Lifeblood of Freedom

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Among the nonsensical and exorbitant 160 bills the Nevada legislature is considering this session, we find a proposal to open High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes to vehicles that are classified hybrid electric. What this constitutes is a proposal by a member of the legislature to actively discriminate against other vehicles just on the auspices of their classification. This will help one small demographic at the expense of all others. Part of the real problem is the cars on the road with 2 or 3 cylinders, and these cars will block the flow of traffic

My car doesn’t fit the mode of what’s a trendy, hip, planet-saving car, but it is, by and large, much better than many of these alternative fuel vehicles. I drive a 1995 Saturn SL1 that, on my last tank of gas, drove 41.3mpg. It’s not a hybrid, or flex fuel, or anything special. It’s a 4 cylinder, manual transmission, cassette player, no frills car (I do have AC), that is driven by a skilled and responsible operator who knows it’s all he needs for now- a means to get to work. Higher gas prices pinch me too, to the same fraction, but my car is paid off already, whereas if you go get some hybrid vehicle, you have to pay every month to own it. Spending $15,000 to save $1000/year on gas doesn’t make much sense to me.

Government policy has created the problem. We now drive lighter, weaker cars, that do much worse in vehicular collisions, in order to comply with unrealistic mileage requirements. Oil companies manufacture special and expensive blends of gas necessary to comply with asininely insane environmental regulations. Now, the government wants to reward those who bought into their lies with preferential treatment when they already get other kickbacks like tax breaks for an alternative fuel vehicle. They claim you qualify for special treatment just because you buy a certain car? This will only exacerbate the problem, as people will buy into their misguided policy in order to garner what little benefits they can, until we’re all crushed under the steel boot of the tyrant.

People keep buying a false notion. Misanthropic policies left us with millions of Americans drooling under the delusion that their car will save the planet. If internal combustion in bad, then no cars are good. If combustion of any material is bad, then everything on earth contributes to harming the earth, because plants, yes plants, respire, and they can belch CO2 into the atmosphere as efficiently as anything, not to mention the Big Sur fires in California, but that’s another story.

It has nothing to do with saving the planet. Corporations have capitalized on it as a selling strategy, and they started going green to attract customers. As a basic business plan, they switched from trucks/SUVs to hybrid or flexfuel to appeal to the current buying fad. The last thing we need is government setting a precedent establishing a fad as the rule.

On this 4^th of July holiday, be patriotic and go for a drive, burn some oil, and celebrate your right to move about the country. Oil is the lifeblood of freedom and prosperity. It powers our tanks, our planes, our cars, our lives, and even our imaginations. Without oil, there is no plastic, no computers, no CD players, no iPhones, etc. All the things you enjoy in your opulence including the computer you use to vilify Chevron et al come to you courtesy of the companies you criticize.

What opponents of oil really mean is that they oppose us excelling. They want to hold America, and everyone who lives there or calls her home, back from reaching her potential. So, they try to deny us oil. Without oil, we cannot feed ourselves, let alone the rest of the world. As America suffers from oil starvation, the entire world languishes under the resultant burden. Be a patriot, and exercise your freedom this 4^th of July. I’m going waterskiing. What are you doing?

Energy Abstinence

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My "favorite" senator is at it again, demonstrating just how unqualified he is to lead this country in any capacity. Last night on Fox, he told a reporter about the health costs of fossil fuels as citation for one reason why he essentially opposes energy independence. You can see an excerpt from his remarks on Fox news here.

First of all, I have no idea what he means by this. Oil and coal power almost all of our industrial might and all of our hospitals, being the source for diagnostic plastics and complicated equipment used by the healthcare industry. Without electricity and heat, we revert to a medievalism of health practices. While the burning of these fuels releases toxic compounds, I know nobody who ever will or wanted to wrap his mouth around a coal smokestack. Furthermore, what of air conditioning or rapid transport of goods? Why, if not for oil, how long would it take the honorable Senator Reid to travel from Searchlight to Washington? Like all leftists, he wants us to move backward to a simpler, more difficult time. I'd like to see the senator biking around Las Vegas right now, where we're enjoying 110F average daily highs and lucky to break into the high 80s at night.

