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True
North Archives - December 11, 2007
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Featured
Articles
Exempt
Property Not Subject to Property Tax
By Vermont State Representative
Rick Hube
There are almost 20 categories
of exempt property; everything from state, federal and municipal property
to agricultural property to property that is for public, private or charitable
purposes. Some of these properties are exempt by law, while others can
be granted an exemption by a vote on the local level. ... The issue of
exempt property is so thorny that the Legislature decided the best way
to deal with the issue in the late 1990s was to drop back 10 yards and
punt. In other words, the Legislature simply put off a decision by grandfathering
until 2007 all properties that were granted exemptions at the local level.
Well this "punt" must now be fielded; these properties are coming off their
"grandfathered" exemptions. ... As these properties come off their exemptions,
there are two options available. First, voters in the town can decide
to continue to exempt the property, which would add to the local tax burden
because that cost would no longer be passed on to all Vermont property
owners, but be picked up by the local grand list. Two, the entity that
is presently exempt would have to pay property taxes.
Socialist
Script
By Linus Leavens
The Burlington Free Press
has followed the script handed to them by Socialist activists. On
December 1, 2007, an Anti-War club at Mount Mansfield Union High School
conducted a protest at the Vermont National Guard recruitment office in
Williston, VT. just a day after trying to oust military recruiters at their
high school. The headlines "War protesters cited" & "High-schoolers
organized demonstration" appeared 12/1/07 along with photos of the event.
BFP reporters & photographers had recorded the events as they unfolded,
videotaping the protesters as they approached the recruitment office. Photos
& video were posted on the BFP web site.
Bobos
in Paradise
By Martin Harris
 If
the editor uses my headline suggestion for this column, it will read "Bobos
in Paradise". Even though I actually had a little hot-lead experience,
sitting at the multiple keyboards of a Linotype-machine a very long time
ago, I’m not a highly skilled journalism professional, but even I was able
to comprehend that my preferred headline "Nobody Here But Us Authentic
Vermonters, and We Wouldn’t Patronize No Starbucks" probably wouldn’t fit
into the assigned space. Therefore, I used the short phrase, invented by
author David Brooks, seven years ago, in his book describing upper-middle-class
"bourgeois bohemians" whom I have, in these same columns, frequently described
as the "gentry-left". These are the folks who, among their many and varied
other attributes and accomplishments, have vaulted top-end coffee retailer
Starbucks to unique levels of nationwide cachet, prominence and profitability.
They’ve come to Vermont with sufficient funds and in sufficient numbers
to be able to own and operate most of it, and have been using their very
considerable political and economic skills to change the governance template,
the basic economy, the tax structure, the sociological climate, even the
demographic structure, in ways which they are quite confident will keep
the State the paradise they migrated into in order to selflessly protect
and defend it from every sort of modernity except painless dentistry and
the monthly passive-income trust-funder or retiree paycheck.
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Quotables
"I mean, if we do Hillary-care
and socialized medicine in this country, where are the Canadians going
to go for health care?" ---Rudy Giuliani
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Vermont
Weekly News Round-Up
Christmas
Or The ACLU In Vermont Schools
Caledonian Record Editorial,
December 03, 2007
With Christmas three weeks
away, the annual political question of how to celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah
in Vermont's public schools has raised its annoying head once again. The
militant leftists and the PC chorus want every possible reference to religion
or religious traditions, no matter how remote or how painful the logic
in concluding that there is a religious connection, snuffed out. And that
includes not only the obvious symbols like Christmas trees and Christmas
carols, but also Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the Christmas
colors of Red and Green, kids exchanging holiday cards, and parties on
the last day before Christmas - whoops, winter vacation.
Related: Another
Twisted Christmas
But
It Could Never Happen Here
From VermontTiger.com, December
03, 2007
The state of Maine
experienced a power watch over the weekend because there's not enough
power in the regional grid. The Power company says:
"[There's] a capacity
deficiency, creating a need for Mainers to conserve electricity through
Sunday night. Consumers are being asked to reduce their electricity
use by shutting off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances and putting
off activities such as laundry and dishwashing."
We all know this could never
happen in Vermont because we have ample reserve capacity at Yankee.
However, we'd sure be in a pickle if Yankee ever went off line. This of
course has me a little concerned so I set
out to calculate what it would cost to install a home solar setup.
Unfortunately, the economics are still not in favor of small scale solar,
even with the generous state and federal subsidies. The system recommended
for my home had a 27.3 year payback assuming a $41/month in tax savings
from interest deductions. If this tax incentive is removed from the
mix, the system never reaches break even. However, I may still be
able to justify the system if I can come up with a way of quantifying the
political risk of climate change policies resulting in capacity problems
in the future.
Regulatory
Purgatory
From VermontTiger.comDecember
03, 2007
"Biggest perceived disadvantage
of operating a business in Vermont is the permitting process." This
is a quote from a ten year old O’Neal Group’s State sponsored research
report titled "Brand
Identity of Vermont as a Place to do Business" which found
that the business community widely agreed that our regulatory and permitting
requirements are unduly expensive, complicated and unpredictable.
Anger
Flares as 50 People Discuss State of Economy
By Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington
Free Press, December 6, 2007
When Tom Licata asked Vermonters
to join him to talk about Vermont's economy Wednesday night, he lit a fire
under some 50 people, many of them angry about government spending. ...
Licata laid out the pressures facing state government -- from a decrease
in federal support to crumbling roads at home. His comments did not align
with or against any political party, but he suggested the state is in a
financial bind that elected officials are not addressing.
In a petition to Gov. Jim
Douglas and the Legislature, he states: "Our unsustainable and oppressive
tax burdens need to be addressed with a comprehensive, Long-Term Economic
Plan."
Duncan Harvey of Essex Junction,
who has joined with Licata, said the economy must be elected leaders' main
focus when the Legislature convenes next month. "I'm really worried if
my grandchildren are going to be seventh-generation Vermonters," he said.
"When January comes around, I want the economy and my children's future
to be the No. 1 priority." ...
Many at the meeting said
Vermont needs to do more to make the state business-friendly. James Ehlers
of Colchester said the state doesn't offer businesses stability. He cited
Vermont Yankee, whose license to operate will soon be up for renewal but
which faces strong opposition from some in the state, as an example.
Vermont's
Challenge
From VermontTiger.com, December
06, 2007
As a society, we have yet
to find a substitute for profitability. Without it, there is no economy.
We can debate at what level profitability is acceptable, or at what level
it should be taxed, or where these profits are best invested. But we can’t
debate the fact that profitability is at the center of what allows us to
survive, or what provides us our quality of life, or what underlies our
basic levels of freedom.
The challenge in Vermont
is that we confuse one set of issues with another and, in the process,
thwart our ability to make any substantive progress where it is most important,
namely to provide solid employment opportunities for today’s Vermonters,
and for those a generation from now.
The assumption is made that
where there is growth there is opportunity. That’s true, in the broadest
sense of the term. But those who create jobs look for the environment that
produces the best return on their investment. In a global economy, that
competition is fierce.
Why
Education Can’t Study Itself
From VermontTiger.com, December
07, 2007
As a body of work, education
research is not held to the scholarly standards of, say, psychology research.
And often it contradicts psychology research.
Education bureaucracy has
been studied in recent years, and I’ve been an eager consumer of that research.
This research points to data that indicates that bureaucracy hurts student
achievement. But, of course, this research doesn’t come from the education
"experts." It comes from the field of public administration.
This doesn't, of course,
mean that there aren't some smart people in the field of education who
have their hearts in the right place. But they have to be careful.
As I pointed out in another post, Professor Giangreco, who has been studying
the overuse of instructional paraprofessionals, has had to be careful to
say his ideas are "cost-neutral."
No intelligent consumer of
research should ever accept education research without careful inspection.
And I’m guessing there are some intelligent consumers of research who visit
this site.
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Freedom
Under Fire:
The
Global War on Terrorism
Nukes,
Terrorists, and the Nation-State Connection
By Douglas Hanson, The American
Thinker, December 04, 2007
While Pakistan is teetering
on
the brink of a massive political upheaval, the question on everybody's
mind is what will happen to the country's nukes? The big fear is
that fissile materials or a complete weapon will somehow end up in
the hands of Al-Qaeda (AQ) or some other radical group.
Jihadis
Post Scenario for the Defeat of the United States
By Abdul Hameed Bakier &
Erich Marquardt, The Jamestown Foundation
On May 14, jihadi forum users
Abu Kandahar and Roslan al-Shami posted a five-point scenario for the collapse
of the United States and the rise of the Islamic ummah, entitled, "The
Next Strikes in the Heart of America, When and How." It appeared on the
al-ommh.net forum, although at least one other jihadi forum, alhanein.com,
reposted the scenario. The posting outlines a scenario for attacking the
United States, although the sheer size of the operation suggests that it
is jihadi propaganda and not an actual plan that could be operationalized.
