Another one of his blog entries:
(I actually posted this 12/20/09, but changed the posting date so it would follow my posting about Sarah’s accomplishments) Since my Palin statement went viral and in addition was printed in her book Going Rogue, my blog site(s) received more attention than when it was used just to keep friends informed of my activities. Even my 30-minute appearance on a radio show originating in Missouri prompted questions about Alaska. So, even though I don’t intend to write political statements there are some things that I will address here (resulting from my preparation for the radio talk-show) that do relate to Sarah Palin:
ANWR
To bring it into perspective for residents of Missouri, I explained that ANWR is about 33,000 square miles, or half the size of Missouri. The plot being eyed for drilling (about 3 square miles) is similar to the size of the Springfield, Missouri airport. I was asked how the caribou might react to drilling activity. I quoted from Palin’s book that the population of caribou near the transalaska pipeline increase from 5,000 in the 1970’s to 32,000 by 2002. I surmised that after eyeing the drilling rig from a distance and noting that whatever it is, it doesn’t eat caribou, the animal as likely as not would go sit on the edge of the platform and pick it’s teeth. These animals go where the food is. They’re not stupid. To stop moose from tearing up the crab apple tree in my front yard, I have to leap – screaming – off my porch, banging on a cooking pot with a spoon. The moose stays there, but the neighbors threaten to move. In Cordova, after the airport runway was lengthened which accommodated boeing 727’s and 707’s, the local moose refused to be intimidated by roaring jets, snow plows, and sanders. They continued to cross where they always had until one of them was struck by a landing 727. The moose was vaporized, the planes front landing gear collapsed and it slid to a stop on it’s nose. So they put up a fence. I was driving by one day and saw two angry bull moose charging into the fence trying, unsuccessfully, to tear down the obstruction to their tradition paths. They just are not frightened by things that they don’t perceive as a threat. Period.
DEATH PANELS
Sarah got it wrong in her description of a “Death Panel” as a committee of bureaucrats indifferently resisting the pleas of those least among us. Here is how it would really work: You have a serious ailment and need a special treatment, but a lot of other people do too. Your doctor helps you fill out a computerized application for treatment. Each “dimension” in there (your age, gender, prognosis, income (maybe later)… your political affiliation…(probably much later… etc) would be given a numerical “weight”. Your application is submitted online. The computer program evaluates (scores) your application and places you on the list. Sometime later, your doctor calls you in his office to read the print-out he just received. You see you have been placed #8 in category “S”. With shaking hands, you flip the paper over and look for category “S” and find that “S” stands for “Sayonara “. You see, a real “panel” is way too personal and they don’t want to have to explain their decision to someone standing in dread and panic. The REAL panel is the group that designed the computer program with its dimension “weights”. That way, the people you contact to protest your ranking can feign torturous sympathy while they assert that there’s nothing they can do …they defer to “the system”. There’s no way you can grab a system by the throat to make it listen. You’ve dealt with organizations who rely solely on computers to answer you; you know I’m right about this.
BRIDGE TO NOWHERE
The mainstream media tries to pretend they don’t know what the “Bridge to Nowhere” really is about. Commentators said in mocked surprise that Alaska wanted to spend a ton of money building a bridge to an island where only 50 people lived. I asked on the Missouri radio, “how many people actually live at your airport?” Then I said, “Suppose you couldn’t drive out of your town because all the roads were destroyed. Suppose you could only fly in and out, like residents of Ketchikan. But then, a huge mote was dug around your airport and filled up with water, I imaging you’d like a bridge there”. But what happed is that after Sarah took office and started looking at bridge designs, especially bridges that would span heavily navigated waters, the cost estimates continued to climb. Finally, she said it was just too expensive and another way would have to be developed to transport passengers into and out of Ketchikan. Bridge to “nowhere” my ass.
PREDITOR CONTROL
What happens when a pack of animals eats itself out of house and home (decimates the population of its normal prey) lay down and slowly starve in the snow, or go off to when they might find more food? And that location may very well be that clump of trees right behind your house, where they crouch and wait… like in my town. December 20, 2007, three Eagle River women took their dogs out for an evening walk. They were attacked by a pack of wolves. One dog was killed and one was hospitalized. April 27, 2009, Two joggers here with 3 dogs were followed, then attacked by wolves. One of the dogs was killed. September 10, 2009, a hunter in the interior was attacked by a wolf. He had to be hospitalized. In 2002 a 6 year-old was attacked in Icy Bay, and last winter, here in Eagle River a teenager on a bicycle was accosted by a wolf and saved himself by jumping off of his bike and taking refuge in a nearby car. The wolf “mauled” the bike’s tires and seat. Yep, that’s what happens after they kill all their normal prey, they eat Fido (maybe Fido’s owner).
SARAH PALIN IS A QUITTER
True story. Everybody uses the phrase “Do the Math”. Okay. You have a job that pays $175,000 every 12 months. But it costs you – personally – half a million dollars every 8 months to keep that job. Do the math.
EMPLOYEE EVALUATION
Let’s be apolitical and view things like a person who has been acutely aware of employer/employee relationships most of his adult life… like me. I have personally liked all of our governors (my employees), but was very pleased to see Sarah, as soon as I hired her to run my “organization”, she: 1- Cut my expenditures for the first rime. Not the rate of growth, but and actual cut. I can’t remember that happening before. 2- Increase my profit share with the contractors… my split of the profits from my product. 3- Expanded my product line (natural gas). 4- Reminded our contractors who the boss was (Thompson Point). Yep, my new senior employee did all that a little more that half-way through my contract with her. Is that an employer’s endorsement for re-hire? You betcha.
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