Economic Freedom

Who was George Washington? And an Inn

2012-02-20T08:49:00.000-08:00

We honor President Washington for his heroic leadership in the founding of our country. He was sold as a rock in leading the Continental Army. Then at victory, at the peak of his power, he could have been king, but he retired to his farm.

He was asked to oversee the writing of the US Constitution. Not to lead it - Madison and Hamilton did that - but just to be present, so the proceedings stayed proper. Then when acclaimed president he rejected being president-for-life and retired after two terms.

George Washington's Sacred Fire by Peter Lillbeck shows Washington to be a man, who, faced with unprecedented challenges and circumstances, ultimately drew upon his persistent qualities of character - honesty, justice, equity, perseverence, piety, forgiveness, humility, and servant leadership, to become one of the most revered figures in world history.

George Washington's Sacred Fire at Amazon

Book presentation by the author last year - Spirit of George Washington blog

And an inn

On the Olympic Peninsula of Washington? Yes. In the super rain shadow, between Port Angeles and Sequim, Washington there is a replica of Washington's Mount Vernon on a bluff overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca. It looks perfect. And what a great setting for it.
George Washington Inn

The photo: From George Washington Inn.

Noncitizens voted. Criminal investigation

2012-02-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

Those who are always promoting making voter registration easier and easier always ignore the problem of ineligible people voting. They just want more people to vote. We say, "But making it easier ineligible people voting, like non citizens or convicted felons who have not had their vote reinstated."

They response that ineligible people might be registered, but they never vote. Never. It is just over-eager registration collectors (who are paid). Oh, Never?

In Florida law enforcement is investigating non-citizens voting. Voter fraud is a third-degree felony in Florida.

ABC Ft. Meyers Florida

It wasn't hard to find the non-citizen voters. They looked at the excuse forms for jury duty for "I cannot serve because I am not a US citizen."

Puget Sound Explorers - Key Peninsula

2012-02-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

My kind of people - explorers. They blog their explorations at Puget Sound Explorers.

They recently spent a day where I spend days every months - Key Peninsula in South Puget Sound, west of Tacoma. They spent time at Creviston Valley Farm and Trillium Creek Winery. I haven't taken in this farm yet, but I have had the tour at the winery and bought their wine. I am not the person to carefully judge wines, but I will buy theirs again.

Longbranch and Lakebay

There is much more to include in an exploration of Key Peninsula.

Bed and breakfasts - Glen Cove Hotel is big on hosting weddings.
Shoreline State Parks - Penrose Point, which is a star, and Joemma Beach, which is nice.
Lavender Farms - at least two of them.
Parks. For such a laid-back rural area the city and county parks are pretty good. There is even a new little park with beach access.
Historic churches - I have yet to explore, but there are some at Vaughn Bay, Longbranch, and …
And for strange history, the town of Home, which had its post office closed, then the post office of tiny Lakebay was moved there. Yes, a town whose post office has the name of another. I need to find a good write up of this.

Dr. Art Coday for Senate

2012-02-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

Dr. Art Coday is running for the US Senate seat kept warm by Maria Cantwell. Coday is a Harvard-trained, primary-care medical doctor whose practice is with Medicare and Medicaid patients. He ran two years ago, but stepped down when Dino Rossi announced his candidacy. He then ran for legislature and outperformed Dino Rossi in a strong Democrat district.

Coday is very effective at explaining limited government and growth-oriented economic policy and knows health-care issues including Obamacare inside out.

Art Coday for Senate

The Whale Trail in Washington

2012-02-12T08:28:00.000-08:00

A great resource for the wildlife viewer. There is a system of 25 on-shore (mostly) sites that are good for viewing marine mammals, especially orca whales. Washington waters also regularly host gray and humpback whales and sperm whales were seen this year.

The Whale Trail

They are in Puget Sound, Staight of Juan de Fuca, on San Juan Island, one on the Pacific Coast. The exception to the on-shore rule is -- on all Washington State Ferries. There is great viewing on the ferries, but who gets to spend much time on them?

