Police state action in Wisconsin over political differences

From blogger Patterico in LA, Calif:

This is one of the creepiest articles I have ever read. It reminds me of my experience being SWATted — having armed police rush into my home in what looked like retaliation for my speech. Yet in the case described in the article, the SWATting is actually being carried out . . . by the government.

In Wisconsin, citizens had cops bust into their homes with battering rams. Property was taken from their homes, in full view of the neighbors — and in some cases officers mocked them. Then the citizens were told that they could tell nobody about what had happened. If they did, they could go to jail.

All for exercising their First Amendment rights. Essentially, for being conservatives.

Original article at National Review:

“THEY CAME WITH A BATTERING RAM.”

Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking. She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram.

She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full view of the police. Some yelled at her to grab some clothes, others yelled for her to open the door.

“I was so afraid,” she says. “I did not know what to do.” She grabbed some clothes, opened the door, and dressed right in front of the police. The dogs were still frantic.

“I begged and begged, ‘Please don’t shoot my dogs, please don’t shoot my dogs, just don’t shoot my dogs.’ I couldn’t get them to stop barking, and I couldn’t get them outside quick enough. I saw a gun and barking dogs. I was scared and knew this was a bad mix.”

She got the dogs safely out of the house, just as multiple armed agents rushed inside. Some even barged into the bathroom, where her partner was in the shower. The officer or agent in charge demanded that Cindy sit on the couch, but she wanted to get up and get a cup of coffee.

“I told him this was my house and I could do what I wanted.” Wrong thing to say. “This made the agent in charge furious. He towered over me with his finger in my face and yelled like a drill sergeant that I either do it his way or he would handcuff me.”

What was their crime? Exercising their First Amendment rights. The article describes how these raids were conducted as part of “John Doe” investigations into whether conservative groups had “coordinated” with Scott Walker in violation of campaign finance laws. I believe such “coordination” is First Amendment activity. If I want to take out full-page newspaper ads about how great Ted Cruz is, and I get ideas that convince me from Cruz’s campaign, I believe that should be covered by the First Amendment. But even if my pro-speech view is not accepted (and so far it has not been), the fact remains that a judge later ruled that there was no legal basis for the investigation that justified these raids, and quashed all the subpoenas.

The investigations were conducted at the behest of a prosecutor whose offices “were festooned with the ‘blue fist’ poster of the labor-union movement.” According to one prosecutor who spoke to journalist Stuart Taylor, the wife of the lead prosecutor, John Chisholm, was “a teachers’-union shop steward who was distraught over Act 10’s union reforms” — and Chisholm “felt it was his personal duty” to stop the reforms. Pursuant to the politically motivated subpoenas lacking in probable cause, prosecutors subpoenaed electronic data such as emails and conducted these abusive raids.

It’s the type of activity you would expect to see from the Stasi in East Germany. Conservative activists in Wisconsin literally do not feel safe. They think that police could burst into their homes at any moment to punish them for their First Amendment activity.

In a country that actually valued freedom, this story would spark front-page headlines all over the country. It would be all anyone would be talking about for weeks, and nobody would rest until we knew it could never, ever happen again.

We are no longer such a country.

They can't recruit top students into climate science graduate programs

In India Professor Govindasamy Bala of India Institute of Science is complaining that they cannot recruit top students into climate science graduate programs.

If you were a top-performing college graduate in science would you want to dedicate all your energy for the next seven years to a field of study that only allows science that confirms it? What if in your curiosity you challenge Albert Gore, Jr.’s consensus? Then you will be publicly humiliated and pushed to the sideline, if not out of the field.

Steven Hayward at Power Line Blog

And WattsUpWithThat

When global warming is proven wrong, sustainability will take over

The problem with basing all their hopes of government control on global warming is that it is falsifiable, that it can be tested and proven wrong with a thermometer (a bunch of them, including in space). They are not yet giving up on … now it’s called climate change. But already the left is starting to move on to a new religion, I mean goal: Sustainability. And this new goal has the advantage of not being testable. It can’t be tested because its proponents never have to be pinned down defining exactly what it is.

William M Briggs at Breitbart *

Based on report Sustainability: Higher Education’s New Fundamentalism by

NAS - National Association of Scholars

If my sources are right this is going to be a very big deal; we have to watch it.

* Source corrected.

Largest donor to Hillary's Clinton foundation trades with Iran

One of the Clinton’s largest donors sells oil equipment to Iran. Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk is the largest donor to the Clinton Foundation; he has courted the Clintons for at least nine years.

His Cyprus-based Interpipe Group has been selling to Iran’s oil and gas industries which is a violation of the US’s sanctions. Even the presence of its US subsidiary North American Interpipe Inc might be a violation of US sanctions; we are not sure, because the rules are complex. 

The person in charge of listing non-US companies violating the sanctions against Iran is the secretary of state; Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2013. !!! Talk about a conflict of interest.

Even Newsweek woke up on this one. But reporter Rory Ross says only those wanting to discredit her will be bothered by this. 

These sales to the oil and gas industries help Iran to have the cash to develop the nuclear weapons and ICBMs. Isn’t everyone bothered by these intentional violations of US sanctions against Iran?

Drone flight over Oahu's North Shore - Whales and dolphins

Very good. I wish it were ten times longer, there is so much to see there.

Matador Network for Turtle Bay Resort

---

And Capt Dave runs dolphin and whale excursions in Dana Point, Calif. This has a group of about 200 dolphins, then gray whales migrating - both at Dana Point, Calif - then mother and calf humpback whales off Maui.

Matador Network

Beware Java updates

Oracle installs the evil Ask.com toolbar when Java is updated.

Either don’t install Java or search carefully for a checkbox already checked to install the evil Ask.com whatever.

David Lazarus at LA Times

And...

Until recently, the Ask.com toolbar was primarily a problem only for Windows users. As of last month, it's also being bundled with Java updates for Macs.

Criminal indictment of State Auditor Troy Kelley

State Auditor Troy Kelley was indicted on ten counts of crimes by the Federal government. He put himself on paid leave to fight the charges. Why should we pay him for serving only himself?

Actually, since being elected Kelley appears to have been busy on his own affairs while being paid by the taxpayers. When reporters started asking about him they asked his office what he had been doing. They found his calendar shows 150 non-holiday weekdays without a single meeting or other event involving him. The Olympian

NWCN shows video from KING 5 TV.

The charges include:

• Possession of stolen property - 10 years max
• False statements/ obstruction - 20 years max
• Tax evasion - 3 years max for each

The audio at NWCN says that the feds say his illegal actions continued while he was in office as state auditor, though the print text does not repeat this.

I also recall that Kelley claimed he could not disclose the results of a lawsuit or other legal matter because it was sealed. Then the other party in the suit was asked they said it was OK with them to open the record. Apparently Kelley did not allow disclosure.

And we heard about this before Kelley was elected. James Watkins, his Republican opponent, disclosed the charges he had heard. Sound Politics (A commenter repeats highlights of some of the charges, but Watkins’ original site is gone.)  But the Seattle Times, KING 5 and other news media did not investigate.

UPDATTE: I just discovered that Northwest Public Radio did a story on the charges 9/6/2012.

Socialist success in Venezuela is near-starvation

It’s sad. The socialism of Hugo Chavez bankrupted the oil-rich country of Venezuela. Of course he always found an enemy to blame for all problems  - usually foreign.

