Lee Enterprises is in trouble.  It is based in Davenport, IA.  It publishes newspapers.  Its stock sold at $14 per share a year ago and closed recently at $0.41 per share.  It may not be able to continue its operations. 

So what.

We hear about the newspaper industry over and over it seems.  And virtually none of the news is good.  We are shifting our news gathering efforts and the results are that the news gets worse instead of better for newspapers, in general.  Now we learn about a relatively obscure company, to many at least, that is in the same fix in which many newspaper publishing companies find themselves.

So what.

Lee Enterprises has a big footprint in Wisconsin.  It owns half of Madison Newspapers Inc. and that means it impacts the Capital Times and The Wisconsin State Journal, the Daily Citizen in Beaver Dam, the Baraboo News Republic, and the Portage Daily Register.  It owns the La Crosse Tribune.  It owns the The Chippewa Herald in Chippewa Falls and The Journal Times in Racine.  It owns the Dunn County News in Menomonie, the Coulee News in West Salem, the Houston County News in neighboring La Crescent, MN and the Winona Daily News in neighboring Winona, MN.  It owns the Jackson County Chronicle in Black River Falls, The Chronicle in Melrose, the Onalaska/Holmen Courier-Life News, the Tomah Journal and Monitor Herald, the Vernon County Broadcaster in my old hometown of Viroqua, and the Westby Times.  It owns the Juneau County Star-Times in Mauston, and the Reedsburg Times-Press, and the Sauk Prairie Eagle in Sauk City.  It prints and distributes over 1,200,000 copies of various weekly and monthly publications featuring local advertising, homes for sale, vehicles for sale, and on and on.

This company in Davenport, IA has a tremendous footprint in our state and neighboring areas, and it could be on its way out of existence.

I know many people who value their weekly newspapers, and their 'shoppers' for they have received these pieces week in and week out for longer than they can remember, or they have plucked them off the 'free' stands at the supermarket or in the gas station.  Our family still subscribes to the Vernon County Broadcaster since we still have friends and relatives in that area and can stay somewhat in touch with their worlds in that manner.

We read the stories of failing newsprint-based organizations and don't think much about the impact their failure could have beyond the loss that would represent to employees and families and stockholders.  That loss is not to be diminished but it doesn't necessarily have a face.

This potential loss of a publishing company has a face, at least for me, and I know for hundreds of thousands of people where I grew up.  We are witness to a dramatic change in our country and the world from which some will never recover because they're not sufficiently tech savvy.

That's so what.

Obama Smoking 'Issue'...

I continue to see little references to the fact that President-Elect Barack Obama has the occasional cigarette, and musings about whether or not he will or even should quit that nasty habit.  (I can say that because I did smoke cigarettes... a lot...and quit many years ago.)

I am amused that these musings probably come from people who were and are adamantly opposed to smoking but who are now being 'forced' to make excuses for the person they favored in the recent election.  Some of the musings have been nothing short of farcical including the comments that he might well make better decisions if he can smoke a cigarette while pondering the weighty issues of the office he occupies come January 20th.

Will this slow the inexorable tide to rid our nation of any and all cigarettes and all other tobacco products, to close any business that has the audacity to think it is a private entity entitled to make decisions as to the customers it will serve, to outlaw all public use of a lawful agricultural product?  I suspect not.

