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Playing tourist in Massachusetts, its endless pockets of beauty continue to amaze

UPDATE: A lot of you have been asking for the Duxbury video and your interest is kind of cool and much appreciated. Obviously yesterday was not the day, so I'll try later today or tonight. BTW, we did some video experimentation with some Apple Creatives yesterday afternoon during my Apple OneToOne (which I highly recommend), and I just had a ball with where we're now going with a video production project I'm working on. I try to go to different Apple locations for these sessions to sample a variety of Apple's creative talent and since you cannot hand-pick whom you want to work with in each session, it's always a terrific surprise to get someone you've enjoyed working with before.

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08/25/2008
Head Geek here. The family and I spent yesterday, Sunday, down in Duxbury and Plymouth and had a wonderful time, especially in Duxbury where we hadn't been before.

Matter of fact, the town of Duxbury is breathtakingly beautiful - no exaggeration, no hyperbole - and I shot some video of its waterside beauty. I just have to find the time today to edit it all to then upload and then post.

But I do have to tell you that there are more scenically [exquisitely so] beautiful places to see in the State of Massachusetts - and still be of American historical significance - than one could have possibly imagined when living outside the State. Without question, the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism has a ton of stuff to brag about, but for the amount of television that I've watched in my life, I don't remember seeing much from them or anything that captured its natural beauty.

And after doing a smidgen of research on the town of Duxbury, its history, naturally so, goes back to America's original settlers at Plymouth. And if this Wikipedia entry is accurate, Miles Standish himself was an original resident in Duxbury.

Anyway, I'll try to get the video uploaded today and you'll see what I mean.

NewzBites: Pelosi screws-up (not again), Obama's revenge by proxy(?) and why crude has fallen 21% in just two weeks

There is a ton of news that deserves Front Page attention this morning, but since we want to focus on one particular story, we'll first list the others below that you should be aware of - - - and then discuss a very interesting and very important story in our next post. A hint? It's about a major Democratic fundraiser uncomfortable with Obama . . . and her reasons why.

EDITORIAL

Anyway, here are the other stories of significant interest:

Anti-Obama Bloggers Say They Were Silenced...
This first story pains us the most. Read the article behind the link and make your own assessment as to whether anti-Obama blogs are being silenced. Now, whether Obama's people, i.e., his staff, have anything to do with these alleged efforts, to be fair, we know not nor is there any available evidence for or against. But politics of every stripe also love using surrogates (MoveOn.org on one side, SwiftBoat Veterans on the other) while publicly disavowing any formal connection, so who really knows at this point. We'll just have to wait and see.

PELOSI PRIVATELY TELLS DEMS THEY CAN BACK DRILLING...
This one is a no-brainer. We believe Nancy Pelosi has exhibited disgraceful House leadership behavior with her obsessive partisanship that has overshadowed her duty to serve the American people - - - all of the American people. But her obstinacy against offshore drilling is primarily hurting the "working" American families she loves to always claim are her first priority.

Gas price falls to 11-week low...
And why have the gas prices at the pumps fallen so dramatically, especially after George "I want to control America" Soros and others have declared the oil commodity unstoppable in its movement upward? Because Bush, despite a very long list of foolish, even stupid moves, did something very right when he put offshore drilling on the public table and took enormous pressure off the so-called demand for Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil. The effort to transfer America's well-deserved and hard-earned wealth into the hands of both Middle Eastern countries and the greediest of crude speculators by raising prices so inexplicably and artifically high, Americans said enough and overwhelming welcomed the option of drilling and controlling our own commodities - - - forcing both Obama and Pelosi to concede defeat - - - although one does have to wonder whose side they were on to begin with.

Greedy Real Estate Agents, Predatory Lenders & McDonald's Cooking Oil as Fuel Alternative

EDITORIAL

Two bits of news caught our attention this morning.

