How high will Grafton County phone bills go?

According to the Manchester Union Leader, the Fairpoint Communications deal to take over Verizon's telephone service in the up country is going to go thru, the public utility commissions in Maine, NH and Vermont have OK'd the deal.
So what does that do for us customers? Will Fairpoint ask the public utility commissions for a rate hike to pay off the bonds they floated to buy the aging Verizon poles, wire, and central offices? Does anyone think there is any growth or income opportunities in the wired telephone business? In a day when none of my three children has a wired phone? Verizon is selling out 'cause they aren't making money. If they can't make money what makes anyone think Fairpoint can?
Fairpoint has made happy talk about more broadband in the North Country. The hard fact is that broadband (DSL) only works out 18000 feet from the central office. To cover the area with DSL they have to put in a central office every 36000 foot. My nearest central office is Littleton, about 75000 feet away from here. I don't believe Fairpoint is going to put in the the two additional central offices needed to bring DSL coverage all the way from here to Littleton. Or anywhere else.
If my telephone bill starts climbing, I can always buy a cell phone. I think I can even keep my wired phone number.

Justice delayed is justice denied

Nineteen years ago Exxon Valdez struck a rock, ripped open her tanks and spilled a ship load of sticky crude oil into Prince William Sound.
Today, one of the various lawsuits resulting from this terible accident entered the Supreme Court. A maritime tragedy, unbelievable fish and bird kills created nineteen years of welfare for lawyers. And it isn't over, the Supreme Court will take its time, the lawyers will invent new things to litigate. If the lawyers can stretch it out for 19 years, they can probably keep it going, and the fees flowing, for another nineteen years.
This ain't justice.

Greens freak out on mercury

Those high efficiency compact fluorescent bulbs save 75% on electricity compared to plain old incandescent "light bulbs". They also contain a trace of mercury, which will be released if you manage to break the bulb. The Boston Globe has some really drastic cleanup procedures in the event of breakage. This part is a howler, " consider cutting out the piece of carpet where the bulb broke." Yeah right. Try explaining the hole in the living room wall-to-wall to your significant other when he/she gets home from work.
This is pure disinformation. Compact fluorescents contain only 5 milligrams of mercury, far less than the amount in thermometers, furnace thermostats, the fillings in my teeth, and plain old fluorescent tubes. If I break a compact fluorescent I'm just gonna sweep up the broken glass and be done with it.

Cutting up plywood, a better way

Maybe I'm getting old and feeble, but wrestling a 4*8 sheet of plywood thru the radial arm saw single handed no longer feels safe. I fear the sheet will wedge the blade and cause a kickback, or the unsupported cutoff piece will fall to the floor, tearing the material , or I won't be able to keep it going straight.
So for many years I have been dissecting the big sheets by laying them on saw horses and having at them with a hand held circular saw ("skilsaw" we call 'em up here). Being hand held, getting a straight cut can be difficult. I used to clamp a straight board to the plywood and use it as a saw guide, a trick I picked up from an R. J. DeChristoforo book. As long as the board was truly straight (not guaranteed with modern lumber) and stayed pressed tightly to the plywood, that works.
Yesterday I came upon a better method. For rip cuts the long (8 foot) way, I snapped a chalk line right onto the plywood and then ran the saw free hand following the chalk. This gave me a noticeably straighter line than the guide board gave me.

Republicans have a chance in 08

John Podhoretz writing in Commentary thinks that unlike 06, the Republicans have a good chance in 08. Podhoretz sees Iraq as the major driving force behind both the Republican loss in 06 and the chances for victory in 08. He attributes the rout in 06 as a combination of terrible performance in Iraq, Katrina, the Harriet Miers nomination, and the immigration bill of 06. He sees the improved Iraq situation, the Democratic failure to pull the troops out, as decisive. He says the democratic nominee has two choices on Iraq, alienate the hard left by going for victory or alienating the independent voters who see no reason to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Podhoretz' best bit:
"...according to polls, the present Democratic leadership in Congress is the object of an icy public scorn several degrees cooler even than the permafrost in which George W. Bush has been embalmed. "

The North Korean Threat?

Saturday Wall St Journal has an op-ed interview with General B.B. Bell, currently US commander in South Korea. The General talks about the various threats from North Korea, the size of their army, the closeness of of North Korean artillery to Seoul, the North Korean nukes, the outgoing South Korean government, just about everything EXCEPT:
Likelihood of the North Korean government loosing control, like the Soviet satellite governments did in eastern Europe at the end of the '80's. If the NK government comes unglued, whose troops will intervene to "maintain order"? The Chinese? The South Koreans? Both? What does China do if North Korea starts reuniting with South Korea?

To FISA or not to FISA

Lots of hard talk between the Bush administration and Nancy Polosi's House of Representatives about a wire tap (FISA) bill. Bush wants the bill and Pelosi doesn't want to pass it. The bill would prohibit suing the telephone companies (telco's) for cooperating with the intelligence community (actually the National Security Agency, NSA for short). That's necessary, the telcoes are as patriotic as anyone, but they aren't going to expose them selves to expensive lawsuits just for helping Uncle out. The telco management has a responsibility to their stock holders, and they can't do things that get them sued, cause it costs like crazy to defend your company at law. So unless Pelosi is owned by the tort lawyers, she shouldn't have a problem with immunity for the telcos.
Beyond that, the bill ought to allow NSA to tap the phones of the enemy, and require a warrent for cops to tap US citizen's phones. Probably ought to say that wiretaps without a warrent are not admissable in court, except in cases of spying and terrorism. Should allow warrentless tapping of foreign calls even if the foreign calls are routed thru US telephone equipment. I'd also be willing to allow warrentless tapping of international calls, i.e. one party is located overseas.
The newsies haven't really reported on what the bill would contain, probably because they don't understand the issues. US citizens don't want Big Brother tapping their phone, but they do want Big Brother tapping Al Quada's phones. We ought to be able to write a law t hat says that in 2000 words or less.