| . |
True
North Archives - January 19, 2010
Radio
| Editorial | News & Views
Radio
Archives
Radio
archives are here! Use the controls on our radio archive page to
listen to past shows of note (archived shows are available for a limited
time only). True North Radio airs daily on WDEV AM & WDEV FM from 11
am to noon.
Featured
Articles
Political
Leaders Lack an Understanding of Government‘s Role
By Tom Licata
Palpable was not only a
lack of economic urgency by Committee members, but a lack of understanding
government‘s role. It is with this back drop that I decided to testify
at the January 12 Joint House Hearing on Health Care Reform. Here
is that testimony...
Albany’s
Covert Agenda: Theory? No. Question? Yes.
By Martin Harris
 For
reasons going back to Vermont’s 18th century origins as an illegal liberty-and-property-focused
secession from New Hampshire on its right (map-wise and politics-wise)
, and New York on its left, (likewise) Vermont has no control over the
bridges which connect it to those States. That shrinks liability for maintenance
expense, but it grows vulnerability to policy decisions made elsewhere,
like the one in Albany which has just imploded the 80-year-old Lake Champlain
Bridge into the liquid domain of the famed plesiosaur lurking below. The
demolition came as quite a surprise to both Champ and the several hundred
New York State residents who had been commuting to jobs in Vermont. The
shutdown recommendation came in October; a supporting "study" in
November, demolition in December, and replacement with a similar two-lane
design and restored vehicle usage is promised for the summer of 2011.
Climate
Scandal Won't Go Away
By Linus Leavens
Career atmospheric scientists
who have dared to question the almighty environmental elite were accused
of taking money from big oil companies & called "deniers". One in particular
was said to have received $10,000 from Exxon-Mobil. Shocking? Not really.
Never once did we hear about the $22,600,000 that CRU- East Anglia received
from Shell Oil, BP, the Sultanate of Oman, the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace,
the US Dept. of Energy (DOE), & the US Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) for "Climate Research".
# # #
Quotable
"We know two
thousand pages of 'gov-speak' is one of the largest compendiums of bribes,
favors and pork ever devised. We know that in all two thousand pages, there's
not a single word about tort reform because the Democratic party is owned
by the trial lawyers. We know the overwhelming majority of Congress won't
even bother to read the bill before voting on it. And above all, we know
the very same people who are foisting this boondoggle on the rest of us
will never be subjected to its mandates, because they have their own Rolls
Royce health care coverage. ... 2010 can't come soon enough." --columnist
Arnold Ahlert
# # #
Vermont
Weekly News Round-Up
Shumlin's
Arrogance More Than Vermont Can Afford
Caledonia Record Editorial,
January 16, 2010
The Democratic leadership
in the General Assembly apparently has learned nothing from the debacle
of the Democratic non-leadership in Washington this year. They have learned
nothing from pushing stuff the American voters want no part of. Senate
President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin has allowed and endorsed the Senate Finance
Committee to be composed of all Democrats and no Republicans on the basis
that there are many Democrats who have waited a long time to be on that
committee, and that disallows any Republicans from being seated on it.
Tightening
the Noose
By Art Woolf, Vermont Tiger,
January 14, 2010
The state is facing a $150
million deficit in FY11 and, if our legislators don't do anything to fix
the problem, even
larger deficits for the following three years. Then we fall
off a cliff (actually, no one forecasts farther out than FY14).
Education
Spiral and the Myth of Local Control
From the Valley News, January
17, 2010
Since 1997, school staffing
levels in Vermont have increased by 23 percent, while the student population
has declined by 11.5 percent. Given that personnel costs account for 80
percent of total school spending, the governor says, it's no wonder that
Vermont's K-12 system is among the most expensive in the country at $14,000
per student per year. School governance is fragmented among 290 separate
school districts -- one for every 312 students -- 63 supervisory bodies
and a state Board of Education. The opaque school funding system created
by Act 60 and its successor, Act 68, has severed the link between local
spending and tax burdens because, as Douglas says, income-sensitivity provisions
have been expanded beyond the low-income people they were originally intended
to protect to become a middle-class entitlement. The governor says 6,000
Vermonters living in homes valued at more than $400,000 are receiving education-property-tax
subsidies, including 136 living in million dollar homes. Seventy percent
of Vermonters are shielded from the full impact of education spending decisions,
Douglas says, with the result that local control of education, a cherished
tradition in Vermont, is further eroded.
Green
Math
By Daniel Foty, Vermont
Tiger, January 14, 2010
It was all rather simple:
All the Wilsons had to
do, in order to earn that $17.20, was invest $58,000 in a new solar power
system for their home. "
Yep, piece of cake.
Readers can feel free to
do the math on what it will take to recoup that "investment."
