Alternate Energy hikes your electric rates

The cost of  providing electricity to your home is largely paying off the poles, wires, and generators. The cost of wages and fuel is small compared to the monthly mortgage payments on the electric company's plant and equipment.  As demand increases, electric companies build more generating plants to carry the load.  These facilities are expected to last 40 years, and the financing arrangements reflect this.  They build a small excess capacity to carry the load after a single plant breaks down, or a surge in demand from a sudden heat wave or cold snap.  Since the main cost of providing electricity is paying down the mortgage on the electric plants,  the utilities are careful not to build more plants than are needed.   And the only thing that saves the utilities money, is a reduction in needed generating capacity.  They have to pay the mortgage on the electric plants whether the plants generate electricity or not. 
   And so, along come enthusiastic greenies, offering solar electric power to the utilities for inflated cost, typically twice the retail cost.  Only, the solar electricity is not available while the sun is down, for obvious reasons.  So, the utility has to build and pay for just as much generating capacity as before, to keep the lights on after dark.  In short, buying "alternate" energy merely raises the utilities costs, it doesn't save them money, it costs them more money.  Solar is never going to generate anything after sundown. 
  Same goes for wind.  We have known this since sailing ship days.  Some times the wind goes away and stays away.  Which means the utility still has to pay for the generating capacity to carry the load when the wind doesn't blow.  Again the wind people sell juice at about twice the retail rate.  The utilities are forced to buy it by law. (They wouldn't touch it otherwise).  The "alternate energy" costs the utility money that it wouldn't ordinarily spend. 
   In short, "alternate" energy merely raises the cost of electricity.  If the greenies get their way, capacity will be reduced to the point where blackouts become common.  Us ratepayers will have to purchase home generators ($1000 for enough capacity to keep the furnace running) to avoid having the pipes freeze during a winter blackout.   Up here, that's maybe ten months worth of electric bills. 
  In a nutshell, the greenie push for "alternate energy" is hiking electric rates nationwide.  One reason Great Depression 2.0 is still with us, is high electric rates drive companies to move offshore where the juice is cheaper.

Federal Judge does not believe the Lois Lerner story

The judge refused to accept the IRS baloney about how a single desktop hard drive crash destroyed Lois's incriminating emails.
   Good for the judge.   The "hard drive crash" excuse is totally bogus and the IRS should not be allowed to get away with it. 

Black Flag

Lately TV has been showing Islamist terrorists waving a black flag with Arabic inscriptions.  When did the flag go black?  Used to be, the flag of Islam  was green with Arabic inscriptions. 
Here in the west, a black flag is an ill omen.  The Jolly Roger was a skull and crossbones on an all black field.  Black Flag used to be a brand of insecticide.  I don't think the Islamists consulted a PR expert when they adopted a black flag. 

Michael Brown shooting.

The death of Michael Brown is terrible.  By all accounts he was unarmed, a decent boy, had been admitted to college, was looking forward to starting his freshman year next month.  His death has angered his neighbors, the residents of Furguson MO, resulting in several nights of rioting and violence. 
   I'd like to get into this tragedy deeper.  Trouble is, I am a thousand miles away, I've never been to Furguson, I don't know anyone in Furguson, or for that matter in the entire state of Missouri.  All I know is what the media tells me. And, I don't really trust anything the media tells me.  I fear they are either ignorant, or biased, or stupid, and always looking to tell the most sensational story to sell newspapers or TV time. 
   The local newspaper just asked for comments and thoughts about the Furguson situation on Facebook.  I didn't answer, but if I had, I would have said, "I don't know what to think, 'cause I don't know what's going on.  You are the newspaper, you ought to be telling me what happened, rather than asking me what I feel about it." 
   My sincerest sympathy to the family of Michael Brown.  To loose a  boy/young man is the most painful loss I can imagine. 

