Kowabunga

This is my final recap for BayCon 2006, and has a plethora of photos.

It is hard to believe that it has been six years since my last BayCon. When I moved to Minnesota at the beginning of 2001, it was with the expectations I would return for BayCon on an annual basis to see my friends, at the very least. Little did I know I would miss out on five BayCons, and a lot of changes in the lives of so many friends.

Some of the personal ups: getting caught up with some of my closest friends in the Bay Area: Kate, Mary, Cassandra, Gene, Sara. Running into people I haven't seen in years: Bambi (okay, Tory), Kay, Bridget, Mike W., Kaos the KB, Kutaj, Keith, Dana, Dorothy, and a host of others. Seeing unexpected people: Eric the Cylon. Meeting and making new friends: Pete of the IKV Blackdragon, Tami, Chris (aka Spock, Scotty and Kirk), Todd, Scott, and more.

Although I did not make it to as many panels as I would have liked, whether due to scheduling conflicts, or not getting back in time for those 10AM sessions (kind of hard to get going in time with an eight month old infant), the panels I did see were quite good. This includes Kaos, the KB's, presentation on survival gear. Kaos, or Mike, was a S.E.R.E instructor in the Navy, and stays on top of survival preparedness. A darn good talk that everyone should attend. It's educational.

Bridget's Cassini Update, with a great power point presentation that included lots of images, including video, and quite informative.

Other science panels on interstellar travel and warfare, as well as political discussions on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The masquerade, in spite of technical problems getting it up and running, had some very creative costumes.

Jerry Pournelle on the Economics of Interstellar War panel with David Friedman and Philip Gust. Intersting panel. Friedman seems to be hung up on that everything is coming down to information warfare. Pournelle focused on a couple of aspects: using large asteroids as weapons, traveling just below the speed of light, and colony ships moving in with the intent to conquer.

Mike Wilson (left), Dave Hnasen (right), I Don't Know (third base, er, middle), in Mirror Mirror Starfleet Uniforms in the famed Mara's Bar party room. You know, the place where everyone knows your name.

The first contestant in the Clan MacDude's Bonny Knees Competition. This was the only contestant wearing a kilt this year. I think the unseasonably cold temperatures kept folks in doors. Yet this guy not only wore a kilt, he was bear, er, bare chested.

Crowd scene in Mara's Bar on Friday night.

This is Anna, all dressed up and ready for a big day at BayCon. She was dressed in the convention's chosen theme: purple.

Here is Kay and Bambi at one of the fan tables. Kay and I go way back with a lot of mutual friends. Bambi and I go back even further, all the way to high school. Egads!

This is Jade, in a devilishly nice costume.

This is Lizzy as an Star Trek:TOS Romulan. Cool costume, and very well done.

This is Mary as the new Doctor along with Tillie as K-9. Not sure if she made the K-9 rig for Tillie, or if Sara made it. It made Tillie her usual big hit, as she is regularly BayCon's best dressed dog. Tillie is a service dog who serves as Cassandra's companion. She is also one dynamite doggie.

This is Bridget decked out as Droxanne from the ST:TOS episode "The Cloud Minders." Not only is she a NASA scientist, she is a master costumer with numerous awards. This was during her Cassini presentation. She'll be making this presentation at the upcoming Convergence in Minnesota, so if you are there, be sure to catch it. And her other panels.

Bridget is another old friend, from way back in our days in San Diego and members of S.T.A.R San Diego, which, at the time, was the largest fan club in Southern California, with somewhere around 150 people at a meeting.

This is Anna with a guy named Chris who was being done up as Darth Maul. Every time I walked by him, I had to say, "hey look, it's Spock!" I did this several times, and when I ran into him later, did the same thing. What makes this story go from ludicrous to funny is that the guy applying the makeup didn't realize it was the same person calling Chris "Spock." So, when I did it the forth time, he was completely perplexed by this and was going, "you're like the forth person to do this." I had to tell him, and Chris, the guy in the makeup, confirmed it, that each time he heard "hey look, it's Spock!" it was me. The joke was on him!

On the right is Dorothy in one of her many costumes. I'm not sure what this one is, but it certainly looks nice. With her is Pete of the IKV Blackdragon, whom I just met during the run of con. Dorothy is also known as Catnip MacDude. We are currently plotting a web coup for furthering the Clan's reach.

