The Google Fiber Effect

It is a very old dogma that competition improves the product but it's dogma because it's true. Broadband internet is one area that is ripe for improvement.

Depending on where you live in the country one of a few big cable companies is probably providing your internet service. In Oregon it's almost certainly Comcast as DSL providers are an also-ran who can't quite get their act together. Cable companies are big fat money machines that aren't known for customer service because they are sitting on franchises from local governments and don't have to compete because they are pretty much the only game in town. Until now.

Google is getting into the market and having an almost instant effect - the Google Fiber Effect. Take Austin for example. Google announces plans to roll out its 1 Gb (100x faster than current broadband) and AT&T suddenly gets off its patoot and trots out equivalent service and cuts the price. It's not that the existing carriers can't do it; they just haven't had any reason to do it. 

Right now Google is talking to Portland about Google Fiber and I hope they decide to come in and then move down to Salem. Faster service at a better price sounds really good to me!
Competition does indeed improve the product. 

www.cnet.com/news/googles-fiber-effect-fuel-for-a-broadband-explosion/

Observation Point

Author Randy Alcorn wrote, “John D. Rockefeller was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived. After he died someone asked his accountant, ‘How much money did John D. leave?’ And the reply: ‘He left … all of it.”

http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/25113

Why Washington is Doing Better Than Oregon

www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/oregons_top_personal_income_ta.html#incart_river_default

SoCal Takes Major Stride in Reducing Air Pollution

That's my suggested spin for California authorities to take in response to Toyota's announcement yesterday that it is moving its North American headquarters and 3000 or so jobs to a suburb of Dallas, Texas. There will definitely be fewer cars on the road in the LA area after the move. A victory for the Greens!

www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-toyota-texas-20140428,0,2881400.story#axzz30Bpb8w6x

(Tip o' the hat to Jay Jamieson)

People to Watch

Mia Love just won the GOP primary in Utah to run for a U.S. House seat that she narrowly lost in 2012. Her speech at the Republican Presidential Convention was one of the highlights of that gathering. She is conservative, knows how to message, and is just the type of candidate to continue the makeover of sclerotic GOP leadership in the House. 

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/26/Mia-Love-Wins-GOP-Nomination-for-Congress

The Bridges are Falling!

Highway bridges have indeed collapsed - Minneapolis and New York come to mind - but did you know that the percentage of deficient bridges has been steadily falling for some time? I didn't. 

Take a look at the chart at the left. While there are certainly bridges that need attention, perhaps the scare stories are meant more to inflame than inform and push voters to approve big public works projects that enrich big contractors, big unions, and the enhance the care and feeding of politicians. A cynical view! Maybe, but one to which I might have to plead, "Guilty." 

Perhaps the real problem is that the pols are spending public money intended for bridges and roads on other things to buy votes and periodically have to mend fences with the construction folks but have no money to do so. The Columbia Crossing project comes to mind in Oregon. 

finance.townhall.com/columnists/chrisedwards/2014/04/28/wapos-bridge-story-is-structurally-deficient-n1830178

The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail

Eric Metaxas has a very interesting column today that examines the fascinating dynamic between Chinese Christians and Chinese Communist leadership. In the next 20 years or so China is expected to have the largest number of Christians in the world, led by students and intellectuals. Metaxas says that thus far the Communists have allowed this growth to continue for an unexpected reason:

"This harassment is by and large an acknowledgment by the Communist government of Christianity's ability to shape a culture. William Jeynes of California State University at Long Beach has written about how, on the one hand, Chinese officials are warily open to Christianity, because they see the link between Christianity and the West’s economic success."

That's right, even the Red Horde can figure out that qualities like the Protestant work ethic, honesty, high ethical standards, etc. shape a society and its economy in a beneficial way. And our geniuses in the West? Well, not so much.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the UK, recently took a lot of heat because he described Britain as a Christian nation. Metaxas notes that:

"...Cameron was accused of “fostering divisions in the UK. 'Fifty' prominent public figures including novelist, diplomats, Nobel prize winners and playwrights” signed a letter to the Telegraph in which they said that 'Repeated surveys, polls, and studies show most of us as individuals are not Christian in our beliefs or our religious identities.'

These supposed exemplars of British society went on to say that there was nothing unique or exceptional about Christianity in its contribution to British history and - spouting the usual PC drivel - that other religions had made equal contributions. Really? Name one? What's that? Oh, it's just crickets, lots and lots of crickets. 