None of the sites are south of the Tacoma Narrows where we hang out. In the South Sound we have hundreds of resident harbor seals and California sea lions come every year during the darker months. But whales don't regularly go south of the Tacoma Narrows. Though they sometimes do; our next-door neighbor had a close encounter with two orcas (as I recall) about five years ago when he was on his boat that was anchored. Being anchored means he was in shallow water, probably 5 feet of water at our lowest minus 4 tides. And less than two hundred meters from our bulkhead (high tide mark). He had no warning: suddenly they come up near him.

The photo: It's mine! I took it from a 20-foot panga boat in the Pacific Ocean about two miles off the shore of Cabo San Lucas. With my pocket-size digital camera I never use more than 3x telephoto, so you know we were close. When this close you make sure you are following the whale. Don't get in front of hime. We only saw this one whale, but he breached like this continuously for half an hour! Click to enlarge.

Nice hand printing press for sale

2012-02-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

I listed my father's little Kelsey Excelsior 3 by 5 inch printing press for sale on Craigslist. It is small, but heavy. A very nice piece of machinery.

See my blog post last July for more photos. (For some reason I referred to it as a printer.)

At Craigslist

Obama listens and does not change his birth-control/abortion policy

2012-02-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

President Obama approved the HHS rule announced two weeks ago that requires all Christian nonprofits - hospitals, schools, universities - to provide birth control and the morning-after pill for free. The morning-after pill prevents a fertilized egg from implanting; that is considered to be an abortion.

There was massive blowback, because the First Amendment provides free exercise of religion. And this forces Christians, particularly Catholics to violate their conscience. Even from Democrat senators and congressmen and liberal's liberal Chris Matthews pushed back.

So Obama changed his policy - to be the same. No change! Seattle Times

Original policy: Every employer must provide birth control and morning-after pill for free. Every employer uses insurance, so they must buy insurance that provides birth control and morning-after pill for free.

New compromise policy because Obama listened. Every insurer must provide birth control and morning-after pill for free. Every employer uses insurance, so they must buy insurance that provides birth control and morning-after pill for free.

Didn't you notice the difference? No. Because there is none.

"It's an accounting trick," said Mike Gonzales of the Heritage Foundation. "Do they think people are stupid?"

Wesley Smith of Discovery Institute provides broader context at National Review Online.

Ryan Lewis birthday

2012-02-10T04:00:00.001-08:00

Ryan Lewis is happy and growing after his first birthday. He nearly died in his first month because his liver was severely damaged before birth. He received a liver transplant and made many overnight hospital stays.

Puyallup Herald

Ryan is my niece's son. There has been a lot of prayer go up from this household for him and his family.

Cantwell action for higher oil prices

2012-02-09T07:03:00.001-08:00

Senator Maria Cantwell again talked about US energy independence and prices when taking action against both:

I know that gas prices going up are a very big challenge to us and we need to find alternatives to foreign oil,”

Yesterday she killed a source of oil while saying that.

Tacoma News - Tribune

Seattle South Park bridge under construction

2012-02-06T17:36:00.000-08:00

I admit that this is not a story with wide interest. But I grew up in West Seattle and worked for Boeing for decades. And my last Boeing project before retiring was with Flight Test. Flight Test is located at Boeing Field, of course, but several hundred people, including me, were/are across the Duwamish River in South Park. So during my last four months of work I drove over this bridge every day.

The 16th Ave SW bridge aka South Park bridge was closed in June, 2010, due to age and just plain wearing out. The politicians showed up for the cameras, but didn't work together to get its replacement going until after it closed. Construction is began in August, 2011, and the new bridge is scheduled to open in mid 2013.

The official page for the project - King County

The official photo page at King County

West Seattle blog is also following it, of course, with recent photos from pilot/photographer Long B. Nguyen.

Photo: The green squares are the supports for the new bridge, next to the remains of the old bridge. By Long B. Nguyen

White House employees owe back taxes to the IRS

2012-02-06T08:07:00.000-08:00

White House employees owe a huge amount in taxes to the IRS. Thirty six employees owe an average of $23,165.33! Daily Caller

Who cares?

Congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah wants to do something about it. (Oh, he is a Republican.) Now only IRS employees are penalized for thumbing their nose at Timothy Geithner, the tax man. Chaffetz's HR 828 allows federal management to fire employees who are seriously delinquent in federal taxes

Rep. Chaffetz

“If you work for the federal government and you don't pay your taxes, you should be fired. It is totally unacceptable to live on the federal payroll and not pay your taxes. The Obama Administration has totally ignored this cheating. Congress should pass my bill and hold federal workers accountable.”

This past June, Mr. Chaffetz introduced legislation (H.R. 828) which would terminate the employment of current federal employees and prohibit the hiring of future federal employees who have a “seriously delinquent tax debt.” Similar legislation was introduced during the 111th Congress (H.R. 4735). Each employee terminated would be subject to due process. The Daily Caller published a column by Mr. Chaffetz on this subject in March 2011.

According to FERDI, more than 98,000 federal civilian employees owed $1.034 billion in unpaid federal income taxes in 2010. When retirees and military personnel are included, nearly 280,000 people owed $3.4 billion. Currently, only IRS employees can be terminated by their agency for non-payment of federal income taxes.

Current news sources say that Chaffetz's bill allows, not requires, firing, but his own web site says "would terminate…"

Take another year off, Senator Cantwell

2012-02-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

Honorable Senator Harry Reid announced that his Senate won't fulfill the budget process this year. The Democrats' budget would be the rough numbers that were cobbled together behind closed doors in the crush of the Obama-made debt-ceiling crisis last August.

Why would he want to write a budget? If they build the budget they have to show the American public how they plan to spend more than they bring in. And how they plan to raise taxes.

For cover Senator Conrad of ND intends to do the first step of the process, then set it on the shelf. That won't fulfill the process required by the budget law either.

Follow the law? Harry Reid?

And what will our two senators do with all their free time? Take another year off. This is the third year they have flouted the law and not built the budget.

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions responded: (The Hill)

“It’s been more than 1,000 days since Senate Democrats have offered a budget plan to the American people," Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the budget committee, said in a statement. “Now, once again, the Senate’s ineffectual Democrat majority balks at the task of leadership.”

Sessions argued Senate Democrats don’t want to spell out a long-term budget plan for fear of public scrutiny.

"[Reid] obviously continues in his belief that it would be politically foolish for his members to go on record in support of any long-term vision," he said. "But by refusing to lay out a budget plan for public examination — a fact no one can deny — the Democrat Senate has forfeited the high privilege to lead this chamber."

… Sessions argued that the spending caps under the debt-limit agreement "crafted behind closed doors and rushed to passage at the 11th hour under threat of panic, do not even approach the definition of the budget process that the [Budget Control Act] law requires."

"They are not in any way or any sense a Senate Democrat budget plan," Sessions said.
"There is no argument that can be made that these caps are a long-term vision for this country — not on taxes, not on entitlements, not on spending, not on debt."

Senator Charles "Chucky" Schumer of New York joined Reid,

"They're attacking us because they have nothing better to do. They need something else to talk about."

Via Daily Caller

Remember Obama's 3 years

2012-02-02T06:41:00.001-08:00

Today is third anniversary of President Obama telling Matt Lauer on "Today":

"I WILL be held accountable. You know, I've got four years. ... A year from now, I think people are gonna see that we're starting to make some progress, but there's still gonna be some pain out there. If I don't this done in THREE years, then there's gonna be a one-term proposition."

You are right, Mr. President! There is the door.

Obama is killing energy sources and jobs

2012-02-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

Obama's Jobs Commission says The US needs energy for our economic development.

Jobs Council (PDF)

So Obama kills energy sources AND jobs. And this is despite detailed study showing no impact on the environment.

Analysis by Nicolas Loris at NRO

… “the Department of State’s Final Environmental Impact Statement reaffirmed the findings of the two previous environmental impact statements, namely, that the Keystone XL Pipeline will have no significant impact on the environment.”