Today the grocery shelves are almost empty. While millions of barrels of oil are being pumped and shipped every day, people are near (or past near) starving. The government has taken action — the military took over Dia a Dia supermarket chain’s 35 stores in early February, 2015. Fox News

The government arrested drug store managers and made illegal sales on the street of coffee, eggs, shampoo and some 50 other “regulated” items. Tico Times

And the situation is getting worse. Latin American Herald-Tribune

Venezuelans – who have been waiting in long queues to get into supermarkets and purchase basic products – have not yet seen the worst part of the shortages issue caused by a collapse in the chavismo-sponsored populist model, but they may do so shortly in the face of the warnings of the alarming levels food stocks have fallen to in the country, according to local industry groups and experts.

"Inventories, including those of the pharmaceutical and food industries, are hitting critical levels," said Eduardo Garmendia, head of the Venezuelan Confederation of Industries (Conindustria), a business association, in a recent interview with local radio station Unión Radio.

"The entire industrial system has been affected by the difficulties in acquiring raw materials, but it is worse in essential products because these are receiving a greater direct impact; we are talking about medicines and food," said Garmendia.

In the case of food, stocks of the country’s main industries will last less than a month, according to data released by the Venezuelan Food Industry Chamber (Cavidea).

"There are food companies that haven’t been allocated a single dollar so far this year," Pablo Baraybar, president of Cavidea, told the local press. "In some production lines, we only have stocks for 10 or 20 days."

This will surely make things exponentially harder for those Venezuelans trying to put food on their tables every day.

"There is a real storm developing due to the lack of dollars. The situation is desperate and may get a lot worse," said Russ Dallen, head of local investment bank Caracas Capital Markets, who has spent several years keeping a close eye on the behavior of the Venezuelan reality.

"In the next two or three months we are about to see a situation of terrible shortages, much worse than we have seen so far.

Photo: Angel Falls, Venezuela. How can a huge waterfall come from near the top of a mountain? A wonder of the world.

Increased minority turnout after tougher ID laws

Minority voting increased after Georgia passed tougher voter identification laws. But, but… all the Demos claimed the Republicans only wanted to surprise minority turnout. Were the Republicans flustered by the failure of their plan? No. Wrong question. That was not their plan.

Georgia’s new law required the same sort of ID required to cash a check, get on an airplane or visit your senator’s office - photo ID.

The Republican intention was to limit voting to people qualified to vote who were properly registered. They did not talk about suppressing minority turnout, because they did not intend it.

See Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Turnout among black and Hispanic voters increased from 2006 to 2010, dramatically outpacing population growth for those groups over the same period

Via Hot Air.

Cabin stolen in Springdale. Where is Springdale?

Where is Springdale, WA?

West of Loon Lake. Northwest of Tumtum. East of Fruitland!

Yahoo Map shows all four on one map. Loon Lake is to the east on Hwy 291; Tumtum is on the north shore of Spokane River; Fruitland is on the east shore of Lake Roosevelt/Columbia River.

I hadn’t heard of Springdale, WA until it hit the news that a family had its cabin stolen! A 10x20 foot cabin? The news called it a cabin, but feh family call it a shed. And it has been found! - News Tribune & photo of the “wanted" poster

Whales taking fish off lines

In S and SE Alaska whales are taking caught fish right off the lines. Orcas to the west and sperm whales to the east. Quote: "Serm whales are the cleverest animals I have ever worked with." - Jan Straley, U of Alaska marine biologist.

Sea Times

Obamacare enrollment dropped in Wa State

Obamacare enrollments increased 61% in federal-exchange states. Ok. They increased 12% in state-exchange states. Not so good by their own standards. Both since the end of enrollment in 2014.

But in Washington they dropped 2%. State officials called this "lackluster." But they don't care because they are enrolling people in welfare at high rates, that is, on MediCare. This attitude is attributed to Michael Marchand, spokesman for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, which runs Healthplanfinder. Our bureaucrats seem to have perverse minds - happy to put people on welfare.

And their own goal was a substantial increase in Wa Obamacare enrollment. They failed at that.

Seattle Times

Can Obama tell real Christians from those who claim to be?

President Obama is famed for being able to tell real Muslims from fake ones. Fake ones have Muslim names, claim to be Muslim and practice Islam.

The attack on Garissa University in NE Kenya was carried out by men who asked students if they were Christian or Muslim. They let the Muslims - whether real or not, those who claimed to be Muslim - he let them go. They killed the Christians. See also Associated Press.

In President Obama’s statement on this massacre he didn’t mention that the killers were Muslim. And he didn’t mention that the killed were Christians. Can he also tell real Christians from those who claim to be and practice Christianity? See it White House.

Ian Tuttle at National Review Online finds Obama’s logic to be consistent and absurd:

Recognizing the victims in Kenya or Egypt as Christians would require explaining why they were killed, which would draw the White House dangerously close to acknowledging that the “extremism” they so detest may, in fact, be of a particular religious flavor. But — and here is why the Ismailis, &c. appear — how could these extremists be Muslim if they are also killing Muslims!?

It all fits together. It’s all consistent. And it’s all deceitful.

Persecuted Church - Kenya university massacre stopped after 11 hours

Gunmen of an unknown religion who said they were Muslims entered a university campus and massacred students for eleven hours before the military arrived. The killers asked students if they were Christian or Muslim; Muslims were allowed to leave; Christians murdered. The killers were of Somali militant group Shabab.

No added security arrived for two hours and the attack wasn’t stopped for eleven hours.

After protests for better security in 2013 a high fence was built around the campus. Ironically it prevented students from escaping, but didn’t keep the killers out.

LA Times

There was also tension over the presence of a mosque on the campus, used by the local community to pray. Students protested that those using the mosque weren’t subject to security checks. Seeing it as an added source of insecurity, they called for it to be moved off campus.

It’s not that there is no support for Chistians in Kenya. After his election in 2013 President Uhuru Kenyatta said that Kenya is a Christian nation. God Reports and Christian News Why did his military allow the massacre to continue?

He is risen!

Today we remember Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and celebrate His resurrection.

No water rationing in dry Arizona

There is No water rationing in dry Arizona versus the “drastic” measure we are heading about in California. Arizona ia also suffering from drought.

Why? Because they planned!! Arizona’s water supply remains good, and there isn’t even a 50/50 chance for a “water shortage declaration” until 2017.

Breitbart

… 

Arizona Public Media reported that drought conditions continue in AZ, and the Colorado River is dwindling and expected “to keep dwindling, along with the aquifer it feeds.” Yet because AZ prepared for this, they have “more than a year’s worth” of water stored underground.

Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke said: “We have stored a lot of water underground, so for a point in time when we see shortages, we’ve got over three million acre-feet of water,” which is more than a year’s supply.

Buschatzke said AZ also lessened the strain on water supplies by putting “mandatory…conservation requirements in place” for “metropolitan parts of Arizona” when it was apparent drought conditions were approaching.

He said these choices put Arizona “in one of the better places you can be in right now in the western United States.”

Besides differing conservation approaches, the Arizona Republic previously reported that the differences in water supplies are based on infrastructure preparedness as well. To this point–AZ reservoirs are built to catch and store multiple years of runoff, while CA’s reservoirs are not.

Also Breitbart in February, 2014.