The first story says the McDonald's units in The Philippines (Makati outlets) will be donating used cooking oil to help co-power Manila's Police Cars:

With oil prices at crippling highs, the project would convert cars in the Makati financial district to run on a mix of 40 percent diesel and 60 percent cooking oil, its police chief Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz said.

With approximately 141 McDonald's within just 30 miles of our location near Boston, one can only imagine how much power they could provide for city and state vehicles. And when you add Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island McDonald franchise locations, include other fast food/hamburger outlets who cook with the same oil, the question then becomes, why aren't we doing that here?

Nevertheless, kudos to Makati and to McDonald's Corporate for their smarts and for helping our environment.

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GET RESTITUTION FROM THE LENDERS & REAL ESTATE COMMISSIONS . . .
NOT THE TAXPAYERS

The second story is about home prices in May dropping by the largest percentage in the history of the index that covers these patterns, from a year ago.

Boston, in particular, was listed along with Tampa, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Dallas and Atlanta, because they all showed a smaller annual decline.

Certainly not the best news.

Now, since we've never been fans of the false market conditions too many otherwise greedy real estate agents have been perpetrating on the public since at least 1986, nor the too many foolish buyers who never do their own neighborhood homework and blindly believed too many greedy real estate agents, we do feel for those buyers who were intentionally (allegedly) misled by their particular greedy real estate agents and/or by the alleged predatory lending practices of too many mortgage loan originators, an industry that is currently the target of Federal and State probes nationwide for too many allegedly illicit practices.

(That was possibly the longest running paragraph ever).

But those homeowners now in a financial bind certainly do not all deserve a bailout from the coffers of the U.S. Government, a.k.a., we the taxpayers. That could and should come from lender restitution (as an alternative to prosecution) and also include the related commissions of the greedy real estate agents as well.

Fat chance either will ever happen, but the fact that those of us who did not get caught up in the hype and easy-profit hysteria - - - while still having to endure the bragging rights from those who did - we're pretty darn pissed-off that our tax money will be bailing them out. Salt on the wound, or something like that.

From a less personal, more serious and economic pov, however painful these times are or may become for some homeowners, in the long run, realistic, stabilized pricing is what our local economies need for sustained growth. Home ownership is a business, repeat, a business, just like any other, not a guaranteed right for every American - - - nor an irresponsible, commoditized profit center for every greedy real estate agent or mortgage broker.

Bailing out America's homeowners will only reward those lenders who made the mistakes in the first place, and allow the greedy real estate agents to keep their undeserved commissions.

That's merely our opinion.

What's yours.

we invite you to email us your comments

Penn & Teller on Environmental Hysteria: when does taking prudent, intelligently-reasoned steps turn into politically-motivated and mindless fanaticism?

REVIEW

Before we get to the Penn & Teller video below, let's look at this not from a scientific or environmental point-of-view, not from the merits or lack thereof of the facts, but from a psychological and sociological pov.

Three of the methodologies and essential ingredients that tyrants, despots and fascists, for example, have in common with one another is: (1) they have to find a way, they have to find that one cause they can then use to whip their supporters into a frenzy through fear, anger or usually both; (2) they must find a willing constituency, willing to suspend an otherwise normal disbelief to then become devoted followers and (3) they have to make that cause somehow come off cool, a cause celeb, so to speak.

History has shown us that Adolf Hitler in Germany, Idi Amin Dada in Uganda, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Fidel Castro in Cuba, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela as well as religious fanatics of all faiths and stripes past and present have all done precisely that:  found someone to hate, induced fear through repetitive diatribes with the ultimate goal of inculcating their cause into the so-called mainstream culture of their society.

