Aren Cambre's Blog

Today, the Texas Supreme Court further proved that the Texas Child Protective Service’s jihad against the FLDS church is phenomenal bureaucratic ineptitude.

The Supreme Court rightly ruled that CPS never had sufficient grounds to remove the kids from the compound.

This comes after weeks of curious revelations, including that the phone calls instigating this raid were fake and, unlike the original allegations, that the CPS remains unable to substantiate any current pregnancies are with underage girls.

It’s even worse.

So far the CPS only suspects that 1.25% of the seized kids may have been physically or sexually abused. Let’s put that in context. In 2002, 4.6 million children were checked for abuse in the USA. Of them, approximately:

• 20% showed any sign of abuse.
• 6% showed signs of sexual or physical abuse (either one or both).

1.25% of the FLDS population is 94% lower than the physical or sexual abuse rate of the general population of investigated children. (source of stats) The point here is that the FLDS raid was grossly overbroad in including so many children.

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The media adds a humorous element to this saga: they are fascinated at how the FLDS members aren’t cooperating with officials, intentionally making it difficult for the government to investigate them.

Why is that weird? Why are the FLDS members’ actions any different than normal citizens? When you see a cop doing revenue enhancement running a speed trap, do you 1. brake and take other reasonable steps to avoid a citation or 2. drive up to the cop and ask to pay the speed tax ask for a ticket? (And don’t respond and say you never do this; almost everyone drives slowly around cops.) Ladies and gentlemen of the media, it’s normal for people not to submit to government intervention. Big Brother is not our friend. The rest of us get it. When will you?

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Now, don’t get me wrong about the FLDS. That church is very strange. It has bizarre, weird, heretical beliefs. It comes close to a cult.

Their founder is a pedophile. Here are pictures of him passionately kissing a 12 and 14 year old girls he may have “married”:

(source)

How would you feel if those were your daughters? Fortunately, he’s in jail. Which means he’s not in Texas.

Memo to the Texas CPS: It’s legal to be strange! And thank God for that right.

Unless things start changing quickly, heads must roll at the CPS. A failure to soundly scourge that agency will set a precedent that the government is the chief child abuser in Texas!

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra gives us a treat every Memorial Day. As part of its Community Concerts series, the DSO does a concert at Dallas’s Flagpole Hill, a part of White Rock Lake Park. The audience sits on a gradually sloping hill facing a small band shell that contains the orchestra.

The orchestra sweats through several patriotic or traditional songs, and it’s capped off by a nice, small fireworks show.

Halfway through my 8th grade year, I switched from trumpet to euphonium. I stuck with it through my junior year at SMU.

Even though they have too much firewood string instruments and no euphoniums, I really enjoy when they do Sousa marches. I still remember most of the fingerings and “play along,” sometimes getting the 4th valve fingering right for the lower D and D flat.

The program never indicates the fireworks show. What always happens is they do one last surprise song kind of like an encore, and the fireworks go off during then. The fireworks are shot off across Northwest Highway (6 lane surface road) from Flagpole Hill. The cops block off traffic during the fireworks, possibly because of the smoke and distraction.

A nearby gas station called the Green Spot recently opened. The prior owners (when it was a Mobil) had gas prices far well above market, so I appreciate that the new owners charge the same for gas as everyone else.

But I had to suspend my gag reflex after reading greenwashing in my local community magazine (pages 24 and 25 of this 19MB PDF–yikes!). According to a quote they got from co-owner Alvaro Garza, “our mission is to reduce our carbon footprint by offering an alternative lifestyle…”

Specific examples of where carbon footprints aren’t being lowered:

• They sell biodiesel gas, which has several critical flaws. Even if you could argue that these flaws could someday be resolved, the fact remains that current consumption of biofuels almost certainly causes more harm than good. For example:
  • Several studies show that production and use of biofuels produces more carbon emissions than just burning plain gas. (link)
  • It takes more energy to produce biofuels than they save, which in turn increases carbon emissions, oil importation, and our trade deficit. (link)
  • Biofuel production increases prices of food, starving the poor. (link)
• They sell organic goods, production of which require more energy (carbon!) and land than conventional foods. (link)
• The article’s feature picture depicts a Jeep Liberty SUV. In addition to being an iconic member of a gas guzzling class of vehicles, it has the worst or 2nd worst fuel economy in recent Consumer Reports small SUV comparisons. (The diesel raised it from worst to 2nd worst; several gas-engined SUVs with higher overall ratings got better mileage.)
  
  (This image stolen from Advocate Publishing.)

And it sounds like a lot of what they sell are carb-loaded snacky foods. Ladies and gentlemen, refined carbs are refined carbs. The refined carbs from organic sugar cane and fresh fruit juices make you just as fat and unhealthy (and ultimately requiring more carbon-intensive health care services) as the corn syrup in Coke.

You may think I hate the Green Spot. I don’t. It’s convenient, gas prices are finally fair at that location, and they have neat stuff inside. I want them to succeed.

However, I was brought up in a home where the breadwinner toiled for and was employed by a nonprofit. I work with a couple of nonprofits. I value nonprofits. They deserve our charity; supporting them achieves a higher moral purpose.

I resent when for-profits steal altruism for their own personal gain, and I feel that’s what’s going on here with greenwashing the Green Spot. Support the Green Spot where they provide a value to you, but don’t do it because you naively think you’re supporting some environmental moral good.