Harry: if oil makes us sick...stop using it. I adjure you to stop driving, stop flying, and go without AC in DC this summer. Ride your bike around the state, and take a horse from here to Washington. Don't you dare sir tell us we should abstain while you pocket carbon condoms so you can indulge, but indulge safely in that which you forbid us.

A Part of It, Not Apart From It

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John McCain gave a speech today about “immigration reform” that has nothing to do with reform and everything to do with patronizing. What he wants, like everyone else in the election, is votes, no matter what he has to say to whom. He’ll just feign ignorance later.

McCain mentioned treating people who live in this country like God’s children, as if treating illegal aliens with the full force of law is somehow opposed to God’s plan. God happens to be a God of order, and if he holds you and I responsible for our conduct as individuals, you can bet he holds them accountable as well. They ought to stop breaking the law. This is not a debate over being god's children; it's a debate about the rule of law.

It is contrary to civilization to ignore the law. John Locke, in his Second Treatise on Civil Government wrote about how the reason for law was to protect property, to protect that which belongs to me. Well, by gum, this is my country, and I hold politicians like John McCain accountable to protect it from those who would destroy it. Many of these illegal aliens do not want to assimilate and become Americans. They want to set up microcosms of their homeland on our shores and refuse to integrate.

Illegals deserve what comes their way. Locke writes, “In transgressing the law, the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity”, and by so doing surrenders any right to protection under the law. When you defy the law, the society is no longer obligated to extend any rights to you. That’s why convicted felons lose the right to vote and suffer extra suspicion when they commit other crimes, having first given reason to suspect them as contrary to civilization. Rights are not guaranteed no matter where we’re from or no matter what we do.

McCain instead insists on catering to their vote, without buying it, while ignoring those among them who respect the law. He ignores the purpose of punishment, which is to deter others from doing like mischief. Free societies are grounded in reason, and it is unreasonable to extend to those who denigrate our laws the benefits and protection thereof. It does a great disservice and smack of dishonor to them who did so fairly and justly.

People who obtained franchise by the qualifying and just means proscribed oppose this amnesty rhetoric of McCain’s. When I applied to work for the Border Patrol, at the examination, I met a candidate from Peru who told me that he disproved of the antics of Mexicans who entered the nation as illegals only to be granted special privileges. My own ancestors did not come here illegally, yet they were hunted and driven from the country, but that's another story. Generation after generation of my forebearers served in arms, even when the government that requested soldiers had originally driven them from its shores.

McCain’s plan is a plan of indentured servitude. He cares only for illegal aliens for the profit they may temporarily bring him in the election. Therefore, he endorses any indirect incentives to come here illegally and dissuades them from wanting to become Americans. Unless you come to America hoping to take advantage of it, you will try to become part of it. If you care only what this country can do for you, you are not civilized and underserving of the benefits of civilization. We will take the people who come here, if they, as our forefathers, do so according to the rule of law and swear allegiance to American government and principles, without which this will simply become another failed western nation that voluntarily parted with its sovereignty.

The Heat is On- Geothermal Energy

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This weekend, I touched base with a friend of mine who noticed my pictures of Nevada. She asked me why I left certain places out that were worth seeing, in her opinion, and so I asked what sites she referred to. Keep in mind, this girl grew up here, whereas I did not, and so she actually hasn't been to them in many years.

Nevada Senator Harry Reid proudly attaches himself to geothermal power. His blind fascination with this type of electric power at the exclusion of all else is responsible for the lack of pictures from a few of the sites I really wanted to visit in my travels. Since he's not telling you the whole truth about the projects (probably because he doesn't really know the truth), it's time you knew.

