“What America needs is a bill with a Manhattan Project for nuclear power plants, a plan to develop the two trillion barrels of North American shale oil, and a map of where the rigs in ANWR and offshore will go.”
Archives for 2008
Hanson, All About Me
6/1/08 – 6/7/08
transportation master plan draft
West Elbert County Transportation Master Plan May 8th Draft
West Elbert County Transportation Master Plan May 8th Appendices
These documents are available on the county web site. I saved them here in case they get removed from the county site.
On the whole, it looks like the plan creates more beneficiaries than those negatively impacted. A good deal of property stands to be reallocated to transportation, however, and the plan would gain considerable authority if it were put before the voters for adoption. Whichever way the vote went, many fights would be avoided.
I’m a little surprised the plan did not propose any major diagonal arterials into the Springs and Denver to facilitate commuting. A great way to “foster the rural quality of life so important to Elbert County citizens” (Community Vision Statement, pg. 3-5.) would be to have those citizens spend less time on zig-zag roads commuting to and from town.
self-ownership (the basis of property rights) and voluntary arrangements
Liberty Is Worth the Abuse
We get a lot of abuse, those of us who publicly defend private property rights and voluntary arrangements against the varied depredations of government. Having to constantly face such attacks is a substantial part of the cost of speaking out, and probably explains why more people don’t take the risk.
For those who might be considering publicly taking up the cause of “life, liberty, and property,” I offer the following example to give you a taste of what you can expect. [Read more…]
Cecropia Moth + spotlight
Balderdash! Buncombe! BS!
An Abe21 unsigned opinion, collected 5/21/08, since taken down.
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“The Will of the People[?]”
“What the Citizens want[?]”
“The Collective Persona of the county[?]”
Balderdash! Buncombe! BS!
There is no such thing, entity, common idea, or consensus. The Master Plan is advisory to the Commission precisely because no fictional collective consciousness, however loudly proclaimed by a vocal minority, should ever be binding upon citizens. I don’t care how many consultants and government planners put their expensive hours into writing it, the county Master Plan is not the product of a representative legislature or representative deliberative body. The county Master Plan is the work product of a minority of non-representative, special-interest, squeaky-wheels, who cloak their totalitarian methods in social engineering platitudes, and who use the courts to accomplish what they cannot obtain at the ballot box.
Any judge who upholds their minority plan as binding upon the majority should be run out of town on a rail. No quantity of speculative judicial reasoning can disguise the injustice of holding the majority hostage to the utopian dreams of a special interest minority.
Mr. Thomasson and Democrats of like mind in this, as much as I think the county commission needs diversity, it is issues like this involving the usurpation of fundamental liberties that will lead to the election of a Republican ticket in November.
I encourage the Democrats to propose their utopian visions for voluntary democratic approval at the ballot box, however, forceful impositions of social engineering upon the citizens of Elbert County should be resisted with equal force. Citizens can and will protect their own interests far more effectively than planners ever have or will, and that is the “no-brainer.”
Brooks Imperial
progressive federal income tax
The top 2 income classes making $100,000 and up, comprise 15.4% of income tax payers, and pay 83.3% of federal income taxes.
Remember this next time the progressives talk about raising taxes on the rich. The rich already pay way more than their fair share, and that’s probably enough progress.
Source: U.S. Congress
Saturday, Sunday and Monday
Taranto
Democrats have campaigned against Bush ever since the Wednesday following the 2004 general election, but when Bush makes a comment about appeasement, which arguably may or may not apply to a Democratic position, the left has a hissy. I want to take them seriously, I really do, but they won’t be satisfied until all conservative views are rubbed out.