Understanding the economic implications, Democratic Senators Max Baucus, Jon Tester, Joe Manchin, Ben Nelson, Mark Begich, and Mary Landrieu have all expressed support for the pipeline.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu did not explicitly support the pipeline but did acknowledge that “it’s not perfect, but it’s a trade off” and that Canadian oil sands producers are “making great strides in improving the environmental impact of the extraction of this oil.” These are bold words from a man who has unabashedly derided fossil fuels in support of renewable energy and welcomed high gas prices. President Obama’s former “car czar” Steve Rattner also emphasized that the president should approve the pipeline permit.

Obama deserves no credit for oil and gas boom

2012-02-01T10:45:00.001-08:00

The one person who deserves no credit for the oil and gas boom is the person who claims it - Barack Obama. In fact, this Administration has bent over backwards to make oil and gas production and exploration as difficult as possible.

Prof Mark Perry

"... According to the Institute for Energy Research (IER), the Obama Administration has been issuing BLM oil and gas leases at the lowest pace of any president in the last 30 years – in fact at half the rate of the Clinton White House and 80% slower than in the Reagan era, dragging their feet to please the environmental lobby (see top chart above).

By comparing oil and gas production on Federal vs. state and private lands, we can get a true read on this Administration’s energy policy. Since Obama took office, according to the Institute for Energy Research, oil production has fallen precipitously on Federal onshore and offshore leases, while it has increased by an even larger amount on state and private lands largely outside of this Administration’s reach. The only reason total oil [and gas] production has increased since Obama took office is because private companies on state and private lands have increased production enough to offset the large drop that has occurred in Obama-controlled producing regions. Obama’s taking credit for the current oil and gas boom ranks up there in the pantheon of great political whoppers right next to Al Gore’s invention of the Internet."

Graphics from Mark Perry

Music at SeaTac airport?

2012-01-29T07:48:00.000-08:00

Mayor McGinn got a photo op, but I missed the music.

SeaTac airport made a big splash about having Seattle's famous music at the airport yesterday (Saturday), called Experience the City of Music. I spent a half hour there yesterday - the same day - after their big event. Where was the music at 8:45? I couldn't hear it.

Crosscut reports

You may want to take those earbuds out while waiting for your luggage at Sea-Tac Airport. Starting this week, Sea-Tac Airport is offering free upgrades that include the sights and sounds of Northwest music. The Sea-Tac Airport Music Initiative: Experience the City of Music launches on Saturday (Jan. 28) — a collaboration between the Port of Seattle, Seattle Music Commission, and PlayNetwork.

And here is the list of what I didn't hear. These are supposed to be long-term, not just during the mayor's public appearance. OK, OK, I admit I wouldn't recognize the voice of Sir Mix-a-Lot in a laundromat.

Overhead music by such local emerging artists as Fences, Beat Connection, and Allen Stone along with legends Ray Charles, Heart, and Nirvana.

Overhead safety and informational announcements read by local musicians such as Ben Gibbard, LeRoy Bell, Macklemore, Jerry Cantrell, and Sir Mix-A-Lot.

Video segments on terminal monitors with original content from KEXP, EMP, MTV, Chase Jarvis, Seattle Channel's Art Zone, Light in the Attic Records, and The Seattle Band Map.

Web-based multi-channel music player available via the airport's free WiFi.

Android mobile app that features access to the PlayNetwork music playlist, videos and concert listings. iPhone, Windows Phone 7, and Blackberry apps to follow.

The Great Expansion

2012-01-27T04:27:00.000-08:00

From 1980 to 2007 the entire world economy expanded at an average 3.4% per year, which is an increase of 145%! The US grew a little slower, but even with the Great Recession the US averaged 3.0% growth. We are all much richer than we were in 1980. [wording clarified]

Did the middle class shrink? (I hate calling an income grouping a "class.") The broad grouping of $35k to $105k inflation adjusted to current dollars did shrink. But the lower income group didn't grow; the higher group grew! And around the world the lower income groups increased their income. [wording clarified]

What we can learn from the "Great Expansion" of 1980 to 2007?