Dave Hansen of the IKV Bloodlust decked out in full Klingon garb.

Gene Paxton, a good and close friend for many years. With him are Richard (left) and Mike Wilson (right). Mike is Captain of the Bloodlust.

This is a shot of Anna with J.D. both are done up as Klingons, and were without a doubt the littlest Klingons in attendance. J.D. was born a few weeks before Anna. With J.D. is friend Tami, and with Anna is Mommy Dearest, Sue.

ere is Lizzy dressed up as a Klingon. Okay, we were having a Klingon party, so, what would you expect?

This is Johny decked out as the dreaded and powerful Darth Sidius. Darn good shot of Johny at that. I'll have to see about getting a print to him sometime.

Johny is joined by Chris done p as Darth Maul and the guy who did Maul's makeup as an Imperial Officer.

Never clown around with Klingons…it might get you in deep trouble. Not sure who this is, but thought it was a really cool costume.

Sue and Anna surrounded by TOS Klingons.

And the Klingons continue to gather on the starboard bow. Where is Captain Kirk when you need him? Oh, yeah, he's out surfing with the Kahuna.

Here is Mette and her husband as Qui-Gon and Darth Maul, Leogized.

Here is Sqotty MacKlingon with Mary, up by the Tiki Lounge.

Here's the group of us just before Pete was indoctrinated into the Clan MacDude.

Sailor Balloon…the costume was made of a number of balloons. Very imaginative and well executed.

BayCon's Match Game SF, where every blank might be a euphemism. Actually, that was one of two running gags, the other being WorldCon de Fruta. It was Casa de Fruta merchandise that I won for winning my round of the game.

Mike, Mitchell, Dianne and a fourth for bridge in Planet of the Apes costumes.

Mike, Sqotty, and Gene for a last photo op before the end of the BayCon. Gene had Stephen Furst autograph his Fan Boy shirt.

Super Sue with Klingon Diane.

Larry Niven with other participants discussing the probability of interstellar flight before the end of the 21st century.

I think this is a wrap for Baycon 2006. It was a blast, and I now wish I hadn't missed so many BayCons since moving to Minnesota.

Additional reports:

Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4

Tags:
Baycon
Klingon
KAG
Larry Niven
Clan MacDude
Jerry Pournelle
Star Wars
Star Trek

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This is the last report I will file before I sit down to put together the photo galley of the event.

We managed to get up a little early this time, which is a bit of a shock. This meant we were able to go out for breakfast and have something nice, instead of a bowl of cereal and still make it back to the con before 11 AM.

On Monday, they had several panels that I was interested in, scheduled in opposing pairs. As usual. This means I had to pick and choose.

With this in mind, I went to the panel on the Probability of Interstellar Flight in the 21st Century. This was an entertaining panel as it had Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, as well as Jeff Freeman, Michaek Flynn and John McGowan.

The conversation revolved around getting a probe to Alpha Centauri for a flyby in time to return information to Earth before the end of this century. Various technologies for space travel and energy propulsion were discussed, including anti-matter and fusion rockets, as well as solar sails.

Pournelle also brought up the point that for manned flight we will be looking at multi-generation colony ships to get there, wherever "there" is.

Interesting panel, and definitely the more interesting of that pair of choices.

Next panel up that I attended was on the intent of the Founding Fathers and the Bill of Rights. Pournelle was also on this panel, as well as Ed Green, David Friedman and Andrew Clark. The discussion probed various aspects of the Constitution and the disintegration of State's Rights, the packing of the Supreme Court, encryption, and firearms.

After that, the day, and the con, was done for us. Time to collect up the wife and baby, and head to her parent's house for quality time between them and their granddaughter, then take the redeye flight home.

Overall, a good con, with opportunities to see many friends I haven't seen in a while, especially since I moved to Minnesota.

Baycon
Klingon
KAG
Larry Niven
Clan MacDude
Jerry Pournelle

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Baycon 2006 day 3 is complete, and a long day it was.

We got a bit of a late start, so I missed the 10 AM panel I was interested in. Oh well. Come to think of it, I missed most of the panels I was interested in.