Does anyone detect any hypocrisy?  Does it matter to anyone?  Is this the sound of one hand clapping? 

~~~

More Scientists Join Global Warming Dissenters...

Dr. Will Happer, award winning Princeton University Physicist says, "I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken."  Happer, who was fired by former Vice President Al Gore in 1993, said of that incident, "I was told that science was not going to intrude on policy."

Additional dissenting scientists include:

• Dr. W.M. Schaffer, Ph.D. who is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona - Tucson.
• CNN Meteorologist Chad Meyers, a meteorologist for 22 years and certified by the American Meteorological Society.
• Engineer and Physicist J.K. "Jim" August, formerly of the U.S.Navy nuclear power program and former chair of professional standard committees in both the American Nuclear Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.
• Biologist and Neuropharmacologist Dr. Doug Pettibone who has authored 120 scientific publications and holds ten patents and is a past member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Meteorologist Tom Wysmuller, former weather forecaster at Amsterdam's Royal Dutch Weather Bureau.
• MIT Scientist Dr. Robert Rose, a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT with approximately fifty years of teaching experience.
• Climate researcher Dr. Craig Loehle with the National Council for Air and Stream Improvements and who has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers.
• German Meteorologist Dr. Gerd-Rainer Weber, a Consulting Meteorologist.
• Atmospheric Scientist Robert L. Scotto, who has more than 30 years air quality consulting experience and a past member of the American Meteorological Society.
• Atmospheric Scientist Timothy R. Minnich who has more than thirty years experience in the design and management of a wide range of air quality investigations for industry and government.

The story line of a "consensus agreement" is simply not true as we have come to understand with the more than 650 dissenters who have now made themselves and their views known.  Those who are pushing for rapid adoption of the so-called "consensus" are doing so for fear they are being disproved more with every passing day.  They cannot afford to answer the criticisms since they're hypothesis is riddled with error.

Is there any real need to rush to judgment?  Or is this more a contrived need with those pushing the global warming issue recognizing that once unleashed, the movement will go on and on and on regardless of the validity of the movement.  These things take on a life of their own as we have seen in any number of previous government-backed programs, without regard for facts.

This debate is far too important and far too costly for us to make an incorrect judgment.  We will literally ruin the economy of the United States if this is permitted to take root, and we're already sliding down a very slippery slope created by other government meddling where well enough should've been left to be.

The use of the term "debate" is really a reach since there has been only a one-sided diatribe to date; there has been no true debate. 

There is debate over whether or not the "trickle-down" theory of economics functions as advertised.  I have a friend whom we'll refer to as John Jones for the purposes of this Blog since he prefers to remain anonymous.  He feels that he can attest to the fact that "trickle-down" is alive and well.

John Jones is a small business owner.  He is a professional and sells his services to clients.  That process often finds him traveling and sometimes traveling for several weeks at a time.  This creates, as you can imagine, some pretty hefty travel bills by the time flights, hotels and meals are all totaled up.

John has been a user of his American Express card in good standing for many years, and has had no need for a second card.  The typical AMEX card, as you may know, is not really a credit card in that it requires full payment by the due date that shows on each and every billing statement.  American Express is known to not be very understanding when one misses that due date, so John Jones has been quite meticulous about being sure his payment has been made on a timely basis.  John's card was set at a maximum amount of $10,000 and that had worked well for John over the many years he has been using it.

John tried to use his AMEX card a few weeks ago and was shocked to learn that his card was declined.  Fortunately, this usage occurred at a gas station and he had sufficient cash to pay for the gasoline.  When he called the American Express customer service group, he indicated that his card was well within the limits set by AMEX and that he was within the time period (set by them) for his payment to have been made.

He was even more shocked to learn that his $10,000 card limit had been arbitrarily lowered to $2,000.  He hadn't been notified of this and told them so.  They said that their company policy recently (apparently for about a year) has been to review all accounts and to re-establish credit limits based on the analysis of patterns of use.  Since his card had typically not been at the amount he was carrying at the time, they had decided he didn't need the $10,000 limit, so they thought they'd lower it.  In effect, AMEX was trying to protect itself since it's customers have been getting slower at paying as the economy sours, and AMEX was simply cutting future losses by limiting card exposure one customer at a time.

As stated earlier, John Jones is a small business person and isn't made of money.  He is accustomed to paying his bills and most of his clients are accustomed to paying their bills.  But, they take the full 30 days and sometimes a little more.  As the economy tightens, they are likely to take 45 days or maybe even 60 days.  Some may falter and have to go through the process of bankruptcy.

So, John is now faced with having to make some decisions.  He may need more capital put into his company.  He may need to tighten his credit terms.  He may need to insist on prepayment of some engagements if those are going to be extensive and sure to cost much more than the $2,000 limit, etc. 

John's clients may tell him that they'll find another professional with similar credentials to handle their business.  They may simply use his services much less than today.  This is representative of the "trickle-down" theory of economics, and it really has an impact on each of us whether or not we recognize that. 

We're not crying huge tears for John.  He's a big boy and he knows how the world works.  But, I thought it very interesting to hypothesize about what I would've felt in a similar situation.  What would happen if you or I were traveling on an extended trip only to learn that we can't get a hotel room in New York or Los Angeles or where ever?  Remember that hotels reserve a portion of your credit line for the costs they expect you might run up when you check in or even when you make your reservation, if in the near-term.  What would have happened if a large meal for several members of the client firm had been consumed and then you learned you couldn't cover the cost?  How embarrassing!  And, would that client have remained a client?

I'll be sure to review my credit limit on each monthly AMEX bill since I'm also a user.  I'll try to be sure I have some other alternative 'plastic' just in case.  And I'll continue to try to pay my bills on a timely basis even as the economy softens.

And, I'll continue to be a firm believer in "trickle-down" economics...at least on the ill effects of "trickle-down" economics.

Two different classroom experiences in the past two days have convinced me that I am too naive for my own good.

~~~~~~~~~~

I've shared that I am involved in this year's class of the Germantown Citizen Police Academy.  Our session on Wednesday evening concerned drugs, and I came away from that class shocked at what I had seen.  I do not want to be alarmist, but we have a problem here in the Germantown area as do virtually all communities across Wisconsin.  The class presented was a very shortened version of one that is delivered by Cpl. Dan Delmore to officers in our department as well as in departments requesting his services.

