Boker tov, Boulder!

Electricity. What does COAL have to do with it?

Power outages from East Coast snowstorm top 3M

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The number of homes and businesses without power on the East Coast has grown to more than 3 million as an unusually early snowstorm passes over New England. Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says the more than 750,000 customers without power there breaks a record set when the remnants of Hurricane Irene hit the state in August. He says people could be without electricity for a week. More than 650,000 have lost power in Massachusetts. Those without electricity number 285,000 in New Hampshire and at least 150,000 in Maine. More than 617,000 people in New Jersey have lost power, and in New York, more than 200,000 are without it. Utilities in Pennsylvania are saying more than 423,000 are without power, and Western Maryland had more than 29,000 outages. Central Vermont Public Service says more than 6,300 there had no power.

 

 

Call me heartless, but I do ponder the practicality of electric cars on a day like this. Too, it occurs to me that this might be an opportune moment to remind folks that about half of America's electricity - upon which we are so dependent, and so increasingly dependent - is generated from abundant, affordable American COAL.

 

 

Plug The Husband again?  Absolutely. 

 

At least it was "about half" until Obama's EPA started its war on the American energy industry, hitting coal-fired power plants with such impossibly burdensome regulations that they're being forced to close.

 

Institute for Energy Research 10.07.2011

 

Try to imagine the JOBS "saved, created" or DESTROYED when these plants close.

And I don't know about other areas, but here in WV the public utility will have to start buying electricity out-of-state -- specifically, or so I've heard, from Obama's friends at Exelon in Chicago.

Here's something else to consider as well. In 2006-07, 13.2% of the electricity used in Connecticut was generated from coal. That's down to just 8% now, and CT is the 2nd-most expensive state in the nation for electricity.

In 2006-07, 15.1% of New York's electricity was generated from coal. Today it's 10%, and NY has the 3rd-highest electricity prices in the nation.

New Hampshire? 14% ... 5th-highest prices.

Massachusetts? 20% ... 7th-highest prices.

Maryland? 54% ... 12-highest prices.

And then there's my state - West Virginia - where 97% of our electricity is generated by coal (at least for the time being).  We pay the 8th-lowest prices in the country, although even here the price is starting to "skyrocket" and will only go up if/when we start contibuting to Exelon's profits.

I'm sorry for the folks who are suffering in the cold and dark, but I wish they could spare a thought for the American heroes who are left -- to pull tons of coal out of the earth.  Too often, the very ones who should be most appreciative, are perversely and unwittingly biting the hand that feeds them:

 

Bat-crazy college kids

meet with EPA's Jackson to "dump coal"

 

See also this headline - ubiquitous a couple of days ago - about "industrial homicide." 

 

 

If Upper Big Branch had been a union mine, do you think they would have invented and promoted this new "crime"?  I don't think so.

The "powers that be" are just not satisfied with putting Don Blankenship out of business; they want to see him behind bars, Gd forbid, because he was an outspoken defender and leader of the industry.  And too, being one of "the rich" that lefties now want to "eat," he contributed openly and generously to conservative causes, as well as to charitable ones that benefitted coal miners, their families and communities.

 

 

 

 

If you want to learn more, I hear that Robert Bryce is the one to read.

As for many alternative energy enthusiasts’ insistence that sources such as solar or wind are poised to replace fossil fuels, Bryce suggested their naiveté seemed to confuse energy with power.

He observed that energy was measured by volume while power was measured by rate, and used car shopping as an example. “I have not asked once how many gallons of gasoline a car holds. I ask about the rates: How many miles per gallon it travels, how many miles an hour it can go.”

 

Hullo? 'The West' is supporting Islamist Fascists

word cloud - courtesy of beliefnet

 

Elder of Ziyon:

...this article by Raghida Dergham so vitally important ... because she is an Arab woman, but also because it was published in both the pan-Arab Dar al Hayat newspaper and in Al Arabiya:

 

While the West speaks of the necessity of accepting the results of the democratic process, in terms of Islamists coming to power in the Arab region, there are increased suspicions regarding the goals pursued by the West in its new policy of rapprochement with the Islamist movement, in what is a striking effort at undermining modern, secular and liberal movements.

The three North African countries in which revolutions of change have taken place, are witnessing a transitional process that is noteworthy, not just in domestic and local terms, but also in terms of the roles played by foreign forces, both regional and international.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is trying to hijack the youth’s revolution with the help of the West. This is while bearing in mind that Egypt is considered to be the “command center” for the Muslim Brotherhood’s network in different Arab countries.

The followers of the Ennahda in Tunisia are wrapping their message with moderation as they prepare to hijack the democracy that Tunisia’s youth dream of, while being met by applause and encouragement from the West in the name of the “fairness” of the electoral process.

