Updates and Observations

In a commentary entitled Environmental Extremism Metastasizes posted in 6/13 I wrote that some timber dependent counties are having troubles: “Josephine County in Oregon is now considering having just one Sheriff’s patrol for its 83,000 residents. Curry County, also in Oregon, is facing a state takeover. Liberal Democrat Governor John Kitzhaber, who sat in Michelle Obama’s box at the 2013 State of the Union address, proposed an increase in property taxes for these two distressed counties. After the voters rejected that he proposed a local income tax and threatened the residents with National Guard troops or state police to replace the depleted locally controlled law enforcement.” His I know better than you attitude finally got the better of him as he just resigned the governorship to concentrate on the criminal investigations of his official activities. Some concerned green energy companies, but it seems that Kitzhaber’s interest in the more traditional green of money perhaps outweighed his love for God’s green earth.

Yemen becoming another Islamic Terror state has been in the news of late. I suspect that most Americans probably checked a map to find Yemen. This isn’t surprising for a backwater of the world place. But sitting by the horn of Africa, Yemen has traditionally been a center of trade and the probable home of the legendary Queen of Sheba. It prospered as a pagan, then Jewish and Christian nation. This legacy persisted during early Muslim rule and coffee exported through its port of Mocha captivated world markets and remains as an expression for coffee. But centuries of Muslim rule have transformed Yemen into a place that now only makes the news for its atrocities.

Often I have attacked the bureaucratic mentality. Here is a concrete example from my own experience. The early Sacramento Light Rail stations had permanent bike lockers installed. What statistical model is so clairvoyant that it can not only accurately predict the present demand for bike lockers but also demand through 50 years of probable neighborhood change? Should public money be spent to build and maintain empty unrented bike lockers? Fortunately, wiser management took over and all bicycle lockers are now portable and installed where needed. No one has been denied a bike locker, nor will they ever be. But supply and demand are in balance and waste is eliminated. Why do so many seem to leave common sense behind them when they become public servants? Or is this the proscribed way of thinking taught in many of our elite universities?

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett