Westward Ho!

The early history of America is one of westward migration. If things got a little dicey with the law or one’s neighbors, or maybe one wanted to farm without the rocks of Massachusetts, one could always head west. Looking at my family’s personal history over the centuries this is what happened. France to Virginia to Tennessee to Missouri was my family’s personal saga over the last 300 years. I have continued this by moving to California. Westward Ho!  

The story is told of two men who went west to the Ohio valley. The first man stopped at a homestead and saw an old man on the front porch of the modest cabin where the old man lived. Old men are supposed to give good advice, so the traveler asked him, “Is this a good place to stop? What are the people like here?” 

The old man pondered the question and then asked one of his own. “How were the people where you came from?” 

The pioneer answered him, “The people where I came from were selfish and argumentative, and would not help their neighbor.” “Ah,” the old man said, “You will find people the same here.” The traveler continued on his journey. 

The second traveler later that day asked the old man the same questions. The old man again asked, “How were the people where you came from?” 

The second homesteader answered, “The people were great, always willing to help a neighbor. We regretted leaving our friends there.” 

The old man answered, “You will find people the same here.” The traveler stayed in the area and found the old man’s words to be prophetic. 

So if you find the situation you are in to be difficult, you need to think about the words of the old man. Is your boss really that bad, or are you by your actions or your inaction causing the situation? The boss may remain a jerk, but might become a jerk who favors you because of your performance. You cannot really change others, but you can change yourself. And by changing yourself, you may find that others “change.” As the proverb says “What goes around, comes around.”  

Paul said the same in Gal 6: 

⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

We do, to a surprising degree, create the world in which we live. Are you as wise as the old man? What world are you creating? 

Opera Hip Hop

This is one of my favorite videos-even though I speak almost no Russian. The main singer is a well known, at least in Russia, opera singer named Nickolai Baskov. There are not too many opportunities to make opera videos, so Baskov is making the transition to being a Russian Pop Star.    

The story that is told is clear enough, in a vague sort of way. Baskov is jilted, killed and goes to hell. I suppose I appreciate the female form as well as the next guy, but to have scantily clad women dancing, without a perceivable story, does not make a good video. While there are scantily clad women in this video, at least they do not detract from the story. 

 

Going Dark

While I will not be "going dark" today here at Prophecy Podcast, I will not be posting anything other than this announcement that I support the one day strike of internet providers. Click here to see what going dark looks like. 

Why Aren't They In Jail?

This is a question that goes back to the Bush Administration. Obama has continued the Bush policies in most things, the lack of prosecution for bankster criminals is one of them.

It Depends What The Meaning of "Is" Is: Chevy Volt "Call Back"

As long as the government mandates environmental rules with no regard for the market, we will have bizarre incidents like the three I will talk about today. 

The first is the Chevy Volt "recall." For some reason they have decided not to call it a recall, but a “call back.”

The fixes are similar to a recall and involve about 8,000 Volts sold in the U.S. in the past two years. GM is making the repairs after three Volt batteries caught fire following crash tests done by federal safety regulators. The fires occurred seven days to three weeks after tests and have been blamed on a coolant leak that caused an electrical short.

The reason it is not a recall has nothing to do with the fact the Volt is a politically correct car—of course not! 

The German government is in the forefront of alternative energy. You would think the renowned German efficiency would allow them to remember that if you generate electricity from offshore wind farms that you need a way to get the electricity to the mainland. Or maybe not: 

The generation of electricity from wind is usually a completely odorless affair. After all, the avoidance of emissions is one of the unique charms of this particular energy source.

But when work is completed on the Nordsee Ost wind farm, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the island of Helgoland in the North Sea, the sea air will be filled with a strong smell of fumes: diesel fumes.

The reason is as simple as it is surprising. The wind farm operator, German utility RWE, has to keep the sensitive equipment -- the drives, hubs and rotor blades -- in constant motion, and for now that requires diesel-powered generators. Because although the wind farm will soon be ready to generate electricity, it won't be able to start doing so because of a lack of infrastructure to transport the electricity to the mainland and feed it into the grid. The necessary connections and cabling won't be ready on time and the delay could last up to a year.

In other words, before Germany can launch itself into the renewable energy era Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen so frequently hails, the country must first burn massive amounts of fossil fuels out in the middle of the North Sea -- a paradox as the country embarks on its energy revolution. 

Do we laugh or cry? Government-regulated monopolies somehow forgot that electricity needs to flow. 

But surely solar power is our future! Even with massive subsidies the industry has a few problems:

Idaho Power plans to cut off electricity on Tuesday to plant in Pocatello, Idaho, that makes material for solar energy, because the factory owes $1.9 million in unpaid utility bills. The dispute is with Honolulu-based Hoku Scientific, Inc., which is backed by Chinese financing and enjoys federal and state incentives.

Oops. 

As long as the government mandates, instead of the market, we will have odd examples like this. Market solutions work. 

Our Energy Policy is a Giant Accident Just Waiting to Happen!For example, the huge anti-market subsidies that are given to autos are not well understood by the average person. If you included the defense expenditures that the US makes to keep the oil flowing in your auto's fuel bill, the price of gas would at least double. All such subsidies, whether it is for politically correct forms of energy, or for gasoline, morph the market into something quite different and artificial than what it would have been otherwise. 

Stop all subsidies and let the market decide.