Henry R. Nau is a fellow at Hoover Institution. Quoting:

… Even more importantly, the global surge in growth spread wealth from the rich to the poor countries, creating greater equality in global markets than ever before. Throughout this period, developing countries grew two and even three times faster than developed countries. As a result, the share of world GDP held by emerging markets increased to 22% from 13%, while the U.S. share remained steady at approximately 26%. The "Great Expansion" created a global middle class of some 600 million-800 million people in China, India, Brazil and other developing countries.

What were the policy trends that produced this Great Expansion?

Precisely the free-market policies of deregulation and lower marginal income-tax rates that Mr. Obama decries.

President Ronald Reagan's decision to reverse the high-tax, loose-money, and interventionist government policies of the 1970s brought an end to the painful "stagflation" of that decade. Privatization world-wide reversed the growth of government, and new trade rounds were launched to open global markets and roll back protectionism. The Uruguay Round and later the North American Free Trade Agreement liberalized trade in agriculture and services and brought fast-growing emerging markets into the global system. This was combined with the liberalization of private financial markets, creating the global banking system that mobilized massive savings in emerging markets to fuel the industrial engines of the Great Expansion.

Global financial markets could have been better regulated, but President Obama's policies go far beyond any reforms that would bring an end to "too big to fail." His policies shift the emphasis back to public-sector growth while squeezing private-sector initiatives. He raises federal spending to 25% of GDP, favors higher taxes to keep it there, and touts government investment in clean energy and infrastructure to spur economic growth.

Meanwhile, he imposes health-care, regulatory and other costs on the private sector, restricts credit by trashing "fat cat" bankers, and discourages imports by pandering to labor's fears of globalization. Sadly, his policies resemble those that brought on the stagflation of the '70s, not those that ignited the Great Expansion.

This also appeared in the Wall Street Journal Thursday.

150 dead in Nigeria. Muslims claim credit

2012-01-23T14:54:00.001-08:00

150 people were killed in Nigeria in the past week. There were bomb blasts in northern city Kano. Muslim group Boko Haram claimed credit for coordinated attacks on Saturday.

Charlottesville to avoid the snow

2012-01-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

To avoid the snow and ice in Seattle... And we got freezing rain.

We flew to Charlottesville, VA, Tuesday morning. Good timing. The same flight left more than 4 hours late on Wednesday and was cancelled Thursday. (Go to FlightStats.com and select an airport, date, and time to see how many flights were cancelled or severely late.)

We had two cold days with sunshine. Then a partly sunny day ending with freezing rain. It took Gini over 20 minutes to thaw the car - I am still down sick for the second day.

It's a beautiful, historic area - University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson & Monticello. But it sure is hot and sticky in the summer. And it's far enough inland to get snow, but coastal enough to have had one hurricane pass over while our family members have lived here.

Update: The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was closed due to ice falling from the 500-foot-high towers! NWCN

Photo: The Rotunda at University of Virginia. Appears to be from New York Times, date unknown.

Post Office refuses to deliver mail in immigrant neighborhoods in Malmo Sweden

2012-01-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

Post Office refuses to deliver mail in imigrant neighborhoods in Malmo Sweden because their carriers are not safe. Why are they not safe?

The Local (Sweden)

The article doesn't say. It does say that the problem neighborhood is majority foreigners. Wonder what foreigners attack postal carriers? No mention here.

Telegraph UK says there is an increase in attacks on Jews by Muslims.

And Fox News says Muslims are attacking police and firemen as well as postal workers. Why?

Swedish authorities in the southern city of Malmo (search) have been busy with a sudden influx of Muslim immigrants — 90 percent of whom are unemployed and many who are angry and taking it out on the country that took them in.

Obama has two of the top seven product flops of 2011

2012-01-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

When big brother decides what products get built big brother has to get people to buy them. Big Obama decided that you were going to buy certain cars, but you didn't buy. Is that his fault or yours?

In the top seven -- Chevrolet Volt. Obama said they would sell like hot cakes and he give $7,500 of our tax money to each buyer. Administration officials predicted far higher sales, in part, because GM and some of its parts suppliers have received hundreds of millions of dollars in start-up funds. Moreover, the federal government is buying some of the vehicles, and is paying for state and local governments, as well as regulated companies, to buy even more.

