reading and meditating on our words, a person would conclude that the progressive prescriptions of the left are utterly bankrupt of what they promise.

    Having seen, lived in, and studied other social orders for the many years of my life, I cannot but conclude that America, with all its warts, is an historically exceptional country that has brought to the world ideas, products, and benefices beyond all expectation.  A land that, though hobbled in many ways today, can still do that.  And those riches of body and soul were made possible by free Americans under a government restrained, with individuals making their own decisions on how to spend their energies and treasure.

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  • The politically incorrect Thanksgiving Story

    George Rebane

    The nationally syndicated conservative commentator John Stossel reminds us of the deeper history behind America’s first Thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims and their Indian neighbors.   This piece was published yesterday and it is presented here in its entirety.  Stossel’s reminder adds a needed dimension to all the things with which we Americans have been blessed, and should today give thanks to Him who blessed us.  (H/T to the RR reader for the heads up on the printed word, and subsequently, the attending image.)

    =====

    Thanksgiving1623 

    Happy Starvation Day by John Stossel

    Had today’s political class been in power in 1623, tomorrow’s holiday would have been called “Starvation Day” instead of Thanksgiving. Of course, most of us wouldn’t be alive to celebrate it.
     
    Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. But the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn’t happen.
     
    Long before the failure of modern socialism, the earliest European settlers gave us a dramatic demonstration of the fatal flaws of collectivism. Unfortunately, few Americans today know it.
     

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  • California – the Next Carbon Marketplace

    George Rebane

    Prop23results Now that Prop23 has crashed and burned, AB32 will ravage the countryside and trading carbon credits will join tulip bulbs, Florida swamp land, and south sea islands in their historical niche of foolish markets.  In the last years people have lost their shirts trying to get a market going trading this ersatz commodity.  But as long as governments mandate CO2 emission limits along with the right to buy and sell such permissions, there is money to be made.

    It is for this reason that major trading houses and consortiums have backed all kinds of ‘green laws’ that are based on the pronouncement that CO2, what all critters exhale, is a toxic gas.  They know that if money, lots of money, for such credits can be set in motion, then they can position themselves in the cash conduits and make a pile for themselves.

    We recall that carbon credits are simply mandated ‘mother may I’ slips that will permit their holders to emit CO2 above and beyond the nominal limits set by agencies such as CARB.  Only so many of them will be issued/sold by the government, so they will become a valuable item for carbon emitting factories, utilities, and transportation firms.  The idea is to let the marketplace set their price so that emitters and investors can buy and sell them according to what they perceive the future market demand for them will be.

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  • What if it’s all a show, or not? (updated 24nov2010)

    George Rebane

    The yuan is too expensive, the dollar is tanking, the US has not a clue about how to pay its debts and revive the economy, China and a bunch of other countries are holding trillions of dollars in their reserves, trade is lopsided, the mid-east is an endless mess, the EU is entering a financial fiasco … – it looks like the time has come to kick the can down the road and take everyone’s eye of the ball for a bit.

    So here’s a far out scenario that is not so far out when conniving governments get together.  Obama has now demonstrated to the world that he is inexperienced and ready to compromise American sovereignty at every turn.  He is also a weak president, one who invites our natural antagonists/enemies to take advantage of his tenure.  All this has greatly weakened the world’s premier reserve currency much to the detriment of everyone.  Not that they don’t want us to eventually ‘eat sh__ and die’, but they don’t want us to do it too quickly.  They’re not ready for that just yet, and we appear to be fading too fast.

    So wouldn’t an international crisis involving the usual parties be in order, doing what everyone knows they can and want to do anyway.  It seems if we could just cook one of those up in the right way, then the US could show its strength and the dollar would hang on for a bit longer.

    From stage left enter one Chinese SSBN (nuclear missile submarine) that somehow penetrates our broad area SSN (attack submarine) patrols and probably the most sophisticated undersea surveillance sonar networks in existence (off our west coast), and winds up less than a hundred miles from  the southern California coast near Vandenberg AFB.  The SSBN opens one of its tubes and launches a missile away from the shoreline.  Over the decades Southern Californians have seen many of these missile launches from Vandenberg to impact areas at Eniwetok and Bikini atolls.  No panic is caused, but inevitably someone in the area east of Point Conception notices that the contrail does not look like it was launched from Vandenberg, it originated from offshore.

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  • The Liberal Mind – Censorship

    Accepting a little bit of socialism is the same as taking comfort in that you are a little bit pregnant.

    George Rebane

    Censorship The 21st century liberal cum progressive retains the same views and definitions of censorship that did their Bolshevik progenitors in the early 20th century.  Specifically, if the dissemination of their ideas are not supported by the public purse, then they consider themselves and their message to be victims of censorship.  Also if their message is not imposed by the government onto some media that broadcasts other political ideologues supported through private sponsorship, then they consider themselves to be censored.  As an example, the current issue of withdrawing government funding from NPR has set off all the usual leftwingers from here to Washington screaming that they are being “censored by the government”.