Sue and I did manage to get there in time to watch, and play, The Match Game SF. This was modeled after the ‘70s game show of the same name, where a panel of judges and a player are given a line, like, "Captain Kirk beams down to the planet of Amazon Women and says, 'Men set phasers on blank.'" And the player has to match what the judges write down for filling in the blank. Since it was a PG rated show (closer to G rated), "euphemism" very quickly became a running gag.

I did manage to win a bunch of stuff for "Casa de Fruita", a World Con bid in Hollistor for 2008. Sue and Anna also got to play a round of match Game, but didn’t do as well as me.

We then went to lunch at the coffee garden, were we the center of the universe as fans going from point A to point B generally passed by our table. Gina, an old friend joined us, and we ended up spending two hours there. Fortunately, the staff wasn’t busy, and we weren’t tying up a table.

After that, I headed of to play Munchkin Massacre, which involved playing the game Munchkin with every game and supplement release. We ended up calling the game at about 6:20, with me in the lead, and the "organizer" ending in a close second. Much fun was had by all.

Next up was dinner, off site, with some friends, and we managed to get caught up with things there and learned that in Bay Area Fandom, everyone knows Larry Colin. Go figure!

We made it back for party time. While Sue went up to Dorothy’s secret Bachelorette Party, I headed down to the main party zone to hang out with various friends at Mara’s Bar (AKA, Klingon Central).

All in all, it’s been a good con. One (short) day left. I’ll report on it, as well as post pictures, sometime tomorrow, after we get home from CA.

Baycon
Klingon
KAG
Munchkin
Clan MacDude
World Con

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The second day of BayCon 2006 has ended and it is now time to prepare for day 3.

Some of the action on Saturday.

Trivia for Chocolate was a moderately attended game event where the trivia master awarded chocolate to the first person to get the correct answer. The questions ranged from print, comics, movies and TV, and included questions on pen names, matching planets to authors or books, Hugo winners, characters as well as books/authors who inspired films. It was a lot of fun, and I managed to score a nice pile of chocolates that Sue confiscated. Okay, I did manage to get to eat SOME of my rewards.

Next on the list of panels was the Cassini Update, presented by Bridget Landry, who is part of the JPL’s Cassini Project team. The presentation included images and video, as well as a sound clip of Cassini-Huygens passing through the outer rings of Saturn.

Cassini has provided huge amounts of data to the scientific community on Saturn planetary neighborhood. This included some details on Titan’s dense atmosphere, and Iapetus’ strange “belly band,” a ridge that runs along the equator just as if it were a rubber ball stamped “Made in China.” Cool images.

Bridget will be making this presentation at Convergence in Minnesota this summer, where she will be the Science Guest of Honor.

After Cassini, it was time to head over to the bar where we were having a gathering of Klingons and the new babies (both sets of Hansens). This evolved into a fairly large party and central gathering place for a dinner run. I met the Klingons of the IKV Blackdragon, a relatively new ship in the Ring of Fire Fleet, led by a fairly hoopy frood.

After dinner, I wen out to the truck and changed into my leine and Klingon headpiece, then rendezvoused with Sue and Anna to line up for the Masquerade.

The Masquerade is a bit of a disappointment for me. It was supposed to begin at 8PM, however, they didn’t even begin to let people in until after 8:30. Although there was a false emergency alarm, even that took place AFTER 8 PM. Not sure what the problem was, however, it was not making people very happy. It was after 9 before they started the Masquerade, but first, we got a dull speech from the MC on toastmastering, with some inappropriate political jokes. Hint: not everyone thinks the same as you politically, unless you are at a MoveOn rally.

The number of entries were small, however, there were some very imaginative and creative costumes, from Sailor Ballon, which was made up of ballons, to the San Jose Sharks Quidditch team, and Qui-Gon and Darth Maul done Lego style.

While the judges went off to deliberate, Stephne furst held the floor and ran a silm short that he recently made called Game Day. This film is not my cup of tea, not so much because of the violence and profanity, but that the bad guys aren’t caught. One of them wins. Bad message. Furst then answered a number of questions about his career. When someone asked about his favorite role, a muttered whole wheat, a few people heard, snickered, and Sue called out “Whole Wheat.” Furst paused, muttered back whole wheat questioningly, thought about it, then realized it was meant as whole wheat rolls. This did get a lot of laughs. He also auctioned off a script from Animal House which he would autograph. It went for somewhere around $350.

