Front page Archive Why Arlen? Arlen is the TV home of "King of the Hill." It's a small conservative town that is threatened with ruination on a regular basis by twig boys, enviro wackos, diversity nuts, "PC" police and other ivory tower liberals. I like to think of Arlen as a metaphor for this here great nation of ours.

Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Posted 9:30 AM by Hank MADE IN THE SHADE MORE ON THE ITHACA SOLAR PANELS Oh, this is rich. Previous readers of "the View From Arlen" might recall me writing about the solar panels on the Ithaca library. To make a long story short: The cash strapped Tompkins County government might have to cut hours at their library in Ithaca. However, part of the reason, in my humble opinion, that the government is cash-strapped is that the government, in an all too typical exercise in trendy liberalism, decided to spend half a million dollars to install solar panels on the library. The library is located in upstate New York, not exactly the sun belt of America. But now it gets better. The Ithaca Journal is reporting that "The City of Ithaca plans to build a seven-story parking garage adjacent to the library as part of its Cayuga Green project. That building would effectively shade out the library's solar panels." In other words, all the global warming on earth won't make those solar powered white elephants do what the enviros wanted. This has, of course, started something of a war--a taxpayer funded war--between the City and County. The County wants the City to pay to move the panels. The City points out that no laws are being broken. In fact, the County installed the panels on a one story building in an area zoned for buildings 100 feet tall. If you asked my opinion--and no one in Ithaca ever would--the solution is to move the solar panels, all right...to a building in Florida. Sell the panels on ebay and cut the county's losses. Of course, that would mean that a group of liberal politicians would have to admit they were wrong....and the odds of that happening are, pardon the pun, pretty dim. Saturday, March 08, 2003 Posted 6:53 AM by Hank COME FLY WITH ME < CBS News, home of dictator-loving "Dirty Dan" Rather, has published an article questioning whether the panel investigating airline security and September 11 has a conflict of interest. The reason for the possible conflict is the allegation that "the Sept. 11 commission is stacked with members tied directly to the airline industry." Good Lord (choke)! How dare they appoint people who might actually have some knowledge of how these industries work?!? Much better to appoint--I guess--Professors of Rural Sociology or French philosophy students. Then the commission can debate extisentialism while trying to learn every bit of rudimentary data on airlines, in order to have an informed opinion. Oops. I forgot. The liberals don't want informed opinions. They're looking for a knee-jerk liberal response that blames--cue spooky music--big business for September 11, not the Muslim terrorists who were really at fault. And aren't these the same liberals who whine and cry about Homeland Security all the time? The ones who complain and moan about how their rights are being taken away? Now they are complaining their airlines don't have enough security? Just one more example of their true agenda: Anti-Bush at any cost. Wednesday, March 05, 2003 Posted 8:51 PM by Hank A THANK YOU LETTER TO A PEACE PROTESTOR Today was the day that students were supposed to cut classes to protest the war. I'm ashamed to say that my daughter (at least for now; the lawyer is drawing up the disownment papers) "LuAnne" (the names have been changed to protect the guilty) participated. I realize that, most likely, this was due, in large part, to peer pressure. After all, she goes to school in Ithaca, the city of evil. Her teachers practically made going a class assignment. Even so, I'm --as you might expect--furious, especially after all the things I've said (and posted here) about how the anti-war movement was really a "pro-Saddam" movement. So, after a night of yelling and pouting (some of it on my part), I decided to take a break and log onto the computer. When I sat down, I saw that LuAnne was still logged into her "hotmail" account. And there was a message with the subject line "Thanks a million" from "Supreme_ruler_Saddam@Iraq.Gov." Seeing that, I decided that, in the spirit of homeland security, (and the fact I paid for damn computer) I should open it. After making sure my anti-virus was up to date, I clicked on the message, and this is what I found: Dear Peace Protestor: I just wanted to drop this note to think you for all your help. Every time you protest the war, every time you delay the inevitable attack from the United States, you give me more time to: Build weapons of mass destruction; Develop nuclear weapons to use against my enemies; Hide the weapons I already have; Rape and torture more women and children; Murder more of my own people, like the thousands I’ve murdered already. It’s a good life, ruling my own country, killing anyone just because I can. Watching them starve while making millions off my oil wells. And, thanks to you, I’m still here doing it. I look over at Afghanistan, the last place your President liberated, and I cringe. Business is booming there, and people are coming out of poverty. Women , once treated worse than dogs, are allowed to go to school. It’s every thing I don’t want for my country: free, happy, people. However, thanks to you, I can delay that. Maybe even prevent my people from getting freedom. With a little luck, and some more time, I just might be able to stay in power and keep committing my evil acts. And the best part is: most of you say that you think I’m evil. But you still do your best to keep me in power. You ignore every murderous, vicious act I’ve ever committed. You “forget” I invaded other countries. You act like I never tried to build nuclear weapons. You ignore all the evidence that Colin Powell presented , showing my ties to terrorism. When Powell showed that I was fooling the U.N. weapons inspectors, you said give the inspectors–and me–more time. So, keep up the good work protestor. You buy me enough time, one of these days, I’ll get those nuclear weapons, those chemical weapons, those biological weapons. Then, who’ll stop me from invading my neighbors? From attacking Israel? From helping my terrorist friends fly another couple airplanes into one of your buildings? Like I said, keep protesting the war.... And keep watching the skies.... I owe you a lot, peace protestors. Without you I’m nothing. Your friend, Saddam Monday, March 03, 2003 Posted 5:02 AM by Hank DOWNTOWN ITHACA: (NOT) GOING TO THE DOGS You hear a lot about cities wondering why their downtowns are dying. Here's a good example: Ithaca, New York, about thirty years ago, tore up what could be considered its Main Street and installed a pedestrian mall, known as "the Commons." If I recall correctly, the concept was supposed to revitalize what was a dying downtown by making it possible for people to stroll from store to store, like a mall. Unfortunately, in what may have been a precursor to the idiotic decision to install solar panels on the library (also downtown), they forgot that Ithaca is in upstate New York and that half the year's worth of weather is more conducive to ice fishing than outdoor mall walking. So, in the end, all they really accomplished was tearing up the convenient parking and making it more difficult for people to drive to the stores. As a result, all the department stores, drug stores, grocery stores and other "anchor" businesses died out. Which, of course, led to other businesses shuttering their doors, including, believe it or not, McDonalds. And so, every few years, the enlightened folks of Ithaca commission yet another study on how to revitalize the place. Of course, none of them work. Meanwhile, the Ithaca government does its level best to drive what business is there away. Today's Ithaca Journal, for instance, reports on a pet grooming business that has been doing quite well on the Commons. Or was, until someone remembered there was a "No Dogs Allowed" rule on the entire area. So now, we have a business, a successful business, that can't attract its clientele, all because of government regulation. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that, nationwide, our downtowns tend to have more government regulations than our suburbs. And it also seems that our suburbs continue to attract new businesses, and people, while downtowns whither and die, rotting cities from the inside out. Somebody had better notice the connection, and do something about it, before its too late. Home