Actually, if you follow the
link, you'll see that you (yes, you, dear reader) are actually
part of this. Most of the cost ($36,000) is being covered by state
and federal subsidies.
Mind
Your Own Business Schools
Caledonia Record Editorial,
January 14, 2010
It is a sterling business
principle that you should not be in, or get into, a business that you aren't
in. With the current flap over unsafe foods being served nationally in
schools, it seems timely to state that schools should not be in any business
that isn't about teaching kids. Schools should not be in the food service
business, the property management business, the janitorial business, or
the transportation business. Private companies can do every one of these
services more efficiently and cheaper.
It's
About the Children...
Whether they exist
or not.
By Geoffrey Norman Vermont
Tiger, January 14, 2010
That we are assessed money
to pay for non-existent kids is established, conclusively, by Hugh Kemper
in his latest
adventure spelunking down the fathomless cave of Vermont's
education funding system. Though to call it a "system" is to assign
it vastly more order than it deserves. It is a labyrinth. A
hall of mirrors. Anything but a system. Act 60/68 is no more
understandable to the average citizen/taxpayer than the disclaimer at the
bottom of that Microsoft program you are trying to install on your computer.
And it was designed to be that way.
Parents
Turn into Activists
Changes Sought in
Math Curriculum in Charlotte.
By Molly Walsh, Burlington
Free Press, January 17, 2010
Janssen-Heininger has learned
as much about math as she has about the touchy role of publicly calling
for changes at her children's school. It's very uncomfortable, she said,
even for a seasoned public speaker....
School officials should listen
and involve parents, but the final decisions should be driven by educators,
[Superintendent] Pinckney suggested.
# # #
Freedom
Under Fire:
The
Global War on Terrorism
Obama's
Next Three Years
By John Bolton, Middle East
Commentary, January 2010
Barack Obama’s blueprint
for the United States spells trouble for American autonomy, self-governance,
and defense, all key elements of national sovereignty. His undisguised
indifference to repeated diminutions of that sovereignty is entirely consistent
with the views of his European admirers, who, at their level, would like
to see their nation-states dissolve into the European Union. In the end,
however, the United States is exceptional and will not melt into any larger
or global union; it will simply become less able to protect itself and
its constitutional decision-making system. That is clearly where our first
post-American president’s policies will take us.
Steven
Emerson: Combating Radical Islam - Defeating Jihadist Terrorism
By George Michael, Middle
East Quarterly, Winter 2010
Emerson believes that the
Islamist movement in the West continues to strengthen, in large part due
to what he refers to as the "cultural jihad," which provides a congenial
environment in which Islamists can flourish. He cites survey data indicating
that many Muslim communities in the West sympathize with aspects of the
Islamist worldview. These cultural jihadists in turn give moral support
to the terrorists. In Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, the
French scholar Olivier Roy argues that Muslims in the West often experience
a
trauma of "deterritorialization" because they feel estranged from their
native lands. To overcome anomie and alienation, young Muslims find solace
in a new, purified Islam and attach themselves to a "virtual ummah [Islamic
nation]" built by them on the Internet. This pool of mostly young, alienated,
Muslim men provides a reservoir from which Islamists can recruit in the
West.
North
Korean Money Troubles
Kim
Jong Il's currency revaluation is on the verge of sparking a hyperinflation.
From The Wall Street Journal,
January 11, 2010
The past month has seen an
extraordinary spectacle in North Korea: the failure of a hastily announced
"currency reform" and the subsequent collapse of the won, the official
domestic currency. These developments are of more than numismatic interest.
Pyongyang's currency move marks the end of an era of hesitant economic
experimentation and ushers in a new era of greater economic, and perhaps
political, uncertainties.
Islam
and the West: 'Overlapping Consensus' or Capitulation?
By Janet Doerflinger, American
Thinker, January 12, 2010
Andrew March's position is
that the West should submit. His nihilistic call for the abolition of civil
marriage and his heedless disregard for the foundational values of the
university allow us to view through a magnifying glass, as it were, the
curious contortions by which the far left allies itself with uber-conservative
Islam. Ironically, his approach is not helpful to European Muslims. U.K.
journalist Melanie
Phillips has noted how abandoning traditional British religious
and cultural values, as March advocates, has contributed to the difficulties
of assimilating the Muslim minority in her country. After all, you can't
trump something with nothing.
The
P5+1 meets on Iran: No agreement on sanctions
By Laura Rosen, The Politico,
January 16, 2010
Pledging unity, the U.S.,
UK, France, Germany, Russia and China met for over two hours in New York
this afternoon on Iran. But with China declining to send its political
director to the meeting, sending its representative to the United Nations
instead, there's no
consensus yet on further measures to pressure Iran to accept
a nuclear deal.
