Rebane's Ruminations

About

November 2026
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  

ARCHIVES

OUR LINKS

YubaNet
White House Blog
Watts Up With That?
The Union
Sierra Thread
RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog

  • Ed Scofield joins BoS Prop23 Supporters

    George Rebane

    Supervisor Ed Scofield adds his name to those of Supervisors John Spencer and Ted Owens in their public support of Proposition 23.  Their corroborating the job killing impact on Nevada County from implementing the remainder of AB32 is a visible show of leadership to their constituents on this super-critical issue.  See also Barry Pruett’s Inside Nevada County Politics.

    A YES vote on Prop23 gives California a chance to regain its position as a solvent economy and fiscally responsible state in the Union.  As these pages have argued, the alternative is Tube City for our golden state.

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    2 comments on Ed Scofield joins BoS Prop23 Supporters

  • Ruminations – 13sep2010

    George Rebane

    BadMedicine Our President’s lies on the costs and benefits of Obamacare are shredding whatever government credibility remains about the nature of our new national healthcare program.  The chief community organizer (CCO) sold us his bill of goods with lavish promises of lower healthcare costs.  Only the hardcore and terminally left believed that fiction when it was poured over the country.  Americans overwhelmingly rejected that giant step toward socialized medicine.  Now it turns out, according to our CCO that “ – we knew that”.  Knew what?  Well, that healthcare costs for all taxpayers were going rise with Obamacare.  If he, like the rest of us, knew that, why did he tell a bald-faced lie?  (That’s a rhetorical question to which we all know the answer, not to be confused with some of the real toughies that occasionally get sprinkled in.)

    Now his mouthpiece Kathleen Sebelius, Sec Health and Human Services, is caught zigging while the CCO zags.  She is threatening insurance companies with new pogroms if they inform their customers of premium increases required by healthcare costs that continue to skyrocket instead of coming down in the age of Obamacare – “there will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases.”  Misinformation, from where??!!  The upcoming election is driving the socialists to distraction attempting manage their conflicting messages.  The main purpose is to get eyes off Obamacare and onto insurance costs, which were never the real culprit in the nation’s high cost of healthcare.  All of this is laid out in the Cato Institute’s Bad Medicine – A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Healthcare Law.  Our ignorance about this is and always has been a matter of choice.

    Barry Pruett reports here that Supervisor Ted Owen has stated publicly his support for Proposition 23.  Ted told me a couple of weeks ago at the Republican BBQ that he was in favor of Prop23 to suspend the remainder of the job killer AB32 that is hanging over California’s crippled economy.  But at that time his position was not yet for publication.  Supervisor Owen joins Supervisor John Spencer in their public declarations for Prop23.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    No comments on Ruminations – 13sep2010

  • Reflections on 11 September 2010 (updated 19sep2010)

    George Rebane

    WTC_2ndImpact The 9/11 observances yesterday were not as mixed of a bag as some commentators concluded.  It was evident that both the somber observances at the three memorial venues, and the demonstrations at the proposed Cordoba Mosque were political in nature.  Our leaders are stepping further back from the unifying anger that the attack by Islamic terrorists evoked nine years ago.

    Today Islam is mistouted as a religion of peace, the terrorists as “cowering” splinter groups to be treated as organized crime syndicates, and there is no mention of the cultural and human rights asymmetries between the Islamic and western countries of the world.  The attacks have now been reframed as “public tragedies” more akin to natural disasters.  The Muslim face of the ongoing assaults has been grotesquely lipsticked over.

    A regular RR reader offered that “9/11 is our generation’s Pearl Harbor”.  I know how she may have meant it, but the dissimilarities between them are of a magnitude that I took considerable time to refute the proposition in my 11sep10 9:18am comment to the post ’11 September 2001’. The only things that the atrocities had in common were that they both were surprise air attacks which killed about the same number of Americans.  That one was against military targets and the other against civilian institutional targets is just the beginning of the tale of two very different events and conflicts.