We saw graphic evidence of what people use, how they use it, and what the consequences of that use are for those people.  There are, obviously, consequences for citizens, in general, since these habits have to be supported...and that results in crimes.  I was very surprised at the things that are common in grocery stores and gas stations and other retail outlets that can and are being used in an abusive manner by students as well as adults.  As I said, I was too naive for my own good.

I have raised my children long ago, and I am happy that this was the case.  It was much less threatening then than it is today.  If I were raising children today, I would, knowing what I now know, be very active in my supervision of their activities while trying to not be too controlling, of course.  That is a difficult line to walk, and I'm sure it is fraught with hurt feelings and anger as our children make their ways into adulthood.  But, it is something that needs be monitored.  It is something that needs be discussed with the children so that there is an awareness.

The D.A.R.E program that Officer Ray Borden is involved with is a big step in the right direction.  The School Officer program is a big step in the right direction.  But those, in and of themselves, are insufficient.  Us parents have to be involved, and that has to be happening on a 24/7/365 basis.

~~~~~~~~~~

The second class experience was yesterday during a continuing education course that is required for me for a state license I hold.  We listened to an Investigator and an Assistant District Attorney from the Waukesha DA's office discuss the issue of identity theft.  They shed light on a murky area that I knew existed but about which I was ill-informed.

According to their information, over 700,000 people are affected by identity theft every year in the United States.  The five common types of identity theft include:

• Driver's License
• Social Security Number
• Medical Information
• Character and/or Criminal
• Financial

Identity theft is a felony in Wisconsin and is vigorously prosecuted whenever possible.  We heard of people who have had second mortgages made on their own dwelling and who were unaware of that until they were hit with legal action because the bad guy was no longer paying the monthly amounts due.  This case involved something beyond $20,000.

Others have been the subject of arrest warrants for things done by people using their identities.  Others have seen their credit ratings destroyed by multiple credit card accounts that were opened and then never paid after large amounts were run up by the bad guys.

One of the things that hit me was the fact that there are people who do nothing but cruise neighborhoods every day filching mail from mailboxes looking for paper checks being mailed to the resident, or gathering all the 'pre-approved' credit card applications, or watching for the red flag to be raised indicating that there might be a bill payment sitting there with all the bank and checking account information.

Phishing scams are designed to gather private information to be used illegally.  Those are most often tied to the Internet, but some can be done by telephone, too.  Credit card numbers are available to employees in retail establishments or may be part of the junk tossed into a dumpster.  Dumpster diving is often employed by identity thieves.

Some of their suggestions were:

• never give your credit card to the waiter or waitress and instead take the bill to the cashier.
• never use the mailbox outside your house to mail outbound items.
• maintain a credit card with a minimal credit limit for use in Internet transactions.
• check your credit card balances and transactions several times monthly over the Internet to catch irregular items as quickly as possible.
• always cover or conceal items being left in your vehicle and lock the vehicle.

The one thing that hit me between the eyes was the fact that they see more identity theft being perpetrated by a relative of the victim than any other single cause.  I wondered if some of those thefts were as the result of the relative having a drug habit needing to be supported?

~~~~~~~~~~

As you can see, I was plainly too naive for my own good.  I hope you aren't.

There is an excellent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning written by Fay Vincent, former baseball commissioner.  He discusses his earlier experiences while working in the Securities and Exchange Commission and reviewing the reports of corporate executive perks.

The theatrics we observed during the recent automobile executives' testimony only serves to remind us of the 'classes' that exist in our society.  That was very effective as a tool to embarrass the executives, but it played a spotlight on what, to me, is at least as serious a problem as are corporate jets in our present economic situation.

Mr. Vincent also tagged our elected representatives for the perks they have given themselves over the years.

Two things jumped out:

• Elected officials have a fleet of military 'executive' jets awaiting their needs and stationed at Andrews Air Force base near the capitol.  Not many of them has ever likely flown on commercial flights when they go abroad on their junkets.  Nancy Pelosi was taken to task for her reported use of military jets to fly her home from Washington, D.C. to California.  She was angry that she didn't get as good a jet as she thought she deserved.  Hers had to stop to re-fuel and that was apparently an unbearable delay. 
• How many members of the House of Representatives and of the Senate have flown on those very same corporate executive jets when on their way to 'speaking' engagements or some other junket?

At least the corporate executives are taxed on the perks they receive.  I don't recall that is the case for our elected representatives when they fly on a military flight or use other perks they've managed to create for themselves like a gymnasium. 

Our elected officials supposedly are required to reimburse for the costs incurred if they fly on corporate aircraft, but I suspect there are some methods employed to assure that they remain 'whole', such as through an increase in speaker fees to offset any out-of-pocket expense that might have been incurred.

We have an 'elected' class and a 'rest of us' class.

The Journal Sentinel released its report for the latest period and the news was a continuation of the trend that has been apparent for many newspapers nationwide.

