Russ Nelson

Corruption

"Corruption"? What does that mean, anyway? To my mind, it is people who have been tasked with a job, but they are not doing it. Instead, they are doing something which benefits them, rather than their employer. When this is discovered at a private company, the person gets fired. When a politician is corrupt, it's harder to do. Sometimes their corruption helps a powerful person, and they lend their power to keep the politician in office.

My feeling is that corruption in the face of power is inevitable. As Lord Acton said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." These days, the politicians in Washington have absolute power. The only check on their power is other political entities: the executive, the judiciary, or the legislative.

I want to fire these politicians ... permanently. I want Washington to go back to being the foggy bottom where nobody wants to live year-round. I want political power to devolve from the monopoly government in Washington, and return to the competing governments in Albany, Salem, Montpelier, Sacramento, Trenton, etc.

The problem is not the corruption. The problem is that the only control that people have over Washington is voting, and it's a very infrequent and uncertain control. At the state level, people can (and do -- New York State has the highest taxes and is losing population) vote with their feet.

Politicians will always be corrupt, as long as they have power without oversight (and voting doesn't provide enough oversight -- the option of exit does).

[Tags economics, politics, corruption ]

Global Warming vs. Intelligent Design

An article by Kenton Williston in EE Times suggests that the issues of Global Warming and Intelligent Design are comparable. He says that you need faith that the facts are wrong to support Intelligent Design and to oppose Global Warming, and that there is no place for such faith in the field of Electrical Engineering. So, he's disturbed to find out that not every EE agrees with him.

The trouble with his posting is that global warming is primarily an issue of economics. What decisions we make depends on the costs we face. After all if global warming posed no risks, no costs of adjustment, no changes in lifestyle, who would care whether it was happening or not. But some people claim that we must pay huge costs now, or suffer much larger costs later. So, to get the correct answer on what to do about global warming, you must consult economists.

As it turns out, doing nothing about global warming isn't all that expensive relative to the alternatives. It's possible that some new technologies will be created which help us control CO2 emissions cheaply. If so, we should adopt them. Otherwise, steps like the Kyoto Accord cost so much now in return for such small benefits so far in the future, that they are no better than doing nothing.

Now, I happen to be of the belief that the climate has been changing all the time; that those changes are visible in recorded human history; that they have been going on long before humans were burning more than campfires; and that they are unstoppable. All that we can do is to adjust to them. So, if we're warming the global a little more with our CO2 emissions, it's just a small addition to the cost that we are going to have to pay regardless.

Sure, low-lying areas will become inundated, just as the areas just off shore were inundated thousands of years ago. Atlantis is not just a possibility, it's a likelihood. Perhaps the story of Atlantis was meant as a cautionary tale: don't build so close to the sea because the sea level changes.

If we squander huge sums on reducing CO2, only to find that the globe was always going to warm up, how faithful will Kenton look then? Better to stick with the science of global warming:

We know man has been emitting CO2.
We know that CO2 warms the globe.
We know that the globe is warming anyway.

and not try to make unwarranted cause and effect relationships between these facts. That requires a faith I do not have.

[Tags economics, globalwarming, intelligentdesign ]

Envionmentalism as a Religion

Freeman Dyson reviewed two books on global warming for the New York Times. As a side comment, he offered this:

All the books that I have seen about the science and economics of global warming, including the two books under review, miss the main point. The main point is religious rather than scientific. There is a worldwide secular religion which we may call environmentalism, holding that we are stewards of the earth, that despoiling the planet with waste products of our luxurious living is a sin, and that the path of righteousness is to live as frugally as possible. The ethics of environmentalism are being taught to children in kindergartens, schools, and colleges all over the world.

Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. And the ethics of environmentalism are fundamentally sound. Scientists and economists can agree with Buddhist monks and Christian activists that ruthless destruction of natural habitats is evil and careful preservation of birds and butterflies is good. The worldwide community of environmentalists—most of whom are not scientists—holds the moral high ground, and is guiding human societies toward a hopeful future. Environmentalism, as a religion of hope and respect for nature, is here to stay. This is a religion that we can all share, whether or not we believe that global warming is harmful.

Unfortunately, some members of the environmental movement have also adopted as an article of faith the belief that global warming is the greatest threat to the ecology of our planet. That is one reason why the arguments about global warming have become bitter and passionate. Much of the public has come to believe that anyone who is skeptical about the dangers of global warming is an enemy of the environment. The skeptics now have the difficult task of convincing the public that the opposite is true. Many of the skeptics are passionate environmentalists. They are horrified to see the obsession with global warming distracting public attention from what they see as more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet, including problems of nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation, and social injustice. Whether they turn out to be right or wrong, their arguments on these issues deserve to be heard.

I've realized why I'm so hostile to environmentalists, e.g. on bottled water. It is because I see the Religious Society of Friends being corrupted by this secular religion of environmentalism. "Thou Shalt Place No Gods Before Me": not just good advice, it's a requirement.

[Tags environmentalism, economics, religion ]

Hate Obama Now, Avoid the Rush.

By which I mean that I expect Barack Obama to become president, try to solve problems, fail, and be majorly disliked by nearly everyone. If I thought John McCain was going to win, I would have said "Hate McCain Now, Avoid the Rush." Because, you see, we put impossible pressures on our presidents. We expect them to be able to act like dictators, solving problems left and right, writing executive orders, and generally cutting a swathe through everyone's favorite problem.

If ever a man has the power to do great good, he could also use it to do great evil. That is reason enough to deny anybody that much power.

[Tags economics, politics ]

Ride starting Fri Jul 4 10:02:30 2008

11.39 km 37365.47 feet 7.08 mi

A short ride today; only 7 miles. We carpooled up to the Staple Bend tunnel, and rode out, through, and back. Nobody got too creeped out about going through the tunnel.

This week, I rode 108 miles. The workshop short rides added up to 56 miles.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Thu Jul 3 09:30:29 2008

20.36 km 66795.54 feet 12.65 mi 7027.00 seconds 117.12 minutes 1.95 hours 6.48 mi/hr

Today, we did ride all the way to Salix, turned right, and back through the ever-present Elton.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Wed Jul 2 15:48:06 2008

12.83 km 42107.35 feet 7.97 mi 5224.00 seconds 87.07 minutes 1.45 hours 5.50 mi/hr

Rode out to see the Staple Bend Tunnel. Also rode back on the Path of the Flood Trail, but ran out of time and had to turn back.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Wed Jul 2 09:36:36 2008

18.26 km 59895.78 feet 11.34 mi 6034.00 seconds 100.57 minutes 1.68 hours 6.77 mi/hr

Went out past Elton again and most of the way to Salix, taking a side road loop part-way to Dunlo.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Tue Jul 1 14:05:21 2008

42.60 km 139765.77 feet 26.47 mi 13227.00 seconds 220.45 minutes 3.67 hours 7.20 mi/hr

Tuesday afternoon, Beth Burbank and I rode on the Ghost Town Trail, from Ebensburg west to Vintondale and Emily Furnace. It was 13.2 miles downhill, followed by 13.2 miles uphill. Funny, we hadn't noticed the grade of the hill as we were riding down it. At Ebensburg, the elevation is 2020 feet, and in Vintondale, it's 1400 feet. Noticed a few abandoned sidings on the way, and with more time I would have liked to examine them.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Tue Jul 1 09:21:54 2008

17.73 km 58165.25 feet 11.02 mi 6045.00 seconds 100.75 minutes 1.68 hours 6.56 mi/hr

Headed straight to Elton, did a big loop ending a few hundred feet from our exit from Elton, and back to campus. Elton figures prominently in these rides because there are six roads coming together all within a few hundred feet.

[Tags bicycling ]