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Recent & Best of
Random Fragments:
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Sunday,
January 24, 2010
In
Search of Dreamers
- Over the Thanksgiving break of last year, I was able to
backpack into Trinity canyon, so that I could "finish" up my
spring break hike that was cut short by an accident.
I was interested in being able to spend some time looking for traces
of an old survey crew. Bill Ferris and I found the sites I
wanted to find and got some great photos. Bill wrote up a great
trip report on his blog, and I solicited the local paper for an
opportunity to write about our little adventure. The editor was
quite interested and my story ran on January
19, 2010. The story appears below, although I have added in
a number of photos that were not in the paper. With time, I
expect to add this full story in the Hiking
Grand Canyon section of the Kaibab Journal.
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In Search of
Dreamers
by Dennis Foster
In 1916, George K. Davol convinced the Santa Fe Railroad that
it would be worthwhile investing in a project that would
enhance the allure of the Grand Canyon and entice more
tourists to visit that awesome natural wonder. The
project was an aerial tramway that would stretch between the
two rims of the mighty canyon. Passengers would
“sail” over a breathtaking landscape as they plied their
way down from Hopi Point to Dana Butte to the Tonto plateau
and then up to the Tower of Set, and further up to Horus
Temple and Osiris Temple, then crossing over Shiva Temple
before touching down on the North Rim.
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Click
on any of the photos, below, to see a larger
image. |
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| 1919
survey crew poses at North Tonto camp. |
We
found the campsite - a terrace in Trinity
canyon. |
Today, we can only half close our eyes and imagine such a
spectacular voyage. In the fall of 1919, barely six
months after the Congress designated the Grand Canyon as a
National Park, Davol, with the blessing of the Park Service,
began his survey. It would involve at least a dozen men,
last more than three months and chart out a route to the Tower
of Set before the vagaries of winter closed down their
efforts. In the spring of 1920, the Park Service nixed
the project, and the survey was never completed.
Fast forward to November of 2009. Bill Ferris and I have
plans to hike into Trinity Canyon, west of the popular Phantom
Ranch. We have six days to reach the spot on the Tonto
plateau, below the Tower of Set, where I had to be airlifted
out of the canyon this past spring, when I suffered a
debilitating injury to my foot. That accident prevented
me from completing a nine day hike from Crazy Jug Point to the
South Rim, and I was quite keen to “finish” this trek in
the manner I had intended.
With six days, we had time to do some exploring. So, I
brought along some old photos of this 1919 survey. They
rigged up short “supply trams” across the canyon to
facilitate their work, and I suspected that we would be able
to find the remains of one such tram terminus, on the Tonto
plateau, as well as their nearby campsite.
Ninety years after the survey crew departed, we found their
campsite on a flat terrace by matching up this location with
the old pictures. Lucky for us, as the site looks to
have been scrubbed clean – all we found in the area was a
washer, a nail and a small bolt. It appears that they
did a good job of cleaning up after themselves.
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The
survey crew mans the top of the supply tram link on
the Tonto, north of the Colorado River.
Below, I pose in the spots where two of the survey
crew were stationed. I didn't like the exposure
of the spot where the third crewmember was standing -
there was a drop of over a hundred feet! |
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We turned our attention to the tram site and wandered along
the rim of the Tonto plateau, overlooking the Colorado River.
Aided by the old pictures, we soon stumbled across supplies
left behind and tucked away under a ledge – coils of rope,
small buckets of screws, bolts and nails, some kind of gate,
and odd pieces of the machinery used to make the tram work.
There may be more in this cache, but the mice have had many
decades to pile up sticks and twigs in the gaps. Given
its rather obscure location, I would not be surprised if we
were the first ones to gaze upon this site since the survey
crew stuffed these supplies under this ledge, no doubt
expecting to return the following spring to continue with
their work.
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These
blocks mark tram terminus. |
Bill
perched above cache overhand. |
Coils
of rope and buckets. |
We had rain the last night we were in Trinity. And, we
could see snow on the rims in the morning. Not entirely
unlike the Davol survey crew’s experience. We packed
up and made our way back to the campground near Phantom Ranch,
leaving behind the dreams of a different era.
Dennis
Foster has been hiking in the Grand Canyon since 1977 and has
spent over 300 nights camped in the canyon’s backcountry.
********************
For more
information:
To learn more about this survey: Read Jim Olhman’s “The
1919 Transcanyon Aerial Tramway Survey,” in A Gathering
of Grand Canyon Historians, edited by Michael F. Anderson, and
available from the Grand Canyon Association.
Photos
from the survey: Visit the Special Collections and
Archives Department of Cline Library at Northern Arizona
University. The Robert
Ryan Collection (he was a member of the survey crew) is
available on-line.
Grand
Canyon: To learn more about visiting the Grand Canyon go
to www.nps.gov/grca.
Follow the link to “Backcountry Hiking” to learn about the
permit system for inner canyon camping. OR www.grandcanyonscout.com
. |
The paper only used the old photo of the group at the campsite, and
the photo of Bill and I posing, but none of the materials left under
the overhand. Bill and I are now keen to search for the terminus
on the south Tonto. And, I am still interested in finding the
final campsite, located atop the Redwall, north of the campsite we
found. That was, in fact, the main object of my interest, but
the route up through the Redwall looked more than a little rough, so
we decided to look for the remains of the Tonto operation. Also
of interest, to me at any rate, is that the editor choose to use my
working title as the title for the newspaper article. A first, I
think! Invariably, he changes my titles, to make them more
interesting.
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Monday,
January 4, 2010
Signs
of the Times II
- Happy New Year!! And, New Decade!! Time for some
more signs of the times . . . Click on any photo, below, for a
larger image.
At Flaming Gorge, in
northern Utah, we stopped at the visitor's center. Pretty nice
place, with good camping facilities and nice opportunities for outdoor
activities that
seem
to have a minimum of government regulation. Still, the sign for
the restroom struck me as odd, especially if you happen to be thirsty!
We had stopped at Flaming Gorge on our way to a mini-vacation at
Yellowstone. While there, we toured all the main geyser
areas. Parking was a problem during the height of the day.
And, not surprisingly, there was also quite a bit of congestion at the
public
restrooms. When people line up for a pit toilet, you can pretty
much figure that there is some problem with management at this
national park.
As a frequent visitor to Grand Canyon, I have always chuckled at how
the Park Service puts locks on the toilet paper. Not surprising,
really, since it is a particularly valuable
commodity. It is a great example of Adam Smith's diamond-water
paradox.
OK, by now you are probably seeing the theme here. This restroom
is located along the main geyser loop that starts from Old
Faithful. We took this walk during our final morning staying at
this location. We both decided that this facility was one of the
worst, if not the absolute worst, outhouse we have ever had to
use. It smelled so bad, that we couldn't
even close the door while using it. And, it is within walking
distance of one of America's foremost natural wonders. Good
thing we can't capture the whole essence on the web!!
On the other hand, the restrooms at Mammoth Hot Springs
were pretty good, but unlike the inference from the sign shown here,
it wasn't really all that big!!
After our trip to Yellowstone, we traveled back home via Utah, staying
for one night at Bear Lake and two nights at Arches National
Park. Along the way home from Arches, we passed this place,
which may be a restroom, but we decided it was unwise to check it out!
The sign, to the left, was on a table of British foods offered up at
the Celtic Festival in Flagstaff. You can click on it to see it
better, but it reads, "Heat Damaged Chocolate Digestives.
Regularly $5.85. NOW ONLY $3 each." We almost bought
some, but would we really have tried them? Especially if they
were heat damaged?? Probably not, unless we were next to some
mammoth restrooms, where the was lots of TP (because it was locked in
place), and we were able to get a cold drink after doing our
business! OK, time to get off my duff and get some real work
done.
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Sunday,
December 27, 2009
 Hollow
Avatar
- The movie event of the season is the popular Avatar.
We saw the 3-D version at our local theater. Of course, it was
visually stunning. The 3-D effect is quite good and the special
effects are top notch. The story, on the other hand, was a
stinker. The whole "bad guy industrialist" versus the
"peaceful nature lover" is a tired theme, and not especially
poignant here. Better, on that score anyway, is Dances
with Wolves, although I'd even rate that as "thick" on
the sappiness scale.
There are, however, two major complaints I have with the storyline,
beyond the tired nature of the theme. While watching, I was
thinking that a prominent dimension was how a society with low/no
technology can't co-exist with a society that has a high level of
technology. Wouldn't the story have been better if James Cameron
had played this more as an inevitability? Of course (spoiler
alert!!), in the end, the "bad" guys lose, so that would
have to change. Still, I think that he could have done a better
job of invoking our pathos by making the humans seem less
"bad" and the aliens as less "noble."
Ambiguity on this score would make this a movie to remember instead of
one that will likely be soon forgotten.
But, there is a more fundamental shortcoming to this story. Upon
a little reflection, the Na'vi are a rather sad race. They seem
cool, but really it is only true insofar as Sully learns about these
new and different people. But, then what? What do they
do? They seem only to produce body decorations. They don't
have industry. No universities. No research and
development facilities. They are, at the core, intelligent
animals that refuse to use their intelligence.
Some have argued that the story is a metaphor for the clash of
cultures that occurred between Europeans and Native Americans.
But, really it is more like the "clash" between Europeans
and the buffalo.
Indeed, I was reminded of my trip to Antarctica. We visited many
penguin colonies. Instead of being struck by the awesome beauty
of nature I was more struck by the fact that their entire existence is
built around survival - breeding and eating. The Na'vi, at lease
insofar as they were presented in the movie, likewise seemed to live
their lives the same way. Some may argue that they were living
in "harmony" with nature. But, that means
stagnation. No inventiveness. No intellectual
curiosity. None of the (best) attributes that we would ascribe
to our humanity. Maybe a better movie would have painted these
aliens as glorified plants, albeit with some intelligence. Then,
the moral conflict of how humans treat them would have been more
ambiguous.
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Thursday,
December 17, 2009
The
GC Permit Shuffle
- Last month, the Park Service announced a new
permit policy for backpacking in the Grand Canyon. It
eliminates the walk-in request, in favor of mailed/faxed requests, for
the first month that permits are available. For example, on June
1st, one can apply for a permit to do a trip in October. Because
the park is deluged with fax requests on the first of each month
(well, not every month), if you walk in on the first, or even on the
second, day of the month, you are likely to get your request filled
well in advance of all the faxed requests. That will change on
February 1, 2010. Now, only faxed requests will be taken during
June for October hikes. Walk-in requests will not be accepted
until July 1st, for October hikes. [Well, the walk-in will be
treated like a faxed request - drop it off and they'll add it to the
pile.] There were a few letters printed in the local paper
complaining about this policy change. I thought to write a
letter as well, but approached the editor about possibly writing a
longer commentary. He agreed, and my "guest editorial"
ran in the Arizona
Daily Sun on Wednesday, November 25th, the same day I left for a
six day backpacking trip in the canyon.
