Dash of Calabash

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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.”

An article from the Christian Science Monitor highlights how China is making strides in becoming a modern, humane society… or at least pretending to if a foreigner is watching:

On a Beijing street a few weeks ago, a man began to beat his wife. A small crowd gathered, but nobody intervened until an American leaned from his apartment window overlooking the scene and began to shoot photos.

Noticing him, a spectator stepped up to the assailant and told him to stop. “There’s a foreigner taking pictures,” he pointed out. Read the rest of this entry »

A lighthearted parody political ad points out that the global polar bear population has doubled over the last four decades.Produced by the National Center for Public Policy Research and Citizens United.

The Polar Bear and the Endangered Species Act

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 economist.com:

Hong Kong is home to 26 billionaires, according to Forbes magazine’s latest ranking of the world’s wealthiest individuals. Li Ka-shing, the chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, which have interests in property, ports and telecommunications, was named the richest local. He was 11th in the world ranking, with an estimated fortune of $26.5 billion. The next Hong Kongers were three of a kind: Raymond, Walter and Thomas Kwok, owners of Sun Hung Kai Properties, who have a combined wealth of $19.9 billion. Elsewhere on the list, Stanley Ho, a casino magnate, saw his wealth grow to $8 billion, thanks to the success of Macau’s revitalised gambling market.

The Teutonic smoking ban is temporarily up in smoke. From The Economist:

Berlin may have introduced a smoking ban at the beginning of January, but one month on, many cafés and bars had begun handing out the ashtrays again. The ban has proved unpopular with rebellious Berliners, with one angry smoker punching a waiter who tried to usher him outside. Although anyone found lighting up indoors may be fined up to €100 ($150), police will not be enforcing the rule until July. During this six-month grace period, the authorities are letting bar- and café-owners decide for themselves whether to allow smoking. Some bars have styled themselves as “smoking clubs”, though this will have no legal power to protect anyone, come July.

Might there be a lesson here for Hawaii and other states with similar smoking policies?

Productivity has been lagging in our government-run schools while it has been increasing rapidly in the private sector of the economy. Specifically, since 1992, Hawaii’s government-run schools have experienced a productivity decline of 22 percent while the private sector has increased by 41 percent. Details of my estimates may be found here.

I have long believed that home schooling will eventually be the source of increased productivity k-12 education. Maybe I should say “home schooling in combination with virtual charter schools. Guess who is opposed to the very thought of this kind of innovation?

Hat tip: Professor Newmark

Posted by Harry Messenheimer

By John Stossel:

It’s all too predictable. A day after a gunman killed six people and wounded 18 others at Northern Illinois University, The New York Times criticized the U.S. Interior Department for preparing to rethink its ban on guns in national parks.

The editorial board wants “the 51 senators who like the thought of guns in the parks — and everywhere else, it seems — to realize that the innocence of Americans is better protected by carefully controlling guns than it is by arming everyone to the teeth.” 

As usual, the Times editors seem unaware of how silly their argument is. To them, the choice is between “carefully controlling guns” and “arming everyone to the teeth.” But no one favors “arming everyone to the teeth” (whatever that means). Instead, gun advocates favor freedom, choice and self-responsibility. If someone wishes to be prepared to defend himself, he should be free to do so. No one has the right to deprive others of the means of effective self-defense, like a handgun.
Click here to read more…

The U.S. Navy has been temporarily barred by a federal court from using “mid-frequency active sonar” to detect diesel submarines in practice exercises off the California coast.The ruling came in a suit by environmentalists claiming the sonar injures vulnerable marine mammals, even though the judge found there was no evidence–or conflicting evidence she couldn’t evaluate–regarding such injuries … or even the presence of whales at all.

But the “lack of documented evidence of the disturbance, injury, or even death of marine mammals in a particular geographic area does little to prove that MFA sonar never caused such adverse effects,” the judge concluded.

The Navy plans to appeal. “Today, dozens of countries–including North Korea and Iran–have extremely quiet diesel-electric submarines, and more than 180 of them operate in the Pacific,” said Vice Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. 3rd Fleet. “Active sonar is the best system we have to detect and track them.” Apparently, real submarines are not as important as imaginary whales.

Sources: Kenneth R. Weiss, “Judge bans Navy from using sonar off Southern California, Federal jurist backs activists, saying use during training exercises off Southern California could harm whales,” Los Angeles Times, August 7, 2007; Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Winter, 8:07-cv-00335-FMC-FMOx, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57909 (2007)