3D printed no-assembly

Wow. "No assembly required." For example a toy car with wind-up motor and gears. See it at:

Instructables

Shapeways

US remains out of the running in 2015 Index of Economic Freedom

The United States remains out of the top ten in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom assembled by Heritage Foundation. The index measures ten areas then combines them for a country’s overall rank. The US slightly improved in its composite score, but remains at #12. Until recent years we were always in the top five.

The top five are Hong Kong (that can’t last), Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Switzerland. Even Estonia and Mauritius (Hint: it’s near Reunion) are ahead of us.

 The Heat map of the data at Heritage allows interactive selection of any of the ten factors or the composite, overlaid on a map of the world. The graphic shown is the heat map for overall composite score.

April Fools fun

OK. I am a day late. But here is a page with 31 very fun pranks. For kids and the young at heart. For example: make “candied apples” using onions!

BuzzFeed

Will Latin America take advantage of information age?

I hope Latin America will wake up and adopt policies that allow its people to grow in knowledge and productivity. Because increasing their productivity will improve their lives, both in basic economic value and in quality. Not doing so will result in continued stagnation.

LAM has mixed economic growth to the point of making very little progress while most of the world races ahead. Productivity is little improved since the 1950s. [World Bank] As we know, the world is changing in how income is earned. LAM can greatly improve its competitiveness if regional and national leaders take adopt policies that allow and encourage business even when they do things completely differently. I hope they will.

Source: Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank, calls the change the Second Machine Age, after a book of that title. (Why emphasize machines when it’s information processing that is driving the changes? Because of a book title, evidently.)

Projected Syndicate

… 

The MIT economists Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, among others, identify the Second Machine Age with the rise of new automation technologies and artificial intelligence. While optimists predict that these innovations will usher in an era of unprecedented abundance, less sanguine analysts estimate that nearly half of all jobs currently performed by humans are vulnerable to replacement by robots and increasingly sophisticated software. Carl Benedikt Frey

Advanced technologies are already making inroads into some of Latin America’s principal industries. For example, carmakers, which employ hundreds of thousands of people across the region, are rapidly deploying robots that are more efficient and precise than humans. In South America’s grain belt, GPS-guided machinery is diminishing the need for farmhands, even as output increases.

Service industries, which already account for two-thirds of all jobs in Latin America, are particularly vulnerable. One Brazilian startup’s tax-management software, for example, can perform in seconds operations that would demand thousands of billable hours from an army of accountants. Other sectors that currently account for a large share of employment in lower-income countries – including apparel, light manufacturing, logistics, and call centers – are forecast to undergo increasing automation.

Via WR Meade at The American Interest

Graphic from obhe.ac.uk “The Observatory." In the Caribbean they show Jamaica which is not “Latin."

Cold weather death toll 40,000 in UK alone

 Cold weather caused an added 40,000 deaths in the UK this year.

Telegraph UK

The cold weather death toll this winter is expected to top 40,000, the highest number for 15 years.
The figures were described as a “tragedy for the elderly” by campaigners who warned that not enough was being done to protect pensioners from unnecessary deaths in cold weather.

Malcolm Booth, chief executive of the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners, said: “Excess winter deaths look like rising above the exceptional 2008-09 total and potentially reaching above 40,000 - and that is a disaster for the elderly in Britain.
“Winter deaths are a tragedy for families of those affected but it appears the underlying causes of these deaths have still not been properly addressed.

From the beginning of December until January 16, there were 8,800 more deaths than average of 25,000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS)....

Boycott Chicago, New Orleans and St. Louis before Indiana

All the good people are rushing to be the first to condemn Indiana for passing a law that says you can have religious values that actually mean something. Like your decisions are based on your values. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is off to a fast start. He went in to work on a nice Saturday to rush his announcement that he will ban city employees from traveling to Indiana. Seattle Times 

But Murray didn't announce that he will ban city employee travel to Chicago, New Orleans and St. Louis. They all in states that have laws to the same effect. And Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut and Rhode Island and more, according to Chicago Tribune. And there is a national law, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed into law by Pres. Bill Clinton in 1993.

Chris Gahl, a vice president of Visit Indy, said the [Indiana] tourism agency was pointing out to convention planners that cities such as Chicago, New Orleans and St. Louis are in states that already have such religious-objections laws.

Seattle Times again.

ADDED: Hugh Hewitt succinctly covers (1) how LGBT has gone from wanting tolerance to wanting legal standing to now wanting government to force absolute equality on us. And (2) how the US has been well served by balance between state and church, but the LGBT wants to overthrow that balance by force of law.

Protectionism is trickle-down economics

When people propose to impose restrictions on trade their intent is to help the workers by preserving jobs and pay. But research finds that is not the result. Almost all the benefits go to the companies, not the workers. "But the companies might pass on the benefits," you say. They might, but it's up to owners/managers whether they trickle it down to their employees.

On the other hand, free-market capitalism most benefits those at the bottom. Then as they have more work and more pay they buy more and the benefits "trickle up." According to a study by William Nordhaus of Yale at NBER (pdf) only 2% of the value of technology advances go to the business owners; the rest to the workers.

Via A Force for Good

We are paying convicting child molesters

Freedom Foundation pointed out in February that teachers are collecting lavish pensions despite having lost their teaching licenses after being convicted of horrific sex crimes against children—including their own students.

Why should my tax dollars pay these convicted child molesters? Some are receiving over $3,500 per month and have received far more than they paid in.

Generic Freedom Foundation (They talk like there is an older entry, but I can’t find it. They don’t even link to their own original stories, so I can’t.)

KING 5 News. Follow with caution. I detest web pages that shout at me, like this one. (I close them as soon as the sound blasts.)

And now the story has gone national at Fox News - video link.

Feds search Washington State Auditor Kelley's home

Federal agents searched Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley's home Wednesday. Since the Tacoma News Tribune did not disclose his party we know Kelley is a Democrat. 

Tacoma News Tribune

Tunisia's wonderful Bardot Museum and Dougga

Tunisia had preserved many of its ancient treasures at National Bardo Museum. It’s too bad people are learning about it due to a criminal attack murdering tourists there today.

We spent twelve days in Tunisia in October, 1981, with our daughter Heidi who was 4 years old and toured Bardo Museum. After over 30 years I remember huge mosaics - the pictorial/historic ones. There were also geometric ones; as I recall the latter were always floors. I also remember a baptismal in the shape of the cross, more like a plus-shaped cross. Yes, North Africa was a center of Christianity before invasion and victory by Muslims.

See for yourself - National Bardo Museum

Even more memorable was seeing the sites of ancient ruins. Carthage didn’t have much to see, because it is on the coast and easily invaded. Much better preserved was Dougga. See the pic of the Temple of Jupiter and its  theater is in good shape. Our friends told of us similar Roman ruins in France where every step was worn way down by hordes of visitors over the centuries, due to better accessibility.

Carthage was the first place a man came up to me and said “Look at these” and showed me coins. “They are from the time of Emperor X. I will give you a very good price.” Did they expect me to believe that!? Of course the same thing happened at least once at every ancient site.

But... I remember mosaics at Dougga that we were walking on that were coming apart, because no preservation had been done. It’s shocking to see something man-made over 2,000 years ago falling apart, while local guides are giving tours every day.

See about Dougga at Historvius. 

Photo: Temple of Jupiter at Dougga, Tunisia. From Historvius.

