Shake, Rattle and Roll

In the wake of the horrific disasters that have hit and still hit Japan, with the possibility (note that it’s not a certainty) of a nuclear meltdown, world-wide sentiment against nuclear power is once again waning and swinging toward irrational fear and fear mongering.  Sadly, despite the human tragedy of thousands dead and missing (possibly 10s of thousands), homes and businesses destroyed, and infrastructure in ruins, the wonks have been politicizing the hurt rather than helping the healing.

There’s so much criticism of Japan’s nuclear program.  If anything the Japanese engineers who built these reactors 40 years ago should be congratulated.  The buildings were designed to withstand a magnitude 8.2 earthquake.  This 8.9 (or 9.0 depending on who is speaking) is more than 30 times stronger than the established design parameters of the buildings.  We have to remember that this earthquake, as measured by the USGS, is the 5^th strongest earthquake measured since 1900 and about 1,000 times stronger than the Haiti earthquake.

And yet the reactors stand.  (Perhaps I’d better publish this quickly before events prove that statement false.)  They’re very heavily damaged, of course, but they’re holding so far, despite the explosions as the cores cool.  There is radiation leakage but prudence says to stay out of its path.

I find it most interesting that pundits sitting in Washington, New York and other big cities here in the US are speculating what might have happened, what might still happen, and how it could possibly affect us.  They simply don’t know and for every one that says that “A” will happen, there is another who says that “A” can’t possibly happen.  We need to prepare for disasters but do so out of wisdom and prudence, not fear.

People in Japan need relief workers, food, water, blankets, clothes, shelters, and prayers, not hand wringing and angst about what might happen here in the US but probably never will.

Our hearts must go out to the people of Japan and our wallets, too.  Want to help?  Here is a link of reputable organizations that won’t simply steal your money (some may have high administrative costs but the people will get help.)

Families have been torn apart or destroyed.  Let’s do what we can to help bring some normalcy to the situation.  We need to do this out of compassion and not out of political motives.

Non Essential Government Services

If Congress doesn’t agree on last year’s spending and doesn’t pass a continuing resolution, the government will be forced to “shut down”.   I have to ask myself, “Is that such a bad thing?”

What is a shutdown?  Nobody really knows but we’re told that Social Security checks will still be sent and that the armed forces will still protect us (and about 90% of everyone else on the planet.)  The only thing that we’re told is that the “non essential government services will be closed and those people will be put on administrative leave.”

Since that’s all the information at hand, I’m going to make some observations and suggestions that may be all wet in light of the complete picture, but I think it’s a start when we think of what this might mean.

The first question that comes to mind is, “Will we get back the $105 Billion that Democrats inappropriately snuck into ObamaCare when they passed it?  It was an authorization bill but they made it into an appropriations bill with nobody but the sneaks who did it knowing about it.  I’m not sure in which of the 2,400 pages of the bill the appropriation is, but it’s there and we want the money back!  Pronto!

Am I surprised they did that?  No, not really.  A former pastor of mine said, “We should never be surprised when sinners act like sinners.”  Without trying to equivocate, I just want to paraphrase and say that we should never be surprised when free-spending liberals act like we have all the money in the world and act according to their true nature.

After recovering from the angst of Dems acting like Dems, I have to ask, “If we shut down non essential services, how will that affect our lives?”  If they’re not essential, I have to think that the answer is, “Not much.”

Next I ask, “If we shout down the non essential services, how much will that save?”  Again, I have to think the answer is, “Not much,” since the meaning of “essential” is left to the operating units themselves.  Some how every bureaucrat will deem himself or herself “essential”.

Let’s shut down the government until Democrats start acting like responsible adults and not like the spoiled rich kids that they are.  I don’t think we’ll see any real difference.  The roads will still have potholes and bridges will be crumbling because Congress raided the Highway Trust Fund in years past.

There are dozens of ways that Congress can get us back on the road to fiscal health, not the least of which is to let private people pay for Harry Reid’s Cowboy Poetry Festival.

