October 31, 2011

SandBox Comments: Commentary Magazine/Contentions "Optimistic or Pessimistic About America: William Kristol"

"As Yogi Berra pointed out, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Even more so if, to quote Yogi again, “the future ain’t what it used to be.”

What the future used to be—or at least what it used to seem to be—was intelligible. The liberal account of the future was generally optimistic, and the optimism was based on a belief in the ineluctable course of history, or on faith in the victory of enlightened leaders and progressive movements over reactionary forces and premodern prejudices. There were basically two conservative accounts of the future. One was pessimistic, judging the distempers of modernity too powerful to resist successfully for long. The other was more optimistic, looking to the possibility of some sort of conservative restoration or awakening...."
(William Kristol, via Power Line)

(Read the rest of this terrific column in Power Line's series?  Click title.  Comment to discuss)
"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: Commentary Magazine "Optimistic or Pessimistic About America: Joseph Nye"

"Polls show widespread pessimism about America’s prospects. Such moods reflect the slow growth and fiscal problems that followed the 2008 financial crisis, but they are not historically unprecedented. After Sputnik, Americans thought the Soviets were 10 feet tall; in the 1980s, it was the Japanese. Now it is the Chinese.

The United States has very real problems, but the American economy remains highly productive.

America remains first in total research-and-development expenditures, first in university rankings, first in Nobel prizes, first on indices of entrepreneurship, and fourth in the World Economic Forum’s list of the world’s most competitive economies (China ranks 27th). America, moreover, remains at the forefront of such cutting-edge technologies as biotech and nanotechnology. This is hardly a picture of absolute economic decline...."
(Joseph Nye)

(Read another terrific piece in this series over on Commentary Magazine?  Click title.)
"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: Power Line "Who Is Barncat Jones?"


"I have no idea. But maybe someday that question will resonate along the lines of, “Who is John Galt?” Barncat is a musician and satirist of considerable talent. We linked to his Elvis Presley parody, “The Solyndra Song,” here. Now Barncat has come out with “Hope & Change,” a Springsteen adaptation sung to the tune of “Glory Days.” Which seems appropriate, given how far behind him President Obama’s glory days are.

Here it is. Pass it on. This sort of satire is a potent weapon–”Hope & Change”...."
(John Hinderaker)

(Take a listen?  Click title.  Comment to start discussion)

SandBox Comments: LA Times "Election laws tightening in GOP-run states"

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "In the Afghan city of Herat, the young are restless as war grinds on"

"HERAT, Afghanistan — Near the heart of this traffic-clogged western city stands a fortress almost as long as three football fields, with battlements that rise 10 stories above the swarming streets.

The Citadel of Herat traces to the Timurid dynasty of the 15th century. The Sunni Muslim tribe declared Herat the capital of its vast Persian Empire, and the brick stronghold was the crown jewel for ensuing regimes that seized the city.

In the 1970s, the Afghan government converted the imposing structure into a museum. The Taliban were less civic-minded, bolting artillery guns on the parapets and torturing political prisoners in the dirt courtyards.

With the help of $1.2 million in U.S. aid, the ravages of time and the Taliban have been repaired. Earlier this month, Afghan and U.S. officials presided over a ceremony celebrating the citadel’s restoration.

On a recent afternoon, Omid Mojaddidy, 30, a Herat native, ascended the steep, curling stairs inside a corner tower, stepping from shadows into sunlight when he reached the top.

The country’s third-largest city spread out below him, an urban labyrinth of some 400,000 people. The majority live in mud-brick homes as primitive as the dwellings of the Timurids.

He blew out a long breath. The climb hadn’t tired him. He was suffering from history fatigue.

“Enough with the past,” said Mojaddidy, who has resided in the city his entire life except to attend college in neighboring Iran. “Tear down the citadel, get rid of the old buildings....”
(Martin Kuz )

(Read More?  Click title.  comment to start discussion) 

SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News "Learn the facts"

" When the appeals court recently ruled that voted anonymous ballots are indeed public records, instead of enabling and engaging public comment and expert opinion on whether or not to appeal the decision to the Colorado Supreme Court, City Council held a secret meeting.

In this meeting they “directed” Aspen’s city attorneys, who both have massive conflicts of interest, to potentially spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to fight the ruling,  — after all, it was Marilyn Marks who brought the original suit.

Meanwhile, Aspen’s bi-partisan Election Commission will be democratically engaging the public on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 4 p.m. in council chambers to discuss the ruling and the issues at stake for Aspen should the city (read: Mick) pursue a legal battle with statewide implications on election integrity.