    Yesterday’s political characterizations of 9/11 revealed once more the widening divide between our leftwing progressives and rightwing conservatives.  Progressives are consistently for policies that weaken America in all its aspects, redistribute its wealth as widely as possible, become at one with and dependent on the global collective, and renounce our sovereignty sustaining religious and secular traditions, values, liberties, and rules of law.  There may be other reasons that allow one to reliably predict a progressive stance on any given issue, but I do believe Occam is amply served by positing these criteria for their public policy decisions.

    In the remainder I want to remark on the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ and the return to the minimization of the Islamic threat as merely an ongoing assault by a criminal and “cowardly” fringe.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    20 comments on Reflections on 11 September 2010 (updated 19sep2010)

  • A Growing Chasm of Opinions

    George Rebane

    [This is the submitted form of my monthly column which appears today 11 September 2010 in The Union's print and online editions here.]

    ‘But that’s just your opinion.’  Have you ever had anyone throw that little bomb into what you thought was a productive discussion?  Today when many people talk about important issues in these pre-election weeks, that little retort gets dropped more and more often.  Who uses such semantic barricades that not only stop current progress toward understanding, but also warn us that future attempts may suffer the same fate?

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , , , ,
    12 comments on A Growing Chasm of Opinions

  • 11 September 2001

    George Rebane

    WTC11sep2001 
    Amid smoke, rubble, and tears,
    see that we are still here.
    And we will remember.     

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    39 comments on 11 September 2001

  • Scattershots – 10sep2010

    George Rebane

    Mark Meckler of the Tea Party Patriots sent a National Journal article ‘Group Think’ by Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institute that describes the TPP and its (dis)organization.  It is an excellent description of the state of this vast and growing movement by someone from a left-of-center policy analysis organization.  Well written yet not wordy or too long.  It also compares and contrasts the nationwide TPP with the leftwing moveon.org funded by George Soros, although the role of that perennial sage of the left is never mentioned.  Well worth the read if you really want to find out what’s going on in this historical happening on the American political/cultural scene.  Download Rauch_TeaPartyPatriots_11Sept2010

    Kind of interesting to see that Candidate Obama is again trying to play his strong suit by going on the campaign trail trying to sell a horse that’s pretty much dead.  This time he’s using some cards from the conservative hand and hoping that no one notices.  He’s actually abandoning (but just for a moment) Keynesian policies and attempting to peddle capitalistic incentives in the form of directed temporary tax cuts to small businesses along with some TBD regulatory relaxing.  He needs to show some gains in the economy before November, and none of his socialist nostrums seem to have worked for anyone except those who count angels on pin heads and saved jobs.  The people are not buying it.  (more here)

    Don’t you wonder that if more taxes and regulations are so good for our economy, why is it that when the socialists get in trouble, they always go back to the Austrian school of economics for a little incentive tonic to fix things up?  Why not just double down on taxes and regulations if they’re so good?  But not to worry, their true colors prevail because they always screw up their stab at economic incentives.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    4 comments on Scattershots – 10sep2010

  • Read ’em and weep

    George Rebane

    Moving While Democrats and local outfits like the cynically named Sierra Business Council hype AB32, and oppose the passage of Proposition 23 to suspend at least a part of that legislative atrocity, long time California businesses with real wealth creating jobs are bailing out.  Nevada County will be taking the remaining hits to its economy if Proposition 23 fails.  Meanwhile our Board of Supervisors and its halo of lockstep organizations are playing that old Cold War game from the 1950s called 'Duck and Cover'.  Our Assemblyman Dan Logue has compiled this partial list which is copied below – read 'em and weep.

    Abraxis Health, a unit of Los Angeles-based Abraxis BioScience Inc., opened a new plant that will create 200 jobs in 2010 – in Phoenix. This follows the company's Phoenix expansions that occurred in 2007 and 2008.

    Alza Corp. in 2007 eliminated about 600 jobs in drug R&D while also exiting its Mountain View, Calif., HQ. At the time the company said that its 1,200-person Vacaville facility will continue to operate. But the Vacaville Reporter on Oct. 23, 2009 revealed that the plant is being offered for sale by J&J, its parent company. It's unclear if more layoffs are in the facility's future.