The same is increasingly true in the U.S. as well and that does not bode well for the long term health of either our society or the economy. As even the memory of the Church recedes from Western Europe the problems of stagnant economies and restive (and often hostile) immigrant populations increase, just as they will here if we continue on the same course. In the meantime, the Church is doing fine elsewhere, thank you very much, and in some very unlikely places. 

www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/25091

Chiraq

We grew up outside of Chicago, now known as "Chiraq." There were always parts of Chicago that you didn't go in if you could help it, but it seems the whole city is becoming a free fire zone. 

In the first quarter of 2014 13 American soldiers died in Afghanistan; 76 civilians were murdered in Chiraq. Mix in the unaddressed exploding public pension crisis, the fact that government at all levels provide by far the greatest number of jobs, and you have a city sprinting toward becoming the burned out shell that is Detroit. 

It is worth mentioning that President Obama's old buddy Rahm Emmanuel is mayor and Obama himself is a product of the Chicago machine. It was a good town, emphasis on was.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/24/Bullet-Proof-Subway-Sandwich-Shop-Sign-of-Chicago-Violence

An American Caesar

Jonah Goldberg has an incisive analysis of what went wrong with Obama's foreign policy:

"I think we all know what Barack Obama's foreign policy strategy coming into office was.

Step 1: Be Barack Obama (and not George W. Bush).
Step 2: ????
Step 3: World peace!"

If this doesn't take the first time, rinse and repeat. 

We are now in take 9 or 10 and it's still not working. Putin is remarkably unimpressed, as is China, Iran, the Norks, you name it. Goldberg spills the beans on the secret - there is no Plan B. Cue the petulance.

townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/2014/04/25/theres-no-plan-b-for-obamas-foreign-policy-n1829023

The Buckley Rule

The late William F. Buckley, a man of impeccable conservative credentials, said that he always voted for the most conservative person who was electable in any political race. Monica Wehby, the Portland pediatric neurosurgeon running for the Republican nomination to face Jeff Merkley, has been taking a lot of heat recently from pro-life forces because she apparently is not resolutely enough against abortion despite her Catholic faith. That may be, but between she and Jason Conger, her competition, she is a person of integrity with a worldview much different from Merkley's and much more likely to carry votes in the Portland metro area and therefore more electable. Take a look at the video and see what you think. Applying the Buckley Rule, would you rather have a person representing you in DC like Dr. Wehby, who you might not be in total agreement with on all issues, or Jeff Merkley with whom you disagree with on pretty much everything? This is not a tough choice. 

"Fetal Tissue" Burning Stopped at Marion County Burn Plant

"Fetal tissue" was burned? No, dead Canadian babies were being burned, the Canadians apparently not having the chutzpah to dispose of the aborted infants on their own soil. Thus, Marion County joins England, which also just banned the grisly activity, in burning this "organic matter" to generate electricity. Himmler would be proud. Pictured are the ovens at Buchenwald. It was the Nazis final solution too. 

www.kgw.com/news/Medical-Waste-burning-stopped-at-Marion-County-plant-256480611.html

Obamacare Update

Obamacare has not only flown into the ground but is continuing to plow through the woods, houses, whatever gets in the way. Cover Oregon is dealing not only with the totally dysfunctional $300M website and whether to junk it, but is facing a fiscal crisis as well. Only 63,000 people have signed up, many of whom were already on Medicaid or are newly on the subsidized program and the full-fare folks are staying away in droves. The result is a financial squeeze on the agency. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Dictatorship is clearly the answer.

www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2014/04/cover_oregon_budget_crunch_ove.html 

Meanwhile over at MSNBC (aka "The Comedy Channel") Melissa Harris-Perry has taken the dictatorship model to heart and told her audience on the air, such as it is, that, "You can't keep your crappy plan! Just deal with that!" It's tough to come back to such incisive analysis, but let's try. Her follow-on sentence probably should have been something like, "That's right - you gotta sign up for our even crappier and more expensive plan - OR ELSE!" She would look good in the black uniform of the new Amerika Corps, don't you think? 

townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/04/22/fox-news-obamacare-poll-n1827266

Sign of the Times

The Law of Unintended Consequences

"Biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term, a study shows, challenging the Obama administration's conclusions that they are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help combat climate change.

A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government and released Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that biofuels made with corn residue release 7 percent more greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional gasoline."

townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/04/21/study-shows-ethanol-produces-worse-pollution-than-gasoline-n1826957

Happy Easter

Politics Isn't Everything

Politics really isn't everything although you would never know it from the heated rhetorical war between liberals and conservatives. Here is a very interesting piece from a self-described "radical progressive" attesting to this proposition. 

