Miscellany: 5/12/12

Quote of the Day 

I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, 
the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, 
is that moment when he has worked his heart out 
in a good cause \and lies exhausted on the field of battle
– victorious.
Vince Lombardi

Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA): Before and After

One of the things that amuses me in reviewing the first video is an interesting discussion which reflects that educational credentials can be used as a barrier of entry for certain jobs: today's Democrats would no doubt consider such a notion heresy today, selling college education like snake oil.

As for the new push to have the voters approve tax increases (class warfare "temporarily" over the next several years) and a slight increase in the sales tax:  NO SALE, GOVERNOR! All you achieve with class warfare tax hikes is a reduced tax base... You need to think every day what it takes to attract business to invest and hire in California.

Let me quote from one of my favorite columnists, Debra Saunders (an oasis of truth in the wasteland of the People's Republic of California) (my edits):

[Brown] agreed to a deal to put a tax increase measure on the November ballot when he has to know that the new measure would exacerbate California's dysfunctional finances. Californians already pay the highest sales tax in the country. Only Hawaii has a higher income tax rate for the affluent -- 11 percent, compared with 10.3 percent in California. Brown Plan B would add another 1 percent for single filers earning $250,000 per year and an extra 3 percent for families making more than $1 million.  It's not as if the rich aren't paying taxes. In 2007, the top 1 percent of earners paid 48 percent of state income taxes; in 2009, the top 1 percent paid 37 percent.

The last time I heard, Brown was simply tiptoeing around the state/local pension plan, which is one of the biggest drains over the next several years. The state GOP is in fact sponsoring Brown's hybrid smaller pension/401K style plan--which would be applicable to NEW employees (question: why, decades after most businesses did away with defined benefit systems as unsustainable, is it a sign of "progress" to continue them generations from now for NEW workers? Granted, Brown's plan is better than throwing good money after bad with new workers, but what state Republicans should be saying is: "Stop the madness NOW!") THE REAL PENSION CRISIS INVOLVES THE UNSUSTAINABLE LIABILITIES OF EXISTING BABY BOOM PENSIONERS OVER THE COMING GENERATION--AND WHAT HAS GOV. BROWN DONE TO ADDRESS THAT VERY REAL PROBLEM?

But whatever savings might be had wouldn’t be realized for many years hence — leaving state and local governments to struggle with the burden of fulfilling current, costly promises to workers for decades to come. Current savings must be negotiated at the bargaining table, union representatives have said.

Nice bait-and-switch, Governor Brown. If you hadn't chosen to be a professional politician your whole adult life, you would have made a great used car salesman.... I guess as we get older, we sometimes forget things--like that discussion about limits to government you mentioned on Buckley's program...

Ah, yes: the impetuous idealism of our salad days when we actually believed in things like limited government. Governor, when are you finally going to take responsibility in reaping what you sowed during your previous terms in office?

1975


2012


Green River Formation

News item from June 19, 2008:

President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to lift its long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, saying the United States needs to increase its energy production. Bush also proposed opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, lifting restrictions on oil shale leasing in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and easing the regulatory process to expand oil refining capacity.

Congressional Democrats were quick to reject the push for lifting the drilling moratorium, saying oil companies already have under lease 68 million acres on federal lands and waters - outside the ban area - that are not being developed. "This is not something that's going to give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular," said Obama "Even if you opened up every square inch of our land and our coasts to drilling," he said. "America still has only 3% of the world's oil reserves." 

Here we are 4 years later. What has the Ditherer-in-Chief done since then? (Caution: may contain sarcasm)

• blame oil speculators for high prices
• blame global oil demand for high prices
• blame oil companies for high prices
• remind us we can't drill our way out of this problem
• invest (through loan guarantees) in profitable, job-creating alternative energy companies like Solyndra
• take credit for new oil production on privately-owned (vs. government-owned) lands
• defer approval of the international portion of the Keystone pipeline project (after years of review)
• institute a moratorium on new oil exploration activities in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP oil spill
• remind us who shot UBL (HINT: it wasn't Kristin Shepard)

The GAO testified in front of Congress Thursday and had this to say:

The Green River Formation--an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming--contains the world's largest deposits of oil shale. USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil . Three-fourths of the Green River shale oil is under federal land. The Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, estimates that 30 to 60 percent of the oil shale in the Green River Formation can be recovered. [Development of resources] will lead to a number of important socioeconomic benefits including the creation of jobs, increases in wealth and increases in tax and royalty payments for federal and state governments

So why have the Democrats blocked development? A number of environmental concerns (NOTE: we have existing improved/improving technological solutions addressing these issues):

• "[Development] will require large amounts of water and could have significant impacts on the quality and quantity of surface and groundwater resources,
• "long-term regional increases in air pollutants
•  "the clearing of large surface areas of topsoil and vegetation which can affect wildlife habitat
• "the withdrawal of large quantities of surface water which could also negatively impact aquatic life."

My Favorite Commentary on Dodd N Frankenstein 
(Financial "Reform"): Thumbs UP!

I don't go around looking for columnists whom agree with me and my arguments, but you have to love hearing it from another person: first, he points out, as I have several times, that the liberals had responded to regulator failure with MORE regulatory insight of dubiously complex laws--including the Fed (which he doesn't really mention). Second, the law doesn't deal with the elephants in the room--the GSE's, which were backed by the US government. Third, he critically notes some of the unrelated ideological, pushing-on-a-string stuff in the reform (consumer protection, debit cards, etc.)



Classical Liberalism: Dr. Ashford's Series  #2

The first school of thought examined in Dr. Ashford's series is the Chicago School  (featuring Milton Friedman). Even though more recently I've cited the Austrian School, I have far more prominently referenced the Chicago School,  there is no doubt where I stand on the scientific method, and I repeatedly stress unintended consequences, government failure, and the need for government to delegate, subcontract or privatize non-core functionality.



Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups

The Rolling Stones, "Angie". I never realized until now that the opening guitar work to the Eagles' "Hotel California" reminds me of this song's introduction. I don't know how you can write or perform a better pop ballad than this song.

(Well, there is one: my co-title holder is Aerosmith's "Angel". None of American Idol's contestants have done this song (that I remember). In my dreams, the angel is wearing a short sheer white negligee... Just one of the most incredible tracks ever recorded--it's got everything, even Steven Tyler's yodeling in the chorus. The reason I bring it up here is that I had read an album review which called "Angel" Aerosmith's "Angie" and I knew immediately I needed to hear it--and I've never looked back. I can listen to either song on auto-repeat for a half hour at a time...)

Ironically, I think Mick Jagger's voice is almost too big for this song (I think that he overshoots the hauntingly beautiful, delicate melody in a couple of spots)--I think the song better fits my singing style. I think for a number of pop songs, especially ballads, if one's voice is too full or muscular (like an opera singer's), it's more difficult to convey subtle shifts in tone or emotion during the verses. I like to adapt my vocals to the nature and structure of a song. That being said, Jagger's raw delivery works from a gestalt perspective: if I sang it, you would forget it 10 minutes later, whereas you would remember Jagger's angst-ridden delivery for hours.