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  • Ruminations – 7apr2008

    George Rebane

    Collateral Carbon Credit Damage.  This morning I awoke to a NPR report of gushing young lawyers in WashDC all atwitter about getting into the carbon credit business and making a ton of money; oh yes, they’re in it to also save the environment.  This is one of many unknown collateral catastrophes that occur when government starts messing with the markets – and the bigger the messing the bigger the mess.  Now we are having another huge cohort of America’s bright young people with MBAs and law degrees chasing a buck that is destined to help no one and hurt everyone around the world.  Oh, did I mention that another such group is taking perfectly good food off the prairies, adding a ton of hydrocarbon energy, and then making government subsidized ethanol that achieves no energy objectives but does make tortillas more expensive for the poor Mexicans, the Africans, the Asians, the … and Ms. SixPack in Poughkeepsie.

    Can’t Change Climate Change.  Team Gore is turning on the heat under media outlets who dare to even contemplate making public the recent findings about climate change that trips up the True Believers.  As Russ reports on NC Media Watch, the politics about this is getting ugly.  And we do have to keep in mind that climate change now is a political issue of a desperate ideology that is pulling all the stops to achieve its global agenda – and, sadly, winning against the skeptics who constitute the small but growing voices of reason.

    GV City Council and the Growth Snatchers.  At 645pm tomorrow night in the GV council chambers we will witness the first collision of the no-growthers Friends of Grass Valley and those who see the return of boarded up store-fronts on Mill and Broad Streets.  (With friends like these, who needs … )  Our county electeds see this as a horrible portend for the future of our community, literally guaranteeing the failure of any initiative promoting prosperity and the quality of life that makes our foothills unique.  If you have a spare piece of backbone lying around the house, please bring it tomorrow night and contribute it to our politicos who will be most grateful – and so will you.  Here’s the press release about this on NC Media Watch.

    Mud Match on The Union.  Speaking of the effort to promote non-existent growth for a community with non-existent growth, did you catch the mud match on the online Union in response to an article ‘Growth measure raises questions’ – questions my foot! it raised a lot of hell, read the comments.  What many of us found entertaining was the quality of the Union’s correspondents that was equaled by none other than publisher Jeff (‘The Gravitas’) Ackerman down there in the pit slinging away.  I guess that’s how you defend a newspaper; what a dialogue 😉

    TechTest2008 ignored by The Union.  TechTest2008, the second annual SESF TechTest merit scholarship exam was given this Saturday to the county’s best and brightest science/math students.  This scholarship recognizes students who plan to go into technology careers.  (read here the importance of Nevada County grads returning home to staff our community’s high tech companies).  This four-hour exam is administered by an academic committee headed by John McDaniel, award-winning physics teacher at NUHS.  He sent the appropriate and timely letter to the newspaper to gain some deserved publicity for the effort which will award $15,000 of scholarship prizes this year.  Nothing.  Apparently the paper was too full of local pumpkin contests and teddy bear exhibits to recognize these young people who will be the next generation of wealth creators.  Kudos to KNCO which picked up the ball and made the event known in our town.

    Economic Development Done Quietly.  The two-day joint meeting of our elected leaders from the four major jurisdictions – Truckee, Nevada City, Grass Valley, and the County – to set a course for future economic development concluded on Saturday.  I attended both sessions and posted my recap here .  The meeting was well attended by local NGOs, non-profits, and the public.  Economic development in our county is on a crutch and needs all the support it can get from us and our institutions.  Apparently such gatherings do not meet the high standards for content that our local paper sets for itself and you.

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  • Economic Development – Once More With Feeling

    George Rebane

    The electeds of Nevada County had a two day joint meeting to continue their dubious path toward some or any, for that matter, approach toward economic development (ED).  It was marvelous to see an amicable meeting where the city councils of Truckee, Grass Valley, and Nevada City joined with the county supes to discuss the matter.  Cutting to the chase, the outcome was to do more of the same – i.e. nothing to put your hopes on – while identifying yet more areas where there is perhaps no understanding, and, most certainly no agreement.  The meeting was a success in that everyone could declare victory by tossing the ball to Gil Mathews and the Economic Resource Council, and hoping that he will come back with something to make them all look good, or innocuous enough that it will not show on anyone’s radar and we can go forward with the same ol’ same ol’.  Details below.

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  • Ruminations – 3apr2008

    George Rebane

    Keeping Grass Valley’s non-existent growth non-existent. We don’t yet know if the GV city mamas and papas will love the Friends of GV initiative that would put all difficult questions about planning and growth to the voters.  Kind of reminds one of the scam that the state pols pulled in 1911, and how we now vote statewide on initiatives ranging from tax rates to the color of underwear kids will be allowed to wear to school.  Maybe this initiative will reduce staff costs since they won’t be developing the positions for the electeds to vote on. For the record we must point out that The Union agrees (look here, it happens!) with Ruminations (here and here) about the nonsense the new ‘Friends of Grass Valley’ are trying to foist as an initiative to tie the hands of city planners.  When you add to this the recent thoughts on economic development by Terry Lamphier, one of GV’s leading lights, you understand why that city continues to suffer from a lack of lumens.

