Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas
kudos to pseudos
- The pseudo science of the climate change cartel.
- The pseudo statesmanship of the leftist democrats.
- The pseudo conservatism of republicans.
- The pseudo philosophy of moderates.
- The pseudo intellectualism of the modern university.
- The pseudo religion of fundamentalism — pick your brand.
- The pseudo market of the nationalized no-fault economy.
- The pseudo news from the main stream media.
- The pseudo democracy of the nanny state.
- The pseudo security of the welfare state.
- The pseudo healthcare of socialized medicine.
- The pseudo stewardship of government planners.
- The pseudo sanity of mental health.
- And the pseudo natural born citizen who became president.
People talk about tipping points. I think Americans have reached a tipping point — one where the pretense of knowledge is piling up faster than factual and reasonable knowledge. To be sure, the accretion of factual and reasonable knowledge has greatly accelerated with improvements in technology, but it just looks like the poseurs are winning the day in America. If you read the Victor Davis Hanson piece in the previous entry, as Americans lose their understanding of the liberal arts, they lose their capacity to advance Western civilization. The barbarians in Mumbai last week and the imams who filled their heads with jihadi mush, acted on this weakness as Americans celebrated Thanksgiving with one eye on the TV. The slippery slope of cultural coarsening accelerated (again) as terrorists (again) reduced Western civilization to bloody chunks of body parts and (again) shifted our concept of normalcy toward a state of random violence. The causal thread running through and linking all of this — terrorism, the abrogation of history, the politicizing of all human endeavors — is enabled by disconnection and the interruption of reality feedback. These conditions are necessary precedents if you want people to stop thinking and acting in the interest of their own survival, and they work especially well for the growing segment of the population unburdened by a conscience. All that’s required of us is tolerance, and acceptance that the bounds of what must be tolerated continually expand toward the unthinkable, the horrible, the terrible, and whatever new fad the polity wants to try on for size. Ideals, outcomes, objective measures, standards, fixed points for evaluation, better and worse, good and evil, laws, constitutions, all of these concepts must give way to tolerance. God forbid we become narrow minded.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” H.L. Mencken [Read more…]
Love in the Time of Darwinism
A report from the chaotic postfeminist dating scene, where only the strong survive
Bush Discusses Financial Markets
President Bush Discusses Financial Markets and World Economy
Federal Hall National Memorial
New York, New York [Read more…]
Saturday
Progressives like McShay and Thomasson would find the world a much friendlier place if they stopped assuming that people who don’t agree with them are mental defects who don’t understand progressivism. Memo to McShay, people like me understand progressivism a lot better than the avant-garde progressives who never pause to look back to see the human wreckage progressivism left in its’ wake in the last century. For all its’ good intentions and admirable goals, no matter how well it’s packaged and sold [see Obama], progressivism will never overcome the basic fact of human nature that people work better when they work for themselves than when they work for others.
Altruism is necessary and nice if you can afford to do it, but it will never pay the rent. Progressives attempt to cure this “defect” in altruism by making it mandatory with government. They assume that if everyone is forced to participate then everyone will benefit, however, they consistently fail to take into account the overhead cost of the non-producing government necessary to enforce such a system. They also never acknowledge that government is inherently corruptible and subject to manipulation, and that progressive regimes over the last century have been the worst offenders in this respect.
An old boss of mine told me a story about a Chinese laundry in San Francisco that was located on the first floor of a two-story building. On the top floor was a brothel. The owners of the laundry worked tirelessly day and night but they could never seem to get ahead or make a profit. They had too much f…….g overhead.
Progressives need to stop scape-goating non-progressives. The real problems they need to overcome are inherent in, and exacerbated by, progressivism.
Ed Begley Jr.
As Lars Olfen in A Mighty Wind
i.e. My answer to the question, “What is your favorite line from any movie?”
August Ends
tornadoes this evening
————————————————————————————————-
The tornadoe to the West of us between Parker and Castle Rock is on the left. The second tornadoe was North of us near the county line. It appeared much larger though it did not appear to connect to the ground.
primary election day
District 1
Schwab 1707, Valdez 1184
District 3
Shipper 1485, Wyer 1341
no easy answers
Candidate Robert Thomasson
advocates “Smart Growth” for Elbert County, an “urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl; and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use.” It’s difficult to imagine “walkable, bicycle-friendly” corridors that would be practical over the distances in Elbert County.
Candidate Andy Wyer
believes “managed growth is designed to preserve the rural life style and quality of life that we all enjoy in Elbert County.” “Growth management is a set of techniques used by government to ensure that as the population grows that there are services available to meet their demands. These are not necessarily only government services. Other demands such as the protection of natural spaces, sufficient and affordable housing, delivery of utilities, preservation of buildings and places of historical value, and sufficient places for the conduct of business are also considered.