Reservation system
wasteful and inefficient
Wednesday, November 25,
2009
by Dennis Foster
Is the
existing system of issuing backpacking permits at the Grand
Canyon fair? Of course not.
Is the proposed change, to a random lottery on the first of
each month, going to be fair? Of course not.
Will it be better, or worse? It depends.
Someone from New Jersey who faxes in their permit request will
now have a better chance of getting the itinerary they want.
Someone like me, who lives in Flagstaff and who made a
lifestyle choice 20 years ago to forgo higher income
opportunities elsewhere, will find it harder to get the
itinerary that I want. It should not surprise anyone that the
person in New Jersey thinks that this new system is fair.
While "fairness" is in the eye of the beholder, what
we can say about the new system is that it will be
inefficient, will waste resources, and will likely get worse
over time.
The Park Service's proposal for hiking permits seems to be
leading them down the same path that they have taken in
issuing Colorado River permits. That lottery system was
instituted in 2006 when their wait list for river permits had
grown over the years to 40 times greater than the annual
supply. Additionally, the Park Service will only allow
recreational users to run the river once per year.
Not surprisingly, these kinds of rules and regulations waste
the time, energy and effort of the applicants. But, park
officials don't bear these costs, so they tend to ignore them
in their policymaking.
Thankfully, when it comes to river running, there is still a
major allocation of river use to commercial enterprises and
the Park Service has allowed these trips to be priced at close
to their true market value. When I took a commercial river
trip in 2002, I made reservations three months in advance.
Another couple made reservations a year in advance. And, one
traveler made his reservation only a few days in advance. That
is one of the beauties of a well-functioning free market. It
shouldn't be the case that only people who plan a year in
advance can get a reservation.
Conversely, the Park Service has dropped the ball when it
comes to how it oversees Xanterra's operation at Phantom
Ranch. Booking a cabin, or dorm space, requires you to play
the phone game 13 months in advance. If you are lucky enough
to get through, on the first of each month, you can be put on
hold for hours.
Economists call these schemes "non-price" rationing.
They are inefficient in that they not only allocate scarce
resources in a manner that perverts the incentive of
individuals to be productive and contributing members of
society (i.e., by seeking out jobs that pay well), but it also
generates that wasted time, energy and effort. In a world
characterized by scarcity, this allocation mechanism is
reprehensible.
A more efficient system would be to price the resource at its
market clearing level. Then, you don't have to just hope for
the best in a lottery. [However, you could hook up with other
interested hikers, pool your money to buy an itinerary and
have a lottery among yourselves.] With a real pricing
mechanism, the most highly sought-after itineraries will
command a high price to determine who will get them.
A better solution would be to have the Park Service privatize
the management of the corridor campgrounds (Indian Garden,
Bright Angel, Cottonwood) and have them compete with each
other. I would expect quality and quantity would both
increase. These actions would truly help to accommodate the
increasing demand for a backcountry experience in the Grand
Canyon.
Dennis Foster has a Ph.D. in economics, teaches at the
university level and has been hiking at the Grand Canyon since
1979.
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Some further
comments:
The
"fairness" issue.
This drives me nuts! The Grand
Canyon Hikers group on Yahoo was full of comments about how this
made the process more "fair" by making the odds more
equal. Nothing could be further from the truth! They only
see that they are getting better odds, hence that it must be
"fair." Really, it is all about greed, but people
usually don't want to admit that! I addressed this
issue before, when I noted that rarely do these people take a
holistic view of these matters. Which brings me to my next
point.
Changing
rules negates our choices.
The worst part of this kind of change is that it penalizes people who
have acted on the incentive structure created in the first
place. Maybe the old rule was "bad," but we have been
living with it for quite a while and have adapted. Now, the
time, energy, effort and money we have put into this adaptation is
made worthless. And, does anyone at the Park Service factor that
into their decision-making? Of course not.
A
market-based solution still "hurts" me.
Another point that few seem to get is that I am worse off with a
market solution. Prices rise, and I must compete with the
fictional backpacker from New Jersey for a permit. If he/she is
willing to pay more, they get the permit. That is quite likely
if it is their once-a-year trip to the canyon, versus being just one
of a half dozen trips I make annually. But, I understand the
"fairness" of such a system and am willing to support it,
even if it reduces my chances relative to the current system.
My
web rating was quite low.
I only got 1.4, out of 5, stars on the web, with an amazing 53 chiming
in. Too bad the web comments were down (while the paper migrates
to a new platform), otherwise I might have been able to get a lively
debate going here. I suspect that most of the negative scores
came from river runners that hate commercial outfits and wish that
they had a much smaller allocation. But, as I noted in my
commentary, if it wasn't for these commercial services, you'd probably
have to plan such a trip a year in advance, which is just wasteful.
Privatizing
would raise quality.
Absolutely! It certainly can't lower it! For years, I have
dreaded an overnight stay at the Bright Angel campground because the
restroom facilities are just atrocious. If these campgrounds
were private and competitive with one another, I don't think that
would be the case. Indeed, the restroom at Phantom Ranch is in
much better shape. Hmm . . . Lesson learned!
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Saturday,
November 14, 2009
Can
Obama Govern?
- A little more than a year after he was elected to the most
powerful position in the world, the answer is unequivocal - No.
And, really, we shouldn't be surprised. People who are good at
one thing are rarely good at something else. For example, we
really don't expect that an NFL quarterback can be a good running
back, or receiver, and certainly not a defensive linebacker.
Still, we oftentimes will try to project competence across differing
areas. Candidate Barack Obama showed us his superior rhetorical
skills. From that, many projected that aptitude onto the ability
to govern. And, that hasn't worked out. Obama seems to
relish the idea of being President
without really having any serious interest in governing in a manner
that leaves us better off after his term(s) in office than we were
before he started. He jets off to Copenhagen to make an Olympics
pitch. He travels around the world speechifying on what is wrong
with America. He takes his family on a vacation to the Grand
Canyon and Martha's Vineyard. He seems mesmerized by the spectacle
of the presidency and not so intrigued by its hope and promise.
He dallies on the war in Afghanistan. He pushes us into more
dependence on the government. He is reckless with how the
government should spend taxpayer money, be it on the stimulus or
health care, or, coming soon, the cap and trade boondoggle. He
associates himself with the most radical of ideologues. Yet, I
recall his stirring words during the campaign, when he implored us to
work together to solve problems, when he promised "change we can
believe in," when he was adamant about bipartisanship and
transparency.
And, those things have not happened. He did not take on the
mantle of the stern schoolmaster and force the cantankerous children
that populate the House and Senate to sit down and chart an agreeable
course into the future. Instead, it has been the Democrat
leadership that has taken control of the process and is steering us
into disaster and calamity.
Now, I don't really believe that Obama disagrees with the other Dems
in terms of the policies being pursued. But, that is not what he
promised during the campaign. But, why should we have expected
any different? He had not a shred of governing experience.
He only had experience as a successful campaigner and articulate
speaker. The conclusion that must be drawn, and it is not a
surprising conclusion, is that Obama is a typical politician. He
is not exceptionally gifted at telling the truth, nor at rising above
the fray of politics-as-usual. While one may argue that the hope
and promise was our fantasy projection onto Obama, I still remember
his words. And, they were not words I put into his mouth.
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Sunday,
September 13, 2009
 Flagstaff
Tea Party
- It is hard to believe that it has been two weeks since the Tea
Party Express rolled through our fair hamlet of Flagstaff. I
think it must be our auspicious position
on Interstate 40 - a few years ago we were also favored with a visit
from the Ending
Earmarks Express - since we are smack dab in the bluest of the
blue areas in this otherwise red state. I guess that makes
sense, as the government is the largest employer here, and by a long
margin!
The party started in the early evening, but folks started assembling
well in advance of six o'clock. One of the highlights was that
we were featured on Fox News, especially at the front end of both the Hannity
show and On
The Record
with Greta Susteren. I taped those shows and could see part
of my sign showing though those closer to the camera. The two
sides of my sign are shown to the left and right, above. Cara
Lynn also made a sign (see below) as did a colleague of mine who
retired a few years ago - LOL to the right.
The crowd was large and enthusiastic. The folks running the show
have honed their message and staged an event that is informative and
entertaining. While we had some mighty dark clouds threatening,
we stayed dry. We also heard from some local voices, including
Tom Jenney, the Arizona director of the Americans
for Prosperity. Tom and I go back to the days he was the
Communications Director for the Goldwater Institute. We also
heard from Arizona State Treasurer Dean Martin, who is one of a small
group of politicians that I really believe would be great for our
state in a higher office. While we currently have an unintended
Republican governor (because Dem Janet Napolitano left to become
Homeland Security Secretary in D.C.), I still like Martin's chances in
the primary and general next year.
There were a handful of protesters and they
lined up on the opposite side of the street. I didn't realize
that they were protesting until we were about to head home and decided
to spend a few minutes on the street waving to passersby. There
were some catcalls going on back and forth across the street, but it
seemed mostly in good fun.
On the other hand, I did have an interesting encounter with one of the
food vendors, who asked why everyone was opposed to health care.
At first, I thought he was just making a joke. But, he went on,
and despite my attempt to be both reasonable and courteous, wouldn't
really listen to any other view. His opinion was succinctly
stated as, "The
job of government is to take care of us."
I don't think he heard my reply that there is no such role for
government spelled out in the constitution. But, I think that
his view is exactly what the left-wing believes and it is so
antithetical to the founding principles of our country that it is a
wonder their heads don't explode from their inability to resolve the
contradiction between liberty and freedom, on the one hand, and the
desire to take what isn't theirs, from someone else, and justify it as
being somehow "just."
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Tuesday,
August 25, 2009
Is
It Health Insurance?
- There is so much awful about the current efforts to
"reform" health care, that it is hard to find a place to
start any critique. The presumed motivation of lowering costs
and making it more
accessible seems laudable, but then the solution should be more
competition and less government. And, anyone who is paying
attention to this issue knows that this juggernaut is moving in the
opposite direction. One slice of the current debate that has me
constantly cringing is the issue of insurance. We hear all about
the millions of people without health insurance. The contention
is that we can (partly) solve our problems by roping these folks into
an insurance pool.
First, let's dispense with the magnitude of the problem. When it
comes to the actual number of "uninsured" there are easy
ways to deflate these figures into something a heck of a lot less
than the 47
million we often hear hyped in the media. Take out 10
million illegals, 17 million that earn more than $50,000 a year and
those that choose no insurance because they feel healthy, and you may
be left with 7 to 8 million people. That is something on the
order of 2% to 3% of the population. It hardly seems like a
crisis point for the country. And, under a free and competitive
environment, I suspect that 80% of these people could be adequately
served.
But, this still begs the question of what is meant by " insurance?" Simply put,
insurance is a mechanism to protect your
wealth when you encounter some event that would otherwise wreak havoc on your
finances. You are not insuring your house, or
your car, or your health. It is your wealth. If you have
no wealth, then insurance isn't especially an issue. When we
hear the argument about "universal coverage," we aren't
talking about insurance. We're talking about defined benefits,
that pretty much everyone expects to access.
