Welcome Wal-Mart Watch!

Let's welcome those lovable "grassroots" activists at Wal-Mart Watch. They stopped by Palousitics for 17 minutes and 18 seconds this afternoon (and not for the first time).

Drop by anytime fellas!

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Nero Lives!!

The recent celebration of Washington's Birthday combined with recent Washington Democratic antics have reminded me that this state is unworthy to bear the name of the "Father of our Country."

A much more fitting name for Washington would be "Nero." Our flag color should be changed from green to red (for obvious reasons), but instead of a crossed hammer and sickle, I recommend a crossed fiddle and bow, in honor of the legendary Roman emperor.

You see, while our transportation infrastructure is crumbling as politicians bicker over a Viaduct replacement, violent felons are set loose on the street because our prisons are full, and the majority of high schoolers can't pass the WASL, our dauntless Democrats in the state legislature were busy wasting the taxpayer's time and money yesterday holding public hearings in Olympia on meaningless House and Senate resolutions calling for the investigation and possible impeachment of President George W. Bush and blocking the troop surge in Iraq.

Even Queen Christine and Senator Tennis Shoes Mom are agog over this shameless display of juvenility and petulance.

I had believed that the current Democratic supermajority in Washington's government could never be overturned in less than a decade. I may, thankfully, be proven wrong.

Al Gore, My Inspiration!

Al Gore has inspired me and perhaps provided a coterie of soon to be discomfited Palouse residents with a little cover. Last Sunday, Al Gore won an Academy Award for his scare flick, “An Inconvenient Truth,” about the imminent perils of global warming and carbon emissions. On Monday, the power bill for just one of his three mansions was made public and, on that house alone, Al Gore’s energy consumption is 20 times the national average.

I really couldn’t understand why the mainstream media paid so little attention to Al Gore’s carbon extravagant lifestyle and glaring hypocrisy. This guy preaches to the rest of us about how we need to reduce our “carbon footprint.” But he runs up a utility bill that exceeds most Americans take home paycheck heating and lighting just one of his mansions. Al Gore’s power bill is the moral equivalent of those photographs that caught former televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in a motel room with a prostitute. And that was big news. But Al Gore isn’t.
Apparently, the ever vigilant and unbiased mainstream media were satisfied with Al Gore’s explanation that he purchased “carbon offsets” from people and businesses that emitted less carbon dioxide than was morally allotted to them. Purchasing these credits somehow neutralized his own excesses and permits him to claim, with a straight face, that his existence on this earth is “carbon neutral.”
I must confess that, at first glance, Al Gore’s carbon credit scheme made me think that I could diet more comfortably by purchasing fat credits from skinny people. I was even more skeptical when I learned that Al Gore was essentially purchasing these carbon credits from himself. Al Gore is the co-founder and chairman of the company “Global Investment Management,” that buys and sells these carbon offsets.
Now, a cynic might compare Al Gore to Johann Tetzel, the 15th century papal peddler of indulgences who enraged Martin Luther by offering forgiveness from sin for a price.
"As soon a coin in coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs," was Tetzel’s sales pitch as he rode around the German countryside in his horse drawn wagon, advertising his franchise.
But certainly, a man who is known to his devotees as “The Goracle” could not be so cynical or ambitious as that. We have it on the word of his spokesman that Gore is not ambitious and a spokesman for Gore must be an honorable man.
And so, as a devoted free marketeer myself, I see this as a potential business opportunity that I might want to investigate. No, I’m not going to sell oatmeal offsets to people with high cholesterol or tofu credits to vegetarians who occasionally chomp a Whopper. What I’m offering are guilt credits to anti-Wal-Mart activists who succumb to the temptation of lower prices.
With every hurdle of real consequence passed and only gratuitous nuisance complaints remaining, it is now inevitable that Wal-Mart Supercenters will be built in Pullman and, in all likelihood, in Latah County just outside the Moscow city limits. And the day will come when each of those activists will find it more convenient or just so much cheaper to shop at Wal-Mart that they won’t be able to resist the pull any longer, and they’ll go inside and buy something. They might even stand in line on Black Friday to get their Christmas shopping over with early and inexpensively.
And I’d like to give them an opportunity to cleanse themselves of that embarrassment by offering low price offsets. Certainly there are people out there, like Al Gore and Paris Hilton, who are so filthy rich that they never have to consider retail prices. And we all know people who delight in conspicuous consumption and purchase designer label blue jeans at 5 times the price of the identical pair with a Kirkland Select label. Why not trade the extravagance credits that those people earn to crypto-Wal-Mart shoppers as guilt salve? Ever dollar they save at Wal-Mart can be used to purchase extravagance credits from me. If one of these activists is sighted by a fellow PARDner emerging from Wal-Mart with a gallon of milk that cost 50 cents less than it would have across the street, then the guilty party only has to display an extravagance credit to cleanse the record of the sin.
Why not? It worked for Al Gore.

