Famous Oilman Ponies Up Billions for Wind Turbines

A few weeks ago I read a column by Thomas Friedman in the NY Times about the absolute lack of any energy policy in the US. The most galling fact was that at the end of this year, federal tax credits for installing solar and wind power systems will expire. How can we let this happen, when we're staring blankly at $125 a barrel oil, that our congress can dither and let the most important incentive to creating new clean energy expire? In Germany, they guarantee the price of a kilowatt of solar energy and they have farmers putting in panels on every field. Everyone gets it, that we need to encourage and promote solar and wind...except us.

Today's WSJ has a story that once again shows the capitalist system pushing in the right direction, despite of the lack of initiative from government. Famous oilman T. Boone Pickens just placed the biggest single order ever of General Electric wind turbines for a planned 4000 megawatt wind farm he is building on the plains of Texas. He ordered 667 of GE's 1.5 megawatt turbines, spending $2 billion on just the first phase of the giant Pampa Wind Project.

People like Pickens hope that the federal tax credits are extended, of course. State-level incentives like the laws that demand a certain percentage of power be clean are helping. But the good thing about capitalists charging down this road is that it shows that it's not for hippies any more, and that clean energy like wind and solar are real answers to the energy conundrum.

Kate Cosme, BS, Nursing 2008

Here's my lovely daughter Kate at Elms College's pinning ceremony, where she joined 35 other hardworking nurses who got their bachelor's degrees last Monday.

It was a wonderfully personal ceremony, with the speaker announcing each nurse's background and ambitions for the future. While they said that Kate wanted to be a midwife, she said that she is more likely to try to become a nurse practitioner some day.

Boy it's sure nice to watch a proud group like this receive their pins and think that they all have great jobs that will be even better after they get these degrees. It's hard to have this same level of exhilaration watching three hundred UMass grads trudge off the stage, since there is no way they are going to be as quickly employed and they will carry big debts with them long after the caps and gowns are stowed away.

When Pigs Fly...Bill Shaves the Beard!

I first met this guy in 1978, when both of our daughters were in the womb and we took a birthing class together with our wives. At that time, and for the following three decades, he sported a big logger's beard. Many times we've joked about whether he'd ever cut it off, but he scoffed...never.

Today I walk into the cafe and there in the corner is a guy who looks like Bill's brother Jeff. No way! It's Bill Hewitt, sans his trademark whiskers. I ran home to tell my daughter Kate, who also has never seen him without it.

When pigs fly? Well, not quite, but everyone in the Valley who knows Bill will be amazed when they see him again.

This Isn't The Way It Was Supposed to Turn Out

What kind of country are we to be? This question was posed to me last night in a profound column by Thomas Frank, titled "Our Great Economic U-Turn," in the WSJ.

Thomas began the story by stating some of the stark economic facts that begin to define our society in 2008: The top hedge fund manager in 2007 earned a $3.7 billion, yes billion. The real hourly wages for workers have risen a mere 1 percent since 1979. Americans now clock more hours per year than any other country, even Japan, productivity is up 60 % yet wages are stagnant.

Health insurance continues to be a nightmare for just about everyone except state employees, and pension plans are becoming a relic. The column went on, following the downward spiral that the working man's world in the USA has become. It made me angry, and then sad, and then worried about my kids' futures.

It's been said a million times that this country is tilted toward the super rich. I meet travel agents who cater to them, I meet landscapers who 'only do high end,' I meet financial advisors who only want to work with the top earners. Everyone is chasing the 'whales' and even our president is pushing to make permanent the tax cuts that help the richest be richer.

But it isn't good, Thomas says. It is a plutocracy and we ought to be talking about it, and asking these three people who are running for president to address wealth inequity. And universal health insurance. And real mass transit, and rights for workers, who are on sad treadmills with little hope that things will improve.

Thomas talks about those who voted for Reagan. Yes, they wanted us to stand tall as a country, yes they wanted the government regulators off our backs. But did they want a banker's utopia? Did they, or we, want America to turn into a place with this kind of disparity?

Saying Good Bye to a Wonderful Gal

This morning we said good bye to a wonderful member of our cafe staff. Liz Bagley is moving to British Colombia, and is today picking up a puppy to join her on her long drive west.

I wrote her a note of appreciation and inside I slipped two VIP passes for two night stays at any Red Roof Inn. I Figured that with this 3000 mile journey she'll need a place to stay en route.

People in the cafe business come and go. That's what everybody says when I lament about losing a good one like Liz. But what I have found out after more than two years here is that people do leave and then people who are working below them rise up.

Now we are bringing Samantha back as manager and Jesse will be our assistant manager. Both of these women will step up and cover all of the bases...I will let them manage with a free-hand and give them all of the tools they need to succeed.

He Translates the Scribbles from Bloods and Crips

Nick Cotto speaks gang. His story was featured on Masslive on Sunday, this former military man who can read the writing on the wall. The writing scrawled by gang members, that he says warns of bad things to come and battles to be waged.

He took a reporter on a tour of graffitti scared walls, in seedy back alleys in Springfield. He pointed to the words that meant one gang was after another. "BK" for example, means Blood Killer. The two gangs around the city are the Crips and the Bloods, so someone here was praising a killer of the other guys.

Then the big dis....a writer crossed out blood and wrote 'slob.' The reverse would be if a blood crossed out crip and wrote 'crab.' That's a big diss, and to some of these guys, that is a reason to shoot.

Celtic Paul Pierce recently flashed a gang symbol across the Boston Garden to the opposing bench, according to Cotto. He held his index finger and thumb forming a circle with the other fingers straight out. That meant 'blood up.' said the gang expert.

The photo in the story shows a six-point star, and nearby, the number 5 is written upside down. That's another diss. Both of these mean that someone is being threatened, says Cotto. When you see gang graffiti, you don't have to run the other way...just be warned that there might be trouble coming soon.

In a Saudi Desert, Thoughts Turn to Romance

The New York Times ran a story today that showed that love in Saudi Arabia is as arid and barren as the desert that surrounds the people there. Two cousins talk about romance in the safety of a remote desert outpost. Let's listen in.

“I am a romantic person,” he said. “There is no romance.”

What Nader meant was that Saudi traditions do not allow for romance between young, unmarried couples. There are many stories of young men and women secretly dating, falling in love, but being unable to tell their parents because they could never explain how they knew each other in the first place. One young couple said that after two years of secret dating they hired a matchmaker to arrange a phony introduction so their parents would think that was how they had met.

Now, in the desert, Nader’s candor set Enad off.

“He thinks that there is no romance. How is there no romance?” Enad said, his eyes bulging as he grew angry. “When you get married, be romantic with your wife. You want to meet a woman on the street so you can be romantic?”

Nader was intimidated, and frightened. “No, no,” he said.

“Convince me then that you’re right,” Enad shot back.

“I am saying there is no romance,” Nader said, trying to push back.

Enad did not relent, berating his cousin.

Under his breath, Nader said, “Enad knows everything.”

Then he folded. “Fine, there is romance,” he said, and got up and walked away, flushed and embarrassed.