The Sunday edition dropped 3.8% and the weekday edition dropped 3.9%.  My family has become one of those that dropped the weekday edition at our renewal a week or so ago.  I now find my daily news using JSOnline during the day and settle in with a lap full of newspaper on Sundays.  I have had the tactile sensation of a newspaper in my hands for nearly so long as I can remember, and I confess that I miss that experience.  As stated in a much earlier Blog, I delivered the La Crosse Tribune for several years while growing up near that city so I'm accustomed to having smudged fingertips from the newsprint.

I was frankly surprised during a recent meeting of Bloggers when I asked the group nearest me about their subscriptions.  I was in the minority since most had already dropped their print editions.

The newest iteration of JSOnline is improved and more easily navigable from my perspective.  I suspect that more and more people will make the decision to discontinue their daily print edition.  The users of JSOnline continue to increase and the new version should assist that migration...if that is desired by the Journal Sentinel organization.  They find themselves in a bit of a fix.  On the one hand, they want to be in a leadership position as the shift continues.  On the other hand, they need to find ways to boost their revenue stream to offset the loss of subscription money and advertising dollars, and the advertising doesn't seem to have kept pace with the shift from print to electronic media.  Part of that is obviously about the economy, but to what effect may be hard to measure.  If GM and Ford and Chrysler continue to become shadows of themselves, and if their major dealers either go out of business or downsize, advertising dollars will get more and more scarce.

I believe that much of this movement has been driven by the rising prices caused in large part by the price of oil and all things related.  Newsprint is among the real cost increase issues for publishers.  That goes away when printed newspapers are no longer printed.  The leap from the historic "paper", though, is not assured to be successful; we see the struggles of the majority of publishers across our nation.  Those that have significantly diversified, as has the Journal Sentinel organization, should have a better outlook as this migration continues, but nothing is certain in today's economy.

People costs are also a significant factor and we've seen the staff cuts that have been made a couple of times so far.  I suspect there is little if any fat left, so that future cuts will be felt in the overall quality of the effort.  There are those who would claim that is already an issue and that this may be hastening the outflow of subscribers.

Milwaukee is by no means an isolated phenomenon in this regard.  The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times both saw continuing declines.  The old stalwart "Christian Science Monitor" has just announced that it is going to end publishing a print paper by next April.  There will be many more casualties before this storm has calmed.

If you've watched the Fox News Channel chances are good that you've seen Judge Andrew Napolitano, the dapper and perpetually happy senior judicial analyst for Fox News.  He has written a piece titled "Most Presidents Ignore The Constitution" that appears on the Opinion page of today's Wall Street Journal.

He writes about the 2001 Public Radio interview of Barack Obama where Obama was lamenting that the civil rights movement had become too 'court centered' and therefore failed to cause 'reparations' for past abuses.  That, of course, serves as quite a bombshell so far as future implications if he is elected and presuming he has the same thoughts today that he held then.

I thought, however, that the balance of the opinion piece was quite interesting as Judge Napolitano discussed how the majority of presidents of our country have ignored the Constitution and forged ahead as they desired.  Roosevelt caused agriculture to be subjected to a "Soviet-style central planning" process and rejected arguments that this was unconstitutional.  Roosevelt said that the Constitution was "quaint" and that it was written in the "horse and buggy days" and predicted that the public and the courts would agree with him according to Napolitano's article.

Napolitano cites that Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland were the exceptions he recalled who didn't ignore the Constitution.

As we move into the next presidency, regardless of who wins, I'll have to remind myself that most have ignored our Constitution whenever I feel the current President has crossed the line.  He probably will have crossed the line, and appears to have had a lot of company over the history of our country.

We have survived even with the intentional ignoring of our Constitution...but it doesn't seem right no matter who ignores that document.  Where will it end, if it ever will end?

I received an e-mail containing the following quotations and thought it simply had to be in front of as many readers as possible as we approach perhaps the most important election in my lifetime.  Much food for thought follows:

• Suppose you were an idiot.  And suppose you were a member of Congress, but then I repeat myself.---Mark Twain
• I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.---Winston Churchill
• A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.---George Bernard Shaw
• Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.---James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
• Foreign aid must be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.---Douglas Casey, classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown
• Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.---P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
• Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.---Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
• Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it.  If it keeps moving, regulate it.  And, if it stops moving, subsidize it.---Ronald Reagan (1986)
• I don't make jokes.  I just watch the government and report the facts!---Will Rogers, Humorist (1879-1935)
• If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it is free.---P.J. O'Rourke
• In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.---Voltaire (1764)
• The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings.  The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.---Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
• What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.---Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
• A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.---Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Patriot (1743-1826)

 Some things, it seems, never change.

Conservatives are accustomed to being involved in 'come from behind' situations and many of those, I submit, are created by the media.

For those of you seeking a decent piece on media double standards, I invite you to read the Human Events opinion piece by Patrick J. Buchanan titled Camp Followers.

~~~~~~~~~~

Then we have the debate concerning experience over hope with hope appearing to be ahead at this point in the race.  Charles Krauthammer has done a good job on his Washington Post opinion piece, McCain for President.