Mick and his councilmen seem to prefer sending the not-so-subtle message that “City Hall knows how you vote.”

Marilyn, on the other hand, along with Colorado’s election activists and most citizens say, “No one, especially the government, should know how anyone votes.”


Be there. Learn the facts. Join the discussion."

Elizabeth Milias
Aspen



"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: Aspen Times "Push poll by the Times?"

"Interesting poll question today. Are you interested in Marilyn Marks' “crusade?” Would the results be different if the question were presented as, for example, “Are you interested in City Hall's refusal to comply with a unanimous opinion of the Colorado Court of Appeals?” Or, “Are you interested in the activities of a local citizen who relentlessly holds to account public officials who might be ignoring their public duties?”

Just curious.
(Maurice Emmer, Aspen)

"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: Glenwood Springs Post Independent/Your Letters "Chamber shouldn't take up CMC gallery space"

A special thank you to Cynthia Thomas of Glenwood Springs for having the courage to speak up on this Chamber related issue.

Taking the most prime location left in downtown and turning it from a viable gallery and retail space into a spot for the Chamber of Commerce to house themselves has more than just those in the shadows riled up.

There has been talk for years of getting the Visitors Center away from the upper Grand Ave. location of the chamber and housing that information in kiosks downtown. 

Spread it out a bit and put the whole thing in locations that aren't going to charge us $70,000 a year, are maintained by volunteers and the businesses who advertise in them and all in high visible locale where people can actually find our Visitors Center. 

There has never been any real talk of bringing the chamber downtown.  With the overall lukewarm relationship the chamber has always had with downtown merchants, the idea is not a hot one all of a sudden.

If the idea does fly, then the chamber needs to not take up viable retail space and instead lodge themselves somewhere that suits what they are.  A business environment.  Not a sales environment.

Again, a thank you to Cynthia for not only speaking up but doing so honestly and bluntly enough so that her voice gets heard above the corporate stranglehold:

"This letter is in regard to the Post Independent article of Oct. 20 about the chamber negotiating to move into the new CMC building.

I am all for our chamber having a presence downtown, but not at the expense of the CMC Gallery. There was to be a gallery in the new building, a rather nice one, but in these days of “corporate greed rules,” CMC has decided to rent that space to the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association.

Where would the gallery go? Maybe in the library in 2013 or 2014? If they build it and there is room.

There is a perfectly good space that CMC is vacating where the present gallery would make a wonderful chamber kiosk. The space is very visible downtown, right on the corner of Ninth and Grand where all of the tourists could see the chamber literature through that huge glass window.

Why sell that building and then take space away from the gallery to squeeze another business in, and then try to figure out where to put the gallery? It just doesn't make sense.

What is it that they are not telling us? Are they really planning to make this permanent? Why else would they rent the space out that they have already earmarked for the gallery?..."

(Cynthia Thomas)

(Read the entire letter?  Click title and comment to start discussion)
"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "Domestic gas better than foreign imports"

"While development shouldn't happen everywhere, understand that there are a lot of us who depend on clean water, clean air and good jobs. Not all of us received millions of taxpayer dollars for conservation easements on our big ranches (such as one certain ranch on Thompson Creek in Pitkin County), not all of us are executives at SkiCo or work for nonprofits, and not all of us have the time to tell our side of the story that the gas industry is saving our families. We're too busy getting up early making a living and paying taxes and doing our best.

And guess what? Sen. Udall receives money from a local gas industry too (Oxbow), and from SkiCo executives (Auden Schendler), and over $20,000 from just one environmental PAC, so does that mean that “umpire” has been bought off too?

Hypocrisy goes both ways. But also when I see so much hatred against the gas industry from upvalley folks, recognize there are a lot of us who are your neighbors, friends, buddies on the ski lift, parents at the kid's plays, who are making a living with the gas industry.

Can it be done better? Sure, but don't villainize the industry and the quiet neighbors who leave early in the morning, and get home late in the evening, just happy to have a job.
(Robert Strong, New Castle)

(Read the rest of this terrific letter?  Click title.  Comment to start discussion)
"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: Grand Junction Daily Sentinel "State looks to open up fracking"

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SandBox Comments: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "New emissions study planned"

A special thank you goes out this morning to investigative reporter John Colson.  For reminding us of Garfield County Commissioners high commitment and dedication to air quality in GarCo.

Over on the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.


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"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: Summit Daily News "Summit County telemarker's world-record skiing streak continues another year"

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