Windmills Literally Blowing in the Wind
Many say “What can possibly be wrong with windmills to generate electrical power?” But it doesn’t seem to be a thinking solution to perceived energy problems for the US. A few suggestions for the non-thinker: 1) What is the actual cost? 2) How much land or water will actually be needed?, 3) What has been the result of previous wind turbines built? And the coup-de-gras, 4) How much of US energy concerns can it displace?
In Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of …the Future, Robert Bryce shows how wind turbines can only produce a small amount of the world’s energy needs. He points out wind won’t run America anytime soon. If one checks the math, answers leap into your face.
Stephen Lovejoy [Economist: Wind farm profits wouldn't be a breeze for Hoosiers] says, “Are you willing to put up with noise? You’ve got to remember that if you’ve got several dozen turbine rotors going around in the wind, they make noise.”
Although wind energy is clean, this technology has environmental pitfalls. There is always a fair…
The financial services ‘reform’ mess
By J.C. Watts
During my service in Congress, whenever legislation was dubbed “reform” it was especially necessary to analyze the details and consequences. So it is with congressional passage of President Barack Obama’s financial services “reform”– the biggest expansion of government power over banks and private markets since the Great Depression.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the 2,300-page law– crafted by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.– requires no fewer than 243 new rules by 11 federal agencies. “A general attack on our free enterprise system,” is how a frustrated U.S. Chamber of Commerce describes the law that will make it tougher for consumers and small businesses to borrow money.
Critics have focused on the bill’s costs and how it may affect access to credit. They warned that forcing banks to raise more capital will crimp their ability to advance loans, or raise the cost of doing so; tougher derivatives rules could raise the cost of hedging for companies that use these instruments in daily operations. Again, as The Wall Street Journal reports, tougher consumer rules could further pinch credit — especially for people with lower incomes.
Business undermined by greedy politicians
By T.R. Fehrenbach
President Calvin Coolidge said that the business of America was business, for which he was castigated or ridiculed by the aboriginal American intelligentsia.
Coolidge was disdained because he didn’t do much in office, but few presidents did unless faced with wars, rebellion, or other crises.
But the fact is, old Cal was right. Business is the thing most Americans do best, even better than government.
Everything that we do well, after all, depends on American business. Good government, military power, employment, charity, standards of living and serving as refuge to failed societies depend on the health of American enterprise. As business goes, so goes the nation. This should be evident in recessions.
The majority of Americans work and therefore eat and pay taxes because they are involved in some sort of surplus-producing private business, from industry to sales to finance to science and agriculture. Enterprises such as charities, education, and government — non-profits in general — are utterly dependent on profit-making business for funding. You’d think people would grasp this when things get rough.
Recess missing one key demand from the Obama/Pelosi Led House
The one thing Obama seemed to pride himself on was that his legislative majority, especially in the house, was behind him. When ObamaCare was signed into law, it was called a triumph by many of the liberal Representatives who supported it. However, when it came to actually supporting it on their land via health-care town halls the left sang a completely different tune.
Obama should be pro-market, not pro-business
By James Pethokoukis
Should the Obamacrats be friendlier to Corporate America? Big Business has certainly amped up its kvetching of late. But it’s not Washington’s job to be pro-business and make nice with CEOs. That smells of crony capitalism and often just means rewarding big campaign contributors with government favors. The better measure of any given Washington policy is whether it respects markets.
To hear many U.S. CEOs tell it the nation’s free enterprise system, as they call it, is faltering. General Electric boss Jeff Immelt, a member of President Barack Obama’s economic advisory board, says government and business are “out of sync.” Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon and head of the Business Roundtable, complains that “by reaching into virtually every sector of economic life, government is injecting uncertainty into the marketplace and making it harder to raise capital and create new businesses.”
Obama’s Faith in Government Force
By David Harsanyi
With midterm elections approaching, President Barack Obama has gone on the charm offensive, claiming Republicans are demonstrating a “lack of faith in the American people.”
“Faith” often is defined as “having confidence or trust in a person or thing.” In this case, though, faith means adding another $35 billion in unemployment benefits to the infinite intergenerational tab — sometimes referred to as the budget — and mailing out as many checks as possible before Election Day.
Yet the jab is revealing in other ways. To begin with, what mysterious brand of public policy has Obama employed that exemplifies this sacred trust between public officials and the common citizen?
Why are We Suprised?
Just around MemoGate I was an aspiring reporter who was prepping for a career in investigative journalism. In my spare time, I had a political Internet radio program called The Conservative Watchdog. This was the only place I allowed my political views to surface, especially as a consistent stringer reporter and intern. While at a New York Conference, I raised my hand to ask about my program and how it could assist me in some way through political reporting, the responding “Journalism Expert” stated: “You could always work for Fox News.” An eruption of laughter filled the room.
I left journalism the next day and promptly changed my major to Political Science, never looking back.
Attacks on Freedom
By John Stossel
Something’s happened to America, and it isn’t good. It’s become easier to get into trouble. We’ve become a nation of a million rules. Not the kind of bottom-up rules that people generate through voluntary associations. Those are fine. I mean imposed, top-down rules formed in the brains of meddling bureaucrats who think they know better than we how to manage our lives.
Cross them, and we are in trouble. Read more
Conceived Overpopulation reason DDT Perished
Humans killing humans. It’s happened in the past, and will likely happen in the future. One of the most prolific baby-killing machines has been the banning of the man-made chemical [dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane]. Billions know it by its acronym—“DDT”.