Let’s take everyone’s ideas and do them all. Assuming, of course that they’re Constitutional.

On, Wisconsin!

If only public sector workers would put in as much effort in their jobs as they have shown in the Wisconsin demonstrations these past few days and weeks.

I congratulate the Wisconsin legislators for splitting the financial bills so they could get some work done.  Granted, it’s the part that the Democrats (or maybe the unions who control the Democrats) didn’t want to pass.  They have stripped the public employees of many – but not all – of their collective bargaining rights.

So now the Dems are saying that democracy was “stolen” from the people.  Forget that the Dems fled the state to avoid the battle.  Forget that the Dem leader made sure that he was too far away to make it back to Madison in time to vote on anything.  Forget that the Dems themselves were trying to hijack the legislative process by making sure that financial bills could not be voted on.  Oh, and forget that it’s OK for Dems to railroad legislation themselves (can you say, “ObamaCare”?)  Nevertheless, it’s the Republicans who were trying to hijack democracy.

I think the Dems are just angry that they were out maneuvered.  They thought they could bring things to a stand-still.  They simply thought wrong.  Now that they they failed, to save face, it’s somebody else’s fault.  Typical.  They don’t want to take responsibility for their actions.  They were AWOL (but still taking their salaries).  They were the ones refusing to negotiate and debate.  Apparently it’s OK with the Democrats if the state goes belly-up.

But let’s not lose sight of the bigger question.  Should public sector workers at any level (federal, state or local) have collective bargaining rights?  It is this writer’s opinion that they definitely should not.  Bargaining means that responsible labor representatives negotiate with responsible management.  The problem is that the so-called responsible management are politicians who are taking campaign donations from the labor unions with whom they are “negotiating”.

This is conflict of interest at the highest level.  Politicians are not negotiating with money for which they are accountable.  They are using your money simply to buy the unions’ votes.  This is how we get bus drivers making over $150,000 in a year.  This is how we get union members having over 90% of their health care costs covered by your tax dollars.  This is how people get upwards of $100,000 a year in pensions (with full health care).  Try finding that for the average worker in the public sector!  In the private sector, management has to deal with shareholders and boards of directors to keep spending in check.  States simply raise taxes to pay for their promises that make the promise makers rich and re-elected.

Yes, the Dems say that there will be repercussions.  They warn of recall elections and “other things” as they “take back democracy” (whatever that means).  I suppose it could mean that they’ll come out of hiding and return to Madison to do what the people elected them to do in the first place, and that’s represent them and shirk their responsibilities.

However, Dems, beware of unintended consequences.  They say a word to the wise is sufficient so I’m probably wasting valuable keystrokes to write this.  Nevertheless, I feel it must be said:  For the ones not suckling off the teat of the nanny state all this may look like progress toward solvency.  I’d not be surprised if any senator put up for a recall vote didn’t get even more votes in favor of keeping the job due to his or her guts and resolve to keep Wisconsin from going bankrupt.

The simple fact is that the federal government and many of the individual states are broke.  You cannot get blood from a turnip.  Very few people can afford 125% tax rates but that’s where we’re heading if we don’t get a handle on spending, and now.

It’s funny, though, that these people seem to forget that if they don’t like what’s happening, they can quit their jobs and go into the public sector.  I don’t recall any of them saying that someone held a gun to their heads and forced them to work for the state.  Maybe they can start their own businesses.  I doubt that will happen because they’re too used to being molly-coddled by the Nanny State.

Face it, folks.  The free ride is about to end.  The unions know it and they’re running scared.  The producers in the state (and that’s just about everyone not on the state payroll) see this as the most humane way out of the jam.

You can Leave your Heart but not your Foreskin in San Francisco

If a proposed initiative gets on the ballot and passes in San Francisco, it will be illegal to perform male circumcision in the city.  ”Intactivists” as they call themselves, feel that circumcision is barbaric and violates the boy’s or baby’s right to choose to be circumcised or not.

