It's Cold Up Here

If you plan on going to New Hampshire from Oriental anytime soon, remember it gets cold and rainy. Be prepared. I wasn't.

Traveling North

Just a word to the wise: when traveling north on I-95, if you can avoid Delaware, do so. Big delays from construction.

On Outgrowing Earth

Today's article in the New York Times by Thomas Friedman should be alarming.

But don't worry. Oriental's member of Pamlico County's Board of Commissioners reported at the last Board meeting that she and others have successfully blocked an effort by NC planners to push restrictions on construction based on predicted sea rise. The objection: the plan was based on computer modeling. Presumably, we are supposed to wait until the water actually rises. That would be scientific.

Travel

We'll be on the road for a couple of weeks. Posts will be sporadic at best.

Religious Exception to Zoning

I was pleased to learn this evening that the Oriental Town Board had decided to postpone the public hearing on the five amendments to the Growth Management Ordinance proposed by the town's planning board. There was a recognition that maybe the public notice hadn't been as clear as it might have been.

The board decided this evening to schedule public hearings on all five proposed amendments at the July meeting. I would have been happier if they had decided to act first on the proposed amendment on how to amend the ordinance, but that's ok.

In the meantime, we should all be thinking about the proposal to exempt "religious institutions," including buildings owned by such institutions, even if they otherwise resemble ordinary houses, from some of the dimensional regulations affecting other structures in the zone.
A point to remember is that, just because a religious institution owns a building today doesn't mean it will own that building tomorrow, next year or ten years from now. In the meantime, an allowed deviation from dimensional restrictions could have significantly changed the look of the neighborhood and affected the housing value of neighbors.

Nobel Laureate Not Good Enough for Republicans

Two days ago, Peter Diamond, a Nobel Laureate in economics, appointed by President Obama to a vacant seat on the Federal Reserve Board, withdrew his nomination. His statement explained why. In a nutshell, Republicans don't want someone on the FED who is expert in the economics of employment.

Why does the president want an expert in employment economics on the FED? Because one of the statutory responsibilities of the FED is to take measures promoting full employment. No economist is better qualified to figure out how best to do that than Peter Diamond.

Senator Shelby of Alabama has been Diamond's main obstacle. Senator Shelby is not unintelligent. He is, it seems, intelligent enough to know which side of his bread the butter is on and who is buttering it. And it isn't unemployed citizens of Alabama or anywhere else in America.

Time Magazine's Michael Grunwald has a pertinent observation here.

Goals of the Wealthy and Powerful

I've been trying to make rational sense of the adamant Republican opposition to any measures that might actually ameliorate the economic distress of ordinary people. I've been looking for an explanation other than their contempt for people who work for a living.

Even a political party whose central organizing principal seems to be the welfare of the top 1% of the economic strata might be expected to worry about the economy as a whole, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I have had a dark suspicion that it is all about partisan manipulation: wreck the economy and blame the democrats.

Maybe not.

Here is a much simpler explanation, and one with deep roots in history.

Check it out.

Paul Krugman: Day of Days

I just couldn't resist linking to one of today's posts by Paul Krugman.