Bach in the Subways March 21

To celebrate Johan S Bach’s 330th birthday musicians in 129 cities will play his music in public places. Saturday, March 21, 2015. And the prestigious locations include my neighborhood!

Seattle Bach Orchestra will perform at Third Place Commons * in Lake Forest Park at 10 am. Pianist Linda Ganier will follow at 11:15. Link and Link

For all Seattle-area performances see Bach in the Subways. Many are outside. A piano on Beacon Hill will be so busy it might start smoking. Some are “marathons” of four hours or more.

* Third Place Commons is in the upper level of the Lake Forest Park Town Center at 17111 Bothell Way NE>

Keep Washington Competitive

Keep Washington Competitive is a coalition that promotes bilateral trade in Washington (that is, both imports and exports). It is a coalition of business, unions, agriculture and trade organizations.

Keep Washington Competitive

From their “about" page:

Our objective is to foster a regulatory environment that encourages investment in Washington’s trade industries. Ensuring our state is positioned to thrive in the increasingly competitive national and international marketplace for foreign trade will require:

A timely regulatory review process lasting no longer than 18 months for proposals meeting Washington’s high environmental standards.

An environmental framework that is predictable and obtainable, focusing on the needs of communities where projects are to be built, rather than speculative indirect impacts.

A commitment to promoting trade growth and the diversity of employment opportunities that sustain Washington’s middle class.

Now they are focused on three issues:

• That SEPA reviews be done in a timely fashion
• Make the Harbor Maintenance Tax more fair
• Water quality standards that are workable.

Their news links are on this page 

KWC Home

Hillary thinks we are stupid

Does Hillary really think we will believe her? She seems to think we will on these points:

- That she would have to carry two phones to have two email accounts. We know that’s not true!

- That the purpose was not to hide her communications from oversight. We don’t fall for that!

- That she only deleted emails that were personal. We don’t fall for that!

- That she has already turned over all emails of concern. We don’t fall for that!

But we do believe her on this:

“I have taken unprecedented steps…” That part of the sentence is true, not the rest.

Question for her: “Madame Hillary, it would remove suspicion if you would  turn the server over to a third party to check it. Will you?"

Breitbart

Libre - Economic freedom for Latinos

Libre is an organization to promote economic freedom principles for Latinos. From their mission statement, note the principles:

is a 501(c)4 non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization that advances the principles and values of economic freedom to empower the U.S. Hispanic community so it can thrive and contribute to a more prosperous America.

LIBRE is dedicated to informing the U.S. Hispanic community about the benefits of a constitutionally limited government, property rights, rule of law, sound money supply and free enterprise through a variety of community events, research and policy initiatives that protect our economic freedom.

They have current events on how to become a home owner, health care and school choice.

More at Fausta at Da Tech Guy.

Persecuted church: ISIS attacks in Syria

Christians in Syria say ISIS is attacking them Khabour River in northeast Syria. Over 262 Christians have been abducted and “asked” to covert to Islam. I wonder why there is talk of Islam. Our President tells us every day that ISIS has nothing at all to do with Islam. He says the “I” in ISIS instead stands for … 

ISIS “asks" that Christians cover to Islam. To convince them to ISIS first kidnaps them.

Breitbart

This is my second (almost) weekly update on persecution of the church.

China is vulnerable to breakup

Veteran China watcher David Shambaugh thinks the political break up of China is inevitable and is now on its way. The iron rule of Communism is unstable and the point of no return has been reached.

I am no China scholar, but I have been watching for this. I have never been to China, but when changing planes in Taipei in 2007 a young woman from Taiwan told us that there are huge problems in China with poverty, pollution and authoritarian government at all levels riding the backs of restless people. So she thought Chins was on its way to a crisis stage. So I have been watching...

Wall Street Journal (requires registration; might be found by a search)

He highlights five signs. The first:

First, China’s economic elites have one foot out the door, and they are ready to flee en masse if the system really begins to crumble. In 2014, Shanghai’s Hurun Research Institute, which studies China’s wealthy, found that 64% of the “high net worth individuals” whom it polled—393 millionaires and billionaires—were either emigrating or planning to do so. Rich Chinese are sending their children to study abroad in record numbers 

Second:

Second, since taking office in 2012, Mr. Xi has greatly intensified the political repression that has blanketed China since 2009. The targets include the press, social media, film, arts and literature, religious groups, the Internet, intellectuals, Tibetans and Uighurs, dissidents, lawyers, NGOs, university students and textbooks.

In other words: repression of every means of expression and almost every group.

Read it for the rest.

See also China leadership’s “analysis” of why the Soviet Union broke up. "Of course the problem was not Communism…” WSJ

Pic: Meeting of People’s Congress in Great Hall of the People, Beijing, this week. Wall Street Journal

To make it easier, not harder (Obama) to save for college

Pres. Obama wants to increase taxes on savings for college. But something is happening in Congress.

IBD

… So last month, when President Obama proposed taxing 529 plans, people were understandably outraged.

Why would we make saving for college even harder? We talk all the time about rewarding people who work hard and play by the rules — well, that’s what 529 plans are. They empower families to set up accounts for their children — right from when they’re born — and then down the line they can use that money — tax-free — on books, fees, tuition, and room-and-board.

All told, there are nearly 12 million of these accounts open in all 50 states. That’s up from 1 million accounts in 2001. Why would we stop that growth? So the government can take even more of the money we’ve worked so hard to put away?

Thankfully, after a public outcry, the president was forced to drop the idea.

But we can do more. With all the challenges middle-class families are facing right now, we need to make it easier — not harder — to save.

That’s why the House acted this week to expand and modernize 529 plans.

Our plan will do a few simple things.

First, to adapt to the times, we clarify that computers are qualified expenses under 529 accounts. Second, we remove unnecessary paperwork burdens for the administrators of these plans.

And third, we allow families to re-deposit refunds from colleges without taxes or penalties. This might be useful if something happens and a student has to withdraw early for an illness. It’s just good peace of mind to have.

I’m pleased to report that the bill passed with more than 400 votes. Now we just need President Obama to help us get this done. Together, let’s make sure that 529 plans will be there for middle-class families for years to come.

 

NY region wants to secede

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has earned himself a singular distinction. Conditions in parts of NY are so bad that the people want to become part of Pennsylvania.

New York State is Rust Belt plus NY City. While The City prospers the rust thickens. Upstate NY is an economic disaster. But across the state line in Pennsylvania there is growth. Growth! The bordering parts of NY could have the same growth for the same reason. Gas in the Marcellus Shale. Gas produced by hydraulic fracking.

But Gov. Cuomo killed off fracking. After he won reelection. He is afraid of it. But he claims it was not his decision: Cuomo leadership? NOT. The reasons his environmental department guy gives are backwards logic. The Wall Street Journal says:

In other words, all of the Governor’s men couldn’t find conclusive evidence that fracking presents a significant risk to public health or the environment. So they’re going to ban fracking until they do.

The truth is that fracking has been taking place around the country for many years without evidence of environmental harm. Even the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which desperately wants to find it, has uncovered no credible evidence that fracking causes groundwater contamination.

Taxes are also a problem. WBNG TV

Also being considered are things like workers comp, surcharges, unemployment and health insurance. The association's understanding is that the secession would have to be approved by the New York State Legislature, the Pennsylvania State Legislature and the U. S. government.