The problems with geothermal energy are legion. Geothermal energy is obtained one of two ways:

1. Cap off a natural vent where the magma beneath the crust comes close enough to the surface to heat groundwater to a boil (i.e. where a volcano might form)
2. Drill down into the earth and tap the heated aquifer beneath the surface

Either way, I do not see how either one of those is really a good idea. If you cut holes into the earth in order to tap geothermal energy, how is that better than mining for coal? If you cap off the geysers, how will that affect Pressure and Temperature balance (think what would happen if Yellowstone exploded)?

The other problem with geothermal power that puts it on par with all of the so-called dirty means of power generation is that it involves vented gas. A superheated gas, or even supercritical fluid in some cases, comes with high energy rates and unpredictable kinetics. These heated gases escape into the atmosphere along typical convection currents, and since they're heated beyond the 98F at which our respiratory exhaust leaves our body, the rate of effusion into the atmosphere is higher than our basal metabolic rate, or even that of an internal combustion engine (mine operates near 220F whereas the geysers are much hotter). Plus, these geothermal vents usually include other, less palatable gases like sulfides and sulfates (think how Yellowstone smells when you visit, phew). These are the same pollutant compounds that are allegedly bad in coal.

Finally, and perhaps most dastardly, the geothermal craze renders the landscape no longer beautiful. Take for example:
Beowawe, NV

Nightinggale, NV

Tracy-Clark, NV

NGP: a drilling initiative ("My God man. Drilling holes in his head isn't the answer..." --Leonard McCoy Star Trek IV)

Steamboat near Reno, NV

Dixie Valley, NV

Or the list of NV projects under Nevada Power in summary

Point being, these used to be places people went to see things. I will try to remember to post pictures of what I was able to screen out of these places, but you have to ignore the glaringly ugly buildings that capped what was worth seeing there and have caused other problems.

I used to work at the Tracy-Clark/USA Parkway exit on I-80, and the road ices over with fog from the exhaust from the power plant. The water near the plant is so hot that no fish live hear it. It's a hazard, not in and of itself, but because we stepped in and messed with it.

Basically, Geothermal power is not a panacea. Not that oil is, but there's a really good reason we don't still use steam engines.

The Kid Chooses

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I spent the evening watching "Big", which is one of the only Tom Hanks movies I really like. I felt oddly uplifted and inspired by the movie, its messages having affirmed in a way the walk of life I chose to live.

Among the many messages the movie portrays, we see why it's important to be like little children. Josh goes to work in a toy company, where all the adults have forgotten what it was like to be kids and as such cannot relate to them, which is their only function. They can't even have fun at the company party without Josh there. Fun being the means to happiness, Josh's penchant for clean fun helps everyone who spends time with him come to a greater degree of happiness as a result.

Aside from fun, Josh serves as a symbol for purity. He has no ulterior motives, and his innocence works like a shield and a salve on everyone who's been hurt by life's harsh realities. For those who get to know him, including especially the girl, he affirms her belief in the goodness of people, shows her that people can be decent like we want them to be, like we used to think they were when we were young.

In the end, what Josh wants most is to go back to his family. Back in his old life, he has friends about whom he cared and who accepted him and miss him. In his new world, he has a "girlfriend", but he realizes he's not ready for that. Oddly enough, the successes of his career matter very little.

Why do we have to put that away and become adults? Why can't the world be full of valiant knights who slay dragons and rescue fair damsels? Why can't it be about fun, about service, and in the end about family? The Kid chooses- let the kid in you choose the way you want the world to be. He can help actualize it if you let him.

Giving Gibbons Credit

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Much as I dislike our current Governor, I am not one to withhold credit where credit is due. In what I can only describe as a coup de gras, the Nevada State Legislature did this week what our esteemed neighbor to the west can only dream of- balance the budget. The governor called for a special legislative session to reduce the Nevada state budget by over $1 billion after he discovered accounting errors and shortfalls in funds availability, occasioned by his predecessor's poor fiscal policy and the softening economy (note, I did not call it a recession).