Libya, where the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) is in a “marriage of convenience” with Islamist rebels, has become a hub of extremism and lawlessness, with a plethora of military aid being collected by an assortment of armed Islamists who aim to exclude others from power.

In Yemen, where a struggle for power rages on, a war is taking place between extremism and a harsher and more violent brand of extremism, with so-called “moderate Islam” in the middle as a means of salvation, even as the latter’s ideology remains neither modern nor liberal, and is rather lacking when it comes to the fundamentals of democracy and equality.

In Syria, where the battle for freedom is at its most difficult phase, the youths of the revolution fear what could very much be under discussion behind the scenes between the West and the Islamist movements, in terms of collaboration and of strengthening the Islamists’ hold on power, in a clear bid to hijack the revolution of a youth that aspires to freedom in its every sense, not to yet another brand of tyranny and authoritarianism.... 

 

 

The Last Bastion of National Decorum?

 

No Laughing at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

 

The Selective Hearing of the Huffington Post

 

wiseGEEK defines Selective Hearing as "the tendency of some people to ignore things that they don’t want to hear. It is not a physiological condition, as they are physically hearing the words, but their minds choose not to acknowledge the words."

 

The last time the Huffington Post paid attention to George Will was three years ago, when he said that Sarah Palin was "obviously not qualified to be President." In the meantime, he's published more than three hundred columns.

Jewish World Review has the archives:

10/29/11 Romney could damage chances for the GOP 

10/27/11 Inundated by a river of words 
10/23/11 The unlikely target of conservatives 
10/20/11 A Republic, guaranteed 
10/15/11 The NBA standoff pits the elite vs. the elite 
10/13/11 Calling for a Mulligan 
10/08/11 Protect the states 
10/06/11 Collectivists' Goal Is To Dilute Our Concept Of Individualism 
10/02/11 Educational overreach: A federal takeover 
09/29/11 A Frank 'cure' for the Fed 
09/25/11 Nibbling away at free enterprise 
09/22/11 Obstructing the right to recall 
09/17/11 At the Pentagon, the specter of a sequester 
09/15/11 Our floundering 'federal family' 
09/10/11 Sept. 11's self-inflicted wounds 
09/08/11 Why libs fear the 'Lochner' decision 
09/03/11 Question time for Republicans 
09/01/11 Fresh brew 
08/28/11 And now, a school choice fight 
08/25/11 Libs' Waterloo 
08/20/11 Chris Christie, America's Caesar 
08/18/11 America's lost ally 
08/14/11 JFK's Berlin blunder 
08/11/11 Britain tackles the welfare state 
08/07/11 Making hay at the Ames straw poll 
08/02/11 The debt deal and Obama's 2012 problem 
07/31/11 Declaration of independents 
07/25/11 Congress stands its ground 
07/21/11 Tea Party would defeat Obama by supporting McConnell plan on debt 
07/07/11 Warming Up In GOP Pen For Alibi Ike 
07/02/11 Burning down the house 
06/29/11 A Supreme Court win for political speech and political money 
06/26/11 Rick Perry: A Texan's 'exceptionalism' 
06/23/11 John McCain's never-ending war 
06/19/11 Libya and the Potemkin alliance 
06/16/11 For conservatives, it can't get any better 
06/11/11 Government by the 'experts' 
06/09/11 Obama and free trade: Appease big labor 
06/04/11 The NFL's labor pains 
06/02/11 Jon Huntsman's thorny path to the GOP nomination 
05/28/11 Is Obama above the law? 
05/26/11 A moment to seize 
05/22/11 Golden State blues, in the red
05/19/11 Hugs and taxes 
05/15/11 The Dreamliner nightmare 
05/12/11 History lessons for Obama and other liberals 
05/08/11 The wonders of being 70 
05/02/11 The small footprint that eliminated bin Laden 
05/01/11 The 'Amazon Tax' effect 
04/27/11 This is reform? 
04/24/11 Tackling education's status quo 
04/21/11 The GOP sends in a Marine for education reform 
04/17/11 A conservative populist leaves the Fed 
04/14/11 The curse of free money 
04/07/11 An Arizona city's sports mania encounters a hard check 
04/07/11 The haze of humanitarian imperialism 
04/02/11 Citizens shouldn't have to justify their speech. 
03/31/11 Step up to the plate for a baseball quiz 
03/27/11 College daze: The insanity of the application process 
03/24/11 Is it America's duty to intervene wherever regime change is needed? 
03/20/11 The 'blue national soil' of China's navy 
03/17/11 America's Navy and the rise of China 
03/13/11 The Supreme Court and the health-care mandate muddle 
03/09/11 On Libya, too many questions 
03/06/11 Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and the spotlight-chasing candidates of 2012 
03/03/11 Lamar Smith: Immigration's taskmaster 
2/27/11 Teach for America: Letting the cream rise 
2/21/11 Out of Wisconsin, a lesson in leadership for Obama 
2/20/11 Jim Jordan: House Republicans' eager budget cutter 
2/17/11 Mitch Daniels's case for a less strident conservatism 
2/13/11 The GOP's defense budget mystery 
2/09/11 Egypt's revolution to win or lose 
2/06/11 John Kasich: Spoiling for a fight in Ohio 
2/03/11 Rick Santorum's appeal to the GOP base 
1/30/11 Uncle Sam in the driver's seat 
1/27/11 Getting American students to find the goal posts of success 
1/23/11 America's political disharmony 
1/20/11 Hubris heading for a fall 
1/16/11 A Congress that reasserts its power 
1/11/11 The charlatans' response to the Tucson tragedy 
01/09/11 Fred Upton, Rust Belt revolutionary 
01/06/11 Given up your New Year's resolutions? It's the American way 
01/01/11 Rev the scientific engine 

