“IT’S NO SECRET THAT A FRIEND IS SOMEONE WHO LETS YOU HELP.” That’s one of my favorite U2 lines. It’s from their song, “The Fly.” It’s the spirit in which I share this: Today is the first day of the rest of my life and my family’s life. For me and my wife, yesterday was our last day on staff at Harambee. It’s been a great 19 years for me and 17 years for my honey. We will start this next season in our lives with a family sabbatical. We’ll be living in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the coming year. In a few days we’ll take leave of Southern California and take hold of the upper Midwest with two hands. This is where you can come in. I’d like to make the transition as smooth as possible for my pregnant wife and three children. If you’d like to send a little something something to help me bless my family, I’ll receive it with appreciation. Click here to bless the Carrasco family. Email me if you’d like more information. Thanks!
It’s no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help
July 1st, 2009 by rcarrascoThe Law Triumphs in Honduras y mas
June 30th, 2009 by rcarrascoTHE LAW TRIUMPHS IN HONDURAS says John Fund in the Wall Street Journal:
Many foreign observers are condemning the ouster of Honduran President Mel Zelaya, a supporter of Hugo Chavez, as a “military coup.” But can it be a coup when the Honduran military acted on the orders of the nation’s Supreme Court, the step was backed by the nation’s attorney general, and the man replacing Mr. Zelaya and elected in emergency session by that nation’s Congress is a member of the former president’s own political party?Mr. Zelaya had sacked General Romeo Vasquez, head of the country’s armed forces, after he refused to use his troops to provide logistical support for a referendum designed to let Mr. Zelaya escape the country’s one-term limit on presidents. Both the referendum and the firing of the military chief have been declared illegal by the Honduran Supreme Court. Nonetheless, Mr. Zelaya intended yesterday to use ballots printed in Venezuela to conduct the vote anyway.
All this will be familiar to members of Honduras’ legislature, who vividly recall how Mr. Chavez in Venezuela adopted similar means to hijack his country’s democracy and economy. Elected a decade ago, Mr. Chavez held a Constituent Assembly and changed the constitution to enhance his power and subvert the country’s governing institutions. Mr. Zelaya made it clear that he wished to do the same in Honduras and that the referendum was the first step in installing a new constitution that would enhance his powers and allow him to run for re-election.
No one likes to see a nation’s military in the streets, especially in a continent with such painful memories of military rule. But Honduras is clearly a different situation. Members of Mr. Zelaya’s own party in Congress voted last week to declare him unfit for his office. Given his refusal to leave, who else was going to enforce the orders of the nation’s other branches of government?
If Fund’s analysis is correct, it was not a coup but rather due process of law, what we should be affirming. Every day, however, I see the Los Angeles Times’ headlines on this matter using the word “coup.” I wonder if that verbiage will change as the facts become more broadly dispersed.
y mas…
• There’s some energy behind a bill on Capital Hill to “Audit The Fed.”
• The U.S. Military, Exiting Iraq’s cities, victorious: This should be getting more cheers and coverage. This was and is not another Vietnam. Look.
• The US Men’s Soccer team stepped it up last week, defeating mighty Spain and holding Brazil over the cliff until the very end. Excellent. Greater things are yet to come in 2010…
• This guy says conspiratorial thinking has become respectable. I’ve sensed this for a while. People love to attribute large, mysterious events (usually events we don’t like) to a plan skillfully executed by a hidden group of evil plotters. But what in life ever goes according to plan? I think the devil himself has trouble executing plans, because he has to rely on people to carry out his wishes, and people are a notoriously selfish bunch who don’t willingly submit to authority and who are, besides, only human. Whenever I hear a perspective that requires precise execution and alignment of improbable events, I pass. But only after listening for a while. Because conspiracy scenarios are, you know, pretty fascinating. The human mind can make some amazing connections and see monumental castles where there is only sand. Remember the quote attributed to Napoleon: “Never attribute to malice what can easily be explained by incompetence.”
• Bon Jovi has recorded a song in support of the Iranian protestors.
• Just shut down for a week: That, apparently, is what Adobe is doing to save cash.
• Average Twitter user has 126 followers.
• They grow up quickly:
Cap and Trade = Bad
June 26th, 2009 by rcarrascoINVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: WAXMAN-MARKEY A MAN-MADE DISASTER: This article references the “cap and trade” emissions scheme embedded in a bill up for vote today: “The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump.”
Read on:
As we’ve said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million (see charts below).Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once put it, by 90% adjusted for inflation. Inflation-adjusted gasoline prices would rise 74%, residential natural gas prices by 55% and the average family’s annual energy bill by $1,500.
Hit hardest by all this would be the “95% of working families” Obama keeps mentioning as being protected from increased taxation. They are protected, that is, unless they use energy. Then they’ll be hit by this draconian energy tax.
And what would we get for all this pain? According to an analysis by Chip Knappenberger, administrator of the World Climate Report, the reduction of U.S. CO2 emissions to 83% below 2005 levels by 2050 — the goal of the Waxman-Markey bill — would reduce global temperature in 2050 by a mere 0.05 degree Celsius.
My point is not to debate the merits or lack thereof of global warming / climate change, but to point out that, in the name of “good intentions” and “doing the right thing,” we are about to create more trouble for ourselves. As the headline reads, a Man-Made Disaster. According to other sources, the bill is being rammed through Congress with a three-hour discussion.
Today the world is caught up with Michael Jackson’s death, Gov. Sanford’s crazy antics, and some other mess, but legislation with decades-long negative impact is about to sail through without the attention (and sunlight of transparency) that is critical. I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world, as I believe all sorts of buffoonery can be reversed. But the consequences for this one will be huge. Talk about hope and pray.
UPDATE: Greenpeace opposes Waxman-Markey, albeit for different reasons than my own:
“As it comes to the floor, the Waxman-Markey bill sets emission reduction targets far lower than science demands, then undermines even those targets with massive offsets. The giveaways and preferences in the bill will actually spur a new generation of nuclear and coal-fired power plants to the detriment of real energy solutions. To support such a bill is to abandon the real leadership that is called for at this pivotal moment in history. We simply no longer have the time for legislation this weak.
I, for one, am for nuclear energy. I wish the U.S. would build a string of nuclear reactors across the country. It takes more than 10 years to build a plant, so no time like the present to get started.
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