After this, it was party time. We made our way, with Anna sleeping in her stroller up to the party floor, and joined the Klingons for fun and games. There were a number of very good parties, including: Mara’s Bar, the Feddies next door, Bridget’s party serving up samples from the Venus Drug Company (think Mudd’s Women), and the Tiki Room.

As we were heading out, we ran into Pete and Mary, fully “Klin’ed” up, and indoctrinated Pete into the Clan MacDude. After that, it was time to head back to the house, and take care of the “Little One.”

More tomorrow, when I report on day 3.

Baycon
Klingon
KAG
Cassini
Clan MacDude

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BayCon 2006 is running full steam. Here are a few of the highlights for day one.

The Economics of Interstellar War was a science panel/discussion on how feasible galactic warfare is. On the panel were Jerry Pournelle and David Freidman with Philip Gust moderating.

The first question was: Is Interstellar War economically feasible? The discussion focused on the limitations of relativity and a society being able to reach around .9 * the speed of light, rather than considering frequently used SF concepts such as warp speed or hyperspace, or even FTL.

Freidman seemed to believe that such wars be would be information wars, and interstellar economics would be based around information as shipping cargo would be prohibitively expense.

Pournelle pointed out that most naval battles in history took place as there were limited routes that ships could take to get from point A and point B, thus limiting where ships would be, and make it possible to find out where you enemy is. C.S. Forrester understood this when writing the Hornblower novels. Once a ship is out of site, it’s very difficult to find it.

Modern technology has, of course changed the nature of naval warfare with the use of satellites and such. However, in an interstellar setting, such technologies don’t exist, meaning you would look for you enemy’s ships at places they are defending. Like historical naval battles, where nearly all such battles took place in sight of land, interstellar battles would most likely take place in sight of planetary colonies.

Pournelle also pointed out that it is more likely that would sling large asteroids at near light speed at planets, or more likely at the star in order be rid of the whole problem.

Another point made in the discussion is that a space faring society sending out colony ships are sending them out on a one-way ticket, thus they would be going out prepared for doing conquest, thus forming a basis for a type of interstellar war.

Interesting discussion and a darn good panel to start of the weekend.

This was followed up by a presentation by Mike Sarkisian on preparing a survival kit that can get you through the 72-hour period after a disaster, be it an earthquake, hurricane, or tsunami.

The main thrust of the presentation was to make it modular and multi-level. By this, Mike meant that the smallest survival kit should be able to keep you going and fit in one of those oversized cargo-pant pockets. Then you “level” up to a moderately larger kit, with redundancy built in, and progress up through several levels, building up on the base component until you have a backpack sized kit.

An additional point is to try out everything. The worst time to find out you can’t get something to work is when you need it.

A flyer was also provided with the websites of a number of companies that are reliable suppliers of survival gear and several recommended books.

Excellent presentation, full of information that everyone should have.

Later in the evening, after party time began, the Clan MacDude held it’s annual Bonny Knees competition. This year’s judges where Johanna, Radar, and Jade. Catnip MacDude ran the event. As it was a bit chilly, and little Anna was a bit fussy (she is eight months old, so she is allowed to be fussy), we didn’t stay for the whole event. I did learn that contestant number six (whoever that is) won the event.

Parties were good, with the Klingon Bar being one of the most popular.

The BayCon report stated that memberships at 3PM had reached 1507.

It’s now a new day. Look for the next installment tomorrow morning, including a Cassini update.

Baycon
Klingon
Jerry Pournelle
Clan MacDude

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Looks like I finally have everything up and running on the new hosting provider. although there were some challenges with getting Movable Type set up and running, that is all done now. So far, looks pretty good.

The important thing is that the migration is now complete, and just in time for me to be able to report on what goes on at BayCon this year, and follow up with the next week with the Minnesota Republican Convention. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks.

Thanks for your patience during this move. Things should move to a relatively normal roar over the next few days as I attempt to report on the con.

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I’ve ever attended a Congressional District Convention as a delegate before this year. It’s an intersting eent if you have never attended one before.

The big issues of the day are endorsing a candidate for the Second District, which was easy to do as John Kline is running for re-election. And then spending the afternoon reviewing the party platform, whit recommended changes/additions being forwarded up to the State level for consideration in June.

