Living in New York State, Ahh Shit!

Put New York State as one place you do not want to live or visit. Gov David Paterson is planning to tax just about anything he can. The only thing he forgot to tax was the air the New Yorkers breathe, but give him time. It's really hard to feel sorry for them though. They are getting exactly what they voted for, tax and spend liberalism. You'd think they'd learn, but they keep putting their hand in the fire and getting royally burned. Well New Yorkers, start learning to live with less. Work hard and pay your socialist masters.

Fayetteville, Two New Bridges

Fayetteville is replacing the wooden bridge on Mud Creek trail with the iron ones they've place on Scull Creek. The wooden bridge has that little bump that is a real jolt to bikers who try to ride over it. The wooden bridge will be reused somewhere else in the parks or trails.


The bridge in Wilson Park is part of the walking trail renovation on N Park Ave. The trail will be removed from the street sidewalk. That sidewalk was so narrow you had to walk in the street if you walked with some one or pass people.

The Mud Creek bridge will be finished real quick but the Wilson Park one will take a little longer because they need to complete connecting the trail and finish the parking lot. I think people will be really please with the new bridges.

Wal-Mart, The Good Bully

Wal-Mart consider by many to be evil because they say it operates in a way that increases government welfare spending. It contributes to suburban sprawl and drives local companies out of business. It discriminates against workers and gives its workers bad health care. Finally, it get goods from countries who employment standards are terrible.
But here Wal-Mart is getting praise for it's "heavy handed practices" in protecting the environment and helping the poor. What in the world is going on?

What's changed? Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, who announced last month that he will step down in February, has led an ambitious sustainability campaign, opened up to critics and promised to behave more responsibly. One of his last acts as CEO was to convene a summit of Wal-Mart suppliers in China to tell them that they had to adhere to higher ethical and environmental standards.

This is a win-win situation for Wal-Mart. They get good PR for being socially and environmentally responsible and if they can make it profitable so much the better. Of course, there are going to be people who'll hate Wal-Mart not matter how much they help the poor and the planet.

To be sure, not everyone is buying into Wal-Mart's sustainability work. The International Labor Rights Forum, an activist group, has an ongoing campaign against Wal-Mart, saying its "ethical sourcing" program is ineffective. Some environmentalists argue that Wal-Mart's business model - selling cheap stuff made all around the world in big-box stores - can never become sustainable.

Basically, they think Wal-Mart needs to be destroyed even if it harms the poor of the world.

Gov. Beebe, Tire Plant Yes, Electrical Plant No!

While Gov. Beebe is working with Texas to convince that nasty, dirty Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. to keep its tire plant in Texarkana open, the Sierra Club and Audubon Society are trying to keep a coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County from being built. Gov. Beebe is working hard to keep those jobs and income from taxes in Arkansas.

Texarkana's plant has 1,400 workers. Local officials say Cooper Tire annually pays between $90 million and $100 million in direct wages.

The Sierra Club and Audubon Society are working to further impoverish the people in southwest Arkansas.

But Turk (plant) represents an economic boost to supporters in southwest Arkansas, where it would generate about $38 million in sales- and property-tax revenue and an annual payroll of $9 million.

Isn't this just rich! Gov. Beebe is working hard to keep a tire manufacturing plant (think oil product) in Arkansas because of the devastation the lost of jobs will have on Texarkana not to mention the loss of tax revenue. I don't imagine that a tire manufacturing plant is any less polluting than a coal burning electricity plant. Why isn't Gov. Beebe working just as hard to get the Turk plant built? Not only will it bring jobs and tax revenue but it will keep electricity inexpensive for customers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

Ahh, global warming! The biggest scientific hoax in history is once again going to devastate the poor.

No Wind, But A Lot Of Hot Air

A listener from Fayetteville got in on the Rush Limbaugh show where Jason Lewis was subbing for Rush. The caller mentioned an article in the NW Arkansas Times about the wind turbines at St Thomas Episcopal Church. The caller also mentioned Stephan Pollard who he said had declared in a discussion about energy that we need to "eliminate all forms of carbon." That doesn't surprise me because deep down the environmental extremists want to eliminated all life from Earth, particularly human. Anyway, Jason went off on wind turbines. He bluntly said they are a mis-allocation of resources.

I grew up hearing about how we needed to convert to solar and wind power. After 4 decades wind and solar still need government subsidies because they aren't viable. They are not going to be able to replace coal and natural gas plants. Jason mentioned some health hazards that the news article didn't feel obligated to print. There is the noise of the turbines, the flicker of the blades which interfere with drivers and pilots. Ice can form on those blades and fling them off. Do you want to be driving by those blades when they do that? Of course, we all want to see those visually offensive turbines on all of our mountain tops. I'd like to see them try to sticking one of those up on Mt. Sequoia or Mt. Kessler.

Jason finished off by quoting Christopher Booker in that 100,000 acres of wind turbines produce the amount of electricity as a 15 acre coal plant. Well, I couldn't find that quote but I found this

Mr Obama floats off still further from reality when he proposes spending $15 billion a year to encourage "clean energy" sources, such as thousands more wind turbines. He is clearly unaware that wind energy is so hopelessly ineffective that the 10,000 turbines America already has, representing "18 gigawatts of installed capacity", only generate 4.5GW of power, less than that supplied by a single giant coal-fired power station.

It's too bad you can't talk cold, hard, common sense science with these environmentalists. The wind/solar thing makes them feel like they're doing something for the environment. Feelings are more important than facts.

The War Against Peanuts

The health Nazi's are at it again. A Washington lobbyist group is attempting to ban peanuts from all schools. It's not only eating peanuts, it also touching them. You got to be careful in the halls of schools because you might get peanut cooties.

"Just a small amount of food on your hands can get on desks, books, playground equipment," warns the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.

The CDC's data shows that food allergy affects only 4% of children and about 1% of those are peanut allergies. So, why are these people trying to eliminate a food that has wonderful health benefits and affects only an extreme minority of children? With today's tough economy it doesn't make sense to eliminate an excellent low cost protein source for children. I grew up in a low-income family and PB&J sandwiches were something we ate for lunch nearly every day. We couldn't afford anything else.
Banning peanuts is unjust, even mean, to the 99 percent of students for whom peanut butter is the most practical source of protein they will eat. It is cheap, delicious, and won't spoil as meat or cheese might. For the sake of a few students, thousands are seriously inconvenienced. For Gods sake, if your kid is allergic to peanuts, have the school stock epinephrine. Don't deprive all the other children of peanuts. We don't need to be tyrannized by the minority.