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 Copyright ©2003-2010 Anthony Canales |
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 Anthony Canales is the President of the San Fernando Valley NRA Member’s Council. He works as a Quality Control Manager in Glendale, California. He is married with one son. The opinions expressed in 'News Briefs' belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Rifle Association of America or the NRA Members' Councils of California. |
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12-09-2009
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March 4, 2009
- Video of the use of a "politically-correct" washing machine, courtesy of the folks at YouTube, National Review, and Greg Pollowitz.
To All, It looks like there is a downside to all those "green jobs" that President Obama has been promising of late. Hopefully the folks at Jenny Craig will be able to adapt to this new and radically smaller business model.
In other news:
We Told You So Update: Notwithstanding the warnings that this poster and others lent to coal mining states and coal miners, it seems that an insufficient number of voters paid heed to the Obama campaign promises to bring about "cap-and-trade" programs that would levy punitive taxes on fossil fuels.
Yet now with the reality of an Obamabudget that is counting heavily on reaping new taxes from coal, it seems that members of the President's own party are having significant second thoughts about one of his signature campaign planks.
This latest sign of buyer's remorse seems to have appeared in the form of a letter sent by 15 Democrat Senators from what John Fund calls "rust belt states", who seem to be in opposition to any cap and trade system that would impose undue hardship on workers and consumers.
How that this can be done without simply doing away with the plan altogether is beyond the ken of this poster. After all, the inevitable result of such a tax is to reduce consumption of coal and other fossil fuels by prohibiting supply over time. Eventually, air quality regulations would reduce the available amount of carbon dioxide produced to only cover the heating systems in the various Congressional offices and facilities east of the Mississippi.
But if the demand for coal is reduced, then the demand for labor to supply coal will also be reduced. In essence, any cap and trade plan that meets the "Gang of 15's" requirements on not posing undue hardship on workers will most likely involve some kind of welfare-like support payment system. While coal miner unions might try to use the precedent of those farm subsidies designed to pay farmers not to plant a percentage of their fields, it would be clear to see that such a system would be unsustainable in the long run.
It will be an interesting sight to see the likes of a Jim Webb or an Evan Bayh try to convince a certain amount of their constituents to succumb to lure of the welfare yoke. Given that Senator Webb has written about his forebear's preference for self-sufficiency, one wonders as to how much he may have changed over the years to countenance the idea in the first place. Hopefully it is not a sign of ideological shifts to come.
Link at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123612861928624585.html
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2009/02/26/a-cap-and-trade-reality-check.html
Ruh-Roh: Hot on the tail of plans to raid whatever remains of the nation's 401-K's, it seems that certain so-called servants of the people are looking at hammering them some more by taxing a signature benefit from FDR's New Deal, employer-paid health care.
It is hard to say what is coming over Senator Max Baucus (D- MT), given union support for both an NRA "A"-rated Senator and a very popular benefit like employer health care. But as sure as Montana politicians campaign with shotguns in their hands, there has to be something in the water of Washington DC that's turning former stalwarts of the Party of Andrew Jackson into aparatchiks of the Party of Joseph Stalin. Stay tuned.
Link at: http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNewsMolt/idUKTRE52255S20090303
"...Logic preserves its user..."
- Chapter Five, Proverb 6, from the "Scroll of Surak" from the Star Trek Series.
That's The Way It Is...: News from late February from San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders, as to the need for conservatives to not want urban newspapers like the Chronicle to go the way of Studebaker-Packard or Bethelehem Steel, perhaps merit some discussion.
One of the more interesting factoids passed on to firearms rights volunteers by knowledgeable "old hands" in the RKBA movement has to do with admonitions about media relations (television as well as print).
Often has this poster been reminded to leave press/media inquiries to the trained professionals. And wise advice it is, because hard experience has demonstrated that, on the issue of firearms, Saunders' confrères in print and media have already written the story they want when they call half an hour before deadline asking for "gotcha" comments from hopefully not-so-gullible firearms rights volunteers.
This, of course, is totally at odds with Saunders' explanation that "...To produce news, you need professionals who understand the standards needed to research, report and write on what happened. If newspapers die, reliable information dries up...".
If anything, it's the very presence of journalism "professionals" that has caused large numbers of customers-cum-readers of the local rag to keep their quarters in their purses.
After all, how many news articles to this day cannot distinguish between select-fire military rifles, and their civilian semi-automatic target and hunting cousins?
Or how many news articles today cannot distinguish between military and police ammunition specifically designed to aggressively penetrate personal armor from hunting rifle ammunition used every fall? (In some states, significant muzzle energies are actually mandated by a Fish & Game code for certain kinds of game).
Remember, this is before one brings up the issue of "journalistic malfeasance" in it's various forms, from plagiarism to fabrication, which has seemed to plague the "professional media" on and off (mostly on) since the days of William Randolph Hearst.
In reality, the industry that Saunders' earns her daily bread and cheese in is, in reality, just another interest group dedicated to the proposition of liberal conformity. It's an industry that, for the most part, does not brook opposing views, even when they are expressed as humorously as a Ramirez panel or a Limbaugh "public service announcement" utilizing the talents of a Paul Shanklin.
In essence, Saunders is asking conservatives not only to grant the very tolerance denied by the Journos of San Francisco, but we are seemingly expected to patronize them with subscriptions and advertising contracts. Given the substantial antipathy to most businesses not already under the thrall of liberalism exhibited by the nation's editors and reporters, it surely causes one to wonder as to what kind of alternate universe Saunders has been dwelling in since her move to the Chronicle.
It is natural for Saunders to point out that a journalistic version of "Gresham's Law" might cause less "well done" news to be propagated. (Gresham's Law in economics is the old principle that "...bad money drives out good..."). But given how non-professionals have been debunking the "professionals" in academia (Clayton Cramer is an example here), or how bloggers have done very real research into such primary sources of information as first person interviews and late night analysis of an Obamabudget, one is comforted in the idea that the news might actually be better off for the coming changes.
Add to that the very real possibility that the Liberal Propaganda Machine will be severely crippled, just in time for the 2010 Elections (and the chance to set up oversight committees to keep an eye on how Rahmbo Emmanuel runs the Census.), and one can easily see the collapse of so many news organizations as "a good thing".
Saunders has been around long enough to have what some of we "hobby" bloggers don't have, that of a well-known name that will show up easily in a Google Search, or maybe even that Holy-of-Holies, a name listing on Drudgereport.com. Something tells me that if she were to put her column up on her own website, she might just find the risk of totally private entrepreneurship just hunky dory. Perhaps she should get her domain name registered with GoDaddy.com now, while the 60 day period of notice before termination is supposed to run it's course. Perhaps Hugh Hewitt can give her some pointers, maybe even set her up with the right publishers for a book deal. Don't worry, be happy, Ms. Saunders. The only thing that you have to lose are your chains.
Link at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/26/EDFU164VIO.DTL
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1660549.html?mi_rss=Business
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-univision28-2009feb28,0,7229671.story
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123551803197064061.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/24/MNO2164F73.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea
Respectfully,
Anthony Canales SFVMC-NRA
Copyright 2009 Anthony Canales, except as noted. All rights reserved. |
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