~~~~~~~~~~

Finally a cute little item that you may've seen before:

A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost.  She loses altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below.

She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can you help me?  I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his GPS unit and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above the ground at an elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level.  You are at 31 degrees 15 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees 49 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican".

"I am", replied the man.  "How did you know?"

"Well", she answered, "everything you tell me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost.  Frankly, you're not much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat".

"I am", replied the woman.  "How did you know?"

"Well", said the man, "You don't know where you are or where you're going.  You've risen to where you are, due in large part to hot air.  You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem.  You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it is my fault."

The following words are variously attributed to both Abraham Lincoln and to Rev. Wm. J.H. Boetcker (circa 1916).  Without debating from whom they flowed, I thought it very important that these be shared during this particularly important election season.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could, and should, do for themselves.

Powerful words and powerful thoughts, indeed!

Lincoln's 200th birthday will see new 2009 pennies issued.  That raises the question as to why we still have pennies.  Is it to weigh down a lady's purse or cause a man's pocket to bulge and jingle?  Is it to fill all those glass jars in which people collect their unused pennies?

A Cox News Service article by Chris Megerian discussed some of the facts regarding pennies.

In answer to the question posed in the headline, a penny minted in 2007 cost 1.7 cents but the U.S. Mint has gotten that cost down to about 1.4 cents today.

A penny in 1857 had the buying power that a quarter has today.  I've not seen anything in recent memory that could be purchased for a penny, and I probably wouldn't want it if it were only a penny.  On the other hand, I used to covet pennies because, as a kid, I could buy all kinds of candy at the corner grocery store with a few pennies!

It seems to me that we have outlived the usefulness of the penny.  It should be eliminated and we should simply re-price things and round up or down to the nearer nickel.  There used to be a half-penny but that was eliminated in 1857.  We really ought to 'get with it' and make this happen.

There have been attempts in Congress in both 2002 and in 2006 to eliminate the penny, but both attempts failed.  The U.S. Mint produced 7.4 billion pennies last year.  At a cost of 1.4 cents each, that comes to over $103 Million if my long-hand math hasn't been lost completely.

I know that doesn't sound like much to our members of Congress, but it sounds like a whole lot to me!  Especially for a coin that we simply don't have to have.

Cigarette Taxes...

The state raised cigarette taxes to $1.77 per pack and promptly budgeted/spent all the new money that would bring in.  The only problem is that this 230% increase in the tax rate only generated a 48% increase in the tax money received!  Now, we're stuck with a lot of people circumventing the tax entirely by buying cigarettes out-of-state or over the Internet.  And, we have added to an already staggering budget shortfall.

Makes a lot sense, huh?

~~~~~

Clean Air Act Gone Wild...

One of my favorite agencies, the EPA, has decided that it now has free rein over so-called greenhouse gases.  This came to pass as the result of a 'namby-pamby' U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that didn't go quite far enough to ward off this rampant agency.  EPA has now released its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule-making, an ANPR in the jargon, and this is astonishing.  EPA would regulate airplanes, trains, ships, boats, tractors, farm and mining equipment, lawn mowers, garden equipment, portable power generators, fork lift trucks, construction equipment and logging equipment.

EPA estimates that more than 500,000 new permits will be required.  Among the supposed new requirements are these:

• Lawn mower standards:  "...each application could require a different unit of measure tied to the machine's mission or output-such as grams per kilogram of cuttings from a 'standard' lawn for lawn mowers."
• Truck speed standards:  "Speed limiters are generally available on new trucks or as a low cost retro-fit..."
• Single family homes become polluters:  "...we believe that small commercial establishments...and indeed, a large single-family residence could exceed this [CO2 pollution] threshold."

All of this means that our taxes go up exponentially since the EPA will be forced to grow staff and facilities to handle this new found mission.  And, it means that we'll all pay more for products and services.

And, none of this was ever the intent of Congress nor has it had the opportunity to inject itself to this point.

~~~~~

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs...

Regular, nice old incandescent light bulbs (starting with 100 watt bulbs) become illegal to manufacture in 2012.  The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) points out that this means we can forget about spending 20 cents or so for the old bulb while buying the new CFLs for something on the order of $3.00+ (remember that these are usually subsidized today).