"We're comparing the taxes in Pennsylvania compared to those in New York," said Finch. "There's a great, great difference. Right now, we are being deprived of work, jobs and incomes."
Action News spoke with two local business owners in Conklin about the proposal. John Gage, owner of Reliable Market, said he fully supports the idea.

"The tax structure in New York is just horrible to do business in," said Gage. "Whether it's fracking, or other reasons to secede, it sounds like a good idea to me."

Fifteen towns in the NY counties of Broome, Delaware, Tioga and Sullivan are actively talking about moving.

I saw another source that quoted people as saying across the line in Pennsylvania people are buying new cars and upgrading their homes or building new ones. But there in NY they sit and rust: no jobs. And another sore spot is that they wanted but were denied gambling; that’s short-sighted.

The graphic is from North Central PA.com.

Drink coffee; it's healthy

Another target-hit by coffee. Drinking it can lessen the chance of getting MS - multiple sclerosis. And we are not talking about moderation here; one study says 4 or more cups per day; a study in Sweden says 6 cups or more. And it’s the caffeine!

Previous studies have found that people who drink coffee were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, two other neurological diseases. 

American Academy of Neurology via Seattle Times

Failure of AFP, Al Jazeera and Daily Mail

Big news organizations fell for an obvious fabrication.

There is flooding in Gaza. The Gaza Ministry of Interior claimed that Israel had opened dams and intentionally caused the flooding. BUT there are no dams in that part of Israel. AND Agence France Presse, Al Jazeera and Daily Mail ran with it. 

You thought the big news media had editors and high standards and so didn’t fall for fabricated stories. !!

The flooding is caused by rains and run off in an area whose government spends its money on rockets instead of infrastructure, like drainage and fuel for the pumps. 

Washington Examiner

Persecuted church update

Niger, West Africa:

I reported January 19 that a number of churches and Christian schools were torched and at least ten people died in Niger. The crimes were done by Muslims protesting a non-event, the publishing of cartoons by a newspaper no one had ever cared about because no one had heard of it - Charlie Hebdo. Economic Freedom

Update: The report on January 23 was that 72, seventy-two, buildings were destroyed. That number includes some pastors’ homes and at least one orphanage. The Christian support organization Open Doors put the number at 68 across five regions of Niger.

Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram in Nigeria said that the attacks would continue in Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon.

Morningstar News

More news from Morningstar. Hindu extremists in east India… The communist government of Laos...

I intend to do regular updates on how the Church is being persecuted. It is happening in many nations around the world. Photo from Matt Paulson.

Ask Uruguay if terrorists just need jobs

President Jose Mujica of Uruguay believed US Sec of State John Kerry: “Root cause: they need jobs.” So Uruguay accepted six Guantanamo detainees and offered them jobs. He is sorry - after only two weeks.

Investors Business Daily:

But when he drove his beat-up Volkswagen to the government housing complex where the six former Gitmo inmates from Syria and Iraq were staying free of charge, Mujica was promptly enlightened.

Seems the Gitmo grads had turned up their noses at several job offers from labor unions as not quite good enough for their refined tastes.

Coming from a background that had led him to believe they'd love a good proletarian position in construction, Mujica was horrified. He called them lazy and lacking a work ethic and condemned them with the worst expletive he could come up with: "bourgeois."

"If these people were humble people of the desert, poor people, they'd surely be stronger and more primitive, but they're not," the Associated Press quoted him as saying. "Through their hands, features and family histories, it seems to me that they're middle class."

The clash of cultures is amusing enough. But it also tells us a lot about the nature of Gitmo's terrorists. Seems they're not just frustrated people looking for jobs, as State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Harf has insisted.

They're well educated, middle class and not terribly ambitious. In fact, from the recent encounter, it seems they think the world owes them a living.

They don’t want his stinking jobs.

Embracing Islamofascism is what lets them shun work and live like bums, all in the name of being on divine mission, men above other men who can do anything or nothing.

He believed deluded John Kerry. Did you know he served in Vietnam?

George Washington

February 22 we honor our primary founding father and first president George Washington.

The US got rid of the holiday to honor him and turned it into Presidents Day, a purposeless Monday to form a 3-day weekend. Let’s honor him in this small corner on February 22, the anniversary of his birth in 1732.

His farewell address of 1796 was read in Congress every year until the 1979 When that ended there was a wreath-laying ceremony at the Washington Monument until 2003. Congress stopped honoring President Washington? It appears so.

His farewell address: After his opening personal remarks he goes on to emphasize the union of the states and that the parts work together:

… The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

Later he decries the division in politics caused by parties. Later he says we rely on religion and morality:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

Then he disparages borrowing. Then he warns of attachment to some foreign nations and calls for neutrality instead. He concludes with humility. A great man.

Text at the Avalon Project at Yale Law School. See also US History.org.

The US Senate is functioning again

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid sent me a postage-paid envelope while complaining about what the terrible Republicans are doing now that they kicked him out of his job.

Here is how I responded:

Minority Leader Harry Reid

Senator Reid,

You wrote me to warn me about how the Republicans are running the US Senate. Let’s look at what they are doing.

I know how you ran the Senate for eight years. You violated how the greatest deliberative body in the world has worked for centuries. Most people don’t know this. You did not allow the committees to hold hearings, but ruled with an iron hand.

Senator Cantwell doesn’t talk about how idle she has been for the past eight years. She had nothing to do, because you took away her role.

Senator McConnell has done a shocking thing. He is allowing committee hearings. And he even allows the minority the role it has had for centuries. Don’t minority Democrats talk to you about how they like to be involved?

Your letter is unusual in that it is not just name calling. You included some data and showed how to misuse it. US economic growth is miserably low. Taking out the two miserable years of the recession that ended in 2009 it is still low compared to post-WWII growth. If it were higher millions more people would be working. If Obama’s $837 billion stimulus you spent on your political allies had been effective you would have done it again; you didn’t.

I am using the post-paid envelope you provided so I could communicate with you.

Image: downloaded from Power Line Blog’s weekly picture edition. PowerLineBlog

Uff Da! A dead end

Seattle Times has a classy “link not found” page. A dead end with an enforcer.

Dead End

In case they don’t keep the pic of the Fremont Troll, which is under the Aurora bridge, I am posting it here.

Facebook and games in Seattle

Facebook now has 500 employees in Seattle and has leased more space for next year. Their local leader says they are expanding here because the tech talent is here - including game developers - high-end games. That started long ago when Electronic Arts moved here.

We have seen recently that cloud companies are moving here because the largest pool of talent is here.

Seattle Times

Also: Best Buy is opening a small software development office for e-commerce. In a Seattle Times building. Sea Times again

8.3% spending growth is austerity

To President Obama increasing spending by 8.3% is austerity. Everyone tells us he is smarter than Einstein. Why can’t he compare two numbers and know which is bigger?

Investors Business Daily

Red-light and school-zone cameras in Seattle

Watch out! Seattle needs money and they are happy if you provide it. Of course, they try to remember to talk about safety when putting money-generating cameras on traffic lights and school zones. But Seattle needs money.

Seattle Times has a map of the locations. Though the map doesn’t load for some reason. But when you click on an icon it tells you the location - and how many thousands of tickets it has generated.

Seattle Times. They say the data is as of June, 2013.

Obamacare at it again in California

Obamacare sent out 100,000 tax forms with errors in California. Only 100,000? Then they did some right! Don’t blame… never mind. Nothing sticks to anyone. No one will be held accountable...

