A great opportunity to help a nation has come around. Today the pro-Syria government in Lebanon resigned. Some level of uncertainty is bound to occur, but it can be eased with help. The United States should offer all the help it can to ensure the transition of government goes smoothly, so long as it is not occupational troops. Troops will probably not be required, unless the current Syrian occupation force becomes more violent. I think the most suited peace keeping force would be the Egyptian and Jordan militaries. An Islamic nation’s military would be received more warmly than US forces. The primary source of aid however should be advisors, forgiven debt and development grants. A coalition of nations should supply experts in all fields requested (except weapons development) by the new Lebanese government. The important thing is to make it clear that it is the choice of the Lebanese government and in the best interests of the people.

I truly don’t believe the United Nations should get involved. It really doesn’t have a good track record in that region or in those matters. It’s a massive bureaucracy that spends more on words than actions. Let the Lebanese government manage the aid offered by each nation on an individual basis. The UN would just go in, subjugate the funding and tangle aid workers in red tape. The UN creates welfare states, dependant on the UN and aid funding. Lebanon needs to stand on its own feet and manage its destiny. It needs full authority over what aid is used and how.

In typical bureaucratic fashion, the Dane County board enacts new regulations that make it harder and more expensive for farmers to earn extra income, but does little to address the complaints that spawned the legislation. The regulations restrict special events on agricultural property, such as corn mazes, country breakfasts or haunted barns. Traffic caused by such events prompted complaints from some rural residents. The new regulations limit farmers to 45 days of non-agriculture business and a maximum of 200 people per day. If they wish to exceed 45 days or 200 people, they must get a permit which costs $262. They are also required to submit details of the event to the local zoning administrator, law enforcement and emergency services provider.

Where in these regulations is traffic addressed? If they wanted to correct the cause of the complaint, they simply could have required farms to provide a person to direct parking and have adequate off-street parking. I can understand the requirement to submit details to local emergency services and law enforcement, because that can assist them should they need to respond to an incident at the event. However, the local zoning administrator has no justifiable need to know the details of the event. The limits, permit and associated fee have nothing to do with correcting the problem either, other than discouraging farmers from holding such events. Many of these events will draw a crowd of more than 200 people per day. Sometimes it is difficult to predict how many will attend per day, so farmers will likely pay for a permit for each day they have an event or be required to turn people away. That is the only reason the Dane County board acted on the few complaints from rural residents. The county wants money and they have no problem extorting it out some of the hardest working people in the county.

The Dane County Board is out of step with common sense and the hardship of farmers.
Kevin Kesterson is the Dane County Board Chair. You can contact him through email by clicking this link or by phone at (608) 838-9518. Both his email and home phone number are provided on the Dane County website, so it is not inappropriate for you to contact him through these means. Notify him of your concerns about these regulations. Farmers need the help of everyone in the county, not more red tape and fees. Here is a map of the county that lists the Districts. You can contact your District Supervisor by finding their information here.

A living legend, Hunter S Thompson took his life yesterday. I never had the chance to meet him and now I never will. In a documentary about him, Hunter designed elaborate plans for his funereal. It will be interesting to see if they follow through with them. That alone would make a trip to Colorado worthwhile. If you don’t know who Hunter S Thompson is, I suggest you read his books. Once you’ve done that, you can watch the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Keep in mind that the movie is not exactly about him. It’s an adaptation of the book he wrote. The story is a combination of his experiences and his wild imagination.

Many don’t know that Hunter was in the Air Force. The story of his last days in the Air Force is priceless. Find his books at the store or library, its well worth the time.

It’s no secret that I believe Google will dramatically lose popularity. In fact, I believe the coup de grâce has been delivered to Google, by its own hands in some sort of unwitting suicide. The people at Google think that modifying websites you visit using their toolbar is acceptable. A feature in the Google toolbar analyzes the site and inserts hotlinks (paid advertiser links) to sites with matching keywords. I would categorize Google toolbar as spy/adware. Microsoft tried something similar to this in the past, but withdrew the technology after many in the industry equated it to nothing less than violation of the website author’s rights.