American Airlines’s new $30 baggage tax is deceptive and dishonest:

1. DECEPTION: It’s not $15 as advertised. It’s $15 each way. That’s a whopping $30 tax for the vast majority of passengers.
2. DISHONEST: It’s not upfront. All costs incurred by the vast majority of passengers should be upfront and non-hidden. Otherwise, it’s much more difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison of competitors. Orbitz and Travelocity won’t be able to tell you that American Airlines will cost $30 more than listed. (This is a big reason why service industry loves tips: lets them create an illusion of lower prices.)

In a lengthy missive, AA’s PR chief Tim Wagner claims this is necessary to recoup costs. Sorry, Tim, nothing justifies dishonesty and deception.

My wife and I may both fly this summer. Even though we will be reimbursed, we are doing whatever we can to avoid American Airlines.

On the top of my Google Mail (which I highly recommend), I see a headline reading Engaged – Refurbished iPhones are an excellent source of previous users’ data. I click.

Obviously that’s not the article source, so I click on the source link and come to The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s Refurb iPhones still contain previous users’ data.

That’s not the original source! I follow a link to iPhone Atlas’s Refurbished iPhones may contain other users’ personal data.

That’s not the original source! I follow a link to another iPhone Atlas article: Warning: iPhone “Restore” does not delete personal data.

That’s not the original source! I follow a link to a blog named Jonathan’s Grits ‘n Butter.

Finally, the source!

Talk about lazy amateur journalism! This is the internet. Linking to the source is easy. Why make it so difficult to find?

We finally had Amelia executed on Saturday.

It got to the point where if she was not cooped up in a crate or a bathroom, she was urinating on our floors.

We determined it was “time” while I was in the middle of mowing the lawn, so my wife brought her to the vet.

My wife knows how I joke that my dad is my family’s pet executioner (he had to put down two cats and a dog), so she asked me not to publicly call her the family pet executioner. Therefore, for the purposes of blog, my wife is not the pet executioner.

The cat’s corpse apparently ends up in a mass grave. That’s fine with me.

Some vets offer a service to have the pet cremated and return the cremains back to the owner. I feel that is a silly outgrowth of personifying animals. Sorry, cats are animals. Animals are no substitute for actual human companionship.

Overall, haven’t felt much sadness. Even though I liked her, Amelia got annoyingly messy and labor intensive towards the end. And she’s just a cat.

We’re taking a “cat break” right now. Growing up, I never understood why people didn’t immediately rush out in a pet acquisition frenzy after losing a pet. Now I understand. I am (temporarily) sick of scooping, messes, hairballs, and cat maintenance. And the neighbors have a new outdoor kitten that Alec and I can annoy.

Yesterday, I read an Associated Press article about how Picher, Oklahoma is clearing out due to presence of massive contamination from nearby abandoned lead mines. Most of the town already accepted federal buyouts, but a few refuse to leave.

Today I read how Picher, OK got blasted by a tornado. The residential section was hit hard, and a few people died.

How ironic: one day I read why the town needs to be shut down, the next day I read how the town almost got destroyed.

I think we’re in a temporary economic reality where we jump from economic bubble to economic bubble.

Think about it: the late ’90s was the stock bubble, the early to mid-2000s were the residential real estate bubble, and now the late ’00s is a commodities bubble.

Remember the “goldilocks economy”, where everything was “just right” for growth? When that bubble popped, investors turned to the perceived safety of real estate, which in fact had been appreciating well for a few years. I remember representatives of the National Association of Realtors analysts ridiculously explaining away the bubble by exaggerating long term demand.

The popping of the real estate bubble was perceived to be so economically influential that investors ran for traditional “bad times” commodity hedges. Now we have oil, food, and metal prices that are likely far above prices justified by market fundamentals.

Seriously, is there enough sudden new demand across so many commodity categories as to drive up their prices so sharply in the past few months? I can’t see any. For once, I believe OPEC: world oil markets are sufficiently supplied. And sure, the number of mouths to feed and per-capita food consumption are increasing, but enough to suddenly cause a global food crisis?

If I had money to speculate, I would short sell commodities with a two year time horizon. I just don’t see this commodity bubble lasting, especially as the dollar appreciates and investors become interested in less speculative investments.

That being said, some long-term trends are undeniable. Oil has nowhere to go but up over the decades. But in the immediate term, I don’t see how current prices are justified.

Looks like this will be a kitty-free household soon.

We took the newer cat, Olivia, back to the SPCA on Saturday. I had been putting this off, but it was inevitable. She is simply not compatible with small kids. Her extreme skittishness caused her to hide almost all the time, so I was unable to even try training her not to scratch furniture.

I don’t know what happened. When she was little, she would sleep on me. Something changed in her head as she emerged from kittenhood.

We tried placing her with others in our area, but none were interested.

She was an SPCA adoption, so the return was free. (Normally there is a $50 surrender charge.)

Ameila, the older cat with fatty liver syndrome, has taken a turn for the worse. About a week after the hospitalization, the remainder of her skin started yellowing. Now even her eyes are yellowing.

The 2 week follow up vet visit was on Saturday, and the vet said she’s doing so poorly that he didn’t strongly recommend more treatment.

Part of me that wonders if Amelia is still treatable; I found an academic report that described “terminal” cats with hepatic lipidosis coming from the brink with feeding tubes, but my realistic side says the writing is on the wall. I am unwilling to spend more hundreds of dollars on a 12 year old cat who has never been particularly robust. And as much as I am upset at her upcoming death, I am definitely not one of those “furkid” types. I guess it’s just time.