First Amendment Freedom of Religion rights of Jews and Muslims not withstanding, opponents of male circumcision claim it is unhealthy and dangerous.  Granted, there is risk with any medical procedure.  You can choke on a toothpick while cleaning your teeth.  However, this practice is over 3,000 years old and there does not seem to be a shortage of Jews, Muslims, or any other group who has chosen to circumcise its male children, nor is there any reported lack of libido in the healthy and mentally stable males as well.

It’s so typical.  For religious reasons, parents may choose not to vaccinate their children or let them have blood transfusions.  For religious reasons, women may be required to wear thick veils over their heads that inhibit their seeing or hearing on-coming traffic.  That’s all well and good to these busy bodies, but don’t do anything that allows the boys to identify culturally with the other members of their societies.

Needless to say, the simple solution is that if you don’t want to circumcise your child, then don’t, but that’s too simple to these people.  This is simply yet another example of some people trying to dictate how others should live their lives.  Are they planning to go around examining little boys’ crotches to make sure they weren’t snipped?  Maybe they’ll use TSA gropers-in-training for the job.

In one respect, I tend to agree.  It’s the boy’s body, let him decide.  In similar fashion, however, when we consider abortion, it’s the baby’s life.  Let him or her decide, too, if the abortion should take place.

Funny, they want to stop the family from snipping a piece of skin but they’ll do nothing about snuffing out a life.

Is Metric Really Useful?

Is Metric Really Useful?

When I would go overseas, my friends were all quick to tell me the joke:

Q: What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A: Bilingual

Q: What do you call someone who speaks many languages?
A: Polylingual (or Multilingual – both are acceptable)

Q: What do you call someone who speaks one language?
A: An American

Apparently it’s good to speak several languages and I don’t argue with that.  Even here in the US in some places knowledge of Spanish is helpful and in a few others French is handy but nowhere are they absolutely required.

So what do we Americans have over our counterparts in other parts of the world?  We speak many units of measure.  We can speak cups, miles, inches, quarts, acres, and so many more.  Others speak only metric.  What a pity to be so limited to only one measurement system.  I would hope they feel deprived.

But is metric really needed?  I mean, I drank a 12-ounce can of soda.  I filled up my car with 15.3 gallons of gasoline.  I bought a quart of milk.  I drove 9.7 miles to work. I cooked a dozen eggs. I bought a pound of butter and a 3.5-ounce candy bar.  I even flushed the toilet with one gallon of water per flush.

I did not have any even metric quantity of any of those distances, weights or volumes.  I didn’t need it.  If you’re going to buy a fractional quantity of something, what difference does it make which units we use?

I suppose for the mathematically challenged it’s good that we have a measurement system that allow you simply to move a decimal point but what does that really get us?

So what is metric good for?  Yes, you can buy a 2-liter bottle of soda but that’s about all we buy metric (legally).  The only other commodity that I know of that is sold in metric quantities is drugs.  That’s probably because international drug lords wouldn’t know a pound if it bit them in the butt.  Even gold is sold by the (troy) ounce, diamonds by the carat and oil by the barrel.

As an example of how useless metric is to the average US citizen, my one-gallon flush used 3.8 liters of water.  Why not 4?

True, we measure distances to other planets in kilometers, but that’s about it.  In reality, though, does it matter if we’re 93,000,000 miles from the Sun or if we’re 150,000,000 kilometers?  Does it really amount to a hill of beans if the speed of light (the so-called speed limit of the Universe) is 186,000 miles per second (actually closer to 186,282 but who’s counting?) or if it’s 299,792,458 meters per second?  You can’t see it happen.  And regardless if you fall 32 ft/sec2 or 9.81 m/sec2, it’s still going to hurt when you hit.

We even use light years to measure distance which is neither metric nor Imperial (the name given to the US measuring units because they were once imposed by Imperial Britain).

What good is it to buy gasoline in liters if you measure your performance in miles per gallon?  It still costs about $40 to fill my gas tank.  Perhaps it’s time to start drilling in some of the 77,000 km2 of the Alaskan Arctic Refuge (ANWR) for some of the estimated 10 billion barrels of oil we have there.