Governor Gibbons has not led a charmed first term in office. Plagued by allegations of scandal, in the midst of divorce proceedings, and after an embittered election in 2006 for both himself and now his estranged wife, I doubt the governor counts many of his friends still with him. I wish to take this opportunity and give him a standing ovation for his efforts, which succeeded in keeping his pledge to not raise our taxes.

Now, at present time, I fall under the category of employee that might have suffered personally if the legislature had their way. They proposed to ablate the current 4% COLA for state employees, which for me accounts to only about $100/month in take home pay, as a way to alleviate some of the budget crisis. Much as I could use that money, I feel willing to sacrifice that, since I am after all paid with TAX MONEY, which is unfairly stolen from my friends and neighbors to fund bloated programs. I am on a mission of my own to help extend the purchasing power of the agency where I work, since I'm sure even if I save money someone else will spend it. At least then you can rest assured that I after the fashion of Potipher am acting as righteous steward over the estate. The government should be willing to cut back.

In the dark light that has been cast upon the governor, I esteem him as never before in light of this program. His special session ended up CUTTING budgets for all government agencies by 3% (which is nothing- I cut my own department spending by 80% this year alone), while still leaving our COLA intact. Yay for pay raises (I also expect a promotion, which is another story ;)).

Two other items of special note: The governor secured a reduction in textbook funding (I remember having to buy my own when I was school age) by 50%.

However, under a provision passed by the Legislature, the textbook money can be restored if revenues exceed projections. The remainder of the shortfall will be made up by tapping reserve funds for various state agencies and programs.

This is, in my mind, the way to do it. If we have extra money, we do more things. While I prefer they refund the money, like Guinn did in 2005 with our DMV registration tax, I don't mind spending more money if there is more money (which there won't be). It sure beats letting them pass another tax, which I vehemently oppose. I have never voted for a tax increase, no matter how much the bleeding hearts plead for it or how logical it sounds. More on that another time too. However, the last phrase leaves me wondering, why do state agencies have reserve funds?

We already operate under bloated budgets. In April my supervisor came to me and said I had the option to personally spend $10000 by June 30th. I didn't NEED anything, but I used the money to buy things I will need next fiscal year, assuming that the prices will go up by then, figuring I might as well buy things I use anyway. It was hard to spend that much money in a month. In fact, I left $6000 unused, which another associate quickly gobbled up and squandered on lavish luxury items we don't NEED. If on top of that we had a reserve fund, how in Hoboken would I spend that money on top of it?

My boss asked me to come up with a proposal to our Division Chief to cut expenditures in the department. Some of the ideas will make me very unpopular with my coworkers, and it may truncate my career in the state (except that they can't fire me now muhahaha- I'm off probation). Some ideas will make me unpopular with our contractors who have come to expect a never ending pool of fundage on which to draw as we are a state agency. However, none of the ideas will adversely impact our ability to do our job efficiently and effectively for the public, and if we can do the same with less, we don't need as much money from the taxpayers, and we could theoretically GIVE SOME BACK.

Now, I'm not trying to buy votes by thinking you're all stupid enough to thank me for giving you back your own money. I am trying to be a responsible steward of the public trust, and that is what I recognize Governor Jim Gibbons (R-NV) as having done- "exercising the office to which he is appointed in due diligence." He may have other problems, but in this he kept his word, and I will not easily forget it.

Many of our elected officials politic- trying to be all things to all people whenever it's convenient. They say we need more government, that they need more money to meet our needs, when all it takes is someone to take a logical approach to analyzing the crisis and provide options. Most government employees don't care that much. At least the governor of Nevada is trying to meet the budget crisis without raising taxes. Kudos sir, and Godspeed.

Redeemed by Rebates

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On another blog I read, I notice that people are still asking when their “prebate” check will arrive. Granted that some money has been waylaid, and some other funds may be lost, but I have to opine the stupidity. When I file my taxes, I receive my refund by electronic transfer, and my prebate came in the same fashion. What are these people doing that precludes them from receiving the money via direct deposit? Who might not want to HAVE DD?