So why would Google go ahead with this? I think they’re desperate. They’re losing market share and are implementing gimmicks in a sad attempt to recover lost ground. I’m sure this AutoLink feature in the toolbar generates an appreciable amount of advertisement revenue. Advertisement revenue has become the primary goal of Google. User satisfaction, accurate search results and approval of website authors has become much lower priorities.

Thanks for going public on the stock market Google. I expect the second Dot Com bubble to pop shortly and Google will be in the center of it. Google’s overpriced stock, inadequate database and ill conceived features are a recipe for disaster. If you own any Google stock, sell it. You’ve been warned. Don’t start crying when the price of Google drops 60%.

I’m seriously considering blocking Google from my site. As the author of the site, I reserve sole right to control links to outbound sites.

The Moderate Mainstream, “Position - Commercial traffic”

I cannot say for certain if this individual is a left leaning blogger, but this idea is so poorly developed that Tracy must have received the idea from some moonbat from the left.

I have thought about this one for a long time. There are some obvious issues people would raise, but overall I like it.

No commercial traffic is allowed between 6am and 7pm with the following exceptions: public transportation, including intra and interstate buses; small package delivery vehicles (such as Fed Ex and UPS); and moving vehicles picking up or delivering personal goods (vehicles moving businesses would be restricted).

I wonder which level of government (City, County, State, Federal) Tracy believes should enact this legislation. The level of government matters greatly. I’ll break it down.

City and County - If such a law could even be passed, enforced and not removed within a year, the only result would be a severe economic slowdown. Businesses would relocate out of the area and residents would have no choice but to move if they wanted to maintain an average lifestyle. It would basically create an Amish Paradise. It would be fine for people that are self reliant, hard working and skilled, but the vast majority of people would be devastated.

State – No such law could ever be enforced. It violates countless Federal laws. The fact that it violates interstate trade would immediately land this type of legislation in front of Federal court, should it pass.

Federal – If one were to design a law to destroy the economy within 6 months, it would look like this. Cheaper wages and less regulation already make shipping jobs overseas attractive for corporations. A corporation would have little choice but to relocate all production facilities overseas under this type of regulation. That is of course if this law was enforced. It violates international trade agreements and would irritate many nations, Canada and Mexico specifically. You also have to remember that many companies that operate within the United States are headquartered overseas. Their home nations would likely send delegations to speak with our government about this law since it is an outright restriction of trade.

This restriction would apply in both urban and rural areas and include construction vehicles.

There are countless problems with this, but I’ll only go into one aspect. Small construction firms do not have a lot of equipment. I worked for a roofing company a few years ago. We had one rough terrain lift truck (extending boom fork lift). Sometimes that lift truck would be needed at more than one site during a single day. We needed this equipment to get heavy materials to the roof level. Without that equipment we would either have to manually lift material up ladders, which can be very dangerous, or stop work at that site. In order to keep work progressing on sites, the lift truck would arrive by flat bed trailer in the morning at one site where the material would be lifted to the roof and then the lift truck would be put back on the flat bed trailer and moved to another site to lift other materials. If no construction traffic is allowed, then only one lift operation could be accomplished a day. A second lift operation could be accomplished sometime after 7 pm, but you have to remember that during much of the year that the sun has set already and the lift would have to be performed during hours of darkness. That is not a safe operation and I’m sure OSHA would not allow it.

Small construction firms already have a difficult time competing with larger firms. This tips the balance towards larger firms. I wonder if Tracy hates small businesses.

The result would be a significant reduction in traffic. It would also end commercial truckers driving more than 11 hours per day (in itself a violation). It would probably, over time, force much trucking onto rail for longer than two day trips.

Sorry, but commercial traffic is not the cause of congested roadways. Get yourself a video camera and film congested traffic. Then carefully calculate statistics from the video. You’ll quickly find that the vast majority of vehicles on the roadways are personal vehicles, many with single occupants. Commercial traffic already makes an effort to avoid congested roadways. Having their shipments bogged down in rush hour wastes time and money. They schedule their shipments to travel during less congested times or use alternate routes.

It would also put somewhere between 15 and 25% of the labor force onto 2nd and 3rd shifts.

I fail to see the real benefits of this. People have families. Their children’s schedules are set by their school hours. People on 2nd and 3rd shift have less time to spend with their families.

This idea is so poorly thought out that I wonder if Tracy spent more than a few minutes contemplating it.