You buy insurance to protect yourself from unexpected calamities.
You don't buy insurance to gas up your car, or replace the
tires. You don't buy insurance to paint your house or have a new
roof installed. One of the problems with health insurance is
that these are exactly the kinds of items covered - doctor visits,
shots, etc. That is not what I want to insure against. I
expect to make those kinds of payments. I want insurance for the
big things - like cancer - that I hope will never happen. One
reason that the cost of insurance is so high is that the wrong things
are being paid for, and I am quite certain that will continue under
"universal coverage."
If we are all going to use the coverage, then it isn't
insurance. Over time, we will have to contribute as much into
the system as we get out of it. Now, that isn't perfectly true,
since this will also be like "progressive" taxes - richer
people will pay more. But, insurance isn't about richer people
paying more. It's about individuals paying the expected amount
of the weighted odds of "collecting" on the insurance.
That is, if you have a 1% chance of a total loss to your $200,000 home
over a twenty year period (e.g., fire), then your insurance would cost
$2000 over that time frame, or $100 per year. If the odds are
100%, then there is no insurance you can buy! That's the way it
works.
So, if we all expect to use health care, say to the tune of $500,000
each, then that is what we'll have to pay for. You can't insure
against it. You can only tax people this amount in order to
"cover" us. That is a fraud. Insurance is
insurance. Benefits are benefits. Confusing the latter
with the former is just another example of political doublespeak.
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Wednesday,
August 5, 2009
NAU
Parking Newspeak
- There are so many colossal issues to write about (health scare,
cap and tax, and innovation-killing taxes, to name a few), that it is
easy to be overwhelmed by such a task. So, I'll defer on those
for now,
and focus on a local matter that has me especially irritated:
on-campus parking at Northern Arizona University. Last year I
paid $60 for a permit in an unpaved lot on the edge of campus.
This "yellow" permit was good only in that one lot, Monday
through Friday, from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
Right next to this yellow lot is a paved commuter lot, which requires
a "black" permit. During the summer, this lot is
mostly empty. Since it can rain a lot during the summer, the
yellow lot can become quite a mess. So, at the end of this past
spring term I wrote to our Parking Services and asked if they wouldn't
allow the yellow permit parkers to use the adjacent lot during the
summer, which would help extend the life of the unpaved lot. [I
also blogged about this last summer - Spaces,
Spaces, Everywhere] The reply I got was disheartening - this
lot was scheduled to close down this summer, paved, and turned into
another commuter lot. The yellow lot was to be no more.
The income effects on me are significant - today I bought the only
kind of permit available to me, at a cost of $314. That's more
than a whopping 500% increase in parking fees for me!
So, today I have been looking over the Parking Services' website,
and I am just amazed at how good an example it is of fuzzy logic,
misdirection, obfuscation, and, well . . . Orwellian newspeak.
To wit:

The
purpose of meters.
The home page notes, "Meters
on campus have been reduced to open up more student parking. Meters
are intended for visitors. Student permit owners are prohibited from
parking at meters." Well, I understand that
parking should be made available to visitors, and I understand the
notion that the metered parking should be reserved for these
visitors. But, why is the prohibition only applied to
students? I wrote to Parking Services and asked if faculty could
park at the meters and received a reply of "Yes," noting
that, of course, we have to pay for the meter. So, if they are
intended for visitors, but employees can park there, but students
can't, what do we conclude? It's not rocket science.
The
purpose of the "Park N Stay" lot.
From the home page, "Park
& Stay, originally intended for residential students as a means to
decrease vehicles driving on campus, was only being used by commuters.
Therefore, it will be paved and converted to commuter parking."
This is false. The lot was designed to do exactly what it says -
get people to park in this one lot and walk, bike, or bus around
campus. The point was to reduce on-campus traffic. And,
the idea is sound. The fact that a lot of folks like me
(especially, the staff), who work on that end of campus, found this to
be a nice choice doesn't negate the fact that I did not drive around
campus to other lots (my permit wouldn't be valid). Now that the
lot is being paved over, the justification for it has changed in order
to validate this decision. I don't know if this would make
Orwell proud, or have him rolling over in his grave.
Also, I should note that declaring it as
"intended for residential students" is also disingenuous.
Those students have to buy "red" permits and can only park
in their residential zone on campus. That is, they have no
ability to drive around campus to other lots during the day anyway!
Efficiency
is in the eyes of the permit holder.
We have only four categories of parking permits - employee ($314),
student commuter ($324), student on-campus resident ($324) and our new
parking garage ($418). Insofar as the latter is concerned, the
web page states, "Parking
Garage permits will only be permitted to park in the garage to ensure
this facility is efficiently used and vehicles are not taking a second
parking stall elsewhere on campus." How is it
possible that a full garage is a meaningful measure of
efficiency? Well, it isn't. But, it is symptomatic of the
kind of "thinking" that goes on in government
agencies. Efficiency refers to how well we use our scarce
resources relative to our needs and desires. That's why my
college dean has his own parking space, even though he is gone every
other week on some kind of fund raising effort. It would be the
height of inefficiency to require him to stay at the college every day
just so his parking space can be occupied. [Of course, a better
way would be to auction off spaces, maybe on a daily basis . . .]
The
ecoPASS as fraud.
Don't want to pay to park on campus? Well, there is another
option - get an "ecoPASS" and ride the bus into
school. And, it's free! Of course, it isn't free.
You have expend an inordinate amount of time, energy and effort to use
the bus system, especially if you live many miles from campus.
On their ecoPASS page,
they state, "Using your
ecoPASS helps reduce campus traffic congestion, lessens the impact on
employee parking, reduces air pollution,
and expands the range of cyclists and walkers." Does
it? Probably not. You face increased congestion for
on-campus bus services. What lessening the "impact" on
parking means is beyond me, but if it was something real, they
wouldn't mind letting garage permit holders park somewhere other than
the garage! And, the last thing I want to see on campus is an
increased "range of cyclists." They are already a
hazard to my health! The web page touts the pass as a way to
"Relax On Your Way To Work." That doesn't sound like
any bus system I've ever heard of. In fact, I recently received
an e-mail from a student of mine that just started working in
Washington D.C. and has to take the not-so-relaxing metro to work
every day. Her take - "Being
productive during the commute is tough, especially when you have zero
personal space most days. Sometimes the occasional person tries to
pull out a laptop and work on the train, and it never lasts long with
how close people cram in. I generally just read the paper in the
mornings, but a lot of people sleep, such as the fellow next to me
this morning that I had to keep pushing off my shoulder."
Yeech!
But, there is one more point here. Not
only is this a fraud insofar as our choice go, but it is an accounting
fraud as well. The passes are not free. The university has
to use taxpayer money to pay for them. And, the bus line, also a
government entity, will no doubt count this money as
"revenue" rather than as part of its taxpayer support, thus
claiming that they are moving closer to being a break-even
operation. I can already feel the chill running up and down my
spine in anticipation of reading such a pronouncement.
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Friday,
July 10, 2009
 Of
Mules and Men
- The National
Park Service is considering whether to change property rights,
with regard to mule travel, at the Grand Canyon. There were some
public "scoping" sessions back in early June. I
attended one, but there wasn't any formal decision to study and
comment on - it was all very open ended. I challenged one of the
park spokesman here with the comment that there must be some agenda
motivating all this time and energy. I suspect it is an attempt
to reduce and restrict mule travel in the canyon. He said that
the ongoing "conflict" between mules and hikers necessitated
a periodic review of these conditions. I suggested that the
appropriate solution to dealing with any perceived
"conflict" was to expand the trail infrastructure to
accommodate more users, but that I doubt whether anyone at the park
service would ever seriously consider such an outcome. So it
goes. The photo, above, shows the mule barn at the Grand Canyon
(click to see a larger image) - the oldest commercial facility
currently being used in the United States, as I understand it.
Since the park finished its 1995 General
Management Plan, this has been on the chopping block. As
usual, the idea is to preserve the structure and turn it into an
interpretation site, while moving the actual operation somewhere else,
mostly out of sight of the visitors!
The deadline for commenting on this issue was June 22, and I didn't
realize that until June 23. Doh! But, whatever action they
decide to pursue, there will be another public airing, so I can
comment then. Still, I penned the following letter to the editor
of our local paper, which ran on Tuesday,
June 30:
| To the editor:
One of the
truisms that emerge when the government owns desirable
resources is that special interests constantly seek rule
changes that profit them, while disadvantaging and restricting
others. At the Grand Canyon, we see this process in
perpetual motion, as some seek to curtail overflights,
eliminate motorized travel on the river, destroy lodging and
commercial activity on the rim and, now, there is an attempt
to relegate mule traffic into that vast chasm to the dust bin
of history.
The
selfish behavior of such individuals and groups should be
patently obvious. Rather than embrace the concept of
liberty, theirs is the morality of the gun. They seek
more and more restrictions, moving us towards a point of
ultimate conformity with some grotesque “ideal” state of
being.
I have
been hiking in the Grand Canyon for over thirty years. I
have logged many thousands of miles on its trails and hundreds
of nights camped in its backcountry. Yet, I don’t mind
the fact that some people would rather take a mule ride into
the canyon. And, I don’t mind if some people take a
motorized raft trip down the river. I guess that makes
me tolerant of others who choose to see the Grand Canyon in
different ways than I do.
If the
park service really wanted to reduce hiker/mule conflicts,
they would work to expand the infrastructure of trails at the
park. That sound you hear is the collectivist shudder at
the notion that we can actually make the Grand Canyon more
accessible! |
A few other comments:
The selfish
issue.
I am always amazed at how easily people fail to see the
"selfishness" of their opinions. Instead, they seem to
think that their "vision" is a reflection of a true and just
outcome. I guess that makes them rather pretentious, and, as I
infer, not at all tolerant of others.
This issue is made even more awful, in my
opinion, when I read some comments that mules should continue because
they help those who cannot physically hike these distances. The
presumption is that if you are healthy enough to hike, you shouldn't
be allowed to ride the mule. Yeech! I have only ridden the
mules once, and clearly I am able to hike. It was a fantastic
trip - I was having a great time looking all around me at the Grand
Canyon instead of looking down at the trail!
Expanding
the infrastructure.
While nobody with any authority will ever consider this, I do have a
more specific suggestion here. Improve the Hermit's Trail and
re-establish the old Hermit Camp. In other words, turn it into a
"Phantom Ranch Lite." Don't allow the mules back on
this trail, so that it can be a viable alternative for hikers,
complete with canteen, bunkhouses, et al. Re-establish the old
tram as the supply conduit. That way, the park would not only
honor the history of the area, but actually build on it!
I am not such an
outlier on this issue.
One other letter was published by the newspaper on this topic, and
also in favor of the mules. And, some of the Yahoo group (Grand
Canyon Hikers) seem fine with the mules as well (although, perhaps a
minority). Also, when I was up at the park on July 1st to stand
in line for a November hiking permit, another local came up to me and
commented that he mostly agreed with me on the points raised in the
letter, and he is well-connected to the liberal side of this
community. And, my letter received a 3.8 rating on the web (out
of 5.0) with 29 "votes." That wasn't enough to crack
my way into the top 5, but a very respectable score all in all.