Congressman Kline is, of course, running for re-election. His campaign staff put together an introductory slide show that got lots of cheers from the delegates. It was set to the theme and style of Star Wars, complete with soundtrack and reasons to support Kline, including the depiction of various liberals, like San Fran Nan, and what thing could be like if they gain control of the House of Representatives.

Congressman Kline put on a great stump speech, which I won’t go into here as I don’t have my notes handy. Suffice it to say, John Kline is a fine Congressman, and I m glad he is my representative to the U.S. House.

We also heard a number of speeches from candidates running for a variety of State-wide races, including Mark Kennedy’s brother (Kennedy was attending his son’s college graduation) and Harold Shudlick. Both Kennedy and Shudlick are running for Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate seat. Both are fine men, and well qualified, so the State convention in June should be interesting.

Sue Jeffers, who is challenging Tim Pawlenty for the GOP endorsement, also spoke, hitting issues that she believes are important. This was met with a mixed reaction as she originally filed as a Libertarian. However, convention rules and such, allow anyone seeking the GOP endorsement to speak to the delegates.

A few special interest groups also made short presentations, which I’ll cover in another post once I have a had a chance to review what they are promoting.

The afternoon portion, adopting recommendations for the party platform to send up to the State actually went fairly smoothly, with several issues receiving discussion. Much to everyone’s surprise, we were out of there by about 4 P.M. What a shock.

If you have never attended one of these conventions, consider doing so, either as a delegate or as a visitor. It’s fun and gives you a front row seat on how things are done.

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Things are fially up and running on the new hosting service.

I am now beginning the migration of my content from PHP-Nuke to the new blogging system. Hopefully this will be complete tonight.

I have the Congresional District Convention to go to today, so not much will get done.
By the way, if you are reading this entry, that means my DNS changes have taken root.

YAH!

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The May 2006 gathering of the Twin Cities Townhall Meetup/Townsquare was well attended and included one or tow new faces.

Tracy, our fearful leader, was unable to obtain a planned agenda from the sponsoring organizations, however, we were able to fill the void discussing this week’s “Day Without Illegals” that took place on Monday, and proceed to dissect the issues of border security, immigration reform, illegal aliens, nukes in Iran and, of course, new stadiums in Minnesota.

The general consensus is that the borders (both North and South) need to be secured. Once completed, the question of what to do with the 12-15 million people living in this country illegally, and regularly breaking our laws (remember, they routinely obtain forged documents so they can gain employment).

The Send-A-Brick project was mentioned as well as a new peso.

If you have not been to one of these events, I strongly encourage showing up. The debate is always lively, and friendly. Next one should be June 1st, which is the first day fo the MN GOP convention. Should be fun…providing those of us not at the convention can make it. Maybe we can convince Tracy to shift it back a week, as there are a lot of delegates in this group.

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Announcing the first ever "Day without Gringos." This is in response to the recent "Day Without Illegals" boycott held on May 1st. As today is Cinco de Mayo, it seems like an appropriate day to hold this event.

Today I will not eat any burritos or tacos, nor shall I enjoy any tequila or bottle’s of Corona.

illegal immigration
illegal immigrants
Day without Immigrants
Day without Gringos

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A friend of mine pointed me to this new website, send-a-brick.com. The goal is to get the point across on border security by sending your congressman a brick to help build the wall. Very cool site, with lots of pictures of bricks that have been sent.

The goal is to embarrass congress into taking action to secure our borders so as to reduce the influx of illegal aliens entering our country.

What I would like to know is why does it take a grassroots initiative like this to get the point across?

Check it out and consider participating. I’ll be buying some bricks tonight.

illegal immigration
illegal immigrants
Border Security
Build a Wall

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May 1 was the day designated as a worker walkout for illegal immigrants who are protesting the fact that Congress is actually considering doing something every other nation on the face of the Earth already does: enforce it's borders.

The Strib has this to say about the protests:

Immigrants and supporters held local rallies, but they were small compared with the hundreds of thousands who demonstrated in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities and even the 30,000 who rallied in St. Paul last month.

Instead, the "Day Without Immigrants," designed to highlight immigrants' economic contributions, was characterized by absence. Some businesses that had expected to stay open found themselves without cooks, dishwashers and work crews. Sixteen of the 36 Chipotle restaurants in the state closed for the day.

