February 25, 2010Preliminary Court Ruling favors fire safety and nature over county's poorly planned vegetation clearance projectCounty broke law when it skipped environmental review of plan
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The Superior Court issued a preliminary ruling today in favor of the California Chaparral Institute indicating that the County of San Diego violated state law by exempting its backcountry vegetation clearance projects from public and environmental review.
"This is a victory for both citizens and nature," said Richard Halsey, director of the Institute. "The best way to protect lives, property, and natural resources from wildfire is through proper community design and sensible vegetation management directly around homes, not striping habitat in the backcountry. This ruling will give citizens the opportunity to participate in developing a rational approach to fire risk reduction. It's time we stop wasting millions of dollars of tax-payer money on projects that actually increase the threat of fire to people."
The preliminary ruling can be found at the link below:
Friday, February 26, 2010
The California Chaparral Institute Wins One!
Received this by email last night:
Yon Gets a Thank-You Note...
From the parents of a gravely injured Canadian soldier whose story Yon told and photographed last week. Don't miss it...
Treat Me like a Dog...
Via reader Doug S., who's on a roll today: Reason uses the example of how we provide healthcare for our pets to explore how we could provide healthcare for ourselves.
Their position is one I agree with, though the analogy is imperfect – the kind of economical major medical policies that we'd buy for ourselves (and which actually are still available) are, unfortunately, not available today for our pets...
Their position is one I agree with, though the analogy is imperfect – the kind of economical major medical policies that we'd buy for ourselves (and which actually are still available) are, unfortunately, not available today for our pets...
Guessing Game...
Via reader Doug S. Which one of these fighters is the U.S. Marine?
Gettin' down to business! Yup, you guessed right...
Gettin' down to business! Yup, you guessed right...
Why California May Be Doomed...
California's massive economic woes scream for legislative attention. See how our Sacremento species of moronic politicians invests their time.
On the other hand, accomplishing nothing useful may actually be substantially better than anything these bozos came up with for actually, like, addressing the issues...
On the other hand, accomplishing nothing useful may actually be substantially better than anything these bozos came up with for actually, like, addressing the issues...
Obamaboor...
Peggy Noonan on the “healthcare summit”, well worth reading.
Several readers have written to ask me why I've stopped commenting on the healthcare debates. I'm disgusted with the whole thing. It seems to me that the American people have made it abundantly clear that they don't want Obamacare or anything even remotely like it – and yet our elected representatives are pressing on anyway. Or at least they're making noises like they are. I still believe it's unlikely to pass, as too many Democratic congresscritters are afraid for their own reelection (Scott Brown drove that lesson home in a vivid way). If I'm wrong about this, and the Democrats do ram this thing down our throats, then I believe they're going to pay the piper at the ballot box, come November – after which we'd likely see Republican majorities in both houses. Hari-kari, that would be – but after watching Reid and Pelosi in action, one can't dismiss the possibility...
Several readers have written to ask me why I've stopped commenting on the healthcare debates. I'm disgusted with the whole thing. It seems to me that the American people have made it abundantly clear that they don't want Obamacare or anything even remotely like it – and yet our elected representatives are pressing on anyway. Or at least they're making noises like they are. I still believe it's unlikely to pass, as too many Democratic congresscritters are afraid for their own reelection (Scott Brown drove that lesson home in a vivid way). If I'm wrong about this, and the Democrats do ram this thing down our throats, then I believe they're going to pay the piper at the ballot box, come November – after which we'd likely see Republican majorities in both houses. Hari-kari, that would be – but after watching Reid and Pelosi in action, one can't dismiss the possibility...
Oversimplification?
The WSJ thinks they've found one reason for the IPCC's problems. Me, I think it's simpler: I suspect they never were about the science, and instead always were about transferring wealth from rich countries to poor countries. Call me paranoid...
Bird Brains Have Some Interesting Peripherals...
The more we learn about modern dinosaurs (aka birds), the more remarkable they turn out to be. Now scientists suspect that (at least some) birds have sensitive magnetometers – in their beaks...
The IPCC Tries to Clean Up Its Act...
I'm skeptical that this is even possible, given they work for the U.N...
Worried About Computers Running Your Car?
Interesting and balanced take on the issue. I'm sure every software developer has thought about this...
On a related note, I once had the flip side of this issue made dramatically clear to me. I was interviewing software engineers for a job opening in my company. One of the candidates looked pretty good, but I wasn't sure why he wanted to leave the company he was currently working for – he had a fascinating job there that seemed an ideal fit for his skills. So I asked him – and he told me that a bug in code he had written had killed a patient who was wearing one of his company's experimental insulin pumps. Now he was looking for a job were a bug couldn't possibly injure or kill someone...
On a related note, I once had the flip side of this issue made dramatically clear to me. I was interviewing software engineers for a job opening in my company. One of the candidates looked pretty good, but I wasn't sure why he wanted to leave the company he was currently working for – he had a fascinating job there that seemed an ideal fit for his skills. So I asked him – and he told me that a bug in code he had written had killed a patient who was wearing one of his company's experimental insulin pumps. Now he was looking for a job were a bug couldn't possibly injure or kill someone...