Personal Income Tax Reform

I unloaded my thoughts on the corporate income tax a few days ago.  Might as well have a go at personal income tax too.  America is unique in that her citizens voluntarily pay their income tax.  We grumble, but we fill out our form 1040 to the best of our ability and write our checks to Uncle.  Or, since the rules have become impenetrable, we lug everything down to H&R Block, pay Block, and then pay Uncle.   In Europe, tax evasion is a national sport, and so the Europeans have to use a harder to evade Value Added Tax.  VAT is a national sales tax so it hits lower income taxpayers harder than the wealthy, but it can be collected by enforcement upon the nation's shop keepers, easier to target than the entire population.  
   A major beef with our personal income tax is it is so extremely difficult to comply with.  Every year I had to devote an entire weekend in March to doing my taxes.  When I started figuring my taxes, all I had for tools was a #2 pencil, they hadn't invented hand calculators yet.  As time went on, we got calculators and spread sheets and Turbo Tax but the IRS complicated the tax laws faster than computer assistance could help us out.  It still takes a whole weekend of cruel and unusual punishment to get my taxes done. 
    Let's go for a system where income is income, now matter where it comes from.  Income from sale of stock is just plain income.  Eliminate the concept of "capital gains".   Every one, man or woman, married or single, files their own tax return.  One single tax rate, or maybe three (one for most of us, one for the really wealthy, one for the really poor).  No deductions, exemptions,  kickbacks, mortgage interest deductions, solar panel subsidies, earned income tax credit.  Doesn't matter what you spend it on, you pay income on your income, at the same rate. Make life simpler, no loopholes in return for a lower tax rate. 
   Everybody has to pay something, especially the poor.  Rates for the poor should be quite low,  say 4%, but it is important that everybody pays something, just so everyone understands that Uncle's money comes out of everybody's hide. The wealthy ought to pay twice what regular people pay.
    Remove the IRS power to grab money out of taxpayer's bank accounts.  Let the IRS go to court and win an jury verdict against the tax payer.  And have the court handle fining the taxpayer. 

NTSB disagrees on Asiana Flt 214 Crash last year

Asiana Flt 214, a Boeing 777, hit short of the runway coming into San Francisco last year.  The pilots attempted to go around at the last minute, but it was too late.  They hit the seawall at the approach end of the runway, ripping off the landing gear, and sending the aircraft skittering down the runway on its belly.  Due to good luck and a very rugged airframe, the plane did not catch fire, and nearly all the passengers and crew survived the accident.
   The accident was caused on the approach, when the crew assumed the autothrottle system would maintain a commanded airspeed, hands off.  The autothrottle decided it had been turned off, and allowed airspeed to decay, leading to a higher sink rate, and coming in too low.  The three man crew failed to notice the loss of airspeed (no one looked at the airspeed indicator).  This was kinda surprising.  Back in the 1960's, the first autothrottle system in the C-141 transport was hardly ever used.  The crew preferred to hand fly the C-141 into a landing.  After an exciting six hour flight on autopilot, the pilot and co-pilot used to squabble over the only bit of real flying they got to do on the whole trip,  making the landing.  They weren't about the give the autothrottle a share of the fun.
   Boeing, maintained that the autothrottle was supposed to go off line because of some very complicated mode changes that had taken place a few minutes before.  They pointed to obscure instructions in the autothrottle manual.  It's not a bug, it's a feature, saith Boeing.  I read the explanation and it made little sense to me.  It's too complicated to repeat here.
   NTSB staff wrote the accident investigation report, which just got published.   Staff wanted an investigation of how the autothrottles were supposed to work, and a complete redesign to make it more goof proof.  One board member supported this viewpoint.  Another NTSB member dissented, arguing that the existing 777 autothrottle has been flying for 30 years, with an excellent safety record. The entire board voted 3-1 not to require Boeing to redesign the autothrottle, over ruling staff recommendations, a very unusual event.
   The majority clearly felt that the crew was on the flight deck to land the plane especially if the autothrottle broke, and the real cause of the accident was a crew that placed too muich reliance on automation.  The crew essentially let the autopilot make the landing while they supervised.  They supervision wasn't good enough to keep the plane safe when the autothrottle dropped off line. 

Robin Williams, Farewell

Wonderful actor.  I will miss him.