An observation on the Heights Observer

On my last trip to the bank, I picked up a copy of the Heights Observer, which reports doings in the quaint suburb of Cleveland Heights (that’s
http://www.heightsobserver.ORG
, thankyouverymuch; nothing commercial here). And doings there are, given that the Heights is just up the hill from University Circle, so the best and brightest live there, not only from convenience, but to avoid the insane government of Cleveland proper and establish their own insane government. And quaint it is. given that they’ve declared themselves a Nuclear-Free City, as if anyone benign would build a reactor there (land is too expensive) or anyone malign would be deterred from exploding a nuclear device by such a law. Politically, the place stands slightly to the right of Berkeley CA.

Anyway. in this week’s issue there is a report by Catherine Podojil on a viewing of Josh Fox’s film Gasland, which is apparently to the anti-fracking movement as Reefer Madness is to the anti-drug movement. (See here, or here, or here.). I say “report” instead of “free campaign ad”, because I’m sure Podojil considers herself a citizen journalist and I wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings. But some of the flavor can be captured by this quote: “the process is the gas and oil industry’s latest attempt to extract more money from the earth.” Now, I have never known a well to produce Federal Reserve Notes, or even specie; they produce oil and gas, which are values that are traded for other values through the medium of money (and which Podojil herself surely trades money for). I doubt very seriously that Podojil would write that an organic farmer “extracts money from the earth’, though even considering the inputs necessary, the industry of agriculture is equally extractive, with miles of roots sucking money from the ground (see what I just did there?). Apparently money is a bad thing, and perhaps Podojil should abjure it; I understand there are still grates free downtown.

Unlike the nuclear movement, the local opposition to fracking is not academic; miraculously, there are still gas wells in Cleveland Heights (Some on the Oakwood property, subject of a more sympathetic public movement). The nation won’t go into energy-starvation from the lack of hydrocarbons from Cleveland Heights.  but those who own the mineral rights might rightly have an opinion. Likewise, my problem with the Oakwood development (which, as a development, is totally stupid, and will either fail spectacularly and/or cause failure elsewhere) is that the folks making the waves don’t own the land, and yet think they have a say. But that’s business as usual in the former Republic of America.

Ag report: suck in 47 languages.

Planting began last Sat., about when I’d usually be finishing for spring. It was the first time all spring that the soil was dry enough to work, so everything was a sod patch. I hadn’t tilled in the fall, and let the fall weeds be a sort of self-sowing cover crop. If I could have tilled in early May, that might have worked. By the end of the weekend I’d gotten the middle patch done (brassicas and nightshades, incl. potatoes) and the front of the front patch (sweet corn, vine crops). We’d gotten 3/4″ of rain Tues. morning, but the ground was fine to work Weds. afternoon. One small problem: the tiller had been acting strangely. Finally I decided to check the oil…whoop, what oil? filled it up, she’d turn, but no power. [F-word deleted]. Loaded it into the truck, and down to repair. diagnosis: toast. Probably catastrophic ring failure: no compression, oil in the filter, gas in the oil It’s a 12-year old Craftsman/ Replacement would be about as much as repair. Repair guy didn’t have any in stock. So I went off to the Niles mall, and in 3 stores (Sears/Despot/Lowes) there was ONE front tine tiller, a funky Bolens with 1 wheel and a non-adjustable depth bar. Do-cut also had none, but could get from another store by Friday, so I’m doing that. Meanwhile, I’m scrod. I can probably make a seedbed of what I tilled yesterday, though I usually like to make 2 passes. But the back plot is untouched. I’d had fantasies of spring wheat (Ha!) or potatoes in there. I can still do beans or buckwheat this month, and winter wheat after. Tiller rental is $45/day. Hand-digging is impractical. Here’s the deal: I have maybe an hour the rest of the week, and the weekend to get the full-season stuff in…Mon. AM I leave for Pittsburgh for a week. Before 2 weeks from tomorrow, I have to get the Hiram Band music ready, which means scanning and transposing Eb horn parts into F, emptying and refilling folders, and oh, finding some easy old stuff to pad the program with.