Breitbart

Moving jobs out of Seattle - minimum wage

Cascade Designs will move 100 jobs from Seattle to Nevada due to the huge increase in the minimum wage. (My former coworker John Burroughs founded this company, but still worked with us until it because a $5 million company in the late 1980s.)

They designed and make Therma-a-Rest sleeping pads for backpacking. They make MSR stoves and other items branded Platypus.

Seattle Times

Seattle-based outdoor-gear maker Cascade Designs will move about 100 jobs, roughly one fifth of its workforce, to a new manufacturing and distribution facility in Nevada as it seeks to keep costs down while pursuing growth.

The company said it needs to expand, but doing so in the Seattle area is too expensive. The main reason is increasingly expensive real estate, especially for the space it leases around the city to house its merchandise.

“We’re running out of space in Seattle,” spokesman Martin Maisonpierre said.

But labor costs — recently subject to a minimum wage of $15 per hour — also add up, especially as Cascade competes with brands that rely on cheap overseas labor, Maisonpierre said.

President Abraham Lincoln

A great man and great leader. Even during the bloody battles of the Civil War he wanted the people of the southern states to be welcomed to return to the union. Welcomed.

February 12 we celebrate the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

I enjoyed the book about how he won the nomination in 1860 over three more prominent men; the guy who always told corny jokes has amazing political instincts! Then how he put together a team including those he defeated -- because they were the best — in his cabinet.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

No one should be forced to pay union dues

Why should anyone be forced to pay union dues? 

Regarding public employees in Washington — First, the State of Washington allowed public employees to form unions around 2002. Why? They were already in good hands; they could always go over their bosses’ heads and ask the Legislature to consider their plights. The employees didn’t need it, but the Olympia powers wanted more dollars lobbying for bigger government.

Second, the Legislature forced employees to join and pay union dues. It's one thing to allow, but another to force the union.

Third, the Legislature did not create a provision so the employees in a bargaining union could end forced membership. The provision that protects the union is called “union security.” Note that it is security for the union against the people it represents, not for the workers. The employees cannot get out of it.

On the other hand: All members of unions in private businesses have the right to hold an election to “union security” due to the 1935 National Labor Relations Act.  In California and Oregon public employees have the corresponding right. Why not the public employees of Washington?

Senate Bill SB-5045 and House Bill HB-2068 would create a mechanism so workers could petition to hold an election to removed forced union membership requirement. 

I called the Legislative Hot Line 1-800-562-6000 this morning to send the message that I support these two bills. They forward my message to my senator and two representatives.

Generic Freedom Foundation 1/23

Generic Freedom Foundation 2/7 “Senate Demos call bill undemocratic!"

Raising minimum wage killed indie book store

Borderland bookstore in San Francisco announced it will out of business in March after eighteen years. They have to fight the giants Amazon and e-books from them and from Barnes and Noble. And the costs of operating in the big city - high rents, etc. But they say the final nail was the high and increasing minimum wage. 

The minimum wage was $10.74 last year; it went to $11.05 on January and will go to $12.25 on May 1. And it will continue to rise until it reaches $15.00. That’s 14% in less than five months! Balance your budget with one of your largest expenses going up 14%! In the book selling business you can’t raise your prices like that; it would mean death. The store’s blog explains every alternative they explored of reducing expenses or raising revenues. Borderlands

Daily Caller

And the problem is widespread. A study by American Action Forum shows that cities and states with higher minimum wages have higher unemployment and it’s much worse for teenagers. Study

Taxes are hurting US top companies

Why is Apple borrowing when it has over $100 billion in cash?

Apple is planning to sell bonds to raise $6.5 billion. But they have $178 billion in cash and marketable securities. But they need to raise more cash because most of the $178 B is overseas and US tax policy makes them want to keep it there. The US has the highest corporate taxes in the world!

Apple cannot use the cash it has to best conduct their business with it “captive” overseas. One use of the cash raised will be to pay a larger dividend - to reward its investors. 

Associate Press at Oregon Live

Texas invests more - UW president

University of Washington President Michael Young is departing to go to Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Why? Around $1.6 million per year. But more than that. He says the state of Texas is taking better care of higher education. Seattle Times 

One of the attractions, he said, was the amount of money Texas lawmakers are interested in investing in the university system, and he expressed disappointment that Washington lawmakers haven’t done a better job here.

That’s not possible, because Texas is a Republican red state and Washington is a blue state controlled by Democrats!?  Young says it is true. More...

The Texas job also sounded exciting, he said. “It’s about the opportunity to do something new. It sounds like an adventure.”

Sharp, who said Texas A&M is “already the largest dollar-wise research institution in the Southwest,” said he and Young discussed the university’s funding resources at length.

“I think he was pleased with that,” Sharp said. “I spent a great deal of time showing him what the budgets were and what the future budgets could be and where the money’s coming from.” The Texas A&M University System has an endowment of $11 billion, dwarfing the UW’s $2.8 billion, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

There it is: more investment in the public state university in Texas than in Washington.

Photo: "AggielandWaterTower" by Blueag9 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AggielandWaterTower.JPG#mediaviewer/File:AggielandWaterTower.JPG

Now it's goats against rats

In Bremerton they are calling in the goats to reduce the prevalence of rats. But the goats will be called in to do what they do best - eat blackberry bushes!

Seattle Times

Seahawk victory!!

We are ready for the Superbowl with the best defense in the NFL. Oddsshark

The Hawks are busy this week getting ready for the game while the Patriots are busy explaining how 11 of 12 of their game balls could be under inflated at halftime while all the Indianapolis Colts’ balls were within the rules. NESN How could anyone suspect the Patriots of cheating? Coach Belichik was fined $500,000 and a first-round draft choice in 2007 for cheating. ESPN

But the Hawks won’t win by citing history. They will win by scoring while holding back the Patriots offense.

The Harvard Library - Prof Eliot's 5-foot bookshelf

The Harvard Library

The publisher P F Collier and Son over 100 years ago asked the president of Harvard to build a list of books he recommended to provide an overview of Western civilization. His list was 50 volumes - some of which are one book; others are two or three works. It is known as Prof Eliot's 5-foot bookshelf of 1910. Later Prof Eliot also did a series of fiction - seventeen volumes. (Though the original list contains some fiction.)

In print: they sold thousands of copies. Used sets are always available at Ebay.

Online - Prof Eliot’s five-foot library at Open Cultures is the overview. They lead to the following four online sources for the full set.

Eliott's FULL texts, the scanned originals are at Archive.org

• Archive.org

Internet Archive is actually at archive.org. It has the full set in plain text, Epub, Kindle, PDF for download and html (for online reading)… and some I am not familiar with.

• Harvard Classics at Internet Archive

At Project Gutenberg. They have four formats: plain text, Epub, Kindle for download and html (for online)

• H C at Gutenberg

And Bartleby has the full set in html for online reading:

• H C at Bartleby

I learned about this in Weekly Standard magazine.

Race to Alaska

To Alaska by water, w/o motor.

In June, 2015 some brave souls will race from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan, Alaska. Human and wind power only, no motors of any kind. No support. Of course contestants will be stopping at ports along the way — it would be way less fun if they couldn’t stop — but no support boats. And they must carry normal safety gear and a GPS locator.

Simple, but a big challenge.