If you aren’t using direct deposit on your taxes, you’re afraid. For those afraid of identity theft, I hear your pain. In 2003, someone transferred almost $8000 out of my account to a bank in the Balkans, so I know there’s a risk. If you’re afraid for other reasons, I think it reflects opportunities for the government. In the aforementioned story, some money was diverted for people arrears in alimony or in taxes. Many other crimes can be caught this way.

Many people who file to get a prebate don’t deserve it, seeing as how they are breaking the law. Some people qualified for the prebate who had no income tax liability, but far more people are HIDING money from the government. If the government has been previously ignoring you, in some cases for years, because you report no income, they might take an interest in you now. I know lots of people get paid in cash, under the table, etc., and no matter how much I disagree with taxes, I pay them, even if Harry Reid thinks paying taxes is elective. If you don’t believe me, watch him say it here. We can therefore catch people who are trying to hide money who were so greedy they wanted $600-1200 more, at your expense.

The Prebate could also be used to help with illegal immigration. Where non-resident aliens file income taxes to take advantage of the rebate, they come out of the shadows. Many illegal aliens are not paid under their real social security numbers (since they can’t get them) and most don’t pay taxes at all, being paid under the table or in other illegal means. Compounding illegality with illegality…fascinating. Now, you elected officials, I adjure you to levy this information toward the protection of the nation and deport illegal aliens who identify themselves under this provision

Politicians could use this failed policy to redeem themselves in our eyes and show us that in America the law is king (DeToqueville). Or, maybe for their money/votes/fame they will allow the guilty to go free. If that’s their idea of freedom, I want no part. Thanks for the prebate anyhow.

My Judicial Review

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One of the first things I noticed when I got up this morning was that the Supreme Court finally did something right. This morning, they decided that we do have a right to what the Constitution says we have a right to- own a gun.

The problem with the ruling lies in the reactions to it. The Media bemoaned and bewailed how now people will tend to be more violent, when studies have clearly shown that more guns=less crime. Some people vowed to fight the findings, like the mayor of DC, who thinks we don't have a right to our rights. In celebration of the Court's earlier asinine rulings, the media essentially tells us that it’s okay to rape a kid, but pornography, that’s not okay. It's okay for criminals to own guns (although they don't obtain them through classical means), but if you have one in a home invasion, YOU are the criminal.

Americans need to get away from the mindset that our rights come from government. Years before the Constitution was written, another document long forgotten laid out in concise language how our Creator gives us rights, and that we establish government to PROTECT those rights. Most Americans I know, in particular those younger than I, take up an attitude as essentially submissive as a sheep and wait for rights to be thrown their way. Rather than view government as a benefactor, we need a healthy dose of circumspect, which leads us to worry that every time government meets they might be taken from us. Said Senator Paul Laxalt (R-NV), (Harry Reid's predecessor):

Every day congress is in session, you lose a little more of your liberty.

I fear how tenuous our liberties were today. By a vote of 5-4, one vote, we almost lost the Constitutional right to own a gun. These men are not elected, held office for life, and can erase in a moment years and years of work and effort by men trying to protect what we won in 1776- freedom. Clothed in the black robes of a false priesthood, this tyrannical minority of nine persons comes close to a monarchy, and operates under the same principles argued against by Thomas Paine in Common Sense. Go ahead- buy and read the book! These things are our rights, not because some men decide they are, but because they are given by God. They were our right before any of these men were born.

These judges seem remiss to admit that we live in a Federal system. Under that system, some states want things; other states don’t; if you don’t like the state rule, move. Instead, liberals move out of their enclaves into places they would never have gone without a gun, and find things not to their liking, no surprise. Instead of doing things the right way and appealing to reason and gentle persuasion, they appeal to the federal government for help implementing their own will…the federal government gladly reaches down and takes our freedom away. The other night, I was watching an episode of King of the Hill where Peggy's family speaks of how Hollywood types have moved to Montana and ruined their way of life.