While CFLs save energy, they have costs associated with them that make all this really questionable:

• The average lifetime is not 10,000 hours, but "up to 10,000 hours"
• The energy savings and lifetime of CFLs has been exaggerated in some applications
• The CFL only achieves the claimed efficiency if burned continuously for long periods
• If left on for only 5 minute periods, the CFL will burn out just as fast as an incandescent bulb
• CFLs dim over their lifetime and do not deliver what is promised

And, we're adding mercury to the environment which supposedly will be handled by proper disposal.  Yeah, sure!  How many of us has disposed of a burned out CFL improperly already?  How is that ever going to be policed?

~~~~~

Clean Water Restoration Act...

The EPA is back again.  The original Clean Water Act of 1972 had gotten to be very broadly interpreted under various EPA rulings.  "Navigable waters" had morphed into isolated wetlands, dry lake beds and drainage ditches, for example.  Now, two Democrat members of Congress have introduced the bill named in the title.  It would replace the phrase "navigable waters" with the phrase "waters of the United States"  This means "all waters subject to ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds and all impoundments of the foregoing".  Reason magazine, August/September 2008

If this bill were to pass in its current state, it would very likely result in massive new regulations for boaters, fishermen, hunters, and even conservationists.  This act would leave it to the courts to decide what constitutes "waters of the United States".

Thanks to Ronald Bailey for writing the article "Feds in a Fishbowl" in Reason.

~~~~~

Anti-Meat Campaign...

Finally, from the Heartland Institute, this on global warming activists' latest efforts.  They are launching new efforts to restrict meat production and consumption, building on prior efforts to restrict various agriculture activities that supposedly would reduce 'greenhouse gases'.

More on this can be found on the worldchanging.org website.

If we continue to have a ban on drilling more oil, we won't be able to buy meat anyway, so maybe this isn't as bad as I first thought.

Maybe we really do have too many crackpots in Congress...or too many people are being paid through campaign contributions and don't have the commonsense necessary to sort out the good from the crazy.

Oregon has had government involved in health care for quite a few years.  The state electorate also approved the concept of state sanctioned suicide several years ago.

Recently, the board that reviews the medications that are approved for state residents made a determination that was controversial...in my mind if no where else.  The board, in essence, said that, given the cost of a certain medication, it would approve suicide for this patient but would not approve use of the medicine given its relative newness and the lack of convincing data as to the outcome.  It had essentially set a price on the human life involved.

Today I read the story concerning Denver Children's Hospital and heart transplants in infants that use the heart from another infant that died a 'cardiac-related death'.  This differs from a heart harvested from a brain-dead infant in which that heart is beating until removed from the donor body.  A decision has been made that the donor that has been pronounced dead and has been in that state for only 75 seconds, is a valid heart donor for purposes of this new program.  The earlier line that had existed required death be determined only after some five minutes during which time the heart did not re-start itself.  In this instance, the length of time a person had been deemed 'dead' had been reduced to assure that the harvested heart had a decent chance of functioning in the new body.  The three cases in which this approach has been employed resulted in three infants alive today.  The decisions to withdraw life support were made by the parents in all three instances.

We know so much more today than we did a decade ago.  We can do things from a medical perspective that were impossible then, and these procedures have become commonplace now.  We are, in this area, pushing the envelope as it has never before been pushed.

I know there are at least two sides to these issues.  I have good friends whose daughter lives today because of transplanted organs that were available on a timely basis.  I can't even begin to comprehend being placed in the middle of such decisions, and I earnestly hope that never befalls me.

And this leads to my general question:  Is there a line we dare not cross?  If so, where is or was that line?  Am I comfortable with an appointed board making life and death decisions about me?  Who among us can claim the right to make such a decision?  How do medical ethicists deal with these kinds of issues?

I don't profess to have the answers to these questions.  If you do, and you're willing to share, I'd appreciate your comments.

As we watch the Summer Olympics, we see the pageantry and the heroics of the athletes from around the world. 

We don't see the oppression that has persisted for centuries in China and that continues to persist under the very noses of those who are walking the streets of Beijing.

TV cameras and microphones have been installed in all the taxi cabs and are remote controlled by the authorities to be sure that no one says or does something threatening to the regime.  130,000 police and soldiers are present ostensibly to protect the attendees.  They also help assure that the opposition will be suppressed during the games.

300,000 Chinese citizens augment the 130,000 people mentioned above as additional eyes and ears.  Reporters are subject to censorship.  Passports are summarily pulled from some reporters who have sought to broadcast by telephone back to their home countries.  That is a subtle form of reminder that the regime is in complete control and that one shouldn't forget it.

Against this backdrop, the President stood aligned with Chinese protestants this morning to deliver a few words of support.  We don't know what kind of persecution will follow when the reporters and TV crews leave, but we can remember the Tienanmen Square episode of a few years ago and draw upon those scenes of brutality to get some idea.

China is China.  Nothing more and nothing less.  It owns a big chunk of America.  It spies on us every day.  It works to find weaponry that can be used against us.  It still wishes to defeat us; if not on an actual battlefield, then in commerce.  We seem to forget these things, but they are critical.

If you were prescient and stocked up on the Forever Stamp while it was still available at $0.41, you may be able to say "Gotcha!"

A small news item caught my eye this morning.  The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) posted a loss of $1,100,000,000 for the quarter ended June 30th.  Yes, that is $1.1 Billion that was lost by the USPS, now a private organization.

The reasons cited were reduced mail volume (blamed on the slowing economy) and rapidly rising transport costs.

We can all understand that the cost of fuels that go into delivery have gone through the roof.  Everything delivered costs more, or soon will.  And, the economy has slowed.  Given the apparent political stalemate on drilling for oil here and now, fuel costs will likely do nothing but continue to increase.  Your Forever Stamps may prove to have been a really good investment since postage costs will almost certainly have to rise for us consumers.

I wonder, however, if there may be something more at work here.  Is it possible that we are watching the initial death throes of snail mail as we have known it for our lifetimes?  We know that more of us are computer literate today than ten years ago.  I think we would agree that use of computers and other communications devices will continue to accelerate.

Between telephones and other electronic communication media, and with delivery services available that have already taken most of the parcel post market, are we in the process of ending the use of delivered items that we walk to a mailbox to retrieve?  Simply look at the state of newspapers in our country today to get some idea of the potential impact.

Will there continue to be a USPS ten years from now?   Twenty?

If so, what will it look like and what will it do?  What will happen to all the brick and mortar that carries the USPS logo?  What happens to the tens of thousands of employees?

Could this really happen?   Did anyone ever ask that about horses and buggies?  Did anyone ever foresee air travel in the 1850s?  Did anyone ever foresee space travel in the 1930s?

A new approach to how auto insurance would be priced is beginning to catch hold and could spread quickly if it proves to be something people like.

The concept is called "pay as you drive" and it factors miles driven and driving behavior into premium rate development.  So far, Progressive, an auto insurer whose ads you've probably seen on television, has begun to sell this product in Alabama (in July) and will launch the product in New Jersey next week.

California officials are apparently considering legislation that would allow the concept to be marketed there.  The California Assembly passed the bill (A.B. 2800) by a vote of 72-2, so it was popular on that side of their legislature.

Here's how it works:

Policyholders receive a small wireless device that ties into the vehicle's computer diagnostic system.  The device gathers data from various functions on-board the vehicle.  This data reports how much the vehicle is being driven, when the vehicle is being driven, the number of miles driven and mileage by time of day, the speed per second and all sudden acceleration, deceleration and braking.

The data is transmitted automatically to Progressive, and policyholders can check their data on-line.

The whole point apparently is to cause those who drive more to pay more while those who drove less would pay less.  A recent study from the Brookings Institution found that today, drivers similar in age, gender, location and driving record pay nearly the same rates.  If all drivers were to pay per mile, driving would decline by 8% nationwide thus saving $50 to $60 billion per year from reduced congestion and fewer accidents.  It would also supposedly reduce carbon emissions by 2% and oil consumption by 4%.  (By the way, in the first five months of 2008, miles driven by drivers in the U.S. have dropped 2.4% or nearly 30 billion miles given the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel.)

Progressive is also introducing this program in Minnesota and Oregon.  If the program appears popular in Minnesota, I'll wager that it won't be long before it is is being touted in Wisconsin.

Not stated in the study, but inherent in the supposition, is anything concerning the premium rate impact.  It stands to reason that the safer driver would be charged less for his or her premium.  This will strike some as a way to single out a group for higher rates.  If that group is incurring the bigger costs, would that be all bad?

Beyond all this is the privacy invasion issue that will certainly be part of the debate and acceptance patterns.

Back on July 21st, I Blogged about the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" that would compel radio stations to mount the same number of hours daily for 'liberal' talkers as they do for 'conservative' talkers.  This would, in the minds of the liberals in Congress, equalize the message of the two differing points of view. 

On the heels of that, we saw the 'celebration' of Rush Limbaugh's twentieth anniversary as a conservative 'talker' this past Friday.  There is not, to my knowledge, a liberal radio personality anywhere with anything near the run that Limbaugh has had and will continue to have according to the new $38 million contract signed that takes his nationally-syndicated program into 2016.

This drives the liberals nuts but it has nothing to do with 'unfairness', and everything to do with the difference in messages.  We Americans, thankfully, are able to listen to anything we prefer.  If we preferred the Air America message, it wouldn't be struggling and on its third owner in nearly the same number of years.  We prefer the conservative message.  Liberals fight battles using class warfare actually pitting one group against another group to create animosity that the left believes will result in votes for its candidates.

If you follow any of the national debates, you'll see this clearly.  Conservatives understand the free market forces and seek more oil being drilled recognizing that this will drive prices down.  Liberals still cannot tolerate the concept of the free market since they find it threatening, and, therefore see everything through the prism of taxation forcing certain behaviors.  They believe that taxes on the 'egregious' profits of oil companies will result in lowered prices in the marketplace.  They simply do not want to understand that oil companies don't pay taxes; the customers of oil companies pay taxes...and that is us.

That starkly displays the difference in message, and it explains why there is a Rush Limbaugh and why his popularity is probably the equal or better of all the liberal 'talkers' in combination.  And it explains the extreme dislike, even hatred, with which the likes of Limbaugh are perceived by their enemies.  It also explains why liberals think that legislation will cure this problem as well as all other problems.