Race to Alaska

Seattle Times

Free speech already dead in Europe

Free speech is dead in Europe. The Islamists certainly want it dead, but it’s the Europeans who killed it.

Benny Huang at Patriot Update

… Free speech is dead in Europe and while it is certainly tempting to blame the immigrants, as intolerant as they may be, it would also be folly. The real culprits are the cowardly, hedonistic, post-Christian, post-industrial native born white majority.

The three bestial al-Qaeda terrorists who murdered twelve people at Charlie Hebdo HQ might seem like menacing enemies of free speech but they’re actually bush league amateurs when it comes to gagging people. The real pros are sitting behind desks in the various capitals of Europe. Nearly every European nation extends some guarantee of free speech to its citizens, and nearly every one of them flagrantly violates that guarantee.

… The authorities in Britain arrest people who harbor banned ideas, and believe me, I’ve got a lot of them. Clegg’s prescient countryman, Eric Blair (George Orwell) predicted this phenomenon nearly seventy years ago and gave it a name—thoughtcrime.

Thought criminals should take notice that they will find no shelter in today’s United Kingdom. Little more than a week before the cartoon jihadists spilled French blood, police in Scotland tweeted the following threat: “Please be aware that we will continue to monitor comments on social media & any offensive comments will be investigated.” Offensive to whom, exactly? They don’t say. But in a free society it shouldn’t matter a lick. Offensive comments are exactly the kind of comments that free speech is designed to protect. Innocuous comments don’t require protection.

… On the Continent, outspoken MP Geert Wilders faces criminal prosecution under “hate speech” laws for comments he made about immigration. At a rally in the Hague he asked a crowd “Do you want more or fewer Moroccans?” to which they chanted, “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!” Mindless xenophobia? I don’t think so, though it’s also irrelevant. Free speech protects mindless xenophobia.
Nor is everyone feeling the spirit of freedom after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Swedish MP Veronica Palm contacted the police to report that another MP of an opposing party, Bjoern Soeder, might have violated Swedish law with a comment he posted on Facebook concerning the terrorist attack in Paris. “’The Religion of Peace’ shows its face,” he said, clearly indicating with his use of derisive quotes that he doubts Islam’s pacifistic nature, as many people do. His nemesis Veronica Palm declared: “This statement is offensive to a group of people and I want to see if it comes under laws against inciting racial hatred.” Ms. Palm apparently does not understand that Islam is not a race. Even if it were, free speech guarantees the right to make racist comments as well.
Are we much better? Oh, a little bit, I suppose. Anyone who thinks that free speech is alive and well in America ought to experience the suffocating environment of academia. If you happen to be on a college campus and you still think America guarantees a healthy exchange of controversial ideas then you’re probably one of the drones who keeps the rest of us line. Good for you.

Europe, however, is a decade or two ahead of us in the downward slide toward mind control. Governmental censorship has infested the birthplaces of Voltaire and John Stuart Mill.

Via No Pasaran!

Longshoremen slow down West Coast ports

For months the longshoremen were claiming they were working as normal, despite clear evidence.

Ask Tom Riggan, CEO of Chelan Fresh. His cold storage is full of fruit and only half of his orders were able to ship through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. Chilean Fresh had to lay off 250 employees and reduce 70 from full-time to part-time. Seattle Times

Also ask Blaine Calaway of Ellensburg

Blaine Calaway, vice president of sales for Ellensburg-based Calaway Trading, which ships grains, forages and hay products through the Seattle and Tacoma ports destined for Asia mainly as animal feed.

Calaway said he has had to reduce his employees’ hours by half — at a time when his employees usually are working overtime.

The longshoremen are not on strike. True. They are getting regular pay while slowing down loading, way down. 

The Washington suppliers being hurt are losing business now - and in the future. If customers cannot get the Washington fruit or grain they ordered they will buy from competitors, competitors in other countries.

Riggan, with Chelan Fresh, said he is worried about the same thing — specifically competitors buying Red Delicious apples from Italy. One customer in Taiwan has already started supplementing the limited orders it has received from Chelan with Italian apples.

“My fear is — once someone gets their foot in the door, the next year they can be your competition,” he said.

When the labor face-off is over will the officers of ILWU Local 19 help market Washington products to regain the markets they had last year, but lost due to this slowdown?

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. today with a national holiday. We honor him for his brave battle against racism to get equal rights for people of all races. And for the nonviolent way he did it.

But you and I are restricted from hearing his words by his family. They have ownership rights and you can’t hear or see his words unless they make money. Having a national holiday would be enough for most people, but not them. USA Today

Churches and businesses torched in Niger

Religion of peace update. Ten dead. Churches and businesses were torched in Niger this weekend. Also a Christian school and an orphanage. An orphanage?

It was Muslims protesting the publishing in Charlie Hebdo of Mohammed cartoons. Protesting?

According to Newsmax 45 churches were torched.

According to All Africa it was 8 churches plus many businesses and five civilians dead in Niamey, and another five in Zinder.

 Photo: Kids guarding “el ganado,” the herd. From WorldRaider.com.

Italy's economy > Germany >> Luxembourg

Italy is in better shape than Germany? Not by the measures now used for big decisions.

But Laurence Kotlikoff says there is a better measure; it’s already being calculated, but not being used in the EU’s main measures. He says Europe should use the infinite-horizon fiscal gap instead of debt versus GDP.

Making Sense at PBS

… Now the Germans will be stuck. For the only way to properly measure a country’s fiscal status is via its infinite-horizon fiscal gap. And on a fiscal gap measure, Italy is in far better shape than Germany.

A country’s fiscal gap is the present value of all its projected future expenditure commitments net of all its projected future tax receipts. Whether the expenditure commitments are called one thing or another doesn’t matter to the fiscal gap. All commitments are put on the books.
Economists have been slow to realize that the official debt and its annual change – the deficit — measures fiscal language, not fiscal policy. But the profession is now clear on the point.

… 

Fiscal gaps are measured as the share of GDP needed to be raised each year in additional taxes to permit the government to meet all its expenditure commitments through time, including those labeled “debt service.” The most recent measurement of EU fiscal gaps was done in 2012 for 24 member states by the European Commission. The results are shown in Table 3.5 of the European Commission’s Fiscal Sustainability Report 2012.

Luxembourg, with its 9.7 percent of GDP fiscal gap, is in the worst shape of the included EU countries. The next biggest fiscal profligate is Belgium with a 7.4 percent gap. The Netherland’s 5.9 percent gap, the UK’s 5.2 percent gap, Finland’s 5.1 percent gap, and Spain’s 4.8 percent fiscal gap are also quite large. France and Germany, on the other hand, are close to fiscal balance with fiscal gaps of 1.6 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

As for Italy, its fiscal gap of negative 2.3 percent is the lowest of any of the 24 included countries.

This is shown in table 3.5 and graph 3.4 about page 42 of European Commission Financial Sustainability Report 2012 (PDF)

—— 

Kotlikoff also points out that many prominent economists have called on the US to use infinite-horizon fiscal gap accounting, The Inform Act

Cringe: Kerry tells France: You've got a friend

Esteemed Secretary of State John Kerry (Did you know he served in Vietnam?) skipped the march in Paris to support freedom of the press versus Islam jihad January 9 that included 40 heads of state. So to make up for that huge error he decided to show the people of France that we in the US are with them.

He brought James Taylor with him Friday to sing "You’ve got a friend.” Cringe. It embarrasses me to watch it. The video is embedded here - Newsbusters.

