27 July 2009

Protecting the Gun Rights of Capitol Hill Visitors

E.J. Dionne Jr. in today's Washington Post:
Isn't it time to dismantle the metal detectors, send the guards at the doors away and allow Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights by being free to carry their firearms into the nation's Capitol?

I've been studying the deep thoughts of senators who regularly express their undying loyalty to the National Rifle Association, and I have decided that they should practice what they preach. They tell us that the best defense against crime is an armed citizenry and that laws restricting guns do nothing to stop violence.

If any proponents of unlimited individual gun rights does not see the irony, kindly elucidate.

16 July 2009

Partisan Schmartisan

--posted by Ilyse Kazar
A party-line Senate committee vote on legislation to remake the nation’s health care system underscored the absence of political consensus on what would be the biggest changes in social policy in more than 40 years.
Sheeeeeesh. I feel SO done with all parties.

Bogus Unemployment Numbers are Nothing New

--posted by Ilyse Kazar

David Leonhart reminds us that
The national unemployment rate has risen to 9.5 percent, the highest level in more than a quarter-century. Yet it still excludes all those who have given up looking for a job and those part-time workers who want to be working full time.

And let's not forget that the unemployment figures also do not include small business owners whose businesses either are not supporting them with adequate income or who have had to close up shop.

Mind you, this has always been the case. Only those eligible for unemployment benefits are counted as "unemployed". This leaves out ...

- the underemployed
- starving small-biz owners
- the homeless
- the long-term unemployed whose benefits have expired

During good times, perhaps these four groups of people are a very small proportion of the working (or wish-I-were-working) public. But during hard times like these I would think the percentage is signifcant since far more people might, for example, need to fold their business, or not be able to secure new employment before their benefits run out.

The Obama administration has begun creating "real" budgets by throwing out the bag of tricks that has been used in the past to make overly optimistic projections. This was a good and important change. Now it's time to start providing us with "real" unemployment figures. I'd wager it's around 15 percent now and climbing.

14 July 2009

News Analysis: Sarah's Lapse of Facts

Ah, Sarah. We knew you were cooking something up. [I believe a free account on washingtonpost.com is necessary to view this].

Palin's editorial attacking President Obama's cap-and-trade plan is terribly misinformed and/or purposefully misleading. Unfortunately, in today's infopropegainment (one of my favorite Jon Stewart words) news style, Sarah Palin gets a lot of air time, and as much cannot be said of her opponents.

 First, some general points.

We must remember that this is a woman who does not believe that humans are causing global warming. Her arguments for further use of dirty energy sources is tainted by her inaccurate concepts.

It's also significant that Sarah Palin is building a base founded on controversial issues in what I consider to be her early campaigning for the 2012 Presidential Race. It is classic Republican campaign strategy to be against taxes (although their actual track record tends to suggest otherwise).

Let's break down her arguments, shall we?

"The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet... So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year."
The Cap-and-Trade (TRADE, not TAX) plan generates $650 billion in federal funds over the course of seven years, $80 billion of which will be contributed towards middle-class tax cuts. [1]
"Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs."
The proposal would create jobs in a new rapidly growing clean energy sector. The proposal promises that new jobs created will not be outsourced [2- pg 100]. Pew reports that between 1998 and 2007 job growth in the clean energy sector has progressed at nearly three times that of the economy in general -- even though the government has favored making financial contributions to fossil fuel energy over green alternatives [3- pg 3]. The report goes on to say that by giving clean energy a boost through President Obama's plan, new lasting jobs (this is significant because we know that fossil fuel is non-renewable) will be generated. This projection is supported by Pew's research on state energy programs. [3- pg 40-41].
"In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America."
Projected cost of the Alaskan Highway Pipeline project is over $20 billion and will not begin producing revenue until 2016 [4]. Obama's plan begins producing revenue in 2010. The pipeline plan will only further entrench our economy in an extremely harmful energy culture whose days are numbered. While natural gas is preferable to coal in emission levels, it still is not clean. Environmental impacts of actually building a 2,140 mile long pipeline to Canada and then distribution pipelines from there is yet to be determined.
"We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats."
The 2000-acres only refers to the land on which the rig supports actually touch the ground. The actual area affected would be much greater due to multi-directional drilling technology - "horizontal production wells" [5]. Plus, drilling crews need to build roads through the nature reserve to bring them to drilling sites, and then carry very heavy equipment along these roads which harms the ice shelf.
The Energy Information Administration reports that there is a 95% probability that ANWR contains 5.7 billion gallons of recoverable oil [6]; that would fuel the USA for less than a year at current rates.

Bottom line, Palin's arguments are simply inaccurate.

---
Citations:
1. Samuelsohn, Darren and Bravender, Robin. "Obama's draft budget projects cap-and-trade revenue." Scientific American. 02/26/2009. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cap-and-trade-obama-budget>.

2. EPA FY 2010 Budget Overview -- <http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/asset.aspx?AssetId=757> [PDF]

3. The Pew Charitable Trusts. "The Clean Energy Economy." June 2009. <http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Clean_Economy_Report_Web.pdf> [PDF]


5. "ANWR Arctic Technology". <http://www.anwr.org/techno/drilling.htm>

6. Energy Information Administration. "Potential Oil Production from the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge". <http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/arctic_national_wildlife_refuge/html/execsummary.html>

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Further Reading:


13 July 2009

Evil Trouser Wearing Women

BBC NEWS | Africa | Sudan women 'lashed for trousers' -- and Obama didn't even mention Sudan?

Is there nothing to be done about theocracies that brutalize their women? That is not a rhetorical question, I really wonder about the implications of doing nothing and also about the implications of interfering.

Still wondering whazzup that Prez O did not take one of the most cruel African regimes to task when he had the chance.

TY to Nick Kristoff for his FB post on this.

12 July 2009

Every time ... Sweep before you Vacuum

If you sweep first you will then vacuum less. The benefits of implementing this tip are manifold:

Economic/Practical
  • save money on vacuum bags, especially if you have furry animals around the house
  • be more likely to notice and retrieve small items that have fallen to the floor

Health
  • burn more calories
  • subject your household members' nervous systems to less mechanical noise pollution

Green
  • less bags used, therefore less energy and raw materials used to manufacture vacuum bags
  • less energy used and pollution produced by shipping vacuum bags to stores
  • less frequent (possibly carbon-burning) trips to the store to get vacuum bags
  • less electricity burned due to reduced vacuuming time
  • less waste produced because less bags in the waste stream
  • your vacuum will last longer, saving additional materials, energy and waste

Mental and Emotional Health
  • rhythmic activity is beneficial and therapeutic
  • sweeping (like many other household "chores") can be enjoyed as an interlude that lends itself well to calm planning, letting suppressed thoughts and emotions surface, meditation or free-wheeling thought

Metaphysical *
  • the act of sweeping one's path in front of one physically aids in keeping one's path through life clean and clear on the astral plane, which is something only you can do for yourself and which one gets better at with practice **
* look for a post some day soon on my decision to include metaphysical observations, learning and personal experience and theory in this blog

** I was lucky to have a dream once in which I was crossing a plane of light, on foot, deliberately and patiently and meditatively sweeping just in front of myself before taking the next step. This 5-second dream was actually a huge vision for me.