As you wish

So we’ll rub sticks together – big deal.

Hundreds of coal powered plants shut or slated for shutdown in next two years.

Obama promised he’d do it and too bad for us, he’s delivered. But watch what happens when we lose our grid: power company executives will be accused of greed, placing profits before people, buying up propeller-beanie outfits and destroying them to maintain their monopoly and so on, and no one will remember the predictions made now of what is coming down the pike as the direct result of these actions. “But our intentions were good!” they’ll moan, and that, in the liberal world, is all that’s required.

Here’s one such prediction:

I shudder to think of what this is going to do to grid reliability as well. A lot of those coal plants help support the grid during disruptions. They regularly provide both energy and MVARs (Mega Volt-Ampere Reactive) that keep the grid from collapsing when large loads are added or lost. (That’s about as simple as I can make it and still be understood.) Losing these stabilizers will make it very hard to hold the grid. I pity the load dispatchers.

Despite what the coal folks say, there are some excellent reasons why coal powered plants are shutting down – most are obsolete (one could blame EPA regulations that have blocked modernization for decades, but then we’d have to go back to the predictions of twenty years ago that said this would happen, and we’ve “moved on”), they’re uncompetitive with natural gas which, until the EPA shuts down fracking – it’s working hard on it – will continue to be plentiful and cheap, and it spews CO2 at something like twice the rate of gas which, in the Church of Greeniology, brands it as ultimate evil.

So good; we can all cheer the dethroning of King Coal and pull those West Virginians out of their dreadful mines and put ’em on the unemployment line, where they belong. But the precipitous shutting down of 11% of our electrical capacity will send electrical rates soaring and cause disastrous power failures; the ushering in of the dawn of the new Eden must come later.

Did you know that the Greenwich Time was once considered a Republican newspaper? It’s no longer guilty on either count, now.

Greenwich Time Editor Albie Yuravich scans for Obama-offensive news

Here’s an irony: the largest increase in federal spending under Bush and one that is constantly attacked by Obama as causing him all his fiscal difficulties was Bush’s filling the “Medicare Donut Hole”, which supplemented Medicare’s drug coverage for old folks. No one on my side of the spectrum liked the bill and Bush earned no points with us for this massive increase in deficit spending, but it was done on Bush’s watch and at his instigation.

But now the press credits ObamaCare for the thing and in positive terms. “Affordable Health Care Act saves [sic] Connecticut Residents $58 million”, proclaims the Greenwich Time. No one expects our useless, free-assocation-edited paper to actually edit what it receives and regurgitates  from the Associated Press so it’s not at all surprising that the people claiming to write the paper wouldn’t think to ask themselves and their readers the obvious question: if someone is being subsidized $58 million, who is doing the subsidizing? But if Greenwich Time wants to frolic in Obama’s lap dog kennel is it to much to ask for even the teensiest bit of historical accuracy? Bush increased the deficit one trillion dollars with this generational transfer payment and while it’s true Obama has seen him one and raised him 4 in general unfunded spending, the “donut hole” filling should be chalked up to Bush – much to this quasi-Republican’s dismay.

Sign of the times or merely an example of brand extension?

David Ogilvy/Christie’s is offering my peers an opportunity for a (private) “jewelry evaluation” and “discussion of consignment possibilities”. I’m having a bang-up year but I hear some of the real estate agents in town have not been so fortunate.

Electronic billing, medical records send medicare costs zooming

Nope. Didn’t make it cheaper.

Some experts blame a substantial share of the higher payments on the increasingly widespread use of electronic health record systems. Some of these programs can automatically generate detailed patient histories, or allow doctors to cut and paste the same examination findings for multiple patients — a practice called cloning — with the click of a button or the swipe of a finger on an iPad, making it appear that the physicians conducted more thorough exams than, perhaps, they did.

Critics say the abuses are widespread. “It’s like doping and bicycling,” said Dr. Donald W. Simborg, who was the chairman of federal panels examining the potential for fraud with electronic systems. “Everybody knows it’s going on.”

More on Alpine Road

A reader sends along this link to a 2011 Greenwich Time article on Jim Schecter, the would-be builder of 8 Alpine Road, 12  Byfield Road, 9 Ridge, and other failed / troubled projects. Schecter blames Fred DeCaro and his failed Bank USA Port Chester for his woes, but there’s also the collapse of the real estate market, a poor choice of location, particularly Byfield, and perhaps buyers’ tastes to consider.

Romney releases tax returns, so Obama releases proof he himself attended Columbia

No transcripts, though (h/T, CZ)