Dude - We See Things Differently Here!

Federal pot raids rankle Oregon lawmakers


Livelihood threatened!

www.kgw.com/news/Federal-pot-raids-rankle-Oregon-lawmakers-131921933.html

Failure and Redemption

Robert Duvall is one of America's premier actors. He has consistently turned in award-winning performances and now is producing his own movies. Duvall is a Christian. He is not in your face about his faith, but his understanding of the core of Christianity is on display in a number of small films that he has produced like The Apostle and Get Low. His newest is Seven Days in Utopia, which got a nice write up today by Chuck Colson.  www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/17998

The basic story line is about a young golf pro who chokes in a major tournament, blows up making a fool of himself, and has his perfectionist dad walk out on him. As he is driving away with his career in tatters, he drives through Utopia, Texas and meets Duvall, an old golf pro himself, who proceeds to straighten out his game and not incidentally, his life.

The film has been out since August and probably will be on Netflix soon, so you might give it a try. You should sample some of his other pictures too. Duvall is making pictures that matter, which is a refreshing change from the usual drek from Hollywood. If people turn out to see them, he can keep making them and if not - another serving of drek, please.

www.sevendaysinutopia.com/video

Are We Next?

You probably remember the rioting in England last summer when lots of stores were looted and a number of buildings burned to the ground. At that time, my son-in-law sent me a think piece from the London Daily Mail and then asked: are we next? The answer now appears to be "yes" and for the same reasons.

I posted yesterday that the only prevailing ethos of these "protesters" is "Gimme!" The same was true of the English mob, only they went out and simply took for themselves. The article closes with two paragraphs that apply equally well to the American mob in New York and other cities:

"They are an absolute deadweight upon society, because they contribute nothing yet cost the taxpayer billions. Liberal opinion holds they are victims, because society has failed to provide them with opportunities to develop their potential.

Most of us would say this is nonsense. Rather, they are victims of a perverted social ethos, which elevates personal freedom to an absolute, and denies the underclass the discipline — tough love — which alone might enable some of its members to escape from the swamp of dependency in which they live."

England is much further along the road than the U.S. is in becoming the Great Nanny State, but the impulses are definitely on our shores. Not surprisingly, when you spoil children you often get brats. When a lot of brats of whatever age don't get their way, you get a mob. And when you get a mob, there is no telling what you will get next. England had a sobering demonstration of what can happen last summer and there is a good chance that we are next. I am praying for bad weather.

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2024284/UK-riots-2011-Liberal-dogma-spawned-generation-brutalised-youths.html#ixzz1aOFM5EM3

(Tip o' the hat to Glenn Geisendorfer)

Alien Rubbish

Richard Dawkins is a prominent English scientist and atheist who has been trashing Christianity for years. Now he has taken on a new target: Islam. 

Recently he visited several Islamic schools and was aghast that it was the Koran uber alles. In his inimitable fashion, he proclaimed after his outing:

"It's just utterly deplorable. These are now British children who are having their minds stuffed with alien rubbish."

I have to give the guy props for consistency, but I am afraid that he is about to find out that Muslims aren't the passive targets that Christians are. I hope he is listening because the more fanatical Muslims have a nasty habit of whacking off the ears (or worse) of people with whom they disagree. Can you hear me now?

 

 www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046715/Richard-Dawkins-attacks-alien-rubbish-taught-Muslim-faith-schools.html#ixzz1aO8smSyj

Res Ipsa Loquitur

That's Latin for "The thing speaks for itself." That's right, man - I don't need no stinkin' oil!

(Tip o' the hat to Nate Lyons)

Road Apples

Horsepucky! The folks "occupying" Wall Street and conducting tribal rituals are no more representative of 99% of this country than George Soros, who for all we know is financing this goat rodeo. The cry of this mob is "Gimme!" as in gimme a job, gimme health care, gimme a house, basically gimme all your money! Americans have always been builders - if something needs doing, they roll up there sleeves and get it done. They do not wait around for anybody - least of all the government - to give them anything. No, the Wall Street occupiers are cry babies who have never grown up. They want someone to take care of them and attend to their every whim. Whine, whine, whine, whine. Grow up and join the other 99% of Americans - you have nothing to lose but your Pampers.

Does Norton do Predators?

This is not good. The Defense Department admitted that an unknown someone loaded malware on the operating software that controls our drones in Afghanistan. Despite several efforts to remove the bug it keeps popping up.

It doesn't take much imagination to realize what could happen if an unknown person could take control at will of these killer drones. The alternative is to keep them grounded, which threatens the lives of our ground troops and prevents a vigorous prosecution of the war against key Taliban and al Qaeda figures. The military has previously somewhat sheepishly announced that with use a of a $26 piece of equipment the bad guys could - and did - intercept the video feed from the drones because the digital signal isn't encrypted. I don't know who is running the digital warfare show at the Pentagon, but it sounds like it's past time to replace him with some 18-year old hacker who knows what he or she is doing.

www.pcworld.com/article/241507/computers_controlling_military_drones_reportedly_infected_with_virus.html#tk.hp_new

No Crony Capitalism

Chuck Colson has an interesting commentary today. His friend, Rep. Frank Wolf, whom he admires, has challenged tax breaks for special interests and Colson agrees with him. So do I. General tax rate increases are business killers. Loopholes for particular companies or industries, though, are reprehensible. Take the example of ethanol subsidies.