[ .... ] 

Hitler's ... guillotine?

Of all the atrocities committed by the Nazis, who knew that they beheaded people ... by guillotine?

 

YNet News:

The Jewish Museum Milwaukee is hosting an exhibit about the only American woman executed on direct orders of Adolf Hitler.

Mildred Fish Harnack, a Milwaukee native, taught literature in Madison and then at several German universities following a 1929 move to Germany.

She and her husband Arvid Harnack worked in opposition to the Nazis as a member of the resistance group known as the "Red Orchestra," a code name assigned by the Gestapo.

They were arrested in the fall of 1942. Arvid Harnack was executed, and though she was originally imprisoned, Hitler himself intervened and sent her to the guillotine in February 1943.

The exhibit includes a rubbing of the floor of the room in which she was imprisoned and later beheaded. It will run through November 27.

 

"Red Orchestra" is now the name of a series of computer games :/

 

More about the resistance group at Wikipedia:

Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group

The Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group in Berlin was formed by Harro Schulze-Boysen, a Luftwaffe staff officer, his wife Libertas, Arvid Harnack, a lawyer and economist, his American wife Mildred, and a number of sympathetic friends and acquaintances.

Schulze-Boysen had been active in opposition to the Nazis before Hitler took power, but then joined the Luftwaffe for "cover". In private he continued to meet with other anti-Nazis, including Libertas, whom he married in 1936.

Harnack also had a circle of anti-Nazi associates. He joined the NSDAP in 1937 for "cover". In 1939, the two groups made contact, and began to work together.

The combined group ran the gamut of German society, comprising

Communists,

political conservatives,

Jews,

devout Catholics,

and atheists.

Their ages ran from 16 to 86, and about 40% were women.

Among its leading members were theatrical producer Adam Kuckhoff and his wife Greta, pianist Helmut Roloff, secretary Ilse Stöbe, diplomat Rudolf von Scheliha, author Günther Weisenborn, potter Cato Bontjes van Beek, Horst Heilmann (an officer in the Cipher Section of OKH), and photojournalist John Graudenz (who had been expelled from the USSR for reporting on the Soviet famine of 1932–1933)....

.... For the remainder of 1941, the Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group gave most of its intelligence to the United States, through the American embassy's monetary attaché, Donald Heath.

However, these efforts to inform other governments about Nazi atrocities and war plans were only a small part of their resistance effort. Their primary activity was the distribution of leaflets, to incite civil disobedience and cause the Nazis to worry about subversion. They also printed and pasted up anti-Nazi stickers in large numbers, and they helped people in danger from the Nazis to escape the country via an Underground Railroad-like network.

The network began to unravel in 1942. The OKH Cipher Section decoded some of Trepper's radio traffic, and on 30 July 1942 the Gestapo arrested radio operator Johann Wenzel. Horst Heilmann tried to warn Schulze-Boysen, but the warning was not in time. Schulze-Boysen was arrested on 30 August, and Harnack on 3 September. The rest of the group was arrested within a few weeks, and many were executed.

 

More:

 

Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra

 

 

 

Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler

Pic of the Day

Anti-Wall Street demonstration in Tehran, Iran

Iranian women gather in front of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to show their support of anti-Wall Street demonstrators in the United States on October 22, 2011. UPI. Maryam Rahmanian

 

Multiple Rocket Attacks on Israel

Rabbi Lazer Brody:

The winds of war are returning the south of Israel. My beloved home town of Ashdod was attacked with a barrage of four GRAD missiles at 4:45 PM on Shabbat. The closest missile landed about 1200 meters from our flat. An elementary school suffered a direct hit, but miraculously, it was empty at the time. Another missile hit a house in a village immediately east of Ashdod causing extensive damage and injuring one person.