    The Medler Memorial Traffic Light is our newest source of congestion and pollution.  This traffic light, paid for by tribute from the developers of Morgan Ranch to mitigate the additional traffic that may be generated by the subdivision’s last unit of twenty plus homes, is now causing off-rush-hour back ups at the intersection of Ridge Road and Sierra College Drive.  GV should try setting it to flash red except during the morning and afternoon peak traffic hours.

    As predicted and pooh-poohed, the county’s new Fire Safe regulations are already starting to attract the attention of insurance companies that need a reason to bail from insuring houses in Nevada County.  Here is the latest about Allstate.

    TechTest2008 will be taken this Saturday at NUHS by the county’s science and math seniors.  Russ Steele’s NC Media Watch has the press release.

    ?Hillary was fired from Watergate prosecution team for lying and unethical behavior?  This little nuke was popped by her former boss Jerry Zeifman as reported by (right-wing?) North Star Writers Group.  The left-wing Daily Kos has picked this up and is looking into it.  When you google ‘Hillary fired, Watergate’, you get over 200,000 hits indicating that the web is alive with this story.  Nothing in the mainstream media yet.  Most interesting is that Drudge, the blog of blogs, is keeping mum on it.  They haven’t even acknowledged that this loose cannon is rolling around the below-decks of the web.  Does this mean that Drudge has finally grown so big that it is starting to act like a mainstream media outlet? 

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  • Economic Development 101 in Nevada County – Round 3 (4?, 5?, …)

    George Rebane

    Today we have a public service post for all of you keenly interested in how our county’s leaders are making progress on economic development (ED).  This Friday and Saturday will see another conclave of the county’s electeds, staff, media, non-profits, and hangers-on at the Holiday Inn Express doing their best to push the ED peanut ahead.  Your humble blogger will be in attendance with pen at the ready.

    Here’s how you can tell if anyone is serious about ED.  Since no one yet knows what ED looks like for Nevada County, serious people will address that part first.  For we all know that ED goals can take a myriad of forms.  For example, one goal statement would be ‘increase retail sales taxes 15% annually for the next five years’, another might be ‘increase the property tax base by 50% over the next ten years’, and another may be ‘double the county’s private sector workforce over the next ten years’.  This kind of specific goal statement then makes it clear what kind of an ED plan must be adopted to achieve the goal, and also provides a gauge by which to measure progress toward the goal.  Alternative approaches to ED can then be reasonably debated by how much sense each makes in achieving the goal.

    It’s easy to see that picking such an ED goal/definition is a purely subjective undertaking; there is nothing objective about saying that increasing sales taxes is ‘better’ than increasing private sector workforce.  In fact, to really emphasize the subjective nature of picking an ED goal, we can put both sales tax increase and workforce increase (or any other economic performance attribute) into the same goal statement in a way that measurement is still possible.  The main thing is that the goal of ED defines its nature, and that is a judgment call.

    In a representative government judgment calls like this should be made by the elected representatives of the people – that’s why we elected them.  But you can also see that supporting an ED goal also means that you have to stick your neck out for this rather than that.  Politicians naturally shirk from this whenever they can.  Now here in Nevada County we often believe that our politicians are our friends and neighbors, and therefore are made out of stiffer stuff.  On Friday everyone will be able to see for themselves whether that’s true or not.

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  • Grass Valley Lurches Forward

    George Rebane

    The GV mamas and papas are really in a quandary but, true to form, are keeping a stiff upper lip as they consider the conflicts of reality butting heads with a sagging ideology.  The city is unable to fund its upcoming budget and is seeking to cut costs to stay afloat.  In the meantime, it is contemplating another progressive measure to not only ignore, but actively fight, any hope of growing its revenue base so it can provide the services it has promised to maintain for the good people living there.  Here from a local correspondent is a pdf with a compendium of a press release, proposed city resolution, and petition from yet another anti-growth organization ‘Friends of Grass Valley’ apparently made up of the same folks who put the vim and vigor into the RQC and CCAT (they sure have to wear a lot of hats to man all the switches and keep all the balls in the air).  Download grass_valley_initiatives.pdf

    As you read this, keep in mind that our county is growing at less than a fifth of California’s growth rate, and at the same time with the other hand is trying to promote economic growth.  Can anyone spell schizophrenia?

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  • ‘Dixie Fix’ is Online!!

    George Rebane

    Ruminations is pleased, hell, is excited to welcome the return of Dixie Redfearn’s neighborly news, comments, and features about what is happening in Nevada County – we have added Dixie Fix to our links.  Dixie, a longtime icon of our community, was the Union columnist whose Reader’s Corner informed us of the events, happenings, and reflections that put not only a human face, but our human face on items of interest, inspiration, and importance.  As most of you know, Dixie is now on the air with KNCO.  Today she has also joined the Nevada County bloggers to again provide her own unique brand of community reporting which we all enjoyed as our Dixie fix with the morning coffee.  Well, now Dixie Fix is online and will be filling us in with more of the good and positive about Nevada County than ever before.  Submit your stories, announcements, and musings to Dixie, and share them with your neighbors when we all log on to get our Dixie fix.