    American AVK, a producer of fire hydrants and other water-related products, moved from Fresno to Minden, Nevada.

    American Racing moved its auto-wheel production to Mexico, ending most of its 47-year operation in California.

    Apple Computer has expanded in other states, most recently with a $1 billion facility planned for North Carolina.

    Audix Corporation relocated from Redwood City, Calif., and to accommodate growth moved to a 78,000-square-foot facility in Wilson, Oregon.

    Apria Healthcare Group of Lake Forest is shifting jobs from California to Overland Park, Kansas, a K.C. suburb.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    42 comments on Read ’em and weep

  • The Liberal Mind – Messing with the Messenger

    George Rebane

    The fascinating facets of the progressive/liberal mind are popping up all over the place.  Have you noticed how a liberal invariably responds to a message that s/he can’t handle?  It’s a simple four step procedure that almost always works with an audience that has trouble following conversations.

    1. Ignore the Merits of the Message;
    2. Posit (fabricate if necessary) the Messenger’s Motivation;
    3. Attack the Messenger’s Motivation as the real issue, and thereby
    4. Divert the discussion to the Messenger’s Motivation, and, hopefully Morals.

    One must be careful here not to ascribe this tactic in a partisan way.  Even though progressives dominate the Democratic Party, they are not limited to that political affliction, as some have also been found in otherwise proper Republican circles.  Nevertheless, it is only from the left that we hear the most egregious demands to still opposition voices.

    TurnOffFox 

    These are a couple of samples for Exhibit A.  Check out the most recent efforts to get Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck off the air (here) and to shut down Fox News.  And these efforts by liberals to still opposing voices occur at all levels.  For example, locally here in Nevada County, California there have been countless calls from the left to shut down conservative voices like mine and others of a similar ideological bent.  This is an ingrained and worldwide tactic of the progressive mind that goes back to the turn of the last century.  When your ideas cannot compete, eliminate the source of opposing ideas.

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    5 comments on The Liberal Mind – Messing with the Messenger

  • Headline – ‘French Unions Protest Pension Overhaul’

    George Rebane

    We need have no worries since these are only unions in the European Union.

    The protest, accompanied by strikes that have caused significant disruptions to the country's public services and transport, is a major test of the government's resolve to push through structural changes meant to bring down the public deficit. France is one of many European governments pushing through unpopular cuts to avoid a repeat of the sovereign-debt crisis that rattled global investors.

    More here and here and here.

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    1 comment on Headline – ‘French Unions Protest Pension Overhaul’

  • The Liberal Mind – Giving and Receiving

    George Rebane

    This marks the start of a new series on Ruminations which will seek to shed light on the profound differences between the conservative and liberal views of the world, reasoning about human behavior, and prescriptions on how we should best live together.  Specifically we will examine the liberal mind to understand its wonders and workings.  These posts will be filed in the new category of ‘The Liberal Mind’.

    GivingReceiving 

    In recent weeks I have been taken to task for both not revealing the causes to which I contribute my personal funds, and for revealing from what sources others receive funds for their personal benefit.  In the discussions surrounding both cases, it was made clear to me by several liberals that both cases are equivalent.  In other words Case A and Case B as shown in the figure above are equivalent in the liberal view of the world.  And being so, both come under the same rules of disclosure when the parties in Cases A and B meet for public discourse.  Furthermore, there is no differentiation if the person receiving funds gets those funds from tax-payer or public sources, they are still equal.

    I hope that these little vignettes and illustrations will serve to illuminate a good portion of why progressives and conservatives more often than not talk past each other, and have so little respect for each other’s reasoning faculties.  Forewarned is forearmed – wish I would have known about this one.  And now you know how and when to gird your loins.

    Posted at

    in

    15 comments on The Liberal Mind – Giving and Receiving

RR FUNDAMENTALS

About the Bastiat Triangle

Glossary & Semantics

A Conservetarian Credo

Commenting Rules

RECENT POSTS

RECENT COMMENTS

CATEGORIES

2 comments on Ed Scofield joins BoS Prop23 Supporters