About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2009)
PAGE 4, JULY 6, 2009, THE ISLANDER Pi □ I c -o D I I Ml Ol . tv i v 11 Opinions Publisher's Statement THE ISLANDER (USPS 002430), A member of the Georgia Press Association and Glynn County’s only weekly newspa per is published 51 weeks a year for $20 per year in Glynn County and $22 per year in the United States outside Glynn County by Permar Publications, Inc., 3596 Darien Hwy. Suite 6, Brunswick, GA 31525. Periodicals postage paid at Brunswick, GA. Contents of The Islander, including advertising, may not he reprinted or reproduced in any form without written permission of the publishers. POSTMAS TER send address change to The Islander, P.O. Box 20539, St. Simons Island, GA 31522. Publication Deadline Publication Date: Every Monday Deadline: Thursdays, 12 PM for ads and news copy for the following Monday’s edition. Holiday Schedule On Monday Post Office holidays, The Islander is printed on the Friday before. 2009 Post Office Holidays Thursday, January 1 - New Year's Day Monday, January 19 - MLK Birthday Monday, February 16 - Presidents Day Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day Saturday, July 4 - Independence Day Monday, September 7 - Labor Day Monday, October 12 - Columbus Day Wednesday, November 11 - Veterans Day Thursday, November 26 - Thanksgiving Day Friday, December 25 - Christmas Day Holiday Deadline: Wednesdays, 12 PM for ads and news copy for the following Monday’s edition. Mission Statement: to publish the truth without fear or favor. Established 1972 Matthew J. Permar - Publisher Elise J. Permar - Publisher 1972-2003 Gertrude Bradshaw - Co-Editor 1972-1991 Managing Editor & Advertising Manager Pamela P. Shierling 912-265-9654 Production Manager Sarah Banks Long Church News Patty Gibson - 912-638-8844 Sports Jake Harrison Contributors Dave Barry, Clark Gillespie MD, Sonny Doehring, Roland Willis, Diane Bowen MD Phone Numbers 912-265-9654 • Fax - 912-265-3699 entail: ssislander@bellsouth.net www.theislanderonline.com Award Winning Newspaper 1975 1980 1985 1976 1981 1992 c (T t'hfc 1977 1982 1999 1978 1983 2002 1979 1984 2008 Is anybody out there paying attention? By Pamela Permar Shierling "Czarred And Feathered" is an enlightening look at our "appointed" Federal Government. And you thought we elected representatives. Shame on you! The July 1 editorial on Investor's Business Daily editorial (www.ibdedito- rials.com) website discusses the Obama appointed czars who are currently look ing out for us. PolitiFact.com from the St. Peters burg Times believes the count has swelled to as many as 28 czars under Obama. I'd make a good czarette? czar- rina? as long as there's a crown, or at least a tiara, involved. The IDB editorial reveals informa tion about 10 czars. "Many of these czars, most of whom are useless or counterproductive, are sitting in newly created positions. They range from Kenneth Feinberg, the pay czar who is the special master on execu tive compensation, to Earl Devaney, who, as the stimulus accountability czar, will chair the Recovery Act Trans parency and Accountability Board." And from NewsMax's MoneyNews: it seems as though when our govern ment handed out the TARP money to banks they also purchased warrants for bank common stocks. According to Dan Mangru, MoneyNews, the TARP law says when the banks pay back the TARP money, the U.S. Treasury must sell back the warrants but . . . er. . . the law, oops, doesn't specify for how much. According to Linus Wilson, assistant professor of finance for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, our illustri ous Treasury only recouped 20 cents on the dollar of their original investment in Old National Bancorp. At this rate, taxpayers will be out a mere $9 billion or so. Go to MoneyNews.com to the Street Talk section and click on Trea- tury Ready to Throw Away Billions. Who is running this country? □ Cap-and-trade: unread, undead By Paul Jacob The House just passed the Wax- man-Markey cap-and-trade carbon emissions control act. If it passes the Senate, expect the president — the bill's pusher-in-chief — to sign it at first opportunity. I have not read the bill, so I should not comment on it at length. But then, neither has any congressman read the now 1000-pages-and-plus wonder. So they should not have passed it. We are supposed to believe it is a good bill because we must trust the congressional assistants who wrote it. If anything is a testament to “the power of belief’ it's the enthusiasm for a bill that has not been read, much less understood. One thing is certain: The cap-and- trade program will increase the cost of energy in the United States. It is essentially a big, fat tax increase on businesses