This Sunday's Minneapolis Star Tribune devotes the bulk of the first page of the Opinion section to a piece by one Peter Leschak decrying widespread "light pollution:" city lights obscuring the night sky. The piece is mostly a tribute to the majesty of the stars and constellations, but it also calls for all kinds of new regulations on security lighting, etc.
Now I could regale you, Dear Reader, with my own tale of epiphany: the night sky, the possibility of the infinite revealed in the Big Dipper. Except my story takes place at the crest of the Blue Ridge rather than Montana's Big Sky country. No matter.
We've all seen the famous night-time satellite photo of the Korean peninsula,
showing the well-lit, prosperous cities of first-world South Korea (GDP Rank: No. 12) and the almost completely dark Hermit Kingdom of North Korea (GDP Rank: No. 96). Since the invention of civilization, night light and prosperity have gone hand in hand ("Bright Lights, Big City").
Keshak proposes some familiar solutions to the "night pollution problem." "Switch off the useless lights," "phase out conventional lamps in favor of LEDs," intall a "motion detector." It's always the same set of solutions in search of a problem.
Online commenters on the piece point out the role street lighting plays in enabling the pedestrian and bicycle traffic encouraged by this same agenda. It's not just that the light is needed for crime prevention, but for basic navigation on long winter nights.
The same people who call for these sort of solutions are the same people supporting the trial lawyers' efforts to sue you into oblivion if someone were to come to harm on or near your property, which lacked the proper eyeball-searing security lighting.
But don't worry, the streetlights will be gone soon enough. Last fall, the Detroit enclave of Highland Park lost its streetlights when it was unable to pay a $4 million bill to the local utility. At the rate our nation's financial problems keep piling up, lights will be going off all over place.
In the meantime, let's not add to the list of our problems.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Joel Kotkin on the New Authoritarianism
Joel writes on Obama's latest power grab over at the City Journal.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Whatever happend to liberal compassion?
Mark Steyn asks the question in his weekly syndicated column.
Bicycles on Snelling Avenue?
Finance and Commerce reports on plans to study the construction of a bike path on busy Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota. Now designated as State Highway 51 and a Truck Route, the road is scheduled for a $2 million resurfacing project this spring.
"Complete Streets" advocates want the state to install bike lines as part of the process. The F&C article declares, without support or attribution, that the “Complete Streets” philosophy is "increasingly popular." We'll see how popular the philosophy becomes once speeds are reduced, street parking disappears, and trucks begin navigating 10-foot-wide lanes.
Get ready, Central Avenue in Minneapolis and Highway 96 in White Bear Lake are next.
"Complete Streets" advocates want the state to install bike lines as part of the process. The F&C article declares, without support or attribution, that the “Complete Streets” philosophy is "increasingly popular." We'll see how popular the philosophy becomes once speeds are reduced, street parking disappears, and trucks begin navigating 10-foot-wide lanes.
Get ready, Central Avenue in Minneapolis and Highway 96 in White Bear Lake are next.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The Post-Modern Lawmaker and California's "Useless Laws"
From time to time I have written about the seemingly innocuous, but actually dangerous, practice of "post-modern" lawmaking. European parliamentarian Daniel Hannan defines the practice as when a legislature passes laws where,
"the real purpose of such initiatives is to make the law-makers feel good about themselves. Europe has reached a form of post-modern law-making, in which legal acts are designed to indicate disapproval rather than to produce effect."
California Governor Jerry Brown has let everyone in on this dirty little secret: he signs many bills because of (not in spite of) their uselessness. As quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, Governor Brown admits,
One would hope that at this point in the history of the Republic, the California State Legislature would function as more than a self-esteem factory for discouraged pols. But as Hannan points out, there is real danger to this exercise in feel-good lawmaking,
"The trouble is that declaratory, aspirational laws are likelier to have unintended consequences than laws passed in order to remedy specific problems."
For those of you keeping score, the Chronicle reported on New Year's eve,
"the real purpose of such initiatives is to make the law-makers feel good about themselves. Europe has reached a form of post-modern law-making, in which legal acts are designed to indicate disapproval rather than to produce effect."
California Governor Jerry Brown has let everyone in on this dirty little secret: he signs many bills because of (not in spite of) their uselessness. As quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, Governor Brown admits,
"Just because a bill is useless doesn't mean I should veto it, because there's a certain comity required. That's the word, comity, between the two branches," Brown said, adding later, "It's a bit discouraging sometimes to be a legislator and all you have is a few bills."
One would hope that at this point in the history of the Republic, the California State Legislature would function as more than a self-esteem factory for discouraged pols. But as Hannan points out, there is real danger to this exercise in feel-good lawmaking,
"The trouble is that declaratory, aspirational laws are likelier to have unintended consequences than laws passed in order to remedy specific problems."
For those of you keeping score, the Chronicle reported on New Year's eve,
"A total of 745 were passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor this year and when lawmakers return next week for a new session, the lawmaking will continue."
Could it have anything to do with this Tuesday headline from an Investors Business Daily editorial, "The Great Golden State Business Exodus"? IBD's editors write,
"California's in trouble. Businesses are leaving along with intellectual and investment capital and skilled workers. But rather than face up to serious problems, legislators pass silly laws. One would think that given the serious nature of the state's problems, the legislature would focus on solutions at the exclusion of all else. Instead, lawmakers—what would we ever do without them?—found the time in 2011 to trespass even deeper into Californians' personal lives."
IBD puts the 2011 total at 761 new laws, but who's counting.
IBD puts the 2011 total at 761 new laws, but who's counting.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
More Brown Jobs
The Wall Street Journal's editors write of the growth in "brown" jobs associated with the booming shale oil and gas industry (subscription retired).
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, Part 1
In this new year, I will be starting a new series on this site, posting about this book, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Because the printed version has a green cover, it is known informally as the the "EPA Green Book."
Published last year (2011) by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, it promises to lay the foundation for a complete reworking of the EPA's mission by placing "sustainability" at the center of everything the agency does.
Stay tuned...
Published last year (2011) by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, it promises to lay the foundation for a complete reworking of the EPA's mission by placing "sustainability" at the center of everything the agency does.
Stay tuned...
Monday, January 2, 2012
Undernews: Walter Russell Mead on Today's Media
Starting off the new year, Walter Russell Mead dissects everything that's wrong with today's media.
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