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Politics

Orange Grove Outrage

I was amazed last week when I was driving down Orange Grove Avenue in South Pasadena to see that the improvements being installed do not include returning the road to four lanes wide. How can it be that South Pasadena, after stopping construction of the 710 freeway for 40 years, can get away with making one of the access roads to the 110 freeway permanently narrower? Orange Grove Ave one lane south South Pasadena has got to be one of America’s most selfish cities. But… Read More »Orange Grove Outrage

An Innocent Question

On August 11, 2006 the UN Security Council passed resolution 1701 that reads in its third paragraph: “Emphasizing the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers.” This sounds pretty clear: “unconditional release”. Here is a picture of one of the abducted soldiers: So the question is have the Israeli soldiers been released? There is an old… Read More »An Innocent Question

Global Warming Warning

A few weeks ago I read somewhere that if all of the ice cap on Greenland melted the oceans would rise 21 feet. My initial reaction was disbelief. I quickly calculated in my head that it would only be a few inches. It turns out that I was wrong. Later I got some data from my Rand McNally Atlas and did the math and with worst-case assumptions I had the oceans rising 50 feet. With best case assumptions the oceans would still rise 20 feet.… Read More »Global Warming Warning

Sovereign States in the Middle East

Every nation in the Middle East— Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia— dates as a sovereign state from 60 to 70 years ago. “The only difference is that Israel has made a go of it.” This fact about the Middle East that was pointed out by Mark Steyn in National Review.  Draw your own conclusion.

Globalization

Here is a nice example of how globalization helps everybody: A box of Japanese apples (Fuji) being sold in a small store in Ravello, Italy, grown in China and imported by the Italian branch of an American banana company with a Spanish name (Chiquita).

Pasadena, the NFL and History

More than 100 years ago the Rose Parade was started in Pasadena so developers could illustrate to people in Chicago how magnificent Pasadena weather is in January. More than 70 years ago the boosters of our city built the Rose Bowl, the largest stadium in the world when it was built, at great financial risk to garner national attention by promoting an intersectional year end football game. Why? To keep Pasadena in the headlines in the Midwest. Both of these ventures succeeded far beyond their… Read More »Pasadena, the NFL and History

Gasoline Prices

Here is an idea that might help stabilize oil prices. Allow individuals to buy gasoline at todays prices for delivery in the future. Gasoline Futures for everyone. People on the East Coast can pre-buy home heating oil and lock in a price. Why can’t we do that with gasoline? Economist could probably predict the effect on the price of gasoline? Both in the short term and in the long term. People could buy coupons or credits on their credit cards for a specific number of… Read More »Gasoline Prices

How Free People Vote

The freedom to cast a secret ballot in a fair election is one of the most cherished rights of free people everywhere. It allows the people to influence the acts of their government and hopefully increases the chances that the government will act in the best interests of a majority of its constituents. But it turns out the freedom to vote at the ballot box is not the only requirement for a society to be considered to be free. To have real freedom people must… Read More »How Free People Vote

The Automobile Pension Mess

Here is an idea worth thinking about. The US automobile manufacturers are at a competitive disadvantage to importers. They have a large pool of retired workers who have been promised benefits that add to the cost of US cars versus the imports. What if as a part of a comprehensive plan to reform pensions (make them all defined contribution, self directed not defined benefit, company or union managed) that we spread the burden of the unfunded portion of auto workers pensions to a cost on… Read More »The Automobile Pension Mess

Democracy is Temporary

 At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinborough) had this to say about “The Fall of The Athenian Republic” some 2,000 years prior.       “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.… Read More »Democracy is Temporary