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Monday,
July 6, 2009
Signs
of the Times
- I like to take photos of interesting, quirky, funny, sad, or
just plain poignant scenes. Often times, it is a photo of a sign
that catches my attention (see here
and here,
for example). But, not always. I have decided to do a
better job of collecting these images and posting them up on a regular
basis. So, don't be surprised to see more "Signs of the
Times" in future entries of the Kaibab Journal.

Lucky
for me, I didn't get caught.
I was hiking down to Indian Garden, on the Bright Angel Trail, in the
Grand Canyon, on July 1st. In the outhouse there, this sign was
posted above the toilet. Can you imagine having to pay a $100
fine because you had no trash?!
|

I really don't
like the sound of this one.
I was in the Phoenix airport recently, and a deli outside of the
security check point had this sign prominently displayed. And,
it is so wrong on so many levels. First, doesn't "grab and
go" seem vaguely criminal? Then, who could possibly believe
that buying a cold sandwich to take on the plane would make your
experience akin to being in "paradise?" Is it a cruel
joke? And, the kicker, which had me do a double-take, was the
reference to a "security-friendly" sandwich. Exactly,
what is that? Is it one that the security guards like? Is
it one that doesn't have more than 3 ounces of mayo? Really, I
want to know.
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|
Patriotic menu -
I like it!
On the way back from Phoenix, we drove through the small hamlet of
Pine, and decided to have lunch at HB's. In the middle of the
second page of the laminated menu is a photo of Mt. Rushmore and the
words, "Freedom, Liberty, Peace, Trust, Justice,
Harmony." I don't know how they chose those six words, and
it is something of a chuckler that right below this they feature,
"The Lighter Side of HB's." BTW, the food is great.
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Not eligible for
concealed carry permits.
One of my neighbors seems to have upgraded their home security
system. It isn't a very heavy duty tank, but it is a tank
nonetheless! Perhaps they know something about rising taxes that
I don't???
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St. Louis Tea
Party - April 2009.
Cara Lynn was in St. Louis on tax day this past spring and caught the
big tea party being held in the park downtown. She snapped this
great photo of the Arch, the old courthouse and this protester's Obama
and Socialism poster. Priceless. [Click this photo to see
a larger image.]
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Saturday,
June 20, 2009
Beck
for Prez?
- As far as I can tell, Glenn
Beck is on a huge upswing
in popularity. I might entertain the notion that it is just
me. That is, because he is more popular with me, does that mean
he is more popular in general? Well, maybe. But, if he's
getting dumped on by Jon Stewart, Stephen
Colbert and the harpies at The View, he must be pushing somebody's
buttons.
I first saw Glenn Beck when he had his show on CNN. When he
showed up on Fox this spring, I was more dogged about catching his
show, and loving just about every minute of it. He is funny,
articulate and appropriately outraged by the nonsense that goes on in
our government.
He is quite the multi-faceted entertainer, and doesn't really seem to
miss a beat in selling himself to his audience. In early June,
he put together a tour covering six cities, including nearby
Phoenix. So, Cara Lynn, Eric and I headed down to the desert on
June 2 for his "Common Sense Comedy Tour." As a comedy
performer, I'd give him a B, but his content makes him a unique and
singular entertainer. And, he is funny.
So, the event was held at the Dodge Theater, where there is a giant
board that displays messages you can send via text. I tried to
do so, but the learning curve was too long for me to get on before the
show started. Still, a couple of the comments were some
variation on the theme, "Glenn Beck for President."
That got me to thinking . . .
One thing that distinguishes conservatives from liberals is that the
former are likely to distain political office. If you want a
smaller government that does less, you probably don't really want to
expend time, energy and effort to be a part of it. I mean,
wouldn't a libertarian basically run on a platform of, "I don't
want to do anything?" On the other hand, if you want
government to be bigger and do more, you might feel compelled to jump
into the fray so that you can help transform society into the image
you'd like.
I think that Glenn Beck might make an excellent president, but his
message belies any such ambition. He extols the virtues of
individualism, freedom and liberty. These tenets tend to work
against the notion that we need a leader to follow. And, it is
difficult to use this tack if you want to build yourself up to be a
leader. It just doesn't work.
Alternatively, consider a liberal. Like President Obama.
He tells us that he can fix the struggling economy. He can
create (or, save) jobs. He can transition us to a green
economy. He can stop global warming. He can stop
pollution. He can solve our health care system. He can . .
. well, he can do everything! That would seem to be the perfect
criteria for "leader."
In another vein, I decided to send a short note to Beck. To wit:
Dear Mr.
Beck,
My family and I recently had the pleasure of seeing your
Common Sense performance in Phoenix, although the 300 miles we
drove, round trip from Flagstaff, meant we returned home in
the early a.m. hours Wednesday! Great stuff!

You have made much of the curtailing of our economic freedoms,
and I couldn’t agree with you more. But, there is the
obvious (or, is it?) fallout from these restrictions, perhaps
best summarized by Milton Friedman in his classic,
“Capitalism and Freedom:”
"On the one hand,
freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of
freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in
itself. In the second place, economic freedom is also an
indispensable means toward the achievement of political
freedom." [Chapter 1, page 8, 1982
University of Chicago edition]
When I first read this, many years ago, I was bowled over.
While economic freedom cannot guarantee political freedom, you
cannot have the latter without the former. Isn’t this
a point that you should also be making? Too many people
fail to see the power of Friedman’s argument. For
example, if the government mandates pay levels for private
sector employees, they automatically constrain how well these
individuals can operationalize their rights to free speech.
Or, consider a different example - if the government decides I
cannot get enough gasoline to drive to Phoenix, then I can’t
participate in a Tea Party and my voice is made the weaker, as
a matter of government policy. This insidious result
should frighten us out of our wits!
Indeed, Friedman pulls no punches in this book, as he begins
by critiquing the famous quote from JFK’s inaugural, “Ask
not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for
your country.” Writes Friedman:
"Neither half of
the statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his
government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free
society." [Introduction, page 1, 1982
University of Chicago edition]
Perhaps it is time to introduce a new generation of Americans
to the insights of Milton Friedman.
Keep up the good work!
Sincerely,
Dennis Foster |
While Milton Friedman passed away in 2006,
many have started to make special arrangements to remember the famed
economist on his birthday. Mark your calendars - the date is
July 31.
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Tuesday,
June 2, 2009
Shamans'
Gallery
- For some years, I have been thinking about a return to Shamans'
Gallery, so that I can take some digital photos. After my first
(and only) visit in 1996, I thought that this could be done as part of
a really long day trip from Flagstaff. Cara Lynn was interested
in going, so off we went on the Sunday before Memorial Day, 2009.

For the full story:
Tuckup
Trail to Shamans' Gallery
in the Hiking Grand Canyon section of the Kaibab Journal
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Wednesday,
May 27, 2009
 Self-Orienting
Maps, et al.
- This past Memorial Day weekend, Cara Lynn and I took a day trip
to see Shaman's Gallery (or, is it Shamans? or Shamans'? or, call it Gordon's
Panel). Anyway, on the road we were listening to the radio
and some commentator on NPR was whining about the demise of newspapers
and how they would miss the tactile
sense of holding the news in their hands, while sipping on their
latte. Give me a break! That got us to talking about how
innovations are, by and large, improvements. So, while I am not
inclined to sit down with my cup 'o joe and a Kindle,
I can imagine that innovations will continue apace and we will have a
suitable substitute for the "newspaper experience."
Some years ago, I had heard of paper
thin LCD screens that would allow for downloaded material into a
book that you could read as a book. [And, when you were done,
you can just clear the pages.] The technology goes by the name
of "electronic
ink," or "electronic
paper."
So, with our thinking caps on, we developed how this would work to
supplant newspapers. First, pick the newspaper size that suits
you. Then, hook up to the internet (hmm . . . can this be done
wirelessly?) and download whatever paper you want. Or, some
combination of papers. And, you can tailor the paper as you see
fit - sports first, or national news, maybe with a cartoon at the
bottom of each page, instead of all on one page. You can read it
as four pages, and hit scrolling buttons to advance to later
pages. Or, you can jump to the rest of the story you are reading
directly. At first, I doubt that this faux newspaper will really
feel like a newspaper, but over time, it may well resemble the real
deal.
And, that led us to another innovation: self-orienting
maps. As we were traveling along dirt roads, mostly unmarked, I
was armed with a topo map and
estimating our position by noting when we would meet up with
intersecting roads. Remarkably effective, although there are
more side roads than are shown on the old map! Well, the dilemma
here is that maps are oriented with north at the top and we were
driving south. I have almost always kept the map in its printed
orientation and made mental notes that roads on "map left"
were going to show up on my right, and vice versa. Yeah, that
gets confusing. But, on my recent spring break hike, I noticed
that Bill Ferris always held
his map oriented to his direction of travel. Then, he just
needed to read labels and numbers sideways and upside down.
After a while, I decided I liked this approach. So, on our drive
to Shamans Gallery, I decided to orient the map with south at the
top. That worked great, but we still had to contend with reading
information upside down.
But, we got to thinking about the newspaper idea and decided this
technology would also work for maps. First, it would be cool to
just download your map onto a standard sized sheet (bigger than 8.5 x
11, I would think). And (a drum roll, please), as you turned the
map to orient it in the direction you are traveling, the labels and
numbers would rotate with you! Sign me up. And, if you
could write electronic notes on your map (with a stylus), you can then
download it to your PC when you get home. Probably there are
plenty of other accessories that people would want on these
maps. Perhaps, I'll solicit ideas from the folks at the Yahoo
Grand Canyon group.
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Monday,
January 19, 2009
 Dismantling
Our Heritage
- We went up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for a day
trip. We had a few things we wanted to do. More on that
later. While up at Powell Memorial, we were dismayed to see that
the park service has finally gotten around to dismantling the
headframe to the old Orphan
Mine, shown to the right (click
any photo to see a larger image),
which is probably about fifty years old. It is a sad commentary
on the NPS, which extols the virtues of historic structures, but only
as long as they think that these structures are worth
preserving. For years, they have also wanted to tear
down the Thunderbird and Kachina Lodge. Thankfully, that has
not yet come to pass.
So, why were we up at the canyon? Many reasons . . .
Kolb Exhibit.
I wanted to see the exhibit at Kolb Studio on historic mapping of the
Grand Canyon. [Until
2/15/09, you can read more about this here - Mapping
the Grand Canyon. Later, visit their archives
to find out more on this exhibit.] These exhibits usually
last for many months, so I do have ample opportunities. But, we
missed out on this during our December
backpacking trip to Phantom Ranch. This day trip afforded us
the time to really peruse this exhibit. I give it 4.5 stars -
alas, no copies of Walcott's maps from the early 1880s were
included. An oversight, in my humble opinion. Also, it is
interesting to note that when Emory Kolb died, the studio was turned
into a bookstore for the Grand Canyon Association, ending its historic
use in favor of something else that the NPS endorsed!