"Planning commission may revise downtown parking codes"

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Additional study will determine whether changes are necessary

The Pullman Planning Commission will consider possible changes to downtown parking codes following an extensive study of the area.

During its Wednesday meeting, the commission asked city staff to gather additional statistics on the downtown parking situation, despite an informal study recently completed by Planning Director Pete Dickinson.

Requested by the commission in January, the study showed there are more residential units in the downtown area than there are parking spots. Dickinson's study, which was shared with the commission Wednesday, was not comprehensive and did not provide the exact number of bedrooms in each residential unit.

The commission agreed that current codes - which do not require developers to provide parking spots for residential units in the downtown area - can easily be exploited.

Recent development proposals in the Central Business District zone created controversy because fewer than one parking spot was proposed per apartment, regardless of the number of bedrooms. Pioneer Hill residents voiced opposition to the projects, which they believed would create parking problems that would affect their neighborhood.

Bill Gnaedinger, a Paradise Way resident, requested that the commission re-evaluate the downtown parking situation and consider a possible code change that would require developers to provide one parking spot per bedroom.

"Put the burden on the developer for a variance," he said. "There's a problem waiting to happen, and it's happening."

Commission Chairman Stephen Garl agreed it's about time the codes were revisited.

"I think it's worthy of a review," he said.

The commission asked that Dickinson and his staff collect more data regarding the downtown parking situation. Relevant information would include an inventory of the number of bedrooms present in downtown residential units, parking spots, potential development, peak parking hours and comments from property owners, business owners and residents.

Dickinson said the comprehensive study will not be complete until summer.

Commission member Jandi Utzman doesn't think more studies are needed. She said enough public outcry has been heard to know parking in Pullman is a problem.

"I don't understand why we would want more studies," she said. "What more could it tell us?"

Gnaedinger agreed. He said further studies are merely postponing action.

"The process of amending the code will bring out all other parties," he said. "We'll hear from them. We don't need another study."

Garl said any additional information would be helpful, particularly comments provided by stakeholders.

"To go one direction without gathering more information, I think we end up shooting from the hip," Garl said. "These are all people we need to hear from."

Gnaedinger said he expects developers to clamor for permits before any code change is enforced.

Still, he's pleased with the commission's decision to investigate a potential change.

"At least it's an action," he said.

In other business, the commission discussed the possibility of re-evaluating the city's urban growth area to incorporate a proposed annexation to the north and east of city limits.

The commission agreed that public input and a joint meeting with Whitman County commissioners are necessary to make any boundary decisions.

"I think it's appropriate that we get together (with commissioners) again," Garl said.

Meeting dates have yet to be set.

Comments?

The Cult of Miserablism

"If God didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him." - Voltaire

Indur Goklany has a new book titled The Improving State of the World: Why We’re Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet. In a story about Goklany's book, Daniel Ben-Ami writes:

...the whole of humanity, including the developing world, has benefited as a result of rising prosperity...There are exceptions to this improving trend but these confirm rather than contradict the close connection between economic growth and quality of life...the combination of economic growth and technological development is not just beneficial to human well-being in a narrow sense. Goklany also argues strongly that the environment becomes better fit for human beings as a result of progress.

A key question is: What is it about contemporary society that pre-disposes so many people to be fearful of risks and blind to the benefits of progress?

My theory is that since modern-day humanism killed off God, liberals have developed their own religion, for as Voltaire said, man requires some sort of faith. To quote from Ann Coulter:

Under the guise of not favoring religion, liberals favor one cosmology over another and demand total indoctrination into theirs. The state religion of liberalism demands obeisance (to the National Organization for Women), tithing (to teachers' unions), reverence (for abortion), and formulaic imprecations ('Bush lied, kids died!'' 'Keep your laws off my body!' 'Arms for hostages!'). Everyone is taxed to support indoctrination into the state religion through public schools where innocent children are taught a specific belief system, rather than, say, math.