What
Google's Threat to Pull Out of China Really Means
From Seeking Alpha,January
5, 2010
These developments raise
two possibilities I did not previously entertain. The first is that Google
has the unique size, visibility, and prestige to really play hardball with
China, and that turning its censorship filters off and on again was a way
to send a message to China that it is willing to hit the "nuclear" button,
but is open to talking. The second is that the Chinese government is not
completely unified on this issue, that the elements that (allegedly) attacked
Google have created an unwelcome mess for other elements concerned that
China's business reputation would be damaged if Google picks up its toys
and goes home. It is quite possible that both scenarios are true, or neither.
The story unfolds ... and is well worth monitoring closely. How it plays
out will shape business-government relations in China in significant ways.
# # #
|
From
Elsewhere
Primary
United States Climate Centers Now Caught in Data Manipulation
New Revelations Headlined
on TV Climate Special
KUSI News, San Diego, January
14, 2010
It has been revealed that
a "sleight of hand" was used in the computer program that rated 2005 as
"THE WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD." Skeptical climate researchers have discovered
extensive manipulation of the data within the U.S. Government's two primary
climate centers: the National Climate Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville,
North Carolina and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)
at Columbia University in New York City. These centers are being accused
of creating a strong bias toward warmer temperatures through a system that
dramatically trimmed the number and cherry-picked the locations of weather
observation stations they use to produce the data set on which temperature
record reports are based. The two investigators say the system has been
distorted in other ways as well. They have documented their findings in
great detail in a scientific report that has been posted online. These
findings are presented as a part of my television special report "Global
Warming: The Other Side" telecast Thursday night, January 14th at 9 PM
here on KUSI TV.
Related Article: Climategate
Scientist Received Over Half A Million From Obama Stimulus Package
A
Dollar Crisis?
From Investor’s Business
Daily January 15, 2010
Recession: As federal spending
and debt soar to new highs, many economists have alarmingly concluded that
the dollar will soon collapse and take the economy with it. But that scenario
is far from inevitable.
$222
Billion, Ho Hum
Another warning that
reform 'bends the cost curve'—up.
Wall Street Journal Editorial,
January 12, 2010
Among the astonishing things
about the ObamaCare debate—or lack thereof—is that Washington is inundated
with warnings about the destructiveness of this plan, and it doesn't matter.
The agency that runs Medicare rung the latest alarm bell on Friday, and
good luck finding any media mention.
Nelson's
Ad Short on Facts?
By Grace-Marie Turner, Omaha
World-Herald, January 10, 2010
Sen. Nelson tells Nebraskans
the bill "lowers costs for families and small businesses, protects Medicare
. . . and reduces the deficit. And it’s not run by the government."
In fact, polls show that
a strong majority of Americans surveyed, including a majority of Nebraskans
polled, oppose this health bill because they understand what independent
experts have confirmed: The legislation would increase health insurance
premiums for tens of millions of people, jeopardize access to care for
many seniors, burden future generations with trillions of dollars of new
debt and entrust government — not patients and doctors — with control over
many personal health care decisions.
Is
China Really Growing That Fast?
From Investor’s Business
Daily, January 11, 2010
Competitiveness: A spate
of new reports show China leapfrogging other nations on its way to economic
superpower status. Time to concede the global economic lead to the world's
most populous nation? Hardly.
Hungarian
Physicist Dr. Ferenc Miskolczi proves CO2 emissions irrelevant in Earth’s
Climate
By Dianna Cotter, The Examiner,
January 12, 2010
For years now, we have been
told that science is dedicatedly attempting to find out how the Earth’s
Climate works. With all possible seriousness, the most publically vocal
of these scientists, those working for the UN’s
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), have for
the last several years blamed the warming they "found" on Carbon Dioxide.
With the release of the CRU
(Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia) email
database, it is very clearly apparent that the scientists
involved with the IPCC were doctoring data to give a specific result. That
result was designed to look as if CO2 was causing climate change, warming
the earth due to Human activities. It can be reported now that this theory
has been solidly disproven by Dr. Ferenc Miskolczi and Dr. Miskolczi’s
work will make history.
Labor's
$60 Billion Payoff
A health tax that
hits everyone except the Democratic base.
Wall Street Journal Editorial,
January 17, 2010
Democrats seem impervious
to embarrassment as they buy votes for ObamaCare, but their latest move
makes even Nebraska's Ben Nelson look cheap: The 87% of Americans who don't
belong to a union will now foot the bill for a $60 billion giveaway to
those who do. ... Democrats wouldn't have to pay these partisan bribes
had they chosen to write a less radical bill that could attract Republican
votes.
# # #
|