    However, on the other side of their view of censorship, we hear them constantly calling for the silencing of conservative/libertarian voices that have followings which the liberals cannot hope to attract.  This occurs at all levels (e.g. even in Nevada County) where frustrated collectivists gather.  They do not see these calls for proscribing their opposition as censorship.  Instead, they wrap such proposed programming pogroms in notions such as ‘fairness’ and ‘balance’ – cf. the Fairness Act and Net Neutrality.  Since only the extreme few will voluntarily listen to their pap, they seek to impose it by the power of the bayonet.  If this means denying certain political free speech that the consumers want, so be it.  But in their minds, that is never seen as censorship.

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  • Ruminations – 22nov2010

    George Rebane

    - No scanners, no pat downs??!!
    - QE2 driving interest rates in the wrong direction
    - Hillary on ice, until 2012?
    - Palin not ready to run in 2012

    Scanners at airports are the latest to get people’s undies in a bundle.  Since last Christmas when the latest Muslim terrorist unsuccessfully tried to touch off the bundle in his undies, scanners are the latest that TSA has come up with to keep the nation secure.  And if you don’t want your stuff looked at in the scanner, you get the now ‘infamous’ pat down that provides an alternative way to save us all.  But those opposed to either are told by the government not to worry because there are only about 85 scanners available for the entire country, and chances are that you won’t run into one to have your stuff peeked at or patted.  If the new security policy made any sense, then why wouldn’t all the other airports without the scanners impose mandatory pat downs?  This is the logic that is only accessible to the progressive mind.

    QE2 will have the Fed pump $600B additional dollars into the economy.  It does not take rocket science to predict what this money will do.  Like the trillion plus that preceded it, QE2 will not stimulate the economy by keeping interest rates low.  As witnessed by the behavior of the ten year Treasury, the rest of the world (save Bernanke and Obama) is betting that all QE2 will do is to add to the inflation which the government claims is non-existent.  Note that the ten year Treasury is the new ‘long term’ bond, it used to be the thirty-year Treasury.  But today no one is stupid enough to actually bet that the dollar will survive that long.  You heard it here first – tomorrow’s long term Treasury will mature in five years.

    Does anyone know where Hillary is?  She seems to be permanently in the ‘fifth wheel department’ of American diplomacy.   For any real work that used to be done by the State Department, Obama has been using ‘special envoys’.  These individuals report directly to the President and have the added feature of keeping Hillary from being in front of those nosey cameras and mikes.  After all, 2012 starts in 2011, and Democrat pundit James Carville probably put his finger on it.  His statement over the weekend was that if Hillary gave Barry one of her balls, they’d both have two.

    Sarah Palin’s contemplating a run for the White House in 2012.  I think that eventually Sarah will make a great candidate, but 2012 is too early.  She needs more experience, experience that she can acquire by continuing to do what she is doing.  And lack of cojones is not the only attribute in question about President Obama.  As aptly demonstrated during the last two years, his inexperience has also cost the country dearly in both the domestic and international arenas.  Having no executive experience on his resume puts him in Palin’s shadow – teleprompter speeches withstanding.  So my advice to both Barry and Sarah for 2012 is to not run – hold back until you are both more seasoned.  In the meantime Hillary will be able to give anyone the Repubs nominate a run for his money.

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  • Winter Wonder Land

    George Rebane

    Like many folks in Nevada County last night, Jo Ann and I were listening to the limbs crashing down around our house wondering if the next one would come through the roof.  The wet snowfall – ‘Sierra cement’ – wreaked havoc across the foothills and turned out the lights for most of us in western county.  They are still out.  After the sun came up things didn’t get any better, but now we could see the damage and witness the crashing of more ‘widow makers’.

    As friends Russ Steele and Bob Crabb report, others were not as fortunate as we (knocking on my noggin).  Both had damage to their houses from falling trees and limbs.

    We and the neighbors played generator derby, turning them on and off to save fuel.  It seems that no one knows how long the power will be off.  The damage was so extensive and the outages so many that PG&E crews are swamped.  Calling their customer information number lets you play phone menu until you get to a recorded voice that assures us they are working as hard as they can, and the power will come on when it comes on.  Those who harbored thoughts that the PG&E crews were out there dawdling are, of course, heartened by such reports.

    That kind of response was about all that KNCO has been able to put out.  Actually, they have had more information because people call in with outage, downed power lines, and blocked road news.  But PG&E isn’t more forthcoming with the mediat than they are with us.  When I called KNCO about the matter on the media line, I was told that PG&E is a lot less informative today than they were in days of yore when such storms ravaged the area.

    My suggestion was for the media to ask PG&E to report how many people have had power restored since we know that about 23,000 accounts lost power.  This number they would surely be able to tell us, and that lets people at least come up with a guesstimate of progress and their own power restoration fortunes.  Again, I was told that PG&E wasn’t very forthcoming with that kind of information.  ‘We don’t know’ is their story, and they’re sticking to it – go suck eggs.

    When all else fails, there is a bit of science that can be applied to this informational wasteland.  Some years back physicist Richard Gott came up with some complex reasoning about the termination of unknown processes.  I was able to reduce his arguments to a simple formula that you can apply in a few seconds with a calculator.  The question is ‘given an unkown but observable ongoing process that has been going on for a known period of time, what is the probability that it will terminate in the next interval of a given length?’