In my June 11, 2011 post I pointed out that there had been an on-going pork barrel handout to agri-business of $6 billion/year that had badly distorted the corn market and increased food prices. There are also tax breaks associated with this industry. Bunk! If ethanol can't compete without subsidies and tax breaks, it's too darn bad and eliminating them is not a "tax increase."

Cleaning up tax loopholes would eliminate a lot of other similar economic inefficiencies - businesses would either have to compete or perish. The tax bite on the rest of us would also potentially moderate and I suspect there would be no complaints there. So don't be confused when you hear special interests squealing like stuck pigs about "tax increases" and "principles." Closing loopholes for narrow special interests is good public policy.

www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/17981

They've Been Working on the Railroad

For a long time our family has gone to Siltcoos Lake for a week in the summer and enjoyed fishing, water sports, the dunes, and just hanging out. A rail line runs across multiple bridges on the east side of the lake connecting Coos Bay with Eugene. Many a time while we were out fishing we would be surprised by a slow-moving freight train rumbling up the tracks with a long load of lumber cars. The crew would wave and then head up the tracks to the sound of joints rhythmically clacking as the heavy cars thumped over them.

Originally a Southern Pacific line, it became part of the Union Pacific system when those two roads merged. UP doesn't do small and leased the line to Rail America, a short line operator, which operated the branch until 2006, when it abruptly shut down due to several tunnels that were in bad repair and too expensive to fix. Lumber companies on the south coast were forced to use trucks to get their products to market at a cost as much as 30% over rail rates. The Port of Coos Bay, however, came to the rescue.

The Port bought the line in 2009 and through a combination of Federal, state and local funds has refurbished the line. Next week the first train will head to Coos Bay to pick up loads since 2006. The track is rated for a stately 10 mph, so intermodal hotshots blasting through at 70 mph are not in the cards, but it will be nice to have our fishing outings interrupted again by a passing freight and wave to a friendly crew as they haul Oregon commerce to market.

www.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/26962523-41/rail-railroad-oregon-bay-coos.html.csp

(photo courtesy of Mark Samples)

An Apple a Day Will Not Keep Android Away

I can see why Steve Jobs let the new guy handle today's iPhone announcement. If you haven't heard the news, Apple released an iPhone 4S today, not a 5. While it has a new faster processor, a better camera, and a voice assistant (beta), the form factor is the same as the iPhone 4.

Techno junkies and Wall Street both reacted with disappointment. Techies wanted a bigger screen and a non-beta voice assistant. Wall Street apparently was expecting more of a Star Wars phone too because Apple's stock immediately took a hit.

Apple may have been the victim of its own expectations. Rumors ran rampant for months about what Apple would roll out and the company did nothing to dampen expectations. The 4S appears to be a nice phone, but for the first time Apple is playing catch up with the newest Android phones with their bigger screens, faster downloads, and other advanced features. I would never bet against Apple, but this is definitely a new position in which it finds itself. Let the games begin!

It's Not Easy Being Green

Since the rains have started and lawns are getting green again, it's a perfect time to take a look at how those "green jobs" so beloved of politicians are doing. From President Obama to Governor Kitzhaber, politicians just can't get enough of green jobs that will somehow magically transform the economy and usher in rainbows and unicorns to frolic in our midst. Unfortunately, the actual results from the green sector are pretty dismal, Solyndra being the biggest example with a $535 million implosion.

The article linked below details a number of other busts and empty promises, but perhaps the most interesting part is the link to a 2009 Stanford study on green jobs and its conclusion:

"“analysis…concludes that the advantages of increased jobs from renewable energy are vastly over-stated at costs prevailing today. It will require dramatic break-through in costs if renewable energy is to become a job generator.”

“Green power, however, does not appear to be a game changer on the job front. When job creation is compared to the cost of each power source option, green jobs are sometimes more and sometimes less than conventional energy jobs. More importantly, strategies that subsidize these investments will be shifting the country’s scarce resources from sectors that would create more jobs (as well as economic value). This conclusion applies even for an economy in a deep recession and where policy wants to stimulate employment.”

How 'bout them apples? This report was prophetic and has been borne out by events. No amount of magical thinking is going to transform so-called "green jobs" into something that will be a lifeline for this economy. Maybe downstream, after technological breakthroughs occur, there will be real promise, but for now it is North Dakota and its boom of old-fashioned oil and gas drilling and development that is creating its 3.2% unemployment rate to the envy of the other "green" states like Colorado and Oregon. 

finance.townhall.com/columnists/amyoliver/2011/10/03/bursting_the_big_green_bubble