Saturday, March 28, 2009

DUMB AND DUMBER

California to reduce carbon emissions by... banning black cars?!

California Air Resources Board figures that the climate control systems of dark colored cars need to work harder than their lighter siblings – especially after sitting in the sun for a few hours. Anyone living in a hot, sunny climate will tell you that this assumption is accurate, of course.

When we first heard of this issue, an internal debate immediately began as to whether this might be an elaborate early April Fool's joke, but it isn't.

Just how much energy does the state think it will save? Enough to cover the regulatory costs?

Every time I think the state of California can't possibly get any stupider, it proves me wrong.

THE BIG 3-5-0

A milestone of sorts. I just published my 350th post, with three more still scheduled. I'm still in a bit of shock about that - I never dreamed I'd be writing so much or so often.

When I first started Shadow's World, it was simply going to be a mechanism to communicate with family and friends while I was on my first tour of Iraq. It didn't work, of course; in 2006, internet communication from a war zone simply didn't exist.

Well, that's not quite true. It did, but "commercial" internet was in its infancy in Iraq, slow and intermittent at best.

On my second tour in 2008, I was smarter and didn't take a computer - only to find out that I was wrong again. Even the CHU's (Coalition housing units, or quarters) were wired with high-speed internet. (One of my co-workers used to watch football games from his CHU via webcam with his father in the States.)

Now Shadow's World has morphed into sort of a semi-political blog, and I've morphed into a pajamas-clad (gasp!) blogger, flinging unwashed opinions into the ether from a darkened basement (well, not quite: the computer I'm at is actually in a bedroom).

To paraphrase someone, I'm not sure who, "we live in interesting times."

CHARITY IS COMMUNITY PROPERTY

In an earlier post, I suggested that possibly the Obama administration’s proposal to reduce the charitable deduction for the wealthy was a ploy to fund his social engineering programs and, at worst, buy votes.

I worried that I might be “attributing malice to that which could be explained by stupidity.”

I needn’t have worried. Here’s Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, in today’s Washington Post:


When the wealthiest Americans donate to charities, they are most likely to give to universities, hospitals and cultural institutions from which they and their families may benefit.

Well, it’s their money, isn’t it? Berg doesn’t appear to think so.

First, such tax deductions are a highly inefficient way to fund social programs.

Second, voluntary private charity is a less equitable way to solve community problems. While many people assume that the rich amass their wealth on their own, the truth is that their business interests are almost always aided by public efforts such as roads, bridges and ports through which they ship their goods or public schools that educate their workforces.

It doesn’t seem to occur to Mr. Berg that “the rich” also pay the majority of taxes that build these roads, bridges, ports, and public schools.

Given that even the wealthiest benefit greatly from this modern "public commons," it is wrong to give them unilateral power to decide whether their taxpayer-subsidized donations should go ....

In other words, Berg’s priorities outweigh the priorities of those who are actually supplying the funds.

It is fashionable these days to say that "the community," not government, should solve social problems.... In America, the government is the most legitimate voice of the entire community.

Wealth is, or rather should be “community property.” Is it any wonder why the wealthier among us are “going John Galt?”

Wasn’t it Karl Marx who said “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”? Why yes, yes it was.

[UPDATE] The Washington Times agrees: “Mr. Obama, his administration and allies seem to see charity and charitable giving in a different light.”

LIGHTS ON, PEOPLE

Don Surber:

On Saturday, [the Left] will celebrate Earth Hour by shutting off the lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. A whole bunch of cities and corporations will also turn down the lights to show their political correctness.

We had plenty of Earth Hours in Western Europe from 500 AD to 1000 AD.

We called it the Dark Ages, a time when the Western World regressed and abandoned all the cultural and scientific achievements of the Roman Empire.

Nice going, ancestors.

Instead of Earth Hour, I shall celebrate Human Achievement Hour by leaving on my lights and maybe turning on the air conditioner regardless of the temperature.

The furnace can always warm me if it gets too cold.

Celebrate progress. Keep the lights on and the furnace warm.

THERE’S NO JOY IN MUDVILLE TONIGHT ...

... mighty Soduku has been solved.

But there’s a catch: “To complete a puzzle using his theory takes more than an hour, while most sudoku problems can be solved within 20 minutes using logic and intuition.”

The solution is here.

GODSPEED, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

And thank you for your service to America.

CHANGE I CAN BELIEVE IN

The SUGAR act of 2009.

Pricey, yes, but worth every nickel.