By JAMES TARANTO
You Probably Think This Speech Is About You
President Bush spoke before Israel’s Knesset yesterday. According to Barack Obama, Bush’s speech was a “political attack” on Barack Obama, as the Jerusalem Post reports: [Read more…]
dirty business
Politics is a dirty business in Elbert County. Candidate and issue sign vandalisms are just the beginning. If history is any guide we’ll see an assortment of libels and slanders, we’ll see anonymous flyers delivered by the U.S. Mail containing false and misleading information about candidates and issues, we’ll see letters to the editor in local papers full of phony puffery, we’ll see lots of mudball (sticky ad hominem) attacks, and of course we’ll see many opinion pieces masquerading as hard news. And those are just the public indicators that statesmanship is dead. Privately, candidates will endure a variety of explicit and implied threats from characters who live in the shadows of Elbert County power centers – the ruling elite – who should not be confused with public officials.
The truth lurks somewhere between the lines of this mishmash, unspoken in public, reserved for private disposition. In Elbert County, reasonable people figure out the truth by filling in the blanks.
Circle Track, El Paso County
lights out guilt
Mr. Boisseau of Golden needs to raise his awareness of the “Lights On” all over Asia. In building after building, block after block, mile after mile, and city after city of crowded Asia, the lights are all on at night. Buildings are covered in massive colorful light displays that outline the geometries of buildings, create interesting abstract shapes, and light the night for the sake of art and visual stimulation. Every night of the year the buildings of Asia light up. Are they wasting energy on a colossal scale that dwarfs conservation efforts in the U.S.? Absolutely! Are these societies “precarious,” to use Mr. Boisseau’s adjective? Well, their economies are growing like gangbusters with currencies making mince meat out of the dollar as they produce goods for the world and accumulate wealth. Years ago, a philosophy professor of mine characterized the West’s solution to economic scarcity as a “get more” approach, as opposed to the mentality of those with a zero-sum view of the world which he characterized as a “want less” approach. His point was that the first approach led to better societies and happier people. Today Asia follows what used to be the Western approach, while back home in the West the Boisseaus want us to feel guilty, wasteful, to accept inconvenience, to see our technology as having led us to precarious times, in sum, to “want less” instead of “get more.” This neo-Luddite claptrap never solved a real problem. Moreover, guilt tripping the West into saving a few pennies of energy while the rest of the world lives on an energy bender is absurd. It’s a perpetual guilt trip that can never resolve. How convenient for the Boisseaus of the world. Without doing or creating a thing, they get perpetual moral superiority.
How about we leave the lights on, study longer and harder, and create some real solutions.
The Right Stuff
warming and cooling
food for oil
Let’s see. The price of oil and fuel went up sharply and Congress subsidized ethanol production. In the higher priced fuel market, a marginally profitable alternative energy source became more economical with a subsidy. Food became more expensive due to increased fuel costs plus increased scarcity. Now, the UN and others blame the U.S. for causing food shortages.
Like hell. Oil producers effectively encouraged the U.S. to become more energy self-sufficient and the U.S. responded by diverting food carbon into energy production. We have a classic example of unintended consequences beginning with the manipulation of energy prices.
Subsidy of alternative energy production is probably a mistake because subsidies hide real economics and distort profitability, however, the despots-R-us UN is delusional in blaming the U.S. for causing hunger.
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Dollars to doughnuts diagnosis
heliocentrism
“[I]t is mistaken to treat these people as bullies, willfully precluding debate by hurling epithets like “racist” and “sexist.” This analysis implies an insecurity of these people which they do not feel. They thrill as much to the idea of open dialogue as anyone — but they think that a radical leftist perspective is truth, not opinion. To them, dialogue about a conservative perspective’s correctness is no more legitimate than dialogue about heliocentrism.”
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taxpayer costs of divorce
democracy
“To a greater extent than is recognized, China may have more closely replicated the political ordering of events that unfolded in western Europe: An autocratic regime at first tolerates those economic relationships that are conducive to prosperity, and then uses its powers to preserve the gains in wealth from disruption and organized plunder. As the people grow more prosperous, democracy matures.” p. 337
“[T]he widespread and secure ownership of property is the sine qua non of prosperity.” p. 341
“Democracy is a consequence of prosperity, in other words, not its cause.” p. 334
The Noblest Triumph, Property and Prosperity Through The Ages, by Tom Bethell, 1998, ISBN 0-312-22337-4.
imprudence
Consider that the sheriff’s department knew ahead of time of the potential perpetrator and the potential threat to Legacy Academy, knew enough to make sure that the student was not admitted to the school, and only after trashing out the school day for Legacy Academy, interviewed the boy to determine that he was not a threat.