So that’s the garden. Then there are matters orchardy.  1 walnut and the pawpaw I ordered didn’t grow.  The 4 raspberries I put in next to the strawberries croaked as soon as the rain stopped.  A lot of the strawbs did too, and they generally taste kind of shitty.  No fruit on the honeyberries, hardly any on the asian pear, spotty on the backyard apple (and very nasty-looking leaves. On the plus side: pear is OK (not as good as last year), 2 cherries are as loaded as trees that young can be, and blueberries look excellent. Grapes made it through the winter, but it will be several years yet before fruit. I’m not seeing honeybees, though there are lots of bumblebees making their home in the barn — in the way, but I don’t dare remove them.

Critters: 1 litter of 5 rabbits, another litter lost because Daddy didn’t do short-arm inspection after sex and put the nest box in with the male. None of the incubated eggs hatched; they were set without reading the book, at one point were at 103 and may have been cooked.  We’ll try again, but since the coops have been integrated, we’ll have mongrels instead of New Hampshires. Precious’ kids were lost, but Sissy had 2 boys. Their dehorning didn’t take, but their elastrator treatment seems to have. Thursday was hurt in an accident (neck firmly wedged in a feeder). He’s hanging in there, but not improving…and it’s too hot for a mercy killing. Then there’s William E., our new buck.  Some drunk buddy of Jeff Wells wanted to give him up, and Rusty didn’t say no firmly…so he showed up one day while she was gone. About 8 years old, short legs and stocky (Boer?), solid black, horns. Yes, she’s going to breed with him before we kill him…poke holes in the chocolates to see what you’re getting, I guess. We’re getting about a gallon of milk a day between the two. Rusty has just built a cheese press. Buddy continues to be better eating than we’d thought, thanks to riusty’s skill with moist heat cooking methods.

I’ll try to keep this blog up at the CMAA Colloquium, but we’re pretty scheduled, and there’s no Internet in the dorms (most everywhere else though).

Give me a Stanley Steamer any day

Doug Powers at Malkin’s place digs into the Chevy VOLT (Very Old Limited Technology). When you’ve lost Consumer Reports, you’ve lost the greenie war. Not that there was ever anything particularly green about coal-fired cars.

News from the old home place

I spent my elementary school years in Worth Township, Sanilac Co., Michigan. Upon passing through in the afternoon of Christmas Day, I noticed the sort of large homemade signs generally created by Peasants With Pitchforks, decrying the “Marcy tax” and seeking the recall of one Marcella Bartniczak. Being curious about such things, I asked my dad what was going on, and then this morning read a full article in The Detroit Free Press about the adventure.  It also happens that, it being 2010, said Peasants With Pitchforks have a website, from which the following quotes were taken.

Our story begins in 1998, when George and Margaret Paeth bought a cottage in Worth, and proceeded to renovate it. Now, a great many cottages in the lakeside subdivisions of Worth need renovating; they were built to be summer lodgings for Detroiters and did not need to be large or cold-proof. The Paeths got all the proper paperwork from the county and the township zoning official, and proceeded on their project.

After nearly five (5) years of construction on the home and reliance on the various permits, including the one issued by Worth Township, Ms. Cutcher notified the Paeths, for the first time, that the structure they had built required a variance from the side set back requirements of approximately two (2) feet from the Worth Township Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). Despite assurances from Township Supervisor Ed Smith that the variance would be approved by the ZBA and the hearing was a ”mere formality,” the ZBA refused to issue the non-use variance and instructed the Paeths to tear down their home and move it two (2) feet, six (6) inches eastward.

So they sued in Sanilac Circuit Court, not once but three times. Each time, the court remanded the case to the Zoning Board of Appeals, which used various subterfuges to screw the Paeths, until finally after 3 years the Court issued the variance itself, which was upheld upon appeal by the MI Court of Appeals. At this point, Worth Zoning notified the Paeths that they would not appeal further to the Michigan Supreme court. Instead, Ms. Cutcher posted a stop work order on the property, without notice or opportunity to respond, claiming later that the original building permit had expired.

Even after the State of Michigan notified Defendants that the 2003 building permit never expired, the Defendants will not remove it. Defendant Worth Township abandoned its Building Department and fired Ms. Cutcher. No one within Worth Township will remove the stop work.

Hence, another lawsuit, this time in Federal court.
Quoting now from the judges’ various findings:

The plaintiffs’ troubles with Worth Township began in earnest in 2002, when the township formed its own building department. Barbara Cutcher had become the Worth Township Zoning and Building Administrator…

In short, having formed a government, that government had to find somebody to govern.