Now, Chipotle, which is one of the best burrito places in Minnesota, closed down 16 of its 36 burrito stores for the day, this shows a real problem. Does this mean they are employing a large number of illegal immigrants? I hope that this is not the case. However, I think I'll do a little less business with them, as I prefer to go to places that will not kowtow to the leftist organizations that organize such events as the "Day Without Illegal Immigrants."

The thing I do find most disturbing about the situation is that the issue of illegal immigration has been twisted into an "issue" that impacts all immigrants, when nothing could be further from the truth.

The issue at hand is illegal immigration. America has always welcomed people who want to come to our country seeking a better life, and this should not be changed. However, we have to do something to reduce (or eliminate) illegal immigration. I have always been of a mind where I would rather have five million people entering the U.S. legally rather than one million legally and another four million illegally.

When people come here legally, this means they have gone through the immigration process that includes health screenings and background checks for criminal behavior. This is one reason why people who come here illegally are a problem: resurgence of tuberculosis in the U.S., and illegal aliens filling our prison cells after being convicted for a variety of felonies.

A lot of people on the left purport that their "only" crime is coming into the U.S. illegally and it isn't "their fault where they were born." Okay, they are half-right…it isn't their fault where they were born. However, their flagrant violation of U.S. law does not stop once they cross the border. They then seek out and obtain fraudulent documents, and then use those documents to get jobs, and obtain other documents, even credit cards, fraudulently. Remember, credit reports are tied to Social Security numbers, and as forged Social Security documents are amongst the first documents illegal aliens obtain, what happens to the credit reports of the people who those SSNs are actually assigned to (and a reason why we shouldn't be treated as just a number…but that's another gripe entirely).

Border security begins at the border, with tough enforcement, and, if necessary, walls, fences, and other obstacles where nature hasn't provided a good deterrent.

But border security doesn't end at the border. That is only the starting point. Being aware of people who "overstay" their visas needs to be addressed, not just with deportation, as I can see it being used as a means for people to come here, and then say, "gee, I can get a free ticket home by getting deported." Enforcement of immigration laws needs to be tough.

Criminalizing illegal immigrants as felons is unrealistic, as the court system cannot handle the caseload of dealing with some 12 million people as felons. Deporting is also unrealistic.

Regularizing, as much as I dislike the idea, may be the best policy, but only if it is tied to having illegal immigrants prove that they have jobs, and can pass all of the requirements (health screenings and background checks) that those who come here legally must perform. At that point, the path to regularizing (but not citizenship) should be opened up.

However, any action in regards to regularizing, or providing amnesty, without setting up proper border security in advance, will be meaningless; it will only serve to open the floodgates for continued, and massive, illegal immigration.

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Every year for some time now, the various sports franchises in Minnesota has turned to the state legislature to get new stadiums, instead of building it themselves. The Twins and Carl Pohlad are leading the current charge, supported by the Hennepin County Commissioners. And it looks like they are winning. Which means the taxpayers of Hennepin County, and possibly all of the metro-area counties, will lose.

The current plan calls for an increase in the sales tax, WITHOUT a voter referendum, which is in violation of state laws requiring such. Since the law was passed in 1999, there have been no exceptions to the requirement of a referendum on sales taxes. Now, there is a serious push to bypass this requirement by the Hennepin County Commissioners and the Twins ownership. To make matters worse, the DFL Senate leadership, specifically State Senator Kelley, wants a larger sales tax increase spread throughout the entire Metro-area.

This is from MPR

The latest vote may force the members of the committee to pick one of two completely different approaches to stadium funding. The choices include a .15 percent sales tax in Hennepin County to build a Twins ballpark, or a half-percent seven-county, metro-wide sales tax that would fund not only a new Twins ballpark, but also a Vikings stadium in Blaine and transportation projects.

The Republican-controlled House already has passed the Hennepin County sales tax, but Senate DFLers are lining up behind the metro-wide tax.

"I think there's a sense that there's a majority of folks who would like us to look at a broader solution that includes both the Twins and Vikings and to do it in a way that saves the public money by reducing the financing costs and also gets us to move forward on transit," said DFL Sen. Steve Kelley of Hopkins.

Kelley says his metro-wide sales tax proposal does all that and doesn't require voter approval.

This means, watch out Minnesota, you are about to get *blanked*.