Drive new &
improved Hermit Road.
I also wanted a chance to drive the newly reconstructed Hermit Road
(aka, West Rim Drive), which runs the eight miles between the Bright
Angel Lodge and Hermit's Rest. The road had been in very poor
shape for a number of years. I think that the park service
should have added a direct road from Hermit's Rest back to the South
Rim Village, so that hikers could access the trail here year round,
without having to rely on the awful
shuttle service. But, it was not
to be. The new road looks just like the old road, except it
isn't crumbling nor wavy. But, no wider than before! No
bike lanes! And, parking for the 2+ months of its being open to
the public is woefully inadequate. The photo, to the right,
shows parking at Powell Memorial, which is typical of the viewpoints
along this road. Wouldn't some angled parking here have doubled
the available spaces at little additional cost? Probably, but
that's not the way the park service thinks. But, there was one
major improvement, which gets my full support. The restrooms at
Hermit's Rest have been totally redone. Now, there are four
little building (see photo), each with two units. They are roomy
and include hand sanitizer dispensers. There are also some
vending machines here (drinks and snacks) and a water fountain that
works during the winter. A vast improvement over the older
facility, even though these are outhouses and not flush toilets.

Meal Ready to
Eat - a field test.
We also used this opportunity to try out some MREs that Cara Lynn got
from an old friend. MREs are "meals ready to eat" and
are used by the military. I tried one at home, but those are
rather ideal conditions. [Even so, I mistakenly added a package
of salt to my instant coffee. Bleech! All I can say is
that it
sure looked like a sugar packet.] Cara Lynn had a chicken and
noodles meal, while I had the beef enchilada. Very good, with
just a little bit of a learning curve on our part. The meals
heat up when some chemical pellets are activated by air and
water. Works well to generating a hot meal, although the staying
power of the "heaters" is not enough to really get your hot
drink up to speed. Still, I am impressed with the quality and
variety of items included. A slight breeze caused us to make
sure everything got tucked under something heavy. You can see
Cara Lynn's meal to the right. Yes, it included the
M&Ms. I would say that they are a bit too heavy for
backpacking purposes, but they were nice on this cold Saturday in
January. We ate at the picnic area by the Hermit trailhead, as
did three other groups of visitors. Too bad you can only drive
out here in December, January and part of February. You wouldn't
expect the shuttle bus riders to haul out picnic supplies during the
rest of the year. So it goes.
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Wednesday,
January 7, 2009
 Klaatu
Goes PC
- We went to see the remake of The
Day the Earth Stood Still last week. I give it three
quarters of a star, but I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was
just the neat twist of the alien/s having landed years earlier and
snatched some DNA to use to make a human that can be sent to us for
the purpose of interaction. Yeah, in the original, you have to
believe that Michael
Rennie was a human from another planet, as if that was the natural
order of things. Beyond that, there isn't anything about this
movie to recommend.
But, that is not why I am writing about this film. Instead, my
beef is that the film has stood the premise of the original on its
head. In the 1951
epic film, Klaatu has come to Earth to issue a warning to us not
to take our fighting, now that we have nuclear capabilities, beyond
our planet, which would threaten other worlds. [Hmm, sounds a
lot like the current Israel/Gaza conflict!] Although he
"came in peace," he was rude not to have called ahead -
maybe then he wouldn't have gotten shot at! Still, his character
was supposed to be naive about the specifics of our culture and a big
chunk of the film shows him getting to know us better. His only
demand was that he present his message to a diverse group that
represented all the various peoples of the Earth.
The new Klaatu (Keanu
Reeves) is, well, an idiot. He is supposed to know all about
us, and even seeks out another alien living among us for a
report. Yet, he doesn't seem to understand how to communicate
with us. Indeed, he doesn't really have a message to relay to
us. Instead, he is here to destroy us in order to "save the
planet." I guess you could say that he is a metaphor for
environmental extremism. If they hadn't played him so serious,
but, instead, more delusional (or, even insidious, like the villain in
the new Bond film, Quantum
of Solace) then I might have given this movie a full star.
After seeing the new version, I pulled out my DVD copy of the original
and watched that, paying closer attention to the message of the film,
because I was sure that it had been totally perverted by the
remake. And, that is certainly the case. I jotted some of
the key passages in Klaatu's final speech, which left me admiring that
film even more:
| "The
threat of aggression . . . can no longer be tolerated.
There must be security for all, or no one is secure.
Now, this does not mean giving up any freedom, except the
freedom to act irresponsibly."
"[The robots'] function
is to . . . preserve the peace. . . At the first sign of
violence, they act automatically against the aggressor."
"The result is we live
in peace, without arms or armies, secure in the knowledge that
we are free from aggression and war. Free to pursue more
profitable enterprises."
"It is no concern of
ours how you run your own planet." |
To my surprise, I have just discovered that Klaatu is a
libertarian! While the filmmakers were not trying to promote
this kind of interpretation, it is the inescapable result of how they
sought to operationalize their anti-war sentiments. Here is what
we get from the passages quoted above:
Limited
government.
This interplanetary association has only one purpose - secure
individual freedom from aggression. That is pure Ayn Rand
material. There isn't any aid and assistance to us, to help in
our dismantling of weapons. There isn't any interplanetary
definition of marriage. There isn't any common currency
standard. Nothing but just the protection of the individual from
force of violence. You can't get any more libertarian than that.
The state
doesn't regulate behavior.
They just don't care what we do, as long as we're not violent.
No social conventions to enforce. No behavior to
criminalize. A libertarian's dream world!
Free enterprise
is embraced.
I love the line about pursuing "more profitable
enterprises." It doesn't have to refer to making money, but
it explicitly allows for that outcome. And, the concept of free
enterprise is really the expression of capitalism. I doubt that
many viewers would walk away from the movie thinking that Klaatu's
message is that capitalism is best, but that's what he said.
A strict
enforcement of property rights.
The notion that the robot police force has a simple mandate, and that
it is carried out automatically, and, apparently, swiftly, means that
property rights are pre-eminent in this system.
A de facto
encouragement of economic growth.
Capitalism requires property rights, lest there is no trade, and
relies on voluntary transactions. The threat of force and
violence deter these transactions, so their elimination would sow the
seeds of dramatic economic growth and development.
So, while the new, politically-correct, version of this movie is a
stinker, turning Klaatu into a bullying socialist tyrant, the original
version gets five stars from me.
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Tuesday,
October 7, 2008
Financial
Market Turmoil
- With the recent turmoil in financial markets, and given my
relative advantage in this area (I have been teaching a course in
"Money & Banking" the last four years), I asked the
editor (Randy Wilson) of the Daily Sun if he would be interested in an
editorial on the topic under their "Coconino Voices" banner,
which is an irregular platform for locals with expertise to spout off
about things they know something about. He was enthusiastic
about this, and even though I finished it off on Friday (10/3), he got
it on the main editorial page for Sunday.
While it has been a couple of days since then, surprisingly there are no web
comments on my opinion piece. That seems odd, although Randy
told someone else that he did expect to see some letters come in on my
editorial. We'll see. Still, my colleague Doug Brown, who
is quite the polar opposite of me insofar as politics and economics
goes, told me that he was asking his students to comment on my piece
as part of a homework assignment. So, that's good news and I'll be interested in hearing
how they react to it.
Controlling financial markets a fatal
conceit
'For the sins of the father
you, though guiltless, must suffer," wrote the Roman poet
Horace. Today's financial turmoil has its roots in the
Great Depression of the 1930s. We have been suffering,
and continue to suffer, the sins of our fathers. And the
suffering isn't over yet.
The real sin of the Great Depression era was the notion that
political control of the marketplace would curb
"capitalism's excesses" and distribute long-lasting
wealth more evenly. This experiment was a colossal
failure -- our economy went through the 1930s with an average
unemployment rate of some 15 percent. And, the sins of
this grand experiment continue to be visited upon us.
That's why there was a savings and loan debacle in the
1980s. That's why there are huge investment banks that
can't diversify their activities, putting them at greater risk
of collapse. Although much reform has taken place
recently, we have seen continued efforts to regulate financial
markets, from requiring firms to make risky loans (because
it's nondiscriminatory) to using oddball accounting rules for
valuing highly illiquid assets (mortgages), wrecking balance
sheets and casting a pall of uncertainty over credit markets.
Why do we care about credit
markets? Well, our economy runs more smoothly, and our
standards of living rise more quickly the more robust is the
credit market. The business world constantly faces cash
flow problems -- the outflow of expenses is hardly ever
matched, on a timely basis, with the inflow of income.
Farmers, for example, earn all their income at harvest time,
yet need to incur huge expenses months in advance if they are
to have a crop. Retailers do a huge volume of business
during the Christmas season, yet they have expenses to pay on
a regular basis throughout the year. A freeze on credit
will disrupt production, boost unemployment and can send us
into a recession. That is why there is so much concern
about financial markets today. We don't yet have a
recession, but that will not last if this problem is not
remedied.
Our most immediate problem is the sea of poorly priced home
mortgage debt. This also has roots to Great
Depression-era policy, when Fannie Mae was created, as a
government agency, to redirect capital to home building.
Years later, Fannie was demoted to the status of
"government sponsored enterprise," which combines
the worst of the political and economic world -- it is a
private firm, with private owners, but its debt is guaranteed
by the government, so it can ignore the normal constraints of
market discipline. Later, Fannie got a brother, Freddie
Mac, and together they own nearly half of the mortgage debt in
the U.S. They sold bonds to raise money to buy
mortgages, which they could pool together in order to sell
more bonds. It's actually a creative and innovate way to
promote liquidity in an otherwise illiquid market. But,
with no market discipline, and a keen desire to satisfy
political demands, these institutions have propelled us into
this current crisis. As Ron Paul wryly observed
recently, if Fannie and Freddie are the culprits in this mess,
wasn't it foolish of Congress to charter them in the first
place? Of course it was, but mostly you hear opinion
makers chattering about Wall Street greed, which is not the
root problem.
What of the future? Once the dust settles from this
current massive government effort to establish liquidity and
stability to financial markets, the task of restructuring the
market landscape will begin. And, that's when we will
see whether we have learned anything from history. The
worst thing that can happen, and as of right now, the most
likely thing to happen, is that there will be a new wave of
regulation, oversight and control. If we ratchet up the
regulatory state, we will guarantee yet another day of
reckoning as our children bear the sins of their fathers.
If you think this financial turmoil is the end of the story,
think again. We have yet to deal with the collapse of
Social Security, yet another grand experiment of the Great
Depression. That will be a calamity. And, then
there is the Medicare time bomb. When it goes off, I
shudder to think of the consequences. If change is
coming, it better come quickly and it better be the right
change. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that
Hegel was wrong when he opined that the only thing we learn
from history is that we don't learn from history.