Cutcher testified that Township Clerk Marcy Bartnicziak instructed her to post the order….ZBA chairman Thomas Gilbert also confirmed that Marcy would usually go “to great lengths to get her way,” and that she has done things out of spite even with respect to Mr. Gilbert himself. …The involvement of the township officials eventually came to a dramatic end. Cutcher pleaded guilty to forgery of assessment documents in an unrelated matter, and she was disciplined by the State of Michigan for “falsif[ying] Clyde Township Board of Review documents by cutting and pasting Board of Review members’ signature onto Board of Review affidavits and a Board of Review Report.” Pls.’ Mot. for Summ. J., Ex. 20. The township treasurer, [first name] Shade, was convicted of embezzlement. The township’s building department was dissolved by the State of Michigan in July 2008. Cutcher did not remove the stop work order until October 2008, notwithstanding the State of Michigan’s letter sent to the township on May 22, 2008 directing the order to be removed. In the meantime, for two years while Sanilac County circuit court was considering the plaintiffs’ matter and until the stop work order was removed, the plaintiffs agreed not to undertake any construction on the property.

The summary judgement went before a jury:

The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs on the retaliation claim and awarded damages in the amount of $275,000. The jury separately awarded damages on the procedural due process claim in the amount of $325,000.

And then they went for attorney’s fees:

It is further ORDERED that the defendant shall pay attorney’s fees to the plaintiffs in the
amount of $201,097.79.

One small problem here…two actually. One was that the township was only carrying $100K of insurance for such matters. The second was that they were broke, having paid $2M for engineering fees for a state-mandated sewer system that was decided by the MI Court of Appeals to be an overreach of state power. Sooooo…

It is further ORDERED that defendant shall take proper steps to enroll the judgment on its next tax roll pursuant to Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.6093(1). The defendant shall sequester the funds collected, and neither party shall access the funds until further order of this Court.

This is the so-called “Marcy Tax”, which is equal to about 8x the township’s annual operating budget.

Now, this is all disastrous enough. But the township is facing a second lawsuit in the matter. Thomas Gilbert, former Chair of the Worth Township Zoning Board of Appeals, had testified in support of the Paeths. Suddenly, the roadside produce stand that he had been operating for several years was declared to be in violation of zoning. No other stands had been so condemned, and the enforcement is pre-empted by the Michigan Right to Farm Act.

OK, so that’s the news. Here’s the analysis:
1. We’re dealing with an area which is fundamentally rural. This is mostly about the small strip of land east of M-25; the west side of M-25 is farm and small businesses, such as this one.
2. I can’t believe, based on my experience, that there is a substantive amount of raw sewage going into Lake Huron from failed septic systems. Some, perhaps; the lake has a nasty habit of gobbling peoples’ lots. In any case, installation of a sanitary sewer and water system is about the least efficient means possible of dealing with the issue, and capable of abuse (it was one of the weapons used against the Paeths)
3. There has always been a certain tension between “the dudes”, as we called city-dwellers, and the permanent residents. They like to have things “the way they are in the city”, i.e., with somebody looking over your every move. “The city” was Detroit when I was growing up (lots of Polish firemen and the like), but is now purely suburban, since everyone who could get out of Detroit has done so.
4. Zoning is intrinsically evil.
5. Small people like power, and like to throw it around.
6. Barniczak claims that the recall is a personal vendetta. Well, as we’ve been told, the personal is political, and it was only a matter of time before the common man began to Alinskyate back. Apparently, she was not always capable of separating the personal from the political, so what’s sauce for the goose… and crying because her kids have to wait for the school bus by a sign calling for her recall? That’s rich. The Paeths had a hard time with neighbors too. so suck it up, or drive your kids 5-10 miles to school.

“Release my second chakra”

I got a kick out of Al Gore using one of the hoariest New Age lines in the book. I rather think that a burdizzo could have permanently solved his second chakra issues, but I’m sure a Tantrik would disagree.

Meanwhile, feminists were advising a victim of sexual imposition to “Lie back and think of England the planet.”

Later, she talked to friends, liberals like herself, who advised against telling police. One asked her “to just suck it up; otherwise, the world’s going to be destroyed from global warming.”

Angel Adams and her 15 children

Last week, she said she had a right to have as many children as she wanted, even though she couldn’t support them.