The alleged operation is dedicated to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of
the Islamic State of Iraq.
The
Brittle Culture of Islam
By Robert Spencer, Human
Events, December 02, 2007
The insightful Flemish journalist
Paul Belien observed
last year, when Muslims were rioting over the Pope’s quoting the 600-year-old
words of an obscure emperor: "If a person is incapable of tolerating criticism,
including mild criticism, and especially if he perceives criticism where
there is none, this is often a sign of this person’s deep psychological
insecurity. Rude aggression and wild rage, too, are usually not the normal
behaviour of a self-confident person, but rather of someone who knows that
he will lose an argument unless he can bully others into silence….It looks
as if Muslims cannot cope with an open society and the modern globalized
world."
Security,
Economy in Iraq Improving From Local Level Up
By Jim Garamone, American
Forces Press Service
A focus on security in local
areas has brought about an improvement in security throughout Iraq, and
officials believe the country’s economy needs to follow a similar track,
a Defense Department business transformation official said. "The security
progress we’ve made in Iraq is because of our realization that everything
in Iraq is local," Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary for business
transformation, said in an interview. Brinkley leads the Task Force for
Business and Stability Operations in Iraq. And the security situation is
improving. Attacks throughout the country are down, Multinational Force
Iraq officials have said. Brinkley said the improvement was like someone
flipped a switch. "I would never have forecast in September this suddenness
of normal," he said.
The
Key Question about the NIE's Key Judgment
By Herbert E. Meyer, The
American Thinker, December 05, 2007
In the Intelligence business,
you get paid for just one thing: to be right. So here's the key question
about the Key Judgment of the National Intelligence Council's new National
Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear intentions and capabilities: Is
this judgment supported by the evidence? The judgment that's stirring
up all the controversy -- and it's a real shocker -- comes in the very
first sentence: We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran
halted its nuclear weapons program. The judgment is astonishing
for two reasons. First, it flies in the face of virtually everything
we know - or thought we knew -- about the Iranian regime, its capabilities
and its intentions. Second, If the new Key Judgment is correct it
means that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program fully two years
before publication of the National Intelligence Council's 2005 Estimate
on this same subject, which concluded "with high confidence" that Iran
"currently is determined to develop nuclear weapons."
Related: Doesn't
Iran Matter?
By James Taranto, WSJ Opinion
Journal, December 4, 2007
Here's what troubles us about
the report, though: If one can have high confidence in the NIE findings,
then those findings are good news for America..... But we haven't seen
anyone celebrating the NIE as good news for America. The people who profess
to believe it all seem to view it as a partisan document, a weapon to be
used in their battle against the Bush administration.
Al
Qaeda is finished in Iraq: From the Horse's Mouth
By Clarice Feldman, The
American Thinker, December 05, 2007
In his speech released yesterday
Abou Omar Al Baghdadi the supposed leader of the Islamic State in Iraq
which is Al Qaeda in Iraq said that only two hundered Mohajeroon are
left in Iraq. Mohajeroon which means immigrants in Arabic are the foreign
terrorists who came to fight in Iraq. This is yet the most stunning admission
by Al Qaeda in Iraq that they are totally destroyed and from the tens of
thousands of foreign terrorists they had, almost all of them are killed
and captured and only two hundreds are left.
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From
Elsewhere
Economic
Freedom of the World: 2007 Annual Report (pdf)
Nations that are economically
free out-perform non-free nations in indicators of well-being
The Cato Institute
Nations in the top quartile
of economic freedom have an average per-capita GDP of US$26,013, compared
to US$3,305 for those nations in the bottom quartile (exhibit 1.6).
The top quartile has an average
per-capita economic growth rate of 2.25%, compared to 0.35% for the bottom
quartile (exhibit 1.7).
In nations of the top quartile,
the average income of the poorest 10% of the population is US$7,334, compared
to $905 for those in the bottom quartile (exhibit 1.10).
Life expectancy is 78.7 years
in the top quartile but 56.7 years in the bottom quartile (exhibit 1.11).
Nations in the top quartile
of economic freedom have an average score of 1.8 for political rights on
a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 marks the highest level, while those in the
bottom quartile have an average score of 4.4 (exhibit 1.18).