Dennis Foster has a Ph.D. in economics, has taught money
and banking classes at the university level since the 1980s.
He encourages readers interested in the Great Depression to
read Amity Shlaes new book, "The Forgotten
Man." |
As you can note, the theme here is that there has been too much
regulation in this industry and that our current (and future!)
problems stem from these regulations, not from "greed" nor
from "poor oversight," hence the nod to Hayek
with the "fatal
conceit" reference in the title.
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Saturday,
August 23, 2008
 The
Five Ring Circus
- I
have never been much of an avid follower of the Olympics. I have
only seen bits and pieces over the years, although I do remember
catching some of the major events from time to time. This is
especially true of the summer version, when there is so much else to
do with my time, energy and effort. The winter version, on the
other hand, fills up dead space in my schedule.
So, since the games have begun in Beijing, I have tuned in a few
times, on a sporadic basis. And, what do I see? Well,
there is beach volleyball, some kind of handball version of soccer,
some kind of stick version of broomball, archery, more beach
volleyball, some "real" volleyball, water polo and some women's weight
lifting. I must say that I scratch my head and ponder exactly
what the Olympics are supposed to mean. And, then, there is the
issue of how many medal opportunities a participant may have - for
swimmer Michael Phelps it is quite high, while for a basketball player
it must certainly just be one. So, how do you compare the
performance of the two? Well, here are my suggestions . . .
Eliminate team
sports.
To my eye, the Olympics should be about individual achievement.
So, team sports should be tossed. No water polo. No
soccer. No hockey. No softball. Those might be
interesting games, but they should only appear in some other venue.
Exceptions:
Teams where the competition is not one-on-one, like rowing and relays.
Eliminate games
entirely.
I don't think chess is an Olympic sport . . . yet! But, tennis
is, and it shouldn't be. The Olympics are a competition, but not
one in a game. No tennis. No ping pong. No
badminton.
Eliminate
competitions based on judging.
Any competition where the participant must look up to see how they
scored among a set of judges doesn't cut it with me. There must
be rules for competitors, and some enforcement mechanism, but let's
just throw out all the "sports" that get scored. No
pommel horse. No rings. No synchronized swimming. No
diving. No trampoline.
Exceptions:
Change the gymnastics "competition" into truly athletic
events - who can jump the most pommel horses in one minute, etc.
Crown one
champion.
Whoever wins the decathlon, or some variation thereof, would be deemed
"the Olympic Champion." Score this as currently is
done, or come up with some alternative scheme that can produce an
overall champion that excels across many fields. The modern day triathlon
is really a better indicator of who is "best" than is
someone who wins nine medals in closely related competitions.
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Wednesday,
June 25, 2008
Taxes
and Morality
- When
the issue of sales taxes comes up in the local arena, I am constantly
amazed at how easy it is for supporters to make the argument that we
should support such a tax, or its expansion, in part because visitors
pay a sizable chunk of these taxes. Well, it happens everywhere,
but that doesn't make it right. How often have you traveled
somewhere and, upon inspecting your hotel room bill seen a line item
called "room tax?" It is the same principle - tax
people who are just passing through and make them help to pay for
local services which they aren't going to use! It is the
ultimate in taxation without representation. And, yet, it enjoys
such widespread political support. I have never heard anyone
raise the issue of the morality of such a taxing scheme. While
we are constantly barraged with issues of ethical behavior, how can
such a lapse go so totally unnoticed? The ballot measure to
raise taxes to help fund the bus system has been touted as a sort of
kinder and gentler tax since it is a sales tax and we get a lot of
visitors in Flagstaff, who really are never going to use the bus
system. So, it's like free money. I decided to address the
issue with this editorial. This comment ran on
April 27.
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Edit.
Board Sounding - Taxes,
morality and ethics: Voting 'no' only choice left
Taxes
represent the seizure of your wealth and income, which is used
to fund various governmental services. While there is a basic
immorality to forcing our compliance, it is ethical to have a
basic structure of government in order to protect individual
freedoms. What isn't ethical is to expand and grow government,
extending the reach of its coercive power, just because some
argue that it "makes sense." Most people believe
that the ends don't justify the means. So, for example, even
if you believe that particular residents should have access to
a bus system, it doesn't justify forcing taxpayers to pay for
this system. It is the hallmark of the lazy social activist
that individual freedoms can be so easily trumped by
government force.
Indeed, one particularly contemptible argument made in favor
of these taxes is that visitors will end up paying a
substantial share of these monies. Can we possibly think of a
more undemocratic process? To vote for taxes on others that
cannot vote has got to be not only unethical, but absolutely
immoral.
Two years ago, city voters rejected an attempt to make the
sales tax and transit tax permanent, and rejected an increase
in the transit tax. Despite that, the operating budget for the
city has risen from $80 million to $100 million. It seems that
the only check we have on insatiable, unsustainable and
unethical local government spending is to vote down pretty
much any tax proposal that requires our consent.
Dennis Foster has a Ph.D. in
economics, teaches at the university level, and is an avid Grand
Canyon hiker. |
My comment about "making sense" was
a retort to a letter published in the paper criticizing my earlier
stance on the bus system. The author of that letter, Marcus
Ford, and I have tangled in print over the years and will likely
continue to do so.
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Sunday,
April 20, 2008
The
Dirty Dozen - Such
is the title of a new book by Robert Levy and William Mellor.
[The image to the right is linked to the Amazon web page.] It is
the story of the "worst"
twelve Supreme Court decisions in the modern era, meaning since about
the Great Depression. Yes, way too many would otherwise come
from the first hundred years! Author Robert Levy was featured at
the Goldwater Institute
this past week as part of their "Who's Writing Now?" series,
which Cara Lynn and I were fortunate enough to be able to attend this
past Thursday.
Levy gave a fascinating talk to the crowd of one hundred, or so, out
on the patio behind the institute building. He pursued a law
degree in his mid-40s after having been a successful
entrepreneur. He clerked for Clint Bolick, who is currently the
director of the Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation at
Goldwater. Bolick said that Levy, now a senior fellow at Cato,
was the most unusual law clerk they ever had - during his lunch breaks
at the firm, he would be on the phone to his broker buying and selling
stock! And, apparently, doing quite well for himself. In
fact, the firm not only offered Levy a job, but put him on their board
of directors.
Levy was a very engaging speaker and had the crowd listening in rapt
attention. The stories of these cases, chosen in part from a
survey he and his co-author conducted among other lawyers, were
fascinating, if brief for this venue. Still he talked to us for
close to an hour and took questions at the end. Afterwards, we
got a copy of his book (not available at stores until May 1), and Cara
Lynn got Levy to sign a copy for us.
The book is great. The chapters can be read in whatever order
you wish. I started with some of the more peculiar
economics-related cases - Wickard v. Filburn (Congress can pass a law
that you can't grow wheat for your own consumption because it interferes
with interstate commerce!); the Gold Clause Cases (where a building
owner in Des Moines had to keep the rent on his 143,000 square foot
office building fixed at $23,000 from 1933 to 1993 because the
government ended the gold standard!!); Whitman v. American Trucking
Associations, Inc. (Congress can defer its legislative abilities to
unelected bureaucracies - in this case the EPA - who can establish
rules, determine penalties and adjudicate guilt!!!).
Why is it that these cases are unfamiliar to me? I am reasonably
intelligent and well-read. I guess that they just didn't make it
into the educational curriculum at the schools I attended, probably
because they are so crucial to the foundation of the current
welfare/nanny state mentality that so infects the body politic.
Yes, we did cover the Dred Scott case, but that didn't make Levy and
Mellor's book because it was an old case, and, of course, since
overturned by constitutional amendment. And, there is another
thing. Someone asked Levy if the notion that the constitution is
a "living document" was legitimate. Absolutely not,
was Levy's response. That notion denigrates the value of the
constitution, making it meaningless. Times do change, and the
framers constructed a method by which we can amend the constitution to
reflect those changes. This has been done seventeen times.
Yet, we have been inculcated with the notion that the "living
constitution" is some kind of special gift, when, in fact, it is
a curse. Two thumbs up.
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Sunday,
November 11, 2007
All
Quiet on the Western Front - In
late October, we drove up to the Grand Canyon to attend the second
annual Grand Canyon Hikers Symposium, sponsored by the Grand
Canyon Hikers & Backpackers Association. Great stories
all day long. On our way out of town, the sun was setting behind
the helipad, in Tusayan. We stopped and I was able to snag this
great shot of the helicopters at rest.

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Sunday,
October 14, 2007
 Nobel
Peace Politics Prize
- I am
sure that the question is being asked far and wide, if not across the
globe, then at least across the net - "How can it be that Al Gore
is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?" Exactly what has he done
to promote peace? I really can't think of a single thing.
Even a more broadly countenanced standard of
"humanitarianism" eludes the former veep. After all,
did he use the bully pulpit of his Vice Presidency to rail against the
genocide in Rwanda?
Well, no. Has he been touring the world raising consciousness
about the human tragedy of Darfur?
No, but maybe it's on his "to do" list.
Certainly, Al Gore is not in the same category as last year's winner, Muhammad
Yunus, who won for his pioneering efforts to create a
micro-loaning bank that has helped the desperately poor, in
Bangladesh, pull themselves out of poverty and, in making meaningful
productive contributions, raise the standard of living in their
localities. That is humanitarian. Indeed, the Nobel announcement
for Gore cites "[his]
efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made
climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are
needed to counteract such change."
Since everything that Dr. Yunus has been doing for the past thirty
years has been to help people increase their contribution to
"man-made climate change," one is left to wonder whether Dr.
Yunus' prize will have to be returned.
Upon hearing of Gore's selection, my spouse wrote to me and asked,
"Does the Nobel Peace Prize mean nothing?" to which I
responded, "Yes, it means nothing." Here's a list of
what is wrong with the Nobel committee's statement:
Measures
are needed to counteract changing climate.
No. Absolutely not. That is the point that is made, over
and over again, by Czech President Václav Klaus, most recently in a speech
before the United Nations.
Man-made
sources are significant contributors to climate change.
There is no evidence for this. Most of the warming that has
occurred over the last hundred years occurred before 1940, before
humans made any significant contribution to CO2 in the
atmosphere.
Al
Gore is helping to "disseminate" knowledge about man-made
climate change.
No. He is disseminating his own message, but that he continues
to duck debate proposals on this topic (see JunkScience
and DemandDebate) tells me
that he isn't interested in clearing the air on this topic.
So, let's call this prize what it really is - The Nobel Politics
Prize. Indeed, if Gore gets his way, in terms of a command and
control system that crushes economic progress and development, he'll
make Rachel Carson's contribution to world-wide
genocide seem like small potatoes. Which is probably what
we'll be eating.
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Tuesday,
August 28, 2007
When
the Poor are Fat ...
- The Trust for America's
Health has issued its annual
report on obesity in America. I have no qualms with the
bottom line (pardon the pun) - it is getting wider all the time.