and consumers ... in the face of which, businesses and consum ers will decrease activity, depressing the economy. The White House and congressional leaders say the bill will create new “green” jobs. But increasing the cost of doing business does not spur employ ment in general. It will likely increase pressure to build plants and factories outside the U.S., and even the specific jobs created by such mandates tend to come at the expense of other jobs. The most astute commentary on the bill, so far, rests on a comparison between today's darkening days and the darker days of the Great Depres sion, when that day's Congress and president rushed through the Smoot- Hawley Tariff. . . thereby digging the depression deeper, marching America into a scary, institution-threatening poverty that only ended in the after- math of World War II. Back in 1930, general political wis dom had it that protectionism pro tected the whole economy. There was scant evidence for this. From Adam Smith on, the studied understanding of protectionism was that it helped some (generally richer) people at the expense of other (generally poorer) folks. But protectionism did make a plau sible surface sense, like the minimum wage does to so many, today. And remember, in those days of yore, econo mists had not yet been bought off by the line of state power and the allure of political prestige, so, almost to a man, they opposed the bill. Then and now, politicians hate lis tening to economists when it comes to resisting the in-crowd wisdom. Skepticism about protectionism? How un-American! Lincoln was for trade restrictions and the protective tariff! How dare you oppose Lincoln? Just so, Democrats, today, think it bad form to be skeptical of A1 Gore’s trendy hysteria. Besides, he does have an awful lot of scientists on his side. Indeed, the president and his new guard love to talk of “science” as if the pronouncements of scientists were utterly immune from political pres sure and economic enticement. The fact that those scientists are generally paid for with tax-supported research grants doesn’t faze today's political leaders. And yet how many of the pres ident's men — or the current Congress — would buy the science supported by tobacco companies? How many would hesitate to dismiss science paid for by oil companies? The double standard regarding the misapplication of science still leans to favor those who like to do “great things” in government, leaning the other way from those who proceed cau tiously regarding intrusive regulation, taxation, and prohibitions. We witnessed this in the 20th cen tury. Think of all those economists who pretended they could guide the economy. Now we may be witnessing it in scientists who have pushed the Waxman-Markey monstrosity. The parallels here are striking. Today's leaders in economics and finance, until about nine months ago, confidently thought they could predict the future and manage the economy and banish risk with an elaborate mathematical and statistical arsenal. Just so do today's climate scientists aim to model the long-term trends of the global ecosystem. They pretend they can predict where the “tipping points” are, and tell us why, with an air of bracing certainty, we must stop increasing 002 atmospheric produc tion immediately. In a mere decade, we have wit nessed two financial bubbles, the tech bubble and the housing finance collapse. What's the next bubble to expand only to burst? Columnist Steve Christ thinks that the Waxman-Mar key regime would create a cap-and- trade bubble. For that to happen, we would need a compliant Federal Reserve, hell-bent on pumping up the funds to feed it. Alas, Ben Bemanke, fearing a Greater Depression, will likely prove more than willing. But the next bubble to burst may be far more salutary. In a few years enough data may build up, at long last, to prick the climate catastrophism bubble. By this I mean “the science” of panicky predictions. Yes, “global warm ing” may soon become an international embarrassment. And then we will wit ness a whole lot of experts skulking off to write their next research grant proposal in a well-deserved ignominy. I just hope this happens in time for a new Congress to repeal Waxman- Markey - before its most burdensome caps kick in, ensuring a long, ugly life to our deepening depression. □ E3 HOME AUCTION 140 GEORGIA HOMES including Several m This Area OPEN HOUSE: SATURDAY & SUNDAY JULY 18th & 19th 1:00 to 3:00 PM JULY 21st-26th Get All The Details At GeorgiaHouseAuction.com HUDSON& MARSHALL 2.5% TO BUYER AGENTS! OR CALL FOR A FREE BROCHURE 866-508-4872 $2,500 certified funds down payment per property. 5% Buyers Premium Added. All sales subject to sellers approval. H&M: RE # H1779; AU-C000274