Sally Kohn is now at CNN but appeared regularly on Fox News as a commentator and was personally changed by her experience. She learned that Bill O'Reilly, Monica Crowley, Sean Hannity and others were - gasp - human beings just like her. They might disagree diametrically on the solutions to political issues, but these folks were among the "...some of the kindest, smartest, and most talented people I've had the pleasure of meeting in life." Indeed, she says that Sean Hannity has become one of her best friends and a mentor to her. She concludes, "The bottom line: We respond more positively to and are persuaded by people who treat us pleasantly." 

A good lesson to learn, no? And one that sounds suspiciously like the Golden Rule. Imagine how that would transform our political discourses and help move us to solutions that this country so sorely needs for its enormous problems. 

tv.yahoo.com/news/learned-liberal-talking-head-fox-news-143013301--politics.html

The Paradox of Good Friday

Today's Breakpoint about Good Friday points to its paradoxical nature. Colson quotes G.K. Chesterton that a paradox "... is truth standing on its head to get our attention." The paradox is, of course, that God found mankind guilty as charged and then sentenced Himself to death for the crimes. You cannot stand truth on its head any more than that. Justice was served, but mercy triumphed. Have mercy, O Lord, for putting you there.

www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/24965

Understanding Negotiating with Putin

"In a sense, arguing with the Russian bear is like arguing with a real bear. No matter how eloquently you explain to the bear that it should not eat your face, it's going to eat your face if it wants to eat your face -- that is, if you do nothing tangible to stop it."  Jonah Goldberg

townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/2014/04/18/obamas-diplomatic-dance-with-putin-is-a-sad-sock-hop-n1826021

Maundy Thursday

Weird name, Maundy. It's Latin for "mandate" or "command." It is an important day, though, for Christians because Jesus shared His last thoughts with His disciples before the crucifixion and we can be sure that they were at the heart of what God was trying to get through to them - and to us. 

The command is, of course, that found at the Last Supper and set out in John 13:34-35:

"34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

He elaborates on this in John 17 when he expands on what this means from a practical standpoint and why:

"20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."   John 17:20-23 (emphasis added).

Will Christians have disagreements? Sure, both theological and practical. But we are to love each other regardless as a witness to our unity in Christ that the world may know that He really is who He says He is. In other words, He has put His reputation in our hands - a scary thought. 

The necessary catalyst to this happening is forgiveness. Colossians lays it out:

"12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."  Col. 3:12-14 (emphasis added).

That's what Maundy Thursday is about, so get past the name, forgive someone as Christ has forgiven you (think Good Friday) and be part of the living testament of His Church that Jesus really is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Amen.

Crossing the Line

Dennis Prager is a thoughtful guy, as is Charles Krauthammer, and both of them have now said that the Left has become totalitarian. There is no concern for dialogue or debate on the Left - it's our way or the highway, as the CEO of Mozilla recently learned. The implications, though, are much broader, for society as we have known it and particularly for the Church.

The Church's authority is moral and relies on the very things that the Left will no longer tolerate. In other countries where this has happened a persecution of the Church has inevitably resulted. Authoritarians cannot permit any other source of authority to effectively compete with them, whether Stalin, Hitler, or Mao and it will be no different here if the Left is not checked. 

Right now it is primarily bluff - their bark is louder than their bite. But they will continue to accrue power if there is not a widespread and continuous push back to their loudly shouted efforts to intimidate. We need to resolutely ground our push back in the language of the Declaration of Independence - the dignity of each person rests in the inalienable rights granted by God, not government. It is government that is to serve the people for this reason and not the reverse. That was the genius of the American Revolution and it is something with which the Left cannot compete.

townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2014/04/15/what-the-left-did-last-week-n1824437

All Ya Gotta Do

The latest word from the UN's climate change cabal, the IPCC, says that all we need to do to maybe make an impact on Global Warmism is give up meat, coal, oil, economic growth and national sovereignty. No prob! Serfdom sounds fun. Wonder who will be the lords of the manor? 

www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/04/14/Give-up-meat-coal-oil-economic-growth-and-national-sovereignty-orders-new-IPCC-climate-report

Piling On

The Congressional Budget Office is sounding the alarm on the looming crisis in Federal debt. At the end of 2007 Federal debt was 35% of GDP. In 10 years under current spending levels it will increase to 78% of GDP. The CBO concludes:

"Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences... Federal spending on interest payments would increase considerably when interest rates rose to more typical levels. Moreover, because federal borrowing would eventually raise the cost of investment by businesses and other entities, the capital stock would be smaller, and productivity and wages lower, than if federal borrowing was more limited."

"Finally, high debt increases the risk of a fiscal crisis in which investors would lose so much confidence in the government's ability to manage its budge that the government would be unable to borrow at affordable rates."