A recent article in the Star Tribune had this to say on the issue:

The law requiring a referendum is relatively new. The Legislature passed it in 1999. Stadium proponents argue, correctly, that other large projects, such as Target Center in Minneapolis, were not subject to a referendum. But what they do not often disclose is that the law requiring a referendum was added after such projects were built.

Since 1999, only three, mostly minor, exemptions to the law have been made. Mankato, Rochester and Albert Lea were allowed last year to hold referendums on sales tax issues at a special time as opposed to the general-election day.

A year ago, nine local governments were given permission by the Legislature to levy sales taxes -- Winona, for example, was allowed to impose a 0.5 percent sales tax to fund transportation projects -- but all were required to hold referendums.

Public opinion polls have shown overwhelming opposition in Hennepin County to a referendum exemption. But team and county officials have bluntly said the project will not go forward if a referendum is required. In the past week alone, attempts by stadium critics to require a referendum failed by narrow margins in the House Taxes Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.

However, the owners of these private businesses, known as professional sports teams, will continue to line up for getting taxpayers to pay for their playgrounds, despite the will of the people. And they will continue to use extortionist tactics to get their way, strong-arming legislators and voters into capitulation instead of building it themselves.

I remember reading a while back something about how prior to 1950, only one stadium was built using public money. Since then, only one has been built without public money.

Legislators have been entrusted with OUR money to use it wisely, to govern, not to fund the playgrounds of wealthy athletes and the billionaire team owners. They are also supposed to safeguard the interests of the people they represent, not deny them their right to vote on referendums as required by law.

It is time to tell all of these sports teams NO when they come panhandling for taxpayer money to finance their albatrosses. If the Twins can spend $64+ million for salaries, they can afford $500 million for a new stadium.

For some additional reading, check out MNGOP SD42

Posted by Sqotty at 6:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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With the price of crude oil hitting the $75 per barrel mark, and gasoline at the pump running near the $3 per gallon level, there is a lot of finger pointing at (you guessed it) the Bush administration and the Republican Party. Putting the finger pointing aside, let's look at a few basic facts:

The price of crude oil (as well as gasoline) is controlled by supply and demand.

The United States imports a large amount of crude oil to meet demands.

Refinery capacities are unable to keep up with the demands of a growing population. This is further acerbated when some disaster, whether natural hurricane Katrina) or due to accident and fire, shuts down some refineries, which results in limited supplies as production capacity drops. Add to this the continued blocking of construction of new refineries by the leftist-controlled environmental groups.

Developing countries, such as India, are putting forth greater demands for oil (and gasoline) on the already constrained supply line.

The geo-political instability of a number a number of oil exporting nations, such as Iran (and the Middle-East as a whole) and Venezuela, among others, has a detrimental effect on the price of crude oil.

The continued blockading of drilling for oil on a small site within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as preventing offshore drilling in the out-continental shelf.

The false belief that energy problems can be resolved through: conservation, "green power," transitioning to ethanol based fuels, or switching to alternative fuel vehicles, such as hybrid-electric or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

In case you haven't noticed, hybrid vehicles are substantially more expensive than comparable vehicles of the same class. The price differential may be recovered over the long haul with lower annual fuel costs, however they still use gasoline. Better gas mileage (which varies, depending on type of vehicle), but higher up front purchase costs. These are doable options for some folks (and I have several friends with hybrids), but the high entry cost makes it uneconomical for most Americans, even with current tax incentives. For some, however, it is a viable option, especially for someone like myself who drives 500 miles per week.

Even flex-fuel vehicles have a gasoline component. And bear in mind that ethanol does not burn as hot as gasoline, there for fuel consumption is actually higher. See FuelEconomy.gov for more details.

Hydrogen fuel cell is the wave of the future, but they are not prime time by any means. Nor are they readily available and such vehicles have a limited driving range. Currently, the Ford Focus looks to have a slight edge. One other issue: they are available on a lease only basis to a limited number of organizations that have access to hydrogen fuel.

Until the chokehold that the leftist-controlled environmentalist lobby has on the domestic drilling of oil can be broken, it is unlikely that we will see crude oil at $20 per barrel again. Especially with the growing world-wide hunger for fuel.

Posted by Sqotty at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Stardate, oh, wait, that's pajama boy talk.

It was "Happy Hour" at Quark's. The place was jamming. Wall-to-wall people, so it was a bit of a challenge getting a seat at the bar. I managed anyway, as I spotted the Doctor busily knocking back a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.