The worst part of this is that it's veiwed as news. It should not be news that the Supreme Court upheld the 2nd Amendment- that's THEIR JOB. How do we reverse this tenuous tyranny of the majority? Mark Levin suggests using recess appointments, thereby showing liberals they can’t helter skelter hold a new constitutional Convention and take away rights not given us by government, but rather given by God.

Part of the Solution

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If you ask people today what their biggest concerns are in the world today, you hear some interesting answers. The answers are not interesting because of what they are; they are interesting because of what they are not. To hear Americans speak, it’s as if 9/11 or 1776 never happened. What I worry about most is what Americans are.

At the root of our situation is the fact that Americans are no longer the type of people that made this Enlightened Experiment possible in the first place. Lincoln bewailed our pride. Reagan bewailed our dependence on others for our happiness/well-being. Jefferson bewailed our morality. DeToqueville wrote about how America was possible because America and the people who lived here started on a clean slate with a commonality of purpose, dedicated to the same propositions of Divine Origin and Individual Worth, concepts completely foreign to the Old World. However, in the intervening 180 years since his work, we have tried by degrees to become more and more like that part of the globe from which we severed ourselves in 1776, a part of the world, says DeToqueville, which can never reach what we have because of what they are.

By and large, America remains a Christian nation in affirmation. In application, however, it’s a different story. My first ancestors in this nation put away work to go to church on Sunday without putting away Church to go to work on Monday. Nowadays, my neighbors dress in the garb of religion, pretending to morality, but they lack the principles that tend theretoward.

Not to say Americans are bad. I maintain that America is still by far the best, most righteous, most compassionate, and happiest land on the face of the earth. America is not, however, as righteous and happy as she has ever been. We have become a nation of actors, pretending to attitudes, behaviors, skills and practices that suffice in short term relationships without tending to the characters that make men great. Like the people of Spain in Cervantes’ novel, we laugh at the questing Don Quixotes among us who see things as they ought to be.

The good news is that Americans have not lost sight of how to make America the land she ought to be. Like the Pharisees, they go through the motions of obedience, but unlike the Pharisees, they do it, not because people force them to, but because by and large they force themselves. Americans still decide to be good. We are the most generous people on the planet, and no other Christian nation contains as many open adherents or as many people who observe regularly the acts of the offices of Christian living.

For America to resume her place as leader among men, she needs to stop looking to the past for examples on how to proceed. It has been said that insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results, yet American courts, legislators, and activists point to Europe as the panacea of peace, where wars ravage and people savage, truly a poor exemplar for how to live a more excellent way. We have been conditioned to believe that it’s okay to descend to the lowest common denominator and by so doing become the recipients of actions rather than instigators.

My solution to fix American problems focuses on fixing American behaviors, attitudes, and notions. When founding the nation, our Founders wrote a national Constitution that defined principles and a proactive way of acting on those principles. Each individual needs to write his own personal constitution as a basis for making major, life-directing decisions, irrespective of conditions and emotions over which we have no control. That will empower us to take control of our own destiny and provide us strength and direction on stormy seas.

While America’s situation seems bleak, she has been far worse off. Although I didn’t live in the Depression or during the wartime rationing, I can still go buy whatever I want whenever I want wherever I care to purchase it. As such, I remain free from the reactionary reflex responses otherwise brought on by dismal stimuli today. I am free to choose my own destiny and live the way I want because yesterday I chose to live a life that binds me only to realistic expectations. I do not control twitterpations in the economy, but I control what I do when things happen, and so I remain the master of my destiny.

I am optimistic for the future. I feel that the current distress will right itself in time, so long as the government stays out of it. We got along fine in this country for 13 years, nine of which spent embroiled in war, before establishing the Federal Government. We can do it again, if we stay true to our principles and live as Americans ought to be- good and brave and true. I guarantee it.

Updated Briefs

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At the request of some readers, I have updated summaries of my beliefs under Briefs. There, now my blog is back to politics ;).

More may come later if I have free time, but I want you to pay particular attention to this:

We cannot conserve our way to greatness.

Remember my friends, for I pass this way but once.