Interesting Items 12/08 - by Alex Gimarc
Monday, Dec. 8, 2008
Interesting Items 12/08 -
Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -
In this issue:
1. Groveling
2. Pebble
3. Walrus
4. Plaxico
5. Paying the Price
6. Bears
1. Groveling. The CEOs of the Big Three auto manufacturers went back to
Washington DC , hat in hand, groveling for taxpayer dollars last week. They
were asking for $38 billion in guaranteed loans and will probably end up
getting around $15 billion. The GM CEO drove the distance in a hybrid, just to
set the stage nicely. Questions from the preening, pontificating congressional
democrats on the various committees were drearily predictable, as were their
demands for the auto manufacturers to start building smaller, more
environmentally friendly vehicles. If they get their way – and they probably
will - the American-made SUV is on its way out, soon to be replaced by the
wheeled rat-trap that will get 45 miles per gallon and disintegrate when you
slam the door too hard. The loan guarantee will only get the auto
manufacturers through until March, when they will be back begging for more
money. There are those of us that believe that this is
all about protecting the UAW, who pumped tens (hundreds?) of millions of
dollars into campaigns of various democrats this past election cycle from
facing bankruptcy of the companies they are killing. Congress has no business
berating the auto manufacturers, as can barely mange its own business. They
have neither the expertise nor the inclination to run any business for any
period of time. They have set the stage for business failures for these
companies via perverse energy policy, an endless flow of new safety
regulations, CAFÉ standards, environmental rules, and rules for dealing with
unions. This is what happens when the government gets involved in business.
And we will see lots more of this sort of thing as they continue to intrude in
the years to come. Best solution for the Big Three? Chapter 11. Sooner
rather than later.
2. Pebble. Northern Dynasty released early estimates of the total value of
metals thought to be recoverable from the proposed Pebble mine in the Bristol
Bay region of Alaska . Under current prices for metals, they expect to recover
nearly $230 billion, which is within an order of magnitude the value of all oil
recovered from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields over the last 35 years. Pebble is
clearly a very big deal – and a very important deal for Bush Alaska, which is
why the NIMBYs, the greens and the commercial fishermen in the area are doing
everything possible to kill it. We also have the interesting prospect of our
newly elected Boy Senator, Mark Begich (D, AK) who is tied to the hip with the
greens and ran around the state wearing a No Pebble campaign button. What will
he do regarding bringing this sort of multi-billion dollar industry into
operation in one of the poorest parts of the state? ADN, Fri.
3. Walrus. Another week, yet another environmentalist lawsuit demanding yet
another Arctic region mammal to be listed as endangered. The Center for
Biological Diversity Thursday announced that they were going to be suing the US
Fish & Wildlife Service to list the walrus as endangered because of the loss of
sea ice due to global warming. The petition was originally filed in February,
noting that the previous couple of years had sea ice minimums. It did not
mention that this year had sea ice back to historic levels, undercutting their
argument completely. Note that this attempt to list the walrus is based
entirely on predicted climatic disaster some 50 years into the future, in a
time when we cannot reliably predict the weather a couple days into the
future. It completely ignores the fact that there have been interglacial
periouds over the last couple million of years that were much warmer then
today, when the walrus did just fine. I do not
expect the greens in the US Fish & Wildlife Service to fight this all that
hard, meaning it will be up to the State of Alaska to belly up to the bar and
fight it. This listing is targeted in opposition to the recent federal lease
sales in the Chukchi Sea for oil and gas exploration. ADN, Thurs.
4. Plaxico. The New York Giants had a wide receiver named Plaxico Burress.
He was something of a problem child off the field, and a superb football player
on it, which is why he was tolerated for as many years as he was. He brought a
handgun into NYC from his home in NJ a couple weeks ago and shot himself in the
leg at a bar. He was indicted on two felony possession charges for possession
of an unlicensed handgun with no carry permit and is expected to be prosecuted
to the full extent of the law. Normally, these young millionaires get very
good attorneys and fight the predictable fight in the predictable manner.
Perhaps Burress will consider another road in his defense, that of overturning
NYC’s Sullivan Laws that all but prohibit firearms possession and carry of
owned firearms. In light of the Heller decision that overturned Washington DC
’s ban on private firearms possession, perhaps the time has come to go after
the Sullivan laws
in NYC on second amendment grounds. While I don’t expect it to happen in this
case, it would certainly be an interesting approach.
5. Paying the Price. Last Sunday, the local fishwrapper, the Anchorage Daily
News ran an article Sunday asking if Alaska would pay the price for removing
Ted Stevens from office. It was couched in terms of the pork that Stevens
brought into the state, and was something that should have been discussed
publicly in the front pages of the paper in the months leading up to the
election rather than a month afterwards. The article went on to discuss the
brave new world under a democrat administration where money for all manner of
environmental things would increase. No mention about the flip side of a
democrat administration where businesses will be buried under the crushing
weight of regulations, environmental restrictions, loss of property rights,
forced unionization, and higher taxes. It reminds me of the great old line
from the Rainmakers song, Government Cheese: “They’ll turn us all into
beggars ‘cause they’re easier to please.
They’re feeding out people that Government Cheese.” Politicians in Bush
Alaska were quoted in the story. They said that in the Bush, Stevens was a
God, given his strong support for things in the Bush for over 40 years, but
that people out there are very pragmatic, and wondered how much longer Stevens
at age 84 would be around. So they supported Mark Begich, who will end up
being an ineffectual, one-term senator simply based on what he will have to
vote in favor of over the next couple of years. The greens are coming for this
state, and he will not be able or willing to shut them down. They will end up
burying him.
6. Bears. I have been writing about the over abundance of bears in South
Central Alaska for a number of years, and have warned that if the Alaska
Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) refuses to control the wildlife, the citizens
of the state will do it for them. ADF&G believes that there are around 200-300
brown bears on the Kenai Peninsula , which will allow only around 20 to be
killed per year. This year, there were over 40 bears killed, causing ADF&G
biologists no small amount of concern, as they believe the brown bears – which
are thick as flies in SouthCentral Alaska – and have been increasingly in close
proximity to humans - are somehow endangered. The fact of the matter is that
they are completely clueless about the actual number of bears in Alaska and
have decided that their job is actually to manage the people rather than the
wildlife. Should they persist in this worldview, there are going to be many,
many more dead bears in Alaska
. Which is as it should be. ADN, Thurs.
More later -
- AG
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better
than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not
your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your
chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia
State House, August 1, 1776.
Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations:
MatSu Valley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com ;
District 28 http://www.dist28.com/ ,
subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/
and the home page: http://home.gci.net/~agimarc
Rod M art in's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this
column: http://www.thevanguard.org/
I'M MAD, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE.
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With ACORN, La Raza, and Ohio Dem officials sitting on 20,000 suspect voter
registrations and other Dept heads releasing Joe the Plumber's confidential
information, this has been an incredibly, uncreditable election.
Hope you didn't waste your time and gas to stand in line at one of their
polling places hoping the electoral system isn't a fraud.
Rich Martin
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