Alfred’s Commentary on the Human Condition

I just don't get where government seems to think that they are above financial reality. In a business, if revenue falls, spending falls, and then plans are made to increase productivity, create new products, advertise, rationalize expenditures that inevitably get out of line during good time, etc. to try and increase revenue again. Governments seem to think that they have some God given right to exist and instead of shrinking as revenue falls, raise taxes, cook the books, play games and cry about the lack of funding, and generally assert their "right" to existence. Of course, as a society there are certain governmental functions that we do not cut, ie, health and safety, but everything else is fair game until revenue rises again. Seems simple to me.

I don't really know enough about the Muslims to make any blanket statements, but it appears that there is a fundamental disconnect between our constitutional form of government and their faith. Our founding fathers were bent on creating a country that did not allow religious persecution, and more importantly, elevated an agnostic body of law to Supreme status, which guaranteed individual rights that could not be abridged by religious or political dogma. The Constitution became in effect our Political GOD, with the Supreme Court being elevated to final arbitrator of conflict between the Law (as codified in the Constitution) and religious and/or political expediency. So I ask, can a Muslim be a good American (defined as a person who is a resident of the United States)? The Christian religion as currently practiced seems to take to heart the Bible passage "Give unto Caesar what is Caesars......", which allows for subordination of the Religion to the State, which guarantees its existence and freedom of expression. It is crucial for our success (as we define it) that the Constitution be recognized for what it is, the prime guarantor of our way of life period! A religion that can not subjugate itself to the State (which in this case means the primacy of personal expression), it has no place in our society and should be discouraged.

Energy Reality

I own a small supermarket and although not an expert in energy policy and use, I certainly am affected by decisions made by our leaders. If you are in the food business, you are intimately familiar with the the “Temperature Chain” that allows our modern food production and distribution system to work. Without it, we die. Imagine trying to keep New York City fed without the constant stream of diesel powered refrigerated trucks and trains bringing food from farms and factories round the clock. And realize that every part of that system, starting from the trucks that bring the seed to the farms, make the fertilizer, deliver the fertilizer (whether it is organic or not), spread the fertilizer, make the pipes and pumps that move the water, power the tractors to till and harvest the crops, transport the farm workers to pick and pack the crops, make the boxes pack the crops in (especially in the case of recycled cardboard that must be collected, ground, washed, re manufactured into boxes and transported back to the farms), cool the crops in the field at the start of the temperature chain, transport the crops to processors and/or distributors, ...... all the way to my store at a temperature below the spoilage point, IS COMPLETELY DEPENDENT ON OIL! Our food system (one of many important systems that make our modern world possible) literally floats on a pool of oil. Renewables which today represent only 2% of our energy will never power that system, bank on it, believe, do your own research. Unless you want to be part of a genocide of unimaginable proportions, we need hydro-carbons now, we need to drill now. Energy and efficiencies that it allows is the lever of our wealth, without cheap available energy we become a third-world economy, and doom millions.

Alfred Holzheu

The New Republic: “Moving beyond bias” A very Liberal Website has started to see the light. And this was not just the only article. Amazing.

In response to Paying in Full as the Ticket Into Colleges

This is just to funny, why is this news. People are just clueless. College is expensive, always has been always will be, and just because the economic-adolescents had a run while they spent the accumulated wealth of the econ-drivers (people who actually produced more than they consumed), they can not contravene physics. Businessmen, engineers, miners, farmers, etc are the anti-entropy to the entropy of the government vampires. Just watch what happens when they run out of wealth to steal.

For all the ignorant envirowackos out there, "Earth Hour" is a death wish. Humans can only survive and prosper by the use our hands and minds, in the subduing of nature. "Human Hour" will be a day we all turn our lights on, both physically and mentally as we reaffirm our right to exist and develop for the betterment of all mankind. Turn the lights on!

Carpe Diem (Mark J. Perry's economics blog)

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Friedman & Donahue from Alfred Holzheu on Vimeo.

[link retired — WMV video “Milton Friedman – Greed”, hosted on the old holzheu.com storage]