Dash of Calabash

A big government progressive finds himself in big government purgatory. He says, “it was an object lesson in something.” But what?

Posted by Harry Messenheimer

Mark Steyn has a dynamite article criticizing the latest cover featured article of Time and its failure to direct any attention to the actual consequences of so-called “eco-friendly” subsidies. Excerpts:

The EU decreed that 5.75 percent of petrol and diesel must come from “biofuels” by 2010, rising to 10 percent by 2020. The U.S. added to its 51 cents-per-gallon ethanol subsidy by mandating a five-fold increase in “biofuels” production by 2022.

The result is that big government accomplished at a stroke what the free market could never have done: They turned the food supply into a subsidiary of the energy industry. When you divert 28 percent of U.S. grain into fuel production, and when you artificially make its value as fuel higher than its value as food, why be surprised that you’ve suddenly got less to eat? Or, to be more precise, it’s not “you” who’s got less to eat but those starving peasants in distant lands you claim to care so much about.

Heigh-ho. In the greater scheme of things, a few dead natives keeled over with distended bellies is a small price to pay for saving the planet, right? Except that turning food into fuel does nothing for the planet in the first place. That tree the U.S. Marines are raising on Iwo Jima was most likely cut down to make way for an ethanol-producing corn field: Researchers at Princeton calculate that to date the “carbon debt” created by the biofuels arboricide will take 167 years to reverse.

The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death.

ATSRTWT

Hat tip: Newmark’s Door

Posted by Harry Messenheimer

A news story by Lucia Kubosova from EUobserver.com:

France is planning to push forward plans for a common EU company tax base during its six-month term at the bloc’s chair, starting in July.

“It has been going on for a long time but this is one issue that we are determined to push,” French economy minister Christine Lagarde told reporters on Monday (7 April), following a tax forum organised by the European Commission.

The corporate tax base idea has been advocated by EU tax commissioner Laszlo Kovacs as a way to simplify cross-border business and cut red tape for European companies by setting up a single system for calculating taxes across the 27 member states.

But it has been so far strongly opposed by a bunch of countries, mainly the UK, Ireland, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia. They fear such a common tax base would be the first step towards harmonisation of tax rates, an area defended by EU states on national sovereignty grounds. (more…)

This just in from one of my favorite blogs:

The other problem sitting on my desk is a snack bar I inherited on a lease in California at Lake Piru. The snack bar is a dump. It is designed wrong, it is set up to cook the wrong kinds of foods, and uses space in the building very inefficiently. I want to lay the whole thing out differently, as a win-win for everyone. We could sell more with fewer workers. The customers would get more selection, including much healthier choices. The operation would be safer, because we would eliminate most of the heavy cooking (e.g. deep fat fryers). And it would be cleaner, with less wastewater and cleaner wastewater because there would be less grease and oil.

Unfortunately, it is very clear that Ventura County, California is not going to allow me to make these changes, at least at any cost I can afford. First, apparently I need to build a new wastewater treatment plant for the snack bar! But I am reducing the waste water load, I argue. Does not matter. New code requires a plant. So because of this environmental code, I am pushed to continue the current operation which is environmentally worse than my proposed alternative. We have the exact same problem on fire suppression. But I am removing the ovens and most of the cooking equipment! It’s safer! Doesn’t matter, if I make any change at all, I have to install a new fire suppression system. And on and on. this is the true face of government regulation. We face this kind of thing ten times a day.

Check it out. The post covers a lot of other ground on the realities of politicians and the economy.

BTW, for a stunning challenge to the global warming crowd check out his other blog, particularly this.

Posted by: Harry Messenheimer

A ‘Grassroot Perspective’ by Roy Innis

Every week brings new claims that clean, free, inexhaustible renewable energy will soon replace the “dirty” fuels that sustain our economy today. A healthy dose of reality is needed.
Over half of our electricity comes from coal. Gas and nuclear generate 36 percent of our electricity. Barely 1 percent comes from wind and solar. Coal-generated power typically costs less per kilowatt hour than alternatives – leaving families with more money for food, housing, transportation and healthcare.
By 2020, the United States will need 100,000 megawatts of new electricity, say EIA, industry and utility company analysts. Unreliable wind power simply cannot meet these demands. (more…)

From Dr. John Rutledge’s blog:

“This is important. India has crossed the 250 million mark with the addition of 8.53 million mobile phone subscribers in February. India will become the second largest wireless network in the world after China in the first half of April 2008. (Hint: That makes the U.S. #3.) Click here to read the full article in the Economic Times.

Future growth of income, productivity and jobs will depend on who has the best information and communications technology, because high-speed communications allows the economy to perform as a massive parallel-processing information network. Hats off to China and India for making R&D and investment in new networks a priority. Wouldn’t hurt if the U.S. government were a positive force for investment here too.”

Today’s Honolulu Advertiser is urging us to turn off our lights tonight for just one hour. According to the editorial, if we observe “earth hour” we will be doing a small part to save the globe. But why stop with just earth hour when we could follow the lead of those who observe earth year?

Posted by Harry Messenheimer

Update: check out this commentary by Professors Perry and Boudreaux.

From Roy Innis at TCS Daily:

Congress and the White House, Democrats and Republicans finally agree on something. We need a stimulus package, they intone. The economy is stagnating, unemployment is climbing, families can’t pay their bills. We have to prime the pump, reduce interest rates, increase unemployment benefits, provide temporary tax relief.

These unlicensed physicians are prescribing aspirin to counteract the poisons they routinely inject into our economy, while they prepare even bigger doses of arsenic.

Every one of these supposed shots of economic adrenaline is counteracted by policies that drive up prices.

(more…)

WASHINGTON - When people are panicking, it’s hard to stop the stampede with talk about cutting a “federal funds rate.” Economic fears on Wall Street and around the world are making people and businesses hunker down, and that could make all the recession worries come true - a vicious cycle the Federal Reserve, White House and Congress may be hard-pressed to break.

Read the entire article from the Honolulu Advertiser by clicking here