Adams’ comments about social welfare agencies not doing enough to help was widely criticized during the past week. She doesn’t currently have a job. Her children were fathered by three men, including one who is in prison.

This woman is absolutely correct: she has a natural right to produce as many children as she pleases…and the natural responsibility to feed them. And if she doesn’t,  Nature has a natural right to take its course. None of that creates an obligation for the rest of us to feed her children. And if it takes the sight of babies dying in the streets to convince these brood sows of that, then that’s what it takes.

Book review: Lierre Keith, The vegetarian myth

I heard that this is a very important book, and after she got pied with cayenne cream, I figured I’d find out what the fuss was about.

Yes, I think it is important; not perfect, but important. Keith basically interweaves her own experience as a vegan who destroyed her health,  with examinations of moral, political, and nutritional vegetarianism. As a person who has “been there, done that”, she is in an unusual position of being able to persuade vegetarians, which was why she was a threat to be chemical-weaponed off the stage. (Ironically, her big insight about moral vegetarianism is that grains have been exploiting the human race and waging chemical warfare against us via opioids, and that plant monocrops are intrinsically anti-animal. Thus, the cabbage-heads who attacked her acted true to form).  She is appealingly vulnerable and frank in discussing her own mistakes, such as comparing the friend who figured out in two weeks that veganism was not for her with her own 20 year pilgrimage, and noting that it did not make her look particularly bright. She won’t let traditional cultures off the hook; there’s a lengthy footnote describing Amerindian offenses against women. She assembles the nutritional arguments against vegetarian, the Standard American Diet, and government health theory into a tight, quick, lethal ride. Indeed, when writing about herself or about objective fact, she writes extremely well.

But when she writes about politics, the Starhawkian preachiness comes in and turns all into a grey fog. The same spirit that drove her to override her own body drives her to want to save the world. She’s the vegan equivalent of a dry drunk. Her policy recommendations avoid their real world results: quit farming (who starves first?), quit breeding (and when those intelligent and sensitive enough to do so are removed from the gene pool, what then?), don’t drive (and that local food all comes from within walking distance in the country? That’s radical locovorism for you.). She stresses the importance of knowing where your food comes from (which I agree with) but seems to think that other choices have no consequences. There are the namby-pamby appeals for the polar bears on the (now growing) ice caps, definitions of patriarchy as power -over (when has she challenged the current Head Patriarch of Color in the Pallid House?), attacks on the patriarchal religions (like the one that did so much for women and slaves in the Roman Empire and 19th c US?), a minimizing of individual decision over action (as if we were a hive of bees ready to repulse the invading beekeeper). Ultimately, there’s a disjuncture between Keith’s beliefs about animals, and her politics. If we are all equally animals and any other animal, unchecked by predators, will expand until it crashes its ecosystem, why should we be any different?  There is zero chance that humans will act against their own self-interest, even if it’s in the interest of future generations (e.g., the Federal deficit), and thus the human race will meet diminished carrying capacity, and there’s not a thing to be done about it. Now, all the politics might be selling points to the sort of people who really need to read this book, but for the rest of us, it’s a turn off. Still, if you can skim through that, it’s a worthwhile and entertaining read.

A modest counterproposal to Gov. Strickland’s rail project

…stagecoach service between Cleveland and Youngstown, running on Highway 422.

The advantages are many:

1. Stagecoaches are green, much greener than locomotives. Horses run on renewable and Ohio-grown hay and oats. Coaches are primarily built of renewable wood. The project would not require  rails or other environmentally-expensive infrastructure, though expansion of one shoulder each way along 422 would be advantageous (such as found on 528 in Geauga Co).  Horses could also  help keep the right-of-way mowed. There is a tailpipe emissions problem however. (Speaking of that, why don’t the Amish have to bring their conveyances to get sniff-tested? A horse with buggy on that rotating drum at the E-check station, with a big fan in front and the tailpipe wand up its tailpipe….I’d pay good money to watch that.)