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  • Par Force – An Uncommon View of the Second Amendment

    George Rebane

    Today the Supreme Court is considering a Second Amendment case that will have a sweeping impact on our ability to keep and use guns.  The California legislature has before it AB2062 that seeks to proscribe the effective ownership of guns through a back door ruse of greatly limiting the purchase and distribution of ammunition.  Almost half of Americans have come to believe that in a civilized world the state should be the only agency to possess and wield deadly force.

    A few of us knuckle-draggers see this as part and parcel of the march to a monolithic global state, perhaps stopping along the way for an oligopoly of super-states as described by Orwell.  The rapid recognition of splinter states such as Kosovo is right on the path to such a future.  To see how one of these super-states will operate, we need look no further than the United Nations of today while keeping in mind what passes for prudent government in our own District of Columbia.

    In today’s WSJ we read – “More than one American has tried to make the United Nations live up to its original ideals — Pat Moynihan, Jeane Kirkpatrick, John Bolton. We'd add to that distinguished list the name of Mark Wallace, an ambassador to the U.S. mission at Turtle Bay who resigned yesterday having tried for two years to make the U.N. a more transparent place.”

    Our Founders understood that governments operate on the edge of evil.  Therefore they wrote into our Constitution the provisions by which our new government would always remain responsive to its citizens, not by the goodwill of honorable and incorruptible politicians, but by the direct means of armed revolt when our leaders finally step over that edge.  The existence of this desperate but necessary redress has not escaped the elites who are forever dedicated to constraining our behavior to fit into their template of a politically correct Homo Perfectus.

    That past attempts to shepherd humanity along this road have created hells on earth is the motivation for an introduction to the role of par force in a liberal democracy which I argue in 'Par Force in the Maintenance of a Liberal Democracy'.  This piece can be downloaded here Download ParForce160627.

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  • Our Financial Mess is Bigger Than You Think

    George Rebane

    Most of us concerned about the future of the Republic have been following the subprime mess and its larger implications for our nation and way of life.  For those passengers not concerned about why the cabin floor is beginning to tilt, this is the time to hit the exit button and go find an empty deck chair.

    Michael Lewitt of Harch Capital has written an extremely well-composed analysis of the ragged edge on which we find ourselves financially, and a prescription for how to put ourselves back on a firm footing.  This piece is especially important now that Secretary of Treasury Paulson is proposing the next pallet of palliatives to fix the US financial system.  Whatever will be implemented will affect all of us.  Lewitt’s article, ‘How To Fix It’, is not a sound bite but grist for the serious reader.  You may not agree with all of it – it shakes some of my long-held beliefs – but it is an education about the edge of our financial cliff and also a stake in the ground. And as such, it marks a place to take a stand and communicate your own thoughts to the local politician who in all likelihood doesn’t have a clue about what is going on and just keeps an eye on the polls.  Well, here’s your chance to find out how you want to affect the polls.

    Kudos to John Mauldin for making this piece of clear thinking available to wider audiences.

    PS.  Check out this little piece and glue it together with Lewitt’s article.

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  • Is there really no one who knows how to plan our economic development?

    George Rebane

    Today Russ Steele highlights the latest wallowing in the process to come up with a plan for economic development in our county (here).  There can be no sane plan to get from here to there if we don’t first define ‘there’.  I have written about this straightforward process and spoken about it in a number of public forums on economic development over the last year (see here).

    It is amazing that there is no one visible in our county’s leadership who either understands and can implement the steps required to do such planning, or has the cojones to say that such steps don’t work for Nevada County and we are going to go down another road.  Were I king, I would not allocate one red cent of county monies for any economic development effort that first doesn’t spell out our goal in a way that allows us to measure our success in achieving it.  Without an explicit statement of that, we will continue blathering platitudes about ‘expanding the tax base’ and ‘smart growth’ and ‘balanced community’ and ‘traffic congestion’ while busily molding ourselves into a backwater bedroom community to serve economic growth that’s happening elsewhere.  Let’s get on with the program!

    Stay tuned as we continue to monitor this muddle.

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  • Filecarding the Future

    Evan Jones, Guest Commentator*

    You have already outlined the problem: I agree with your description and analysis of the limited capacity of any individual. Where I differ with you somewhat is with your tinge of pessimism. Yes, if knowledge is wealth, we have amassed too much for any one man to carry. But we must not fall into Yogi’s fallacy that “the place is so crowded that no one goes there anymore”.

    Mankind has worked long and hard in order to learn what he has learned. The problem is that it all seems so overwhelming. The solution lies in finding an effective way to manage and access this knowledge. We live in such a complex world that the Enlightenment definition of the “universal man” is no longer possible. Yet it should be noted that the Enlightenment itself is to a great extent responsible for setting in motion what has become our current state of affairs. We must not shrink from this, we must embrace it.

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