Also the tiny Fiat 500. “The car was expected to be a big seller, rivaling BMW’s Mini… [and] Fiat expected to sell 50,000 500s during 2011 in North America,” according to the Yahoo! Finance Top 7 list. However, “Fiat sold fewer than 12,000 [and] sales were so poor that Chrysler Group, which manages the Fiat brand in the United States, ousted U.S. chief Laura Soave this past November,” noted Yahoo.

Daily Caller

Graphic from a photographer in India.

Professor Krugman has top quote of the year 2011

2012-01-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

Media Research Council collected (voted on) the quotes of the year 2011 MRC

Did you know that NY Times partisan Professor Paul Krugman got a Nobel Prize, and it's not for peace. His notable words were for the 9/11 anniversary:

“What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. [The] atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neo-cons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons....The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.”

One runner-up for the MRC 'quote of the year" award was Stephen Marche of Esquire Magazine, who was cited for saying:

“Can we just enjoy Obama for a moment? Before the policy choices have to be weighed and the hard decisions have to be made, can we just take a month or two to contemplate him the way we might contemplate a painting by Vermeer or a guitar lick by the early-seventies Rolling Stones or a Peyton Manning pass or any other astounding, ecstatic human achievement? Because twenty years from now, we’re going to look back on this time as a glorious idyll in American politics, with a confident, intelligent, fascinating president riding the surge of his prodigious talents from triumph to triumph....’I am large, I contain multitudes,’ Walt Whitman wrote, and Obama lives that lyrical prophecy....Barack Obama is developing into what Hegel called a ‘world-historical soul,’ an embodiment of the spirit of the times. He is what we hope we can be.”

The other runner-up for this award was MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews who said his daily cable news program,

“Hardball is absolutely non-partisan.”

And there are many more: Thomas Friedman, Margaret Carlson… Go to the link at the top to enjoy.

Via Wash Times

Margaret Thatcher's record as prime minister

2011-12-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

The left is rewriting history of Margaret Thatcher's twelve years as Prime Minister of UK. Apparently the new movie about her continues this effort. (I will see it anyway.) Patriot Statesman

The Labour Party in Britain has for the last decade spread falsehoods about the period during which Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, riding the 1990 recession into four terms of parliamentary leadership. Labour tirelessly repeats myths about Thatcher’s impressive accomplishments. And now Hollywood screenwriters, intellectually lazy and most likely ideologically-driven, have assigned themselves the task of institutionalizing these myths via the vehicle of cinema. Oscar-winner Meryl Streep has lent her reputation to this demagogic enterprise.

Let's remember what the Iron Lady did. American Thinker

Her first accomplishment was challenging the then-regnant policy of accommodation with -- really, appeasement of -- the growth of the Soviet Empire. Even before Reagan was running for president, she held that NATO should increase its military strength to oppose Soviet expansion and roll back the USSR's control of Eastern Europe.

Thatcher also instituted far-reaching free-market economic reforms, starting with facing down and defeating the communistic mine-workers' union. Here she was aided by the British classical economics think-tank known as the Institute of Economic Affairs, which provided her with much intellectual ammunition for her work.

She brought the top income tax rates down from 98% to 40% during her time in office. She brought the national debt down and privatized key industries. In truth, she ended British socialism. She brought unions under control, with time lost to strikes down by an astounding 94% during her time in office, from 29.5 million working days lost to 1.9 million.

... her policies increased real employment, decreased inflation, and made the poor and disabled better off. He also explains why her policies were not responsible for the problems experienced by the coal industry and those caused by the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

See the first link above for more.

The photo: from Telegraph UK.

Let's just skip tomorrow

2011-12-30T07:13:00.001-08:00

Samoa, the Pacific island nation, has decided to skip December 30 and go straight to the 31st. Huh?

They decided to move one time zone to the west to make it easier to work with their neighbor nations. But that requires moving across the International Date Line. And skipping one day less one hour.

Oregon science center blocks global warming discussion

2011-12-29T07:34:00.001-08:00

OMSI in Portland cancelled a meeting about global warming. Prominent scientists were involved. But they didn't pass the PC test. They are asking questions. They doubt man-caused GW.

Victoria Taft