Now, in fairness to all tyrants, despots and fascists, American political campaigns also seek to whip their respective constituencies into a frenzy by demonizing the opposition, inducing fear and distributing endlessly those 10-second sound bites, the repetitive diatribes designed to get the votes out but which invariably and often become part of the American Pop Culture lexicon. Where's the Beef particularly comes to mind as does Read My Lips, No New Taxes, the recent Yes We Can and the current Change We Can Believe In - - - along with the always useful term Dittoheads, a pejorative reference to describe the allegedly mindless listeners of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

And just today, there's a news story purporting to have scientific evidence that more people are likely to develop Kidney Stones because of Global Warming. Yup. Read the piece for yourself, but understand that doctors know how they form but cannot tell you why or how to prevent them from forming. Oh, and don't forget it's been widely accepted for years that staying hydrated is a good thing, especially in warmer weather.

Now, we should probably say here that of course, not every passionate follower of any particular cause is mindless, certainly there are a ton of well-reasoned, thoughtful, intelligent and genuinely dedicated folks within every cause.

But in the video below - from the creative team of Penn and Teller - you'll see how easy it really is to lead people into becoming mindless followers, even stirred up enough to sign a petition to ban . . . water.

Some major power behind wind farms

Yesterday, T. Boone Pickens, the famous oil tycoon and brilliant investor, announced his intentions to help offset our nation's excessive dependence on oil with a huge plan - offered to both Obama and McCain as well - to focus on the most cost-effective and renewable source of energy . . . wind from wind turbine farms.

And here's his commercial that he's apparently spending ten million of his own cash to air on national television networks:

And just today, General Electric announced that it had expanded (to $4 billion) its investment in turbine wind farms with

76 wind farms worldwide with a total capacity of more than 4,000 megawatts. The company plans to spend $6 billion on renewable energy by 2010.

. . . GE Energy Financial Services has or will invest in 76 wind farms worldwide with a total capacity of more than 4,000 megawatts. The company plans to spend $6 billion on renewable energy by 2010.

. . . They include a 126-megawatt wind farm in Wethersfield, a 106.5-megawatt farm in Chateaugay and a 97.5-megawatt site in Altona. Combined, the turbines can generate power for about 110,000 homes, the company said.

These are all magnificent steps in the right direction.

Now, if only the neighbors of The Kennedys, (plus video) whose spacious properties overlook Nantucket Sound, wouldn't get their gilded pantyhose in such a knot over the thought of Sound-based wind farms dotting their water landscape, then maybe we in Massachusetts could continue setting the national trend and agenda for successful energy creation and distribution through either land-based or sea-based wind turbine farms.

Car exhaust, office smokers, illegal incineration, asbestos exposure & welding fumes happen everywhere: yet Seattle wants to ban beach bonfires to prevent Global Warming

A "Progressive" City on the verge of unsupportable insanity?

EDITORIAL

Not quite sure whether this nation has totally lost its mind yet, but one thing is for certain, those environmentalists promoting protections against Global Warming are trying, once again, to douse the flames at Alki Beach in Seattle.

At issue is apparently a generational tradition, summer bonfires on the beach, in designated fire pit areas. Now, some morons took to burning a couch back in 2004 as well as some other unappealing materials in other incidents, but as the article conveys, those have been greatly reduced with increased patrols.

But now Seattle's local officials or commissions and/or agencies are now jumping on the latest attempt to legislate an outright ban on those bonfires, to avoid "the carbon ... emissions produced by thousands of beach fires per year contribut[ing] to global warming."

Here at [: neon :], we exercise our contributions to protecting the environment, e.g., no longer buying water in plastic bottles (re-useable instead), separating paper, glass and plastic, taking groceries home in re-useable canvas bags, keeping thermostats borderline uncomfortable, buying Hybrid vehicles, etc.

But the one thing activist environmentalists have been in heated debate and passionate disagreement over is what does or does not contribute to so-called Global Warming - or taken a step further, whether Global Warming is real . . . or a politically-motivated and well-crafted hoax.

• The former head and founder of The Weather Channel, for instance, took Al Gore and the current management of that channel he no longer controls to task for their perpetuation of the Global Warming theory;
• The President of Czechoslovakia challenged Al Gore (again) to a debate on what Gore and Company have been espousing about Global Warming;
• Global Warming activists have been accused of causing the record-breaking increases in the cost of food;
• . . . and yet there remains no absolute, scientifically irrefutable evidence that Global Warming even exists,
• challenged further just this year when record cold temperatures were recorded in a number of cities in this country and elsewhere.