    In our case the unknown process is PG&E’s repair efforts that will sooner or later include service to our house.  We want to know what is the ‘chance’ that power will be restored in, say, the next four hours.  As I write this, power has been out for about 20 hours at our house.  The formula for computing that power will come on some time during the next four hours is 4/(20 + 4) = 0.167 or one chance out of six.  More formally, if a process has been going on for time T, then  Prob(process ends during next t interval) = t/(T+t).  The complement T/(T+t) is, of course, the probability that it will end sometime after the next t interval.  So the chances that power will be restored to our house more than four hours from now is 5 out of 6 or 0.833.

    This, dear reader, is the best that one can do with an absolutely minimal amount of information that is available about an ongoing process.  And this seems to be the exact amount that PG&E is willing to share with us.

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  • And what if we just say NO? (Addended again)

    George Rebane

    [This the transcript of the 19nov2010 edition of my bi-weekly KVMR-FM 89.5 commentary.  Today’s cartoon in the 20nov2010 Union by my friend RL ‘Bob’ Crabb is on the same topic.  It is here purloined by permission.]

    This week I attended the November luncheon meeting of the Nevada County Republican Women Federated, of which I am an Associate Member.  These women are by far the most dynamic and active conservative Republican group in the county.

    Supervisor John Spencer was the featured speaker this month, and he chose to give us a Glenn Beckian whiteboard presentation of highlights of the county’s political history over the last twenty years.  It was an excellent summary that ended with an alarming report of the next layer of regulations coming down from state that will cost us more money and reduce our freedoms.

    Supervisor John told us of the new state mandate to have all new construction housing in California incorporate inside sprinkler systems.  These new systems will add at least $10,000 to the cost of a house and promise to provide a goodly fraction of their owners with a wet surprise now and then.  The new code calls for the sprinklers not necessarily to put out any insipient fires, but to provide a ‘mist’ that may enable occupants to evacuate the premises.

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  • California’s Visible Insanity (updated 15dec2010)

    George Rebane

    Silicon Valley, once synonymous with productivity-enhancing innovation, is now looking to make money on feel-good government handouts.

    CaliforniaShredded That’s the tag line to ‘California’s Destructive Green Jobs Lobby’ by technology pundit and futurist George Gilder in today’s (16nov10) WSJ.  Our state’s insanity, capped by the failure of Prop23, is now an international embarrassment.   The destruction derby that California entered in 2006 with the passage of AB32 was instantly apparent to most with functioning inter-aural capacity.  RR and NC Media Watch readers became aware of this long ago, and were reminded of the impending disaster on a regular basis.

    However, the Destroy America protagonists have prevailed, and the under-educated have no idea yet what the portents of this legislation are.  This is witnessed by the ongoing global warming propaganda show now in progress at UC Davis.  The progressives at all levels (including the local useful idiots) turned out to lobby for ‘green jobs’ improving our economy, and the state’s electorate did not have sufficient tools to understand what was being foisted on them.  Gilder lays it out compactly in his article.

    (Prop23) was the California referendum to repeal Assembly Bill 32, the so-called Global Warming Solutions Act, which ratchets the state’s economy back to 1990 levels of greenhouse gases by 2020. That’s a 30% drop followed by a mandated 80% overall drop by 2050. Together with a $500 billion public-pension overhang, the new energy cap dooms the state to bankruptcy.

    The larger tragedy is that “as America’s chief fount of technology, California cannot go down the drain without dragging the rest of the country with it.”

    [17nov2010 update] Joel Kotkin at Forbes.com puts a bow on it.  He dissects our problems and the opportunities California daily hands to Texas.  In a telling segment Kotkin points the finger at the California voters whose stupidity (not ignorance) has sealed our fate –

    This state of crisis is likely to become the norm for the Golden State. In contrast to other hard-hit states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada, which all opted for pro-business, fiscally responsible candidates, California voters decisively handed virtually total power to a motley coalition of Democratic-machine politicians, public employee unions, green activists and rent-seeking special interests.

    In the new year, the once and again Gov. Jerry Brown, who has some conservative fiscal instincts, will be hard-pressed to convince Democratic legislators who get much of their funding from public-sector unions to trim spending. Perhaps more troubling, Brown’s own extremism on climate change policy–backed by rent-seeking Silicon Valley investors with big bets on renewable fuels–virtually assures a further tightening of a regulatory regime that will slow an economic recovery in every industry from manufacturing and agriculture to home-building.

    Everyone knows what’s happening here with the exception of our state’s substantial leftwing, nowhere more exemplified than the legions of local-level choristers of whom Nevada County has its vociferous share.  Ours have the added benefit of being terminally innumerate as they continue hailing the non-existent list to port of our community, election results notwithstanding.

    [15dec2010 update]  The overall insane situation is well documented by the celebrated conservative columnist Victor Davis Hanson in his ‘Two Californias’.  Thanks to Russ Steele of NCMW for the heads up on this.

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