Why, just last week, I was having breakfast with Sue and Tom, my
sister and her mate. Tom had just returned from a three week
motorcycle cruise around a big chunk of the country and was noting how
many fat people he saw on his travels. I pointed out to him that
the three of us had just ordered four breakfasts (at our favorite
place - the Cracker Barrel), so we could split the order of pecan
pancakes. Well, none of us are obese, but we can each lose ten
pounds. Still, lifestyle is everything, isn't it?
One thing that interested me about the report is the
"connection" between obesity and poverty. "Eight
of the states with the highest poverty rates are also in the top 15
states with the highest obesity rates," according to the
report (p. 15). This observation should cause pause, not so much
about the problem of obesity, but about the definition of
poverty. It seems clear to me that we have defined poverty in a dysfunctional
manner if it can include people who eat too much. I thought
poverty meant that you didn't have enough income to properly feed,
clothe and shelter yourself. If poor people are fat, then they
are, ipso facto, not poor. There cannot be any other conclusion.
A huge problem with the tenor and tone of this report is its advocacy
for government involvement. The report was funded by a private
group, and, as best I can tell, it wasn't funded with any taxpayer
money. They seem to have a good handle on measuring the problem,
and suggesting ways to combat it. But, the report harps on the
role of government, even to the extent of providing a host of public
opinion survey results, showing how much people agree that the
government should be involved. Yeech. Some of their
proposals include:
--
"Restricting the sale of foods of poor nutritional value in
schools." [p. 45]
-- "Increasing the minimum food stamp benefit." [p.
45]
-- "Providing subsidies to farmers' markets to accept Electronic
Benefit Transfer cards." [p. 46]
-- Provide "subsidies for growing fruits and
vegetables." [p. 46]
-- "Encourage new building design that encourages use of
staircases rather than elevators or escalators." [p. 79]
-- Use "[s]tate and federal transportation dollars ... for mass
transit, sidewalk, and mixed use opportunities rather than be focused
on highway construction." [p. 79]
-- "The federal government should develop and implement a
National Strategy to Combat Obesity." [p. 93]
-- Require that "private employers and insurers ... ensure that
every working American has access to a workplace wellness
program." [p. 94]
-- "Provide No or Low Cost Physical Activity Opportunities ...
such as YMCAs." [p. 97]
There are many good ideas here, but using the government as the blunt
force instrument to operationalize them is a huge mistake. It is
bad enough that we have to use government to deal with a host of real
ills that afflict us. But, this notion that something so
controllable at the individual level must call into being a gigantic
bureaucracy and boatloads of regulations is just mind numbing.
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Monday,
July 23, 2007
Remembering
Peppyr - For
about a year, Peppyr had been feeling the ill effects of old
age. We celebrated her 15th birthday this month, with special
dog treats from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. But, her
worsening arthritis, the loss of some forty percent of her weight, an
increasing inability to stand, and a dramatic lessening of appetite,
led us to have her put to sleep this
past Friday. She was a great companion and the first dog I've
ever had. The sadness felt by Cara Lynn, Eric and me is
certainly a testament of how easily it was for us to project some of
ourselves onto her.
I have a great many fond memories of Peppyr. I took her hiking a
lot. I can still see her trying to hop up the steep steps on her
first hike on the Fatman's Loop at Mt. Elden. She was to the top
of Mt. Humphreys at least twice. We would often hike up, and jog
back, along the trails at Sandy Seep and the Inner Basin. Our
longest hike together was from the Inner Basin to the Mt. Elden
trailhead parking lot. We were both tired and sore for some
days afterwards.
She came along on many camping trips to the North Rim - Saddle
Mountain, Jumpup Canyon, and Crazy Jug were favorite spots to
camp. The photo, on the right, shows us looking over a benchmark
site above Hack Canyon in 2004. I am reasonably sure that she
was the first dog to walk across the old Navajo
Bridge, below Lees Ferry, as we happened by there right after the
new bridge opened for business (but, before the ceremony marking its
use). I also took her on some road trips - a couple of times to
visit family in Denver, and once on a trip to Fargo. But, mostly
we spent our time together hiking, especially in Flagstaff.
There are tons of humorous moments that I recall - like her chasing
after snowballs in the deep snow of the front yard. She would
stick her nose into the spot where the snowball had landed and try to
fathom what had happened to it. She never did catch the LED pen
light shining on the carpet. Nor, did she ever manage to catch
her tail, as I recall. Also, she was great at holding a dog
biscuit on her nose until I allowed her to lean over, let it slide
off, and eat it.
I got Peppyr from the Humane Society in August of 1992. She, and
two siblings, were the last of a large litter available for
adoption. Exactly what kind of dog she was, besides "Humane
Society Special," was unclear. She had a cool distinctive
white tip to her always-curly tail, and her paws looked like someone
had dipped her into white paint. The short hairs on her spine
would shoot straight up when she got into an attack mode, which wasn't
very often. She was very good at "fetch" but not so
good at "let go."
The decision to put Peppyr to sleep was not an easy one, but we'll
have many good memories to keep with us. During our final visit
to the Canyon Pet Hospital, I should also note that the reception
staff, the techs and our vet, Dr. Chris, showed us a great deal of
kindness, consideration and professionalism.
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Tuesday,
April 10, 2007
Saving
Places
- A bout with the flu, a week backpacking in the Grand Canyon,
and a boat load of grading have kept me relatively idle on the blog
front. Time to jump back in . . .
In the 1995
General Management Plan, adopted for Grand Canyon, the Park
Service planned to demolish
the Thunderbird and Kachina Lodges, which are located on the rim of
the canyon, between the El Tovar Hotel and the Bright Angel
Lodge. Why? I suppose the short answer is, "Because
they can." I think, though, that this proposal speaks to a
deeper character flaw in the people that run the NPS, in general, and
the Grand Canyon, in particular. They hate tourists. They
don't want people to go to the Grand Canyon, and, if they must come,
they don't want to stay near the rim. I guess that having people
really close to these magnificent views would somehow harm the canyon.
In the late 1990's, I circulated a flyer around during the Earth Day
celebration on the campus of Northern Arizona University, which asked
people to write to the superintendent to "Save the Kachina"
and to "Save the Thunderbird." OK, so it was a bit
tongue-in-cheek, since the nutjobs that attend these
"rallies" are not really interested in development that
promotes tourism.
Thankfully, the park service has been unable to carry through with
this part of its plan. So, the lodges remain. A few years
ago, while the Canyon Forest Village
proposal was getting the approval of our county Board of
Supervisors, the demise of these lodges was the focus of some
attention. The board decided that 900 rooms, at CFV, was enough,
but allowed for the possibility of future expansion, contingent upon
the removal of the Kachina and Thunderbird. Somehow, the notion
that tourists should stay overnight 7 miles from the rim, rather than
right on the rim, was thought to improve the quality of their
visits. Or, not.
Last week, there was a "listening session" held at the
Museum of Northern Arizona, where local park officials, including the
Superintendent from Grand Canyon, would hear what people had to say
about the parks. I wanted to attend, and actually planned on
it. But, the information on the timing of this session was
incorrect in the local paper, so, alas, I was unable to go and have my
voice heard. But, I am sure that all the usual suspects (i.e.,
local activists) did attend. In a follow-up article on this
event, in the local paper, former Grand Canyon resident, Bruce Aiken,
made some disparaging remarks about the Kachina and Thunderbird
lodges. So, I thought to pen a quick response, which ran in the
paper this past Easter Sunday:
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To the
editor:
In a recent article about conditions at the Grand Canyon, a
former inner canyon resident is quoted as saying that the
Kachina and Thunderbird lodges are “disgusting” and that
“nobody likes” them. I would beg to differ.
These two lodges are hardly eyesores. They are nestled
between the El Tovar Hotel and the Bright Angel Lodge.
While they do not suffer from an overabundance of
architecturally-stimulating features, I would challenge
visitors to carefully consider these two structures from a
nearby vantage point along the West Rim Drive. Looking
back at the South Rim, with the San Francisco Peaks in the
background, you’ll hardly notice these lodges. Their
façade of buff colored stone-like panels make them blend in
well with the Kaibab Limestone, the uppermost rock layer of
the Grand Canyon. They do not crowd the rim, unlike the
Bright Angel, nor do they dominate a point, like the El Tovar.
Indeed, one would be hard pressed to find a better example of
“environmental sustainability” in the park.
I would bet that any visitor, staying at the Yavapai, or the
Maswik, or anywhere in Tusayan, would love to trade up to a
canyon-side room in either of these two lodges. With
occupancy rates in excess of 90%, it seems that plenty of
people like these rooms.
For
years, officials at the park have pursued a policy to demolish
these two lodges, to be replaced, not by another El Tovar,
but, instead, to be replaced by nothing. That would be a
crime. A crime not unlike ones committed by the Park
Service in the past, like when they destroyed the Grandview
and Summit, whose historical relevance was lost on officials
that seem driven to deter visitation rather than embrace it. |
In 2018 and
2021, these two lodges will be 50 years old, and may become eligible
to become historic
sites. It is not a slam dunk, and it is possible to get on
the list earlier, but I will bet that the park service will continue
to try to tear down these buildings before they can be officially
recognized as part of our history.
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Thursday,
December 28, 2006
The
Unimportance of Education
- For many years there has been an undercurrent of
dissatisfaction with public education. The basis for that
discontent is the inability to produce students that are truly
educated. In the grade schools, the pressure to pass students
through the system, without an education, can be somewhat tempered by
vigilant parents. And, the whole choice/voucher debate will,
hopefully, push the system towards more and more competition.
Education is, after all, a very personal and
individual quality. I often tell my students that I can't
"teach" them anything; that "teaching" is a
misnomer. I can talk; I can cajole; I can threaten; I can
entice; I can penalize; I can reward; I can even entertain. But,
I cannot "teach." What is really happening is that
students are learning. Or, not. I do try to help them,
but, it really has more to do with them than it does with me. I
don't take any credit for the A+ student, but, neither do I take any
blame for the F student. I provide them with the opportunity to
learn, and, then, I judge them accordingly. Indeed, my primary
task is to judge them, based on how they have demonstrated what they have
learned.
At the university level, where I "teach," we are constantly
under pressure from forces that work towards an erosion of our
educational standards for the students that we graduate. The
more robust the competition for students, and the less a financial
role that is played by the state, the more likely it is that these
forces will be effectively balanced by the desire, on the part of
students and parents, that our college degrees actually represent the
earning of an education.
Of course, there have been critics. The seminal work by Allan
Bloom, The
Closing of the American Mind, is a powerful indictment against a
system that places more value on self-esteem than on developing a
reasoning faculty in students. A recent essay by one of my
favorites, Arnold
Kling, laments the proliferation of "Wizard-of-Oz
diplomas" - ones that looks good on paper, but are hardly worth
the paper they are printed on.