Global Warming may or may not actually exist because again, the jury is still out.

And although we're not particularly impressed by any yet-to-be substantiated theory advanced by or through political motivations, we are nevertheless very concerned when any Government of its people considers legislation supporting that theory.

At that point, the rights of its citizens - entitled to enjoy their beaches in their own accustomed and traditional way - controls.

Not theory and speculation.

Hey Al Gore, would 'ya talk to the Kennedys for us?

EDITORIAL

Where's Al Gore when you really need him?

Last week, just before the start of the Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip to Hull, MA and on the way back, made sure we shot some video of their apparently very successful Wind Turbine towering above the town. This is the same Wind Turbine, in concept, that alternative energy advocates want to put into Nantucket Sound, as Wind Farms. But unfortunately, sound energy policy - definitely no pun intended - has been trumped, so to speak, and again with no intentional pun, because these turbines would then be within eyesight of the wealthy waterfront homes of the Kennedys and their fellow neighbors of Hyannis.

Last we checked, they have (whomever they are) somehow managed to stop the Wind Farm installation in Nantucket Sound. Whether they've done so for the self-serving reasons of preserving their pristine backyard waterfront views or because they feel entitled to unfettered sailing throughout Nantucket Sound, despite the projected as substantial energy savings from such an effort, there are no Wind Farms in a body of water where they could do the most good and become a respected prototype to further our nation's goal of reducing our dependence on oil.

Is this yet another example of Al Gore, Teddy Kennedy (our prayers are still with him) and John Kerry forever telling us how we should behave, yet they're entitled to march to their own drummers?

Whatever.

Czech Prez: Al Gore ducking yet another request to debate climate change

EDITORIAL

Matt Drudge had a link to The Earth Times where Czech President Klaus is asking Al Gore, and apparently not for the first time, to debate him about the validity of Gore's claims of dangers from climate change.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms. "I many times tried to talk to have a public exchange of views with him, and he's not too much willing to make such a conversation," Klaus said. "So I'm ready to do it."

. . . Klaus, an economist, said he opposed the "climate alarmism" perpetuated by environmentalism trying to impose their ideals, comparing it to the decades of communist rule he experienced growing up in Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia.

At this point, Klaus then uses that as a transition to further this political reference:

"Like their (communist) predecessors, they will be certain that they have the right to sacrifice man and his freedom to make their idea reality," he said.

"In the past, it was in the name of the Marxists or of the proletariat - this time, in the name of the planet," he added.

We ask two questions at this point.

One. Is this a legitimate invitation to a serious debate or is Klaus only challenging both Gore's intentions and his climate change claims in order to advance his (Klaus') own political agenda and/or book-selling ambitions?

Two. Is Al Gore's unwillingness to accept a noted and respected public figure's challenge to debate evidence of his (Gore's) fears of being able to effectively defend his positions on climate change in a substantive debate format?

Either way, we feel there's more for the public to gain in any substantive debate between the differing positions on climate change rather than allowing those representatives any further freedom to use a Bully Pulpit to advance either of their agendas and remain unchallenged, unchecked, or win any other Nobels, make any more movies . . . or sell any more books.

That's our opinion, what's yours?

The Fisker Karma: 0-60 in 5.8 seconds, but it's a hybrid

For those of us considering the purchase of a new car in the next six months and who are also paying special attention to the hybrids, this car in the video below is something to be considered - that is if you can wait until 2009 . . . and have a mere $80,000(US) to spend.

From Engadget:

For review, the Fisker Karma will do 0-60 in 5.8 seconds and top out at 150MPH via an electric / internal-combustion hybrid engine. Latest word is that the combustion engine portion is of Volkswagen build. Fisker is only saying that the engine is of German build, and we say, "gut!" -- let those external speakers roar!