Nations in the top quartile
of economic freedom have an average score of 1.7 for civil liberties on
a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 marks the highest level, while those in the
bottom quartile have an average score of 4.1 (exhibit 1.18).
Nations in the top quartile
of economic freedom have an average score of 81.0 (out of 100) for environmental
performance, while those in the bottom quartile have an average score of
58.9 (exhibit 1.19)..
Ron
Paul: He Won't Win the Presidency, But...
By Michael D. Tanner The
Cato Institute
Most of the current Republican
candidates fall squarely into the big-government camp. Former Massachusetts
Gov. Mitt Romney imposed a Hillary Clinton-style health plan in his state
and not only supports No Child Left Behind but calls for the federal government
to buy a laptop computer for every child born in America. He thinks we
should increase farm price supports.
John McCain has an admirable
record as a fiscal conservative, but he shows a disturbing predilection
for making a federal issue of every personal pet peeve from steroids in
baseball to airplane service quality. He embraces heavily regulatory environmental
policies that hurt businesses and cost jobs, such as expanding the Clean
Water and Clean Air acts and implementing the Kyoto Protocols, and compulsory
national service. More important, he is also the principal author of a
campaign finance bill that severely restricts political speech.
Rudy Giuliani's record on
civil liberties suggests he views the Constitution as an afterthought.
Fred Thompson talks a good
game, but his record suggests he is closer to McCain-lite.
Mike Huckabee may be an even
bigger spender than President Bush, and he never met a tax increase he
didn't like.
Thus, when Ron Paul talks
about returning to limited constitutional government, a great many Republican
primary voters sit up and take notice. For voters hungering for a return
to the party of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan rather than the party
of George W. Bush, Paul's rhetoric is a breath of fresh air.
No, Rep. Paul is not likely
to be our next president. But he is delivering a message that the other
candidates would do well to heed. Is anyone listening?
The
Roots of Revolution
By Reginald Firehammer,
The Automist
In the opening article to
this series, "Marxist
Revolution of the West," I explained that the revolution
that has all but destroyed Western civilization, and is in its final stages
in every aspect of Western society and culture, though explicitly planned
and initiated by avowed Marxists, it was contributions of other individuals,
movements, and institutions that made it possible for the revolution to
be so spectacularly pulled off. The interrelationships between these various
contributors to the revolution is very complex. There are six major threads
of influence which I have identified and in terms of which all the complexity
of that revolution can be explained.
Six Anti-Western Anti-civilizing
Threads: The six threads are: 1. Cultural Marxism; 2. Post Modernism;
3. Psychology; 4. Sociology; 5. Education; and 6. Humanism.
The
Other Hsu Drops
By Rick Moran, The American
Thinker, December 05, 2007
Hillary Clinton fundraiser
and major league con man Norman Hsu has been indicted
in New York: ... Hsu has been charged with 6 counts of mail fraud,
6 counts of wire fraud, and 3 counts of violating FEC laws. Will he sing
in exchange for a lighter sentence? I'll bet there are more than a few
Democrats sweating out that question as we move toward trial.
Related: Clinton
Rolls a Sizable Pork Barrel
The senator embraces
'earmarks' ... received campaign funds from project beneficiaries.
Redefining
Conservatism
Mike Huckabee is far
from being Reagan's heir.
By Kimberley A. Strassel,The
Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2007
If Mr. Huckabee does turn
out to be everything Republicans "want" or "need" in a conservative, it
will only be because the definition of a conservative has morphed to include
tax hiking, protectionism, corporate scolding and an unserious approach
to foreign policy.
Romney:
Religious Liberty versus Establishment
By Amy D. Goldstein, The
American Thinker, December 07, 2007
Reaching above the heads
of the media and past political pundits, Mitt Romney spoke to the heart
of the American people - reminding us that the very basis for the creation
of the United States was religious freedom and highlighting the tolerance
that this country finally achieved during the struggle for independence.
Another
Twisted Christmas
By L. Brent Bozell, Media
Research Center, December 10, 2007
The Christmas season is upon
us, which means it's that special time of year for the American Civil Liberties
Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to make
sure no wayward city council will allow a whiff of frankincense on government
property. They must send out direct-mail fundraising letters asking "Help
Us Crush a Creche at Christmas!"
John
McCain Urges Rejection of MoveOn.Org Filibuster
By John McCain, December
10, 2007
U.S. Senator John McCain
today sent the following letter to Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd and Obama
urging them to reject MoveOn.org's campaign to block funding for our troops
and their mission in Iraq...
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