But the US government-controlled media failed to mention it. Don’t they find it news-worthy when the US Secretary of State embarrasses his country before the whole world? More from Newsbusters.

History note: In 1970 Taylor burst on the scene with the song Sweet Baby James and was an instant sensation. It’s acoustic and quiet… and influenced a generation.

Our Pacific Northwest maritime heritage

For us maritime fans there is a site showing present and past… attractions, lighthouses, organizations and ships/boats. It has a wealth of information. For example, 24 lighthouses (must be all of them?) and 29 museums. I didn’t know there was a maritime museum in Raymond; we drive through there when we go to Astoria or Long Beach.

Northwest Maritime Heritage site

Greenbay's strategy weapon

Greenbay's strategy weapon

No. It’s not cheese. Greenbay Packers players bide their time with a tough game - Settlers of Catan. A group of them play whenever they can.

Wall Street Journal - subscription required.

(Sometimes the pay wall can be bypassed by a Google search: "Green Bay’s Board-Game Obsession”.)

They are very, very serious:

But [backup quarterback] Flynn said the players take it so seriously that when he stopped by to play for the first time after a win last month, he was shocked by what happened when he attempted to turn on some celebratory music.

“I was just trying to play some music—some Pearl Jam, and [Bakhtiari] wouldn’t let me. He wanted to hear the players talk and strategize. He was very serious,” Flynn said. “They take it to a different level.”

Graphic: Wall Street Journal

Insider says to replace Obama's people in White House

Leslie Gelb is a Demo insider and he is fed up. He says Obama’s team has failed, but not only have they fail, they can’t see that they failed.

He says to fire all of his inner core, especially in the White House…. including John Kerry (“Do you know who I am?”*).

Daily Beast

The failure of Obama or Biden to show up in Paris made clear that most of the president’s team can’t be trusted to conduct U.S national security policy and must be replaced—at once.

Here’s why America’s failure to be represented at the Paris unity march was so profoundly disturbing. It wasn’t just because President Obama’s or Vice President Biden’s absence was a horrendous gaffe. More than this, it demonstrated beyond argument that the Obama team lacks the basic instincts and judgment necessary to conduct U.S. national security policy in the next two years. It’s simply too dangerous to let Mr. Obama continue as is—with his current team and his way of making decisions. America, its allies, and friends could be heading into one of the most dangerous periods since the height of the Cold War.

Mr. Obama will have to excuse most of his inner core, especially in the White House. He will have to replace them with strong and strategic people of proven foreign policy experience.

* That’s what Kerry says when he treats people in Massachusetts like dirt.

Quick release of felony criminals in King County?

Dow Constantine needs to save money on jails and justice. So he wants to quickly release those arrested for felonies. !?

Even Mayor Ed Murray opposes.

Seattle Times

Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas is among those opposed to the book-and-release plan.

“Washington state has the highest property-crime rate in the United States of America,” Thomas said. “The way to deal with that is not less accountability by letting people out of jail but is looking for ways to effectively address the issue.”

Thomas cited an analysis by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs indicating that there were over 12,000 auto thefts in King County.

“That’s more than Snohomish, Pierce, Clark, Spokane and Thurston counties combined,” Thomas said. “The majority of the property crime is happening in King County, and we need to address that.”

Property-crime suspects, Thomas said, “need to be held in custody until they see a judge, even if it’s just a few days.”

Thomas said he and other law-enforcement leaders need to “get to work to come up with solutions to address the issue.”

“We can’t have this happen,” he added.

Dems lost because they didn't sell their tax increases

Go, guys! Make your case for tax increases. Louder!

They say they lost to the Republicans in November because…. I can’t make their case; quotes below

Wash Times

House Democrats, fresh off massive election losses, say the problem is they didn’t make a bold enough case for tax increases and wealth transfer to the poor. They rectified that Monday with a speech by Rep. Chris Van Hollen proposing tax increases on the wealthy with the money going straight to tax cuts for the poor and middle class.

And many more ideas. Why didn’t they do these things when they had control?

And reading their list clearly one of their key goals is to increase the complexity of our tax code. They have little handouts all over the place.

Americans have the right to be stupid - John Kerry

Consider the source: "Americans have the right to be stupid"

-- John Kerry at a news conference at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin February 26, 2013. Reuters

This weekend we saw that esteemed Mr. Kerry claims the right also. Instead of walking with 40 heads of state in Paris in solidarity with the victims of jihadist bombings in France, Kerry was in India. Why didn’t he attend? Seattle Times

Top ten volcanos for 2014

Even the runners up are interesting. Erik Klemetti has a blog about volcanoes at Wired. He held a poll for the top ten volcanic events of 2014. The competition is rough; even #9 Mt Etna has lava spattering.

#7 Nishinoshima Island in Japan today is ten times its size one year ago; yes, the lava built it up to ten times the size. The lava approaching the town of Pahoa on Hawaii’s Big island is #6.  #5 Kelut, Indonesia forced 100,000 people to flee. And there are four even better.

Eruptions at Wired

Photo: Nishinoshima Island, Japan. The warmer colors are the current flow! Photo from Japan Coast Guard

500 miles in a self-driving car - boring

They need it to be dull, of course. The non-driver knows what to do, but never has to do anything - while on a highway.

Wired

Turtle Taxi

Do you want to go slow? In Japan you can take Turtle Taxi. It has a button for the passenger to say “slow down.” It is used mostly by pregnant women and elderly people

Laughing Squid

Victory in Battle of New Orleans 200 years ago today

I never realized how important the Battle of New Orleans, at the end of the War of 1812, was. Indeed, since it came after signing of the peace treaty, I thought it was meaningless. Not at all.

First, it was a stunning defeat by irregulars of a battle-experienced British force of twice our size. They were stunned. And without the victory the British might have stayed in New Orleans and made it an outpost like Gibraltar, enabling them to interfere with our key shipping route, the Mississippi River.

Second, domestically. The New England merchants were unhappy with how the war interfered with their trade. They were unhappy to the point of drawing up a the list demands that concluded by threatening secession! But their delegation arrived in Washington the same day as news of the great victory.  They were instantly disgraced.

In total, it was a very important event in US history. Read more at:

Breitbart

Atlanta fire chief fired for Christian faith

Kelvin Cochran, fire chief of Atlanta for several years, was fired because of a book he wrote for his church.

Mayor Kasim Reed said,
“I want to be clear that the material in Chief Cochran’s book is not representative of my personal beliefs, and is inconsistent with the Administration’s work to make Atlanta a more welcoming city for all of her citizens -- regardless of their sexual orientation, gender, race and religious beliefs,”

Why are the mayor's personal beliefs the standard? He also claimed the book contained judgment and that is not protected speech.
Fox News

In Atalanta there is free speech only for certain groups.

They "printed" the offensive cartoons

I don't think they did this when it was dangerous, but today the Seattle P-I "printed" some of the cartoons - that is, they put them online. Today I expect there is safety in numbers.

The cartoons caused no offense when published, but later some Europe-based Muslim stirred up trouble using them. And people died.

Seattle P-I

Billionaire can't win until he has control

Tom Steyer explaining why his $74 million spent for climate-change-believing candidates resulted in election losses in 2014:

Steyer, meanwhile, said the GOP’s massive victory in November resulted from “that part of the world we don’t control.”

At Breitbart