2. Local talent, local jobs. There are plenty of qualified teamsters along the route (who, since these are government jobs, will probably have to become Teamsters). Granted, unemployment is low in Geauga Co., because the Amish employ themselves and each other. But if need be, we could import laid-off Amish from the RV industry in Indiana, who could also participate in Ohio’s revitalized buggy and harness industry. Granted, a stagecoach is more complex than a simple Amish buggy, but it’s the same technology, and with the aid of cost-overrun contracts, I’m sure any Amish buggy shop could produce suitable rolling stock, complete with kerosene lanterns, state-of-the-art Victrola sound system, and as a premium add-on 3G wireless Internet.

3. Economic development. Given that the trip will take about a day and a half, there will be need for hospitality services. The Welshfield Inn, JDs Post House, and the Halfway Inn will all see increased traffic (and if I ever run for public office, I expect quid pro this quo). The coach will overnight on the outskirts of Warren, by the intersection with the 5/82 loop. There are a few motels there already, as well as the start of a stagecoach-fit “entertainment district”,  IYKWIMAITYD, stocked with Asia’s finest.

4. Animal rescue.  Since it’s no longer legal to slaughter horses for food in the Land of the Free, there’s a problem with people abandoning horses. PETA can lobby the state government to put these horses to work instead of shooting them, Granted, some would never make it up the 700 Hill into Welshfield, but what do you want, efficiency or mercy?

5. People are just as eager to go to Youngstown as they are to Cleveland.

Now, just as in the governor’s proposal, there will be objections . One will be cost.  In 1863, the cost of a stagecoach trip between Nebraska City and Denver (535 mi) was $75, or about $.14/mi, which would make the trip $9.10. But those are 1863 dollars, equivalent to .455 oz of gold, now worth about $492. If you think the gold market is in a bubble right now, other means of calculating dollar equivalence give  values between $131 and $17,236. But the state subsidy required to make the trip cost-competitive would actually be quite small. Assuming no subsidy in the 1863 figure, and using its gold equivalent value, a competitive ticket price of $10 and a ridership of 200 per year, I guesstimate that the annual cost to the state would be about $100K, much less than the rail project. But since the project will require several dozen state employees, the actual defecit will be higher.

The other objection will be time. Why should people spend a day and a half making a trip that they could make in an hour and a half? If you have to see somebody NOW, why aren’t you doing it on Skype? Stagecoaches, like railroads, are romantic. But there are lots of railroads; this would be the only common-carrier stagecoach used for actual transportation, and would make Ohio a leader in what will doubtless be the primary transportation mode of the 22nd Century. It’ll be a great tourist draw…isn’t tourism supposed to solve all our economic problems? Anyway. time is a relative thing. If we really want the stagecoach to be competitive, we can declare 422 to be one big 20 mph school zone, and exponentially  increase the number of highwaymen controlling it. We can jack up tolls on the turnpike too, just in case anybody gets shunpikey ideas about 422. You know in your heart that there’ll be more Staties on I71, and a special gas tax to pay for the train, so why not for the stagecoach?

Let’s face it, spending $400m to build and $17m a year to operate a train to take 6 hrs to make a 4 hr trip is distinctly lacking in imagination. Not even making the tracks out of Rearden Metal would help that concept.  It’s been a long time since Ralph Perk’s hair, “4 dead in Ohio” and the burning river put Ohio on the map. Isn’t it time we did it all over again, with feeling?

The Pope flirts with Gaia

Pope Benedict XVI denounced the failure of world leaders to agree to a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen last month, saying today that world peace depends on safeguarding God’s creation.

No, Benny. World peace depends on Jesus returning. Yes, we have a Christian duty to protect what God has blessed us with. But, like, did the Holy Spirit tell you that anthropogenic global warming is really real?

Please, Holy Father. As a Catholic, I’m supposed to respect you. And you’re making it so hard.

Support your local lumber yard and hardware

not The Big Box, because:

“This kind of energy program will help homeowners gain back some of the value they may have lost over the past few years,” Chris Ahearn, a spokeswoman for Mooresville, North Carolina-based Lowe’s, said in a phone interview yesterday. “It will also help contractors who want to get back to work or add work.”

Lowe’s is the second-biggest U.S. home-improvement retailer after Home Depot.

“We support the idea of any program that provides incentives to consumers to make their homes more energy- efficient,” Atlanta-based Home Depot said in a statement. “A national program on this topic would help bring visibility to the simple things that can be done to reduce household energy use.”

This re “Cash for caulkers”. If we want to hear porkers snorting at the trough, we don’t need to drive to the city, thankyouverymuch.