A second barrage of four GRAD missiles struck Ashdod at 6:45 PM. This time, one missing crashed into an apartment-building parking lot some 600 meters from where I live. As far as we know, two people have been injured and ten are suffering from shock. A miracle occurred here to, for the rocket - which caused several cars to explode in flames - started a fire in the adjacent building. Several people were trapped inside, but were rescued by fire fighters.

An hour later, shortly before 8 PM, our neighboring city Ashkelon, 8 miles south of Ashdod, came under missile attack. One home took a direct hit and one person has been killed and at least two others have been wounded.

Until further notice, public gatherings of 500 people and over have been cancelled. As of today, schools will be closed in Ashdod, Ashkelon and other communities in the Gaza periphery, also until further notice.

All in all, 30 GRAD missiles were fired at the south of Israel in recent hours. The Islamic Jihad has declared responsibility, threatening more attacks in the near future.

If you saw the structural damage in Ashdod, you wouldn't believe that there have been so few casualties. Like King David says in Psalm 127, if Hashem doesn't guard a city, then any other guards are wasting their time.

Dangerous Escalation

 As opposed to previous missile attacks on Ashdod, today's two barrages or four rockets each landed in quick succession, on after the other. Ynet reports that these rockets were launched using a multi-barrel rocket launcher, the Islamic Jihad has claimed in a new clip it has published. According to the terror group, it was the first time such a device has been used in Gaza. The device, which was mounted on a vehicle, is reminiscent of the fire power demonstrated by the Iranian-supported Hezbolla in the Second Lebanon War....

 

+ Sunday Morning:

At 6:45 AM, I was walking home after our sunrise minyan, and the Red Alert sounded. I sprinted to shelter, and 30 seconds later we heard 4 explosions - another barrage of 4 GRAD missiles. Thank G-d, all fell in open spaces; 2 of them were within a kilometer of where I live.

The Jihad Islami says that they're only warming up.

 

The tally from YNet News is 11 rockets and mortar shells overnight and Sunday morning, and at least 27 on Saturday.

I agree with Carl:

Israel should flatten the Gaza Strip from the air if need be. But in the end, there will likely be no choice but to send ground troops in.

 

Shabbat Shalom

 

Baruch Dayan HaEmes. We have just heard of the passing of Israel Rosencrantz in Boulder. His wife Rochel is in our prayers, that Hashem should comfort her and give her strength.

"Lefty Relics"

They said it, I didn't.

  

================================================================================

 

Have any lefty relics gathering dust in your closet?

 

Why not donate them to our fourth annual, entirely one-of-a-kind online auction, set to launchNovember 12th? We're reaching out to our supporters for donated items and offering sponsorships to help us close a $200,000 budget gap:

• Maybe you have your own piece of lefty history.  Or how about a week's stay in your vacation home?  Business services?  Theatre tickets? We already have dozens of truly unique items in the auction catalog. Donate an Item.

• Are you a business owner who would like to become an Auction Sponsor?  We'll feature your logo on our heavily-trafficked auction homepage and in hundreds of thousands of emails to Nation readers with a link to your website (see a list of our sponsors below).  Become an Auction Sponsor.
  

• Or you can sign up for Email Updates so we can remind you when the Auction opens and when new items are added to the catalog.

As the protesters of Occupy Wall Street voice their frustrations just a few blocks south of our offices, we’re facing our own very real challenges.  It’s simple:  because of the economy, donations to our Nation Associates program are down $200,000 for 2011.

This is no time to pull punches, scale back or otherwise take our eye off the ball.  Not with a presidential election heating up and so much at stake. We must make up this shortfall before we sit down to plan our Election 2012 coverage for the coming year.

Thank you in advance for getting our 4th annual online auction off to a great start with a donation or sponsorship, and helping to close this $200,000 budget gap.

Sincerely,

 
Peggy Randall
Associate Publisher

===============================================================================

 

Socialist fare (and "fair") being tested at Obamaville

 

A lot has been written about the similarities and differences between Obamaville and the Tea Party, and here is one: Whereas the latter arose out of the instinct to reward self-reliance and discourage dependency, the former is having it awakened by an encounter with the real world.

 

WSJ's Best of the Web Today - James Taranto:

 

The New York Post has another hilarious dispatch from the People's Republic of Obamaville (or, as it was known before the revolution, Zuccotti Park). It seems "the Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a 'counter' revolution yesterday--because they're angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for 'professional homeless' people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters."

For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep's-milk-cheese salad.

They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.

To show they mean business, the kitchen staff refused to serve any food for two hours yesterday in order to meet with organizers to air their grievances, sources said.