This 'freedom of thought-freedom of speech' thing is a real problem...for those whose thoughts are not swallowed by the listening masses.

Unless you've been on a deserted island, I imagine you know that Tim Russert died a few days ago.

I didn't watch his 'Meet The Press' show often, but when I did I was always impressed with how well he did interviewing a wide mix of guests.  The discussions about him, following the news that he had died, seemed to center on the words in the lead-in to this Blog.

He was so good at what he did because he was normal and fair and always well-prepared.  These thoughts were repeated regularly during the past week.  They speak volumes about this man who was born and raised in Buffalo, NY; whose dad was a garbage collector; and, who had a strong faith.  He kept his personal politics in check because he knew it was important that he present an impartial image.  Those who talked about being on his show mentioned that he was something of an 'equal opportunity' inquisitioner.  He was tough on everybody without regard to their politics.

It struck me that the very words being used to describe his uniqueness were also telling in that they were the antithesis of the usual fare we're fed by the 'talking heads'.  Tim Russert stood out amongst his peers because he was normal and fair and well-prepared.  And the words being used were being used by those very same 'talking heads'.  They were not, of course, aware that they were casting stones at themselves at the very same time they were lauding their former counter-part.

I suspect that we can all learn from the likes of a Tim Russert.  I know I can.  He loved his family.  He never forgot his roots.  He never forgot his faith.  He was always prepared when he went to work.  He gave every day his very best.  He remembered his friends and apparently had no enemies, certainly in his mind anyway.  He told people he loved them.  He was himself, not someone he thought he was supposed to be in order to fit into the world that he'd become part of after leaving his roots in Buffalo.

I hope I can remember Tim Russert for a good long time to come.  I probably will somewhat regularly as I see the antithesis on my television screen.

It is expected that Corsair Capital, a New York based private equity group will sign a deal with National City today that will affect Germantown.  You've guessed by now, if you're a regular reader, that the effect is to keep our newest bank name, National City Bank, in Germantown, at least for the foreseeable future.  Corsair and some other individual investors will put around $6 billion into National City at a share price of some $5.00.

We earlier traced the evolution from St. Francis Bank to Mid America Bank to National City Bank in the first Blog that discussed the plight of National City.  It's shares closed at $8.33 on Friday and that marked a 52 week decline in value of 78%.

So, it appears that my friendly, efficient bankers in Germantown will continue to be there when I need them.  I'm happy for them and for me and the rest of their customers.  Changing banks is a nuisance.  If there are direct deposits, those must be changed.  If there are automatic withdrawls, those must be changed.  New checks and bank cards must be obtained, and decisions as to which of the numerous accounts offered is the right account need to be made.  If Internet banking is involved, there is another level of change, and if telephone banking is involved, yet another level.

We sometimes are oblivious to the things that happen on Wall Street and the world but many of those distant happenings directly involve us in one or another ways.  This whole subject has been one that most of us has not followed...and yet it has an impact on our nice little village.  Our economy has truly become a global economy whether for the better or not.  IBM sold its laptop computer business to a company in China.  The Jaguar and Range Rover nameplates are now owned by a company in India.  GM is building a new engine plant in Brazil.  Medical x-rays are read off shore.  When the Far East markets hiccup, Wall Street flinches.  The demand for gasoline and diesel fuel in India and China have thrown our prices into a seemingly unending upward spiral.

Perhaps more important, these changes have occurred in a relatively short span of time..in decades rather than centuries.

The HBO network has retained the services of Bill Maher for some time now.  I don't watch HBO only because it isn't part of my DirectTV package.  I likely will not watch HBO in the future, but for another reason.

Mr. Maher has chosen the time of the visit of this Pope to our country to launch into a vitriolic attack on Catholics and the Catholic church.  I am not Catholic, but I do consider myself to be a Christian.  I am not favorably disposed toward pedophilia nor toward members of the priesthood who have engaged in and/or tacitly condoned that despicable conduct.  I do know that pedophilia amongst clergy has not been limited to the Catholic church.

Mr. Maher has chosen this subject as his tool to castigate the Pope and the Catholic church during this visit to the U.S.  Among his comments, supposedly the comments from one of those who poses as a member of the literati in America, are the reference to the man who is now the Pope having been conscripted into the German military during the period of the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany.  The man who is now Pope was reportedly twelve years of age when this occurred.  Maher calls the Pope a Nazi but I've so far seen no evidence that this man who is now Pope ever was a member of the Nazi movement.

Mr. Maher has called the Catholic church a cult that supports pedophilia.  Mr. Maher has referred to the Catholic church as the 'Bear Stearns' of organized pedophilia in the world.

These comments are likely within Maher's rights as a citizen of our great country.  HBO has so far remained silent thus giving Maher its blessing to proceed unchecked.

This is an example of just how repugnant free speech can be.  This is an example of just how permissive some of our news and entertainment organizations seem to be.  That so few of the literati have had anything to say about this is telling indeed.