"Ah, Kahuna, How have you been?" the Doctor asked.

"Thirstymind if I join you."

"Not at all. I see the boycott hasn't impacted business."

"Boycott?"

Yes. Haven't you heard? All of the undocumented workers across the Federation did a one day walkout, protesting some nonsense about their legal status."

"That would explain all the Jem'Hadar lurking around the place, sporting Delta Quadrant flags." I had noticed quite a few of them around Deep Space 9 today, but didn't think much of it. They're always hanging around the Promenade looking for day jobs where the pay is strictly under the table. That way they keep below the Federation's Immigration and Naturalization Service's radar. Nothing more embarrassing than having losing a war with your neighbor, slipping in under the border, getting forged documents and starting a new life.

I caught Quark's attention and signaled for my usual pint of Guinness with a Tribble Sweat chaser. As busy as it was, Quark managed to show up with my pint and shot fairly quickly.

"Kahuna, enjoying the Boycott?"

"Should I be?"

"Not reallyseems like every illegal alien in the quadrant is here today. I hear Tunok's is booked solid until past midnight. Not just the Jem'Hadar showing up either. Cardassians and Romulans and Borg."

"Oh, my," said the Doctor.

Quark and I both shot him a look.

"Sorry. Just had to say it."

"Right. Well, since Tunok's is shut down, how's the grilled tauntaun?"

"Excellent. Yoda is busier than a two-fisted iron chef in the kitchen tonight, but I can get you taken care of in a jiffy," Quark responded.

"Great. Since every place on the station is swamped, especially your place, it'll beat eating with Cisco, or going back to my ship."

"Exactly. Besides, you're one of my best customers. And I always take care of the best with the best. Grilled tauntaun coming up."

"Add some tribble kebobs with that, would you?"

"Certainly." Quark said, then headed off to the kitchen.

"Quark is right, all of the bars and restaurants are swamped. The only businesses that are shut down are a number of Federation Agencies and the schools. Joined the boycott, it seems. Station personnel have been doing a lot of their shopping, and many of the shops have been running special Boycott Day' specials. Even Garrick has gotten into the act. And he's got his green card the normal way," said the Doctor.

I looked around. If the Feddie's INS came in here, they would have a field day. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if they were out enjoying the boycott as well.

Kahuna out

Posted by Kahuna at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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There is a new movie opening soon, and it has been labeled "soft eco-terrorism," whatever that emans.

CNS has this report on the film:

The movie, "Hoot," opens Friday May 5. It features environmentally conscious teenage characters vandalizing heavy machinery by stealing parts off of them and flattening tires in order to hinder a development project.

The teens, who ultimately succeed in halting the project, spray paint a police car that is providing security, trespass, rip up surveyors' stakes, place alligators in portable toilets, release poisonous Cottonmouth snakes at the construction site and evade the police. The teenagers also debate stealing the construction trailer and sinking it into a nearby canal to further delay the project.

The teenagers in the PG-rated movie face no repercussions for the illegal acts and instead are portrayed as heroically preventing the construction of a pancake house in South Florida to save the owls' habitat. There are consequences, however, for the pancake company.

Criminal behavior is still criminal behavior, regardless of what excuse someone uses to attempt to "legitimize" their actions.

The movie, based on a novel by Carl Hiaasen, portrays the developers as the bad guys, ending in their arrest, while the terrorist chickens, er, kids, get away with a variety of crimes, including vandalizing police cars.

Shriner contests the labeling of th film as a film about eco-terrorism, and siad:

"I call it more mischief. Pulling some stakes out and slowing down construction, putting an alligator in a toilet -- that is sort of mischievous,"

Let’s see, alligators in toilets, and earlier on in the report, it is mentioned these young terrorists (oops, "vigilantes") released deadly cottonmouth snakes. It’s amazing no one was hurt!

Okay, if the developer had actually broken any environmental laws, he should go to jail. However, the punk terrorists should be thrown in jail on terrorism charges.

Kind of reminds me of the episode of Star Trek: Enterprise when Archer robs a bank and steals a truck, with no remorse, just a side comment of "and people used ot go to jail for this."

"Hoot" is yet more liberal tripe being pumped out of Hollywood, the land where black is white, up is down, and left is right. Go figure.

Posted by Sqotty at 7:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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