Now, global warming is becoming the state religion. Big corporations are the devil. Big government the savior. Al Gore the prophet. Melted ice caps the apocalypse. The minarets of the media broadcast the daily commandments that must be obeyed while local mullahs judge our behavior. Infidels are publicly stoned.

Actually, liberalism has many such sects (anti-sprawl, anti-Wal-Mart, anti-growth, anti-war, etc, etc.) The one unifying credo is that the world is going to hell and its all man's fault. We've taken a bite form the forbidden apple of capitalism and we are doomed as a result.

Why does the cult require such miserablism? Simple. It's the only way the faithful liberals can justify their existence. Their reward? Not eternal life, but earthly power of an unprecedented nature. The gloomerati now control the halls of Congress, the studios of Hollywood, the ivy-covered halls of academe, and the schoolhouses of America.

Go Cougs!!

Beat the Bruins!!

Why You Should Care About the Rural Residential Housing Ordinance

Heard this on KMAX Inland Northwest News yesterday.
Pullman pays 46% of Whitman County's property taxes. Remember, WSU is exempt from property tax.

That's stunning. In a county with an area of 2,150.37 square miles, a large part of the property tax revenue comes from an area of maybe 4-5 square miles.

That's one reason I would like to see more housing in the ag zone of the county. Let's spread the tax burden around a bit, shall we?

Chris Gregoire: International Woman of Mockery

Saw this over at Sound Politics the other day.

The February 22 issue of the distinguished magazine The Economist of London has a story on Seattle's tunnel/viaduct meltdown. In part, it reads:

The spectacle of the bulky, dark-haired Mr Nickels mud-wrestling with the diminutive, honey-haired Ms Gregoire has not been edifying. “These people are going to go down as some of the worst urban leaders in America,” comments Bryan Jones, an expert on public policy at the University of Washington. At present Ms Gregoire is coming off worse. Now in her third year in office after an election so tight that it had to be decided in court, she had gained respect as an effective legislative manager. But her ambitious education and health-care plans have disappeared in the viaduct's shadow. And the bitterness of the fight is expected to sour debate over future projects in and around Seattle, including the need to replace a vital floating bridge that carries traffic to the city's eastern suburbs.

So thanks to Gregoire and the Democrats, our state's transportation problems have made us a laughingstock around the world.

We can do better than mud-wrestlers in government.

Al Gore Dummies Up

After scolding the media for failing to adequately convey his message of environmental alarmism, Al Gore fled the stage without answering questions.

I'm sure the rest of you are as shocked as I am to learn that the media has not toed his line obediently enough, but he does.

"I believe that is one of the principal reasons why political leaders around the world have not yet taken action," Gore said. "There are many reasons, but one of the principal reasons in my view is more than half of the mainstream media have rejected the scientific consensus implicitly — and I say 'rejected,' perhaps it's the wrong word. They have failed to report that it is the consensus and instead have chosen … balance as bias.

"I don't think that any of the editors or reporters responsible for one of these stories saying, 'It may be real, it may not be real,' is unethical. But I think they made the wrong choice, and I think the consequences are severe.

"I think if it is important to look at the pressures that made it more likely than not that mainstream journalists in the United States would convey a wholly inaccurate conclusion about the most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced."

Gore would not answer any questions from the media after the event.

I wonder why?

More on "Carbon Offsets"

If you're filthy rich, like Al Gore or his Hollywood limousine liberal buddies, where to you buy carbon offsets that allow you to live a lifestyle that consumes spews 20 times as much carbon as the average family? Well, in the case of Algore, he buys them from himself.

Bill Hobbs has the rest of the story.

So far, so good. So, where does Gore buy his ‘carbon offsets’? According to The Tennessean newspaper’s report, Gore buys his carbon offsets through Generation Investment Management. a company he co-founded and serves as chairman:
Gore helped found Generation Investment Management, through which he and others pay for offsets. The firm invests the money in solar, wind and other projects that reduce energy consumption around the globe…
As co-founder and chairman of the firm Gore presumably draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he “buys” his “carbon offsets” from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. To be blunt, Gore doesn’t buy “carbon offsets” through Generation Investment Management - he buys stocks.

Will someone tell my how this story is different from a televangelist getting caught in a motel room with a whore?