Rice County Republicans

GENERAL INTEREST

For any regular reader of The Economist, like myself, this article – the long feature – in the most recent issue is stunning, as the magazine has for years had an editorial policy of supporting the most severe predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The problem always has been that climate is too complex to model. Even with improved understanding and models using thousands rather than hundreds of data points, they are by definition not robust enough to model a climate with millions of variables and systemic cause and effect loops which are not understood, and some of which may yet to even be identified. As the great philosopher of science, Sir Karl Popper said, ““Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”

From the “Leader” article in the same issue The Economist probably sums it up best: “Bad climate policies, such as backing renewable energy with no thought for the cost, or insisting on biofuels despite the damage they do, are bad whatever the climate’s sensitivity to greenhouse gases. Good policies—strategies for adapting to higher sea levels and changing weather patterns, investment in agricultural resilience, research into fossil-fuel-free ways of generating and storing energy—are wise precautions even in a world where sensitivity is low.”

Here’s an interesting article from The America Conservative magazine. This seems to be a reasonable way for libertarian leaning Republicans and social conservative Republicans to find common ground moving forward.

A letter to the editor in the Northfield News.

The Gay Marriage Debate:
In another article, The American Conservative magazine asks, “Can it be any surprise, then, that a mass-democratic, individualistic, consumerist society in which men and women are interchangeable in all other public aspects finds them interchangeable in marriage as well?”

Here’s an article from none other than that conservative bell-weather, The National Review, advocating for a decoupling of marriage and the State. ….and from Rush Limbaugh.
….and the editorial page of the Detroit Sun.
….and from syndicated radio personality Edward Morrissey writing in The Week.
…and in that gem of the Right-wing blogosphere, Townhall.com

Enjoy,
Stephen Kallestad
Northfield

ECONOMICS / BUSINESS
Even though I’m not a fan of John Maynard Keynes, he famously said: “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” I could not agree with him more on that particular point, and this article explores that idea.

GENERAL INTEREST
Regardless of what leaders in Washington are saying we do have a deficit problem.

Former MN GOP communications director, Craig Westover, writes this excellent Op/Ed piece for the Pioneer Press in which he responds to another piece written by Norm Coleman and Laura Brod. It does a wonderful job of framing the conversation the Party needs to have with itself.

Here’s an interesting editorial from the Claremont Review of Books of all places, which provides some clarity and positive suggestions for the GOP.

This is a very good question, which needs to be answered. Like most government run programs, it doesn’t seem to be functioning the way Gov. Pawlenty envisioned when he signed it into law.

Here’s a nice opinion piece from Jeff Johnson, Minnesota’s Republican National Committeeman, Hennepin County Commissioner, and possible GOP candidate for Governor in 2014.

Is it time to start talking 2016 yet? I’m still focused on 2014, but the media doesn’t seem to be.

Enjoy,
Stephen Kallestad
Northfield

ECONOMICS / BUSINESS
Dr. Arnold Kling writes an excellent piece on the unhealthy relationship between banks and governments.

GENERAL INTEREST
There have been a lot of news articles about public pension shortfalls in California, Illinois and other places. Here’s one that could hit your pocket book, due to false promises and assumptions made to the St. Paul Teacher’s Pension Fund that they are asking the State to bail-out.

Here’s what the beltway Democrats see when they look at the potential 2016 GOP field.

Here’s an important opportunity for the House Republicans, if they can focus like a laser on the deficit and the Federal Budget.

By this time everyone should have realized that the sequester is a tempest in a teapot. The tiny constraints on spending, while like most legislation it is too prescriptive, the real “pain” is negligible, which is why the Obama Administration is working so hard to make the petty cuts painful to average Americans. Here those actions are taken to task by the chief political columnist over at Politico for using children as pawns for political theater.

This is POLITICO’s recap of CPAC. Every year they do a winners and losers list, and do a good job of picking out the rising stars.  It’s still early, but they’ve correctly called George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney as GOP front-runners years before they were nominated.  Here’s this years list……….and here is their reporting (with video) of the Presidential preference Straw Poll, done every year at the conference.

Our own David Anderson gets a Letter to the Editor published by the Washington Times.

Enjoy,
Stephen Kallestad
Northfield