One technique is the imposition of impact fees. Impact fees are imposed to charge the owners of newly developed properties for the “impact” the new development will have on the community. Fees can be used for such things as transportation improvements, new parks, and expansion of schools. Impact fees are not used to maintain existing facilities, but instead are used to create new facilities in proportion to the number of new developments in the area.
Another technique is application of zoning to reduce the cost of service delivery. Zoning can be used to reduce the area affected by urbanization, allowing the same number of people to live and work in a smaller area, allowing services to be delivered more efficiently. For example, grocery stores and pizza delivery businesses can service only a limited area. If more customers are located within their service delivery area, the cost of delivering their services is decreased.
Preventing suburban densities from affecting a large area also has the effect of providing open spaces so that people who wish to live in a rural setting can do so without urbanization threatening their lifestyle.
The application of growth management techniques are often governed by the development of a comprehensive plan. The plan can be used to measure the impact that new growth will have on the community and define the method by which that impact is mitigated.”
Candidate Steve Valdez
would “plan and manage Elbert County’s growth with smart and proven policies.”
Candidate John Shipper
would “plan and manage growth compatible with a rural lifestyle.”
Put Mr. Valdez and Mr. Shipper in the “managed growth” camp with Mr. Wyer.
All this planning chutzpa begs a great big question. What have managed growth and smart growth planning theories accomplished in Elbert County to warrant such devotion? Answer: nothing – not a damn thing.
Elbert County town centers have minimal economic activity. The Elbert County Fair gets smaller each year. Our road network is in poor condition and does not promote efficient transits of the county. Our schools are producing historically low performance measures, enrollments are shrinking, teachers are leaving, and students are fleeing to Douglas County schools. Commercial enterprises have been closing faster than they are opening, and landowners are prevented from engaging in development that could bring economic returns to the county. Economically, Elbert County is hobbled, and at least four commissioner candidates, apparently, like things that way.
We don’t need their focus on the past, their myths about the rural life style and quality of life that need preserving. This quality of life is not worth preserving. It is poor and getting poorer. Oh, if you happen to work on or live near one of John Malone’s preserved ranches things might appear to look good, but that’s not because of anything produced here. The hobbies of one wealthy man don’t constitute a local economy.
We can and must build a much better quality of life with better infrastructure, efficient transportation corridors, desirable schools, businesses that produce goods and services for commercial markets, and opportunities for citizens to participate in economic growth. But these candidates, their myopic visions, the controls they would impose on us, and their master plans, will produce nothing. Elbert County needs opportunities of the sort that county government and Malone’s charity cannot produce. We have to do the hard work ourselves to build these things.
Elbert County citizens need to stop lapping up easy answers from planners. Master plan devotees have had over a decade to prove their worth in Elbert County and they failed miserably. New smart-growth and managed-growth master plans are no more than new lipstick on an old pig. They are not the answer. There are no easy answers.
July
————————————————————————————————–
Whose Legacy?
“I think we need to appreciate what we have and protect it.”
Nature vs. Greed, What Legacy Are You Teaching Your Children? from: Abe21.net 6/22/08
“A world without children will be a poorer world — grayer, lonelier, less creative, less confident. Children have always been a great blessing, but it may take their disappearance for the world to remember why.”
A World Without Children – Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe
The tension is between those who don’t have kids yet who are, ostensibly, trying to save the world for the kids of tomorrow, and those who are trying to figure out a way to live with their kids in the world of today. But those most active in preserving nature don’t appear too interested in having messy little kids muck around in their pristine wilderness.
So who really are the greedy ones in this paradigm? The folks who want to lock up vast tracks of mostly other people’s land because they like the way it looks, or the folks who want to mortgage their lives away for a small piece of property on the fringe of the metro area in the hope of securing a small piece of the American dream to raise a family?
the natural state of mankind
“Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short [and colorful].”
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651.
The no-growth crowd may love their mythological state of nature, but all that proves is they’ve never lived in it.
good evenings
————————————————————————————————————
the “dead hand” of land control
See: Conservation Easements_ The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.pdf
See: Rule Against Perpetuities
See: The Nature Conservancy Consolidated Financial Statements for 2007 and 2006
excerpt:
In their last fiscal year, the Nature Conservancy sold over $260 Million worth of conservation land and easements to governments. Government officials like this method for gaining control of private land because they can do it without the public notices involved with planning and zoning land use changes.
See: Colorado Land Trusts
Also See:
February 21, 2008
Conservation Easements in Perpetuity are for a Long, Long Time
By Clarice Ryan [Read more…]
6/1/08 – 6/7/08
———————————————————————————————————————–
Cecropia Moth + spotlight
———————————————————————————————————————-
Saturday, Sunday and Monday
————————————————————————————————————————-