Also consider that the sheriff’s department did not notify Elizabeth PD of any of this. Elizabeth PD found out about the sheriff’s activities at Legacy from 3rd parties.
Did the sheriff exploit a situation for media attention? Again?
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Liberal Fascism
Fitna
Taiwan
Bangkok
Medan, Indonesia
Kuala Lumpur, round 2
a balanced BOCC
3/22/08 note:
Since commissioners are elected at large in the county, It looks like the petition requirements are too high of a threshold for Schroeder, Neumann or Thayer to petition on to the primary ballot. It looks like Valdez wouldn’t need so many signatures to petition on, however, he’d have to do so as something other than a Republican or Democrat. So, it’s probably safe to assume that Schwab and Goetz will sit two of the commissioners seats, and it’s still a horse race between Wyer, Shipper, and Thomasson for the third seat. Andy’s a nice enough guy, probably not enough executive skill for me. Shipper, former lobbyist, probably too hooked up for me. Thomasson, all about transparency, will he remain so once he’s on the inside? Perhaps we shall see.
Poor Enough to be Eligible?
Poor Enough to be Eligible? Child Abuse, Neglect, and the Poverty Requirement
Susan Vivian Mangold
University at Buffalo Law School
The State University of New York
…on GOP Lincoln Day Dinner
Now here’s what we like to see in Elbert County, good ol’ fashioned objective reporting. A tip of the hat to Gary Begin of the West Elbert County Sun, Thursday, 3/6/2008, page 5.
I still want to see the Democrats do well in Elbert County this political season because that’s the only way to get the Left out of the Elbert County Republican Party and back home in the Democratic Party where they belong. If the Republicans keep winning everything around here the Left will just continue their masquerade.
But while it’s no secret that deep in the heart of most Democrats you’ll find a firmly rooted prejudice that sees Republicans as stupid morons, the Democrats will do much better in November if they at least appear to treat their opponents as legitimate.
Also, memo to Editor Hill, western Elbert County already has a one-trick-pony fish wrap where Democrats can find their weekly fix of anti-commissioner, anti-growth, anti-development, and pro-intrusive-government mantras. Please consider taking the West Elbert County Sun in a more constructive direction.
The Slave Ship
“Ships carried the captives primarily to the British sugar islands (where more than 70 percent of slaves were purchased, almost half of these at Jamaica), but sizable numbers were also sent to French and Spanish buyers as a result of special treaty arrangements called the Asiento. About one in ten was shipped to North American destinations.” p. 6.
“[T]he ship-factory also produced “race.” At the beginning of the voyage, captains hired a motley crew of sailors, who would, on the coast of Africa, become “white men.” At the beginning of the Middle Passage, captains loaded on board the vessel a multiethnic collection of Africans, who would, in the American port, become “black people” or a “negro race.” The voyage thus transformed those who made it.” p. 10.
From: The Slave Ship, A Human History by Marcus Rediker. ISBN 978-0-670-01823-9.
No one in America today makes that voyage. No one in America today deserves the burden of “race.”
job outsourcing
I listen to Peter Boyles on KHOW some mornings and he frequently complains about jobs moving overseas. He objects to this practice, pointing out all sorts of negative consequences to America due to the loss of jobs. He admits that the jobs lost to foreign factories produce goods sold in American markets; that America is the primary source of demand for goods. According to Peter Boyles, lost jobs translate into fewer income earning opportunities so we go into debt to purchase the things we want. Of course we are also free to retrain ourselves, learn new skills for the jobs that remain, create new jobs, find new employment, and avoid debt financing. I expect more of this goes on than Peter Boyles would like to admit.
I part company from him strongly on [Read more…]