While we are sleeping, the politicians are on course to turn this country into a permanent pauper. The greatest danger for the U.S. is an electorate that doesn't care. November will be the acid test to take the temperature of the voters. Hopefully, it is not too late.
www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/14/CBO-Issues-Dire-Debt-Warning-of-Fiscal-Crisis

Something Rotten in Denmark?

A Labour member of the British House of Lords has opened a new front in the crucial battle against Global Warmism: he has urged people to eat fewer baked beans. That's right - fewer beans = less methane = lower global temperatures. Cool! No, seriously, cooler anyhow. The British Climate Change Minister, Baroness Verma (no, I am not making this up) agreed and sniffed that people really need to "moderate" their behavior on this "important" issue. The question remains, however, is this another instance of government sticking its nose in where it doesn't belong?!

www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/04/09/UK-Minister-Cut-Back-on-Baked-Beans-to-Reduce-Smelly-Emissions-and-Fight-Climate-Change

New Sport in San Francisco

KRON reports on a new sport sweeping through The City. Who says smart cars aren't good for something?!

news.kron4.com/

A Hero Can't Go Home Again

If you haven't seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, you should. It's the story of the horrendous genocide in Rwanda while the world sat on its hands. Paul Rusesabagina is the hero of the story for his monumental efforts in saving 1,268 of his countrymen from grisly deaths by giving them sanctuary in the Hotel Rwanda compound where he worked as the assistant manager. He is definitely the real deal.

Unfortunately, he cannot go home again. Now living in Texas, he had to leave Africa because of his unrelenting criticism of corrupt and dictatorial regimes that led to this bloody disaster in Rwanda and other African nations. Rwanda is commemorating the 20th anniversary of that tragedy but has a new dictator in place who will not allow him to be there for fear that he will use it as a forum to discuss unpalatable ideas like peace, freedom, and respect for others. Thus far, the vaunted "international community" has not lifted a finger to apply any pressure to let him make the trip. 

Some things, sadly, never change. Nothing, however, can dim the heroism of one man who made a huge difference at a very dark time. 

www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/04/07/20-Years-Later-Hotel-Rwanda-Hero-Exiled-After-Saving-More-Than-1-000-From-Genocide

That's the Spirit!

What's the Gut Say?

I like Greg Greg Gutfeld. He is smart, well read, unpredictable, unafraid to mix it up, and funny. He was interviewed by Breitbart California because he was born and raised in San Mateo in the Bay Area. Commenting on politics in the Golden State, he had this to say:

"Breitbart News: Can you see a future scenario where California turns red again? If so, what would be the catalyst? If not, why not?

 Gutfeld: Sometimes things happen because there are no more alternatives. At a certain  point, the sun comes up, and all the drugs have been used, and you're broke, and you gotta  clean up the house."

www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/04/07/Gut-Check-Breitbart-California-Interview

True story. And if you expand it to the entire United States that's a pretty good description of how I feel as the end of the Obama Administration approaches. It's just too bad we have to trash the house like this every so often. 

Obamacare "Success" Story

As told by Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show:

"That’s right, the White House said that it surpassed its goal for people enrolled in ObamaCare. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you make something mandatory and fine people if they don't do it. And then keep extending the deadline for months. It’s like a Cinderella story. It’s just a beautiful thing. You make everyone do it. Isn’t it great how many people do it? But if you still haven't enrolled, you might have to pay a penalty called the individual shared responsibility payment, which is 1% of your salary. Then Americans said, ‘Man, good thing I don't have a job."

Indeed. It really is fertile comedic territory, especially since it is mostly unmined by anyone in the national spotlight. The best of the SNL skits drilled any pompous political types of both parties. Fallon is a worthy alum. 

Today's Hmm... Moment

The animals are getting out of Dodge, 'er Yellowstone Park, that is. A 4.8 earthquake hit the park on March 30 and since then supposedly 1/4 of the elk herd has vacated the premises and the video in the link below shows buffalo doing the same heading right down the road. 

Yellowstone is, of course, not only a national park but the epicenter of one of the world's largest super-volcanoes. The potential impact zone is shown in brown on the graphic. If this baby goes up a sizable chunk of the U.S. will go with it. It is true that animals often get funky before major natural calamities and it is well documented that the lava dome is slowly rising throwing the lake, for example, out of kilter. Whether this is the Big One remains to be seen, or if it is anything at all, but seeing buffalo and elk presumably head for Hawaii is a little disconcerting. Let's see, I haven't read Revelations for a while...

www.theepochtimes.com/n3/593833-yellowstone-volcano-eruption-in-2014-some-believe-animals-are-fleeing-park-see-it-as-an-alert/