At the university where I "teach" we are being quickly
propelled towards a world where all we do is give out Wizard-of-Oz
diplomas. Our president has said, over and over again, that
every graduating high school student in Arizona should go to
college. And, we are becoming blindingly focused on the
"retention" of these students, since every student in our
university means more money from the state and the feds. Now,
the public choice economist in me understands full well why the
president of a large state university would argue for more students
and argue for keeping them in school longer. What does dismay me
is that there aren't more (or, any?) voices out there questioning such
a transparent conflict of interest.
It wasn't too many years ago that the mindset of the administration
was much more focused on graduates that were well-educated. At
least, that was the case in the business college, where I work. [In the
education college, they don't seem to have focused on education for at
least a generation; for a prime example see one of my earlier blogs.]
The classes I am primarily responsible for, were described as
"weed-out" classes by a former dean. That probably
sounds rather impolitic, but the mindset was that our graduates would
be better-served with a diploma that actually means something about
the level of their education. A marketing student would call
this the "branding" effect.
But, now, that has changed. Our current charge is to
"produce diplomas." There is the addendum of,
"but, not by lowering standards," but that is just
disingenuous double-talk. The quality of our students hasn't
changed, in any appreciable sense, in many years. We don't
really have much in the way of an admission standard. And, they
are, by and large, the products of a pretty awful public secondary
school system. On average, the students I see don't know how to
write well, don't like to read much and are not inclined to
think. They believe that hearing me say something is equivalent
to their having learned something. And, we seem to be on the
crest of a wave that will validate this belief. I now tell my
students that there are two goals they may pursue at the university -
getting a degree and getting an education. One is easier than
the other. One presents the illusion of success. One will
short-change them in the long run.
I don't know how this will all turn out. I suspect that we will
delude ourselves that our standards have not fallen, while we watch
more and more skilled work being done abroad. There may be some
private sector responses that will help to alleviate this
proliferation of the Wizard-of-Oz diploma, but that requires students
pay again to get the opportunities that were missed the first time
around. Over the years I have been teaching, one suggestion that
I would make, that would likely raise the educational attainment of
students in a dramatic fashion, is to raise
the minimum age for college to 21, or 22.
If someone wants to go at 18, or 19, or 20, they can pay a premium for
that option. If they are very smart and test well, they can earn
scholarships to pay that premium. Otherwise, most of the
students I see really would be better off by making their college
years the ones from 22 to 25 rather than 18 to 21. After all,
the collapse of the social security system will necessitate later
retirement ages anyway, so why be in a rush to start a 40, or 50, year
career? It probably would be less of a burden on parents as
well, as they can insist that their children provide more financial
resources for their own college education. Well, it's just an
idea.
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Tuesday,
August 1, 2006
Smug
Localism
- The local paper ran a story about "buying local" put
out by the Christian Science Monitor, titled, "Buying
local may not always be best." I thought it was an
excellent piece, because it actually treated globalism proponents as
serious and reasonable!! That's a far cry from how this issue is
usually treated. I was going to send a quick e-mail to the
editor commenting on what a good story it was. But, there
appeared a few disparaging letters over the last week and the editor,
in his weekly column, pooh-poohed these views as
"contrarian." Well, so much for an enlightened
press. So, while I thought to write a letter in response, it
wasn't until another pro-local letter appeared, written by Becky
Daggett, the Executive Director of the Friends
of Flagstaff's Future, that I was motivated to respond . . .
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To the
editor:
Kudos for running the article, “Buying local may not always
be best.” It was both well-balanced and a refreshing
change. It underscored a central feature to our high
standard of living – specialization. We don’t strive
for self-sufficiency, because that makes us poor. It’s
really just a matter of common sense.
Of course, common sense seems to be in short supply at the
so-called Friends of Flagstaff’s Future. Their
executive director writes that, “each dollar spent at a
locally owned business recirculates at least three times …
versus a dollar spent with a chain store, which departs
immediately to corporate headquarters.”
That is patently false. Of each dollar spent, both
stores have to pay their employees and have to pay for the
goods they sell. Their employees live here, while the
goods they sell likely come from outside Flagstaff. The
only difference is that the profit of the chain store is owned
by the stockholders, only some of whom live here, while the
profit of the locally-owned store goes entirely to its owner.
How big a difference is that? Well, over the last year,
Wal-Mart earned a 3.5% profit margin on its sales. So, a
net of less than 3.5 cents on each dollar spent at Wal-Mart
flows out of Flagstaff, as compared to some locally-owned
store.
So, if you want to
buy local, please do so. If you want to feel smug and
superior about it, fine with me. Just don’t try
(again) to use the government to force me to have to shop with
you.
Dennis Foster
Flagstaff, AZ |
There are other issues here worthy of
mention.
Ad hominem
attacks show weakness for "localism" argument.
Both Daggett and earlier letter writer, Ned Barnett, attacked the
globalism argument by attacking the people who were representing the
argument. This is known as the ad
hominem fallacy. Why attack the argument when you can
question the arguer? Daggett's criticism was especially
egregious in this regard by whining that a buy-local critic works for
the Hudson Institute, which is
funded, in part, by corporations like Wal-Mart. She writes that,
"This could be why Mr. Avery takes a dim view of supporting ...
locally owned businesses." Isn't it funny how these smug
social activists cannot fathom the notion that researchers at
conservative think tanks (like Hudson) actually believe in what they
do?
What do we buy
locally?
Clearly, we are quite motivated to buy goods and services that cost us
as little as possible. Some may get satisfaction from shopping
at the local bookstore, versus the Barnes and Noble, but what they are
buying is a bundle of services we can label as
"ambiance." Generally speaking, services are most
likely to be provided locally, because it is costly for us to travel
elsewhere. Services like - lawyers, doctors, financial planners,
realtors, auto mechanics, insurance agents, and so on. Most of
these services are provided for by locally-owned firms (perhaps sole
proprietors) even if they are associated with regional, and national,
businesses. That is, my MetLife agent owns his own
business.
What is local?
Years ago, while serving a three month stint as the public member of
the editorial board for the local paper, the Arizona Daily Sun, I was
astounded that they (editors, reporters) didn't understand the concept
of a locally-owned franchise. That is, they thought any national
chain business must be run by the corporation. I tried to
disabuse them of this notion, but I can't say that I was wholly
successful. I pointed out that the local Sizzler was owned by a
second, or third, generation Flagstaff resident. Conversely, a
downtown coffee shop was opened up by a couple that had just moved to
Flagstaff six months earlier from California. Which is local and
which isn't? In fact, the California couple pulled up stakes the
following year and moved on to Colorado.
Beware the lazy
social activist.
At the end of my letter, I reference the use of government to curtail
our choices. The background for this was the decision by the
city council, a couple of years ago, to place size, and usage,
limitations on retail businesses, expressly to keep Wal-Mart from
locating a Supercenter in Flagstaff. There was a petition drive
to place the matter on the ballot, and voters overturned this
decision. But, I don't think that will satisfy these lazy social
activists from trying to use government to restrict our freedoms in
the future.
Some
related blogs:
Wal-Mart
Bashing -
Critiquing
the anti Wal-Mart movie, "The High Cost of Low Price."
Brown
v. Foster -
A comment on
a debate I had with a colleague about the anti Wal-Mart movie.
Final
thought - A remark from another colleague of mine, has lodged
permanently in my brain, and seems apropos for this piece: "Why
should I care about the Mom and Pop store? Mom and Pop have been
ripping me off for years."
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Saturday,
April 1, 2006
Plenty
of April Fools at Grand Canyon Trust
- Well, not just at the Trust. And, not just in
April. But, the recent efforts by a group called the Just
Transition Coalition, of whom the Grand
Canyon Trust is a member, will surely put other April Fool
pranksters to shame. However, it should be noted, that the JTC
did get an early start, and their hoax may not end any time
soon. Let's break it down ...
The
issue:
The Mohave
Generating Station used to pump out over 1500 megawatts of
power. But, not any more. Years ago, the Grand Canyon
Trust was a partner in a lawsuit against Mohave's owners, asking that
they be forced to clean up their pollution or shut down. [I
blogged on this in Lumps
of Coal for Christmas.] The clean-up costs amount to over $1
billion. And, the visibility improvements at the Grand
Canyon are likely to be zip - indeed, it will take an estimated five
years of scientific observations to determine if there is any net
benefit in visibility!
The
ripple effect:
As is typical in the coal-fired electric power industry, there was
only one supplier of coal for the Mohave plant, and that was from the Black
Mesa mine, located on the Navajo Reservation and operated by Peabody
Energy. As a consequence of the shutdown at Mohave, the mine
has also shut down, costing many hundred Navajos jobs that paid very
well ($70,000+, which goes a long way on the rez).
The
Just Transition Hoax:
The hodgepodge of environmental and social activist groups that form
the JTC issued a statement claiming that the value of Mohave's
pollution credits should not go to the owner, Southern California
Edison, but, rather, to the Hopi and Navajo tribes. They want
$20 million a year, for the next 20 years. Yes, Alice, we've
completely stepped through the looking glass on this one.
My characterization just barely scratches the surface in capturing the
bizarre nature of the JTC statement. Let's take a closer look at
that statement, at least at the one published in the Arizona Daily Sun
on March 20, 2006.
| For
years, the Navajo and Hopi people made major sacrifices to
enable the Mohave Generating Station to operate. The
people provided labor, coal, ... water and bore the burden of
pollution. |
One may be excused for
thinking that, based on this statement, there was no compensation for
these resources. Of course, that would be wrong. The
workers got paid, and paid well. The tribes got paid, for the
coal and the water, and paid well. And, at many hundreds of
miles away from the Mohave plant (further away than where I live in
Flagstaff), they didn't bear any "burden" of pollution.
| Now
that the facility has closed, we have a right to ask the
owners of Mohave to help us transition to a better future, to
repay the debt. |
Well, let's see ... the
groups of the JTC helped make it impossible for the plant to remain
open, and now they want to be "compensated" for that
action? To make matters even worse, these groups opposed
a plan to allow Mohave to continue to operate, at least
temporarily. And, there is no "debt" to repay - the
tribes did not lend any resources to Mohave.
| How
will the Just Transition Plan work? Funds secured from
the sale of pollution credits by the primary operators of the
Mohave Plant ... would go to the tribes for investment in
local communities through renewable energy development. |
One wonders why the
tribes haven't already spend funds for these kinds of
developments. Over the last 20 years, they have earned at least
$1 billion in royalties from their coal and water. Couldn't they
have put away $20 million a year for these purposes? Yes, they
could have.
| It
is time for a fresh plan to bring justice to Black Mesa and
economic development to a people cheated out of decades of
billions of dollars from lost coal and water royalties. |
I don't know how
spending $20 million, extorted from a company that has nothing to do
with the contract between Peabody and the tribes, brings
"justice" to people cheated out of billions of
dollars! This fanciful tale has not been endorsed by the tribal
governments, which have benefited greatly from the coal and water
royalties. So, maybe this hoax will die a deserving death,
sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, the April Fools at the
Grand Canyon Trust are most certainly busy working on some new scheme
to bankrupt businesses, impoverish hard working families and denigrate
the visitor industry in this region.
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For
more, go to the Random Fragments Archive Index
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