The upside of low gas prices

Would you rather be paying these prices or .....

The way the media and financial pundits make it sound, we should fret about paying less at the pump.

Say what?

Okay, let's tackle the "downsides" of low gas prices.

The Saudis are pumping the same amount of oil in spite of the glut on the world market due, in part, to fracking in the U.S.

This, in turn, has hammered countries like Russia, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela who rely almost

.... or these?

completely on the high price of oil to run their countries.

Instability in those countries could increase which could result in unwanted consequences.

What they are, who knows.

The intended consequences of high gas prices, though, are well known: Less money to spend on more useful things.

The frackers, from Texas to North Dakota, need oil to be more than $60 a barrel to make a profit. If the price keeps going lower, the frackers may stop fracking until the price rebounds.

So, with lower gas prices we can reduce the horrible practice of fracking that is causing untold damage to our environment.

Also,with less money going to Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the very countries that help fund terrorism throughout the world, we could  perhaps reduce some acts of terrorism.

And with Russia making less from low gas prices, perhaps it will run out money to fully invade Ukraine and, potentially, the Baltic states.

On top of all that, Americans are saving billions at the pump which is freeing up money to spend on other more worthwhile things that could actually improve our economy.

A few weeks ago, when regular gas was $2.20 a gallon, I redeemed my gas points from Safeway and paid just $1.60 for a gallon of gas. I was able to fill up our Honda for less than $20.

Right now, gas at Fred Meyer in Bend is $1.89 per gallon, plus either 3 cents or 10 cents off a gallon for Fred Meyer patrons.

Obviously, the low gas prices are great in so many ways.

The only downside to the low gas prices is that fools will rev up their Hummers and Escalades and go cruising, just to burn the fuel.

Plus, people will buy more gas guzzlers rather than hybrids or electric vehicles. 

Don't be fooled. These low gas prices are just a ruse to get us to resume our wasteful ways.

The sun also rises and so will gas prices. You can drive to the bank on that.

Finding a decent furnace in Bend

New Carrier 80,000 BTU gas furnace

We finally replaced our 24-year-old gas furnace just before Christmas.

Good thing.

We hit record high temperatures over the weekend and expect more of the same today.

Okay, before this recent spate of unusually warm days and nights, the new Carrier furnace has been doing a great job of keeping the house warmer than before while the thermostat is set to a lower temperature than before.

Yes, it's a paradox that doesn't make sense and neither does the search for a decent furnace in Bend.

Our old furnace was also a Carrier high-efficiency (92 percent) furnace that, when it was working,  would blast the house with hot air, but would reach the set temperature of 70 degrees too quickly before the house could warm up all over. It would then cycle on and off.

The reason, according to online sites and two of the three companies we got bids from, was that contractors used to put in bigger furnaces in BTU ratings than was actually needed.
Our old furnace was rated at 115,000 BTUs.

That wouldn't be so bad if the unit was dependable. But, it hadn't been for at least a decade.

When it got really cold, the furnace would not fire up at all. I would have to unplug the unit and then plug it back in to kick-start it. This would usually work, but not always.

When it got brutally cold last November the system would only reach a temp of 65 degrees before cutting off.  The indoor temperature quickly dropped into the 50s.

This was all survivable until we wanted to leave town during winter. It's no fun to come home to frozen pipes that burst and flooded the house. Thank god that never happened to us because we had some good neighbors who would check on our furnace the rare times we did leave for any length of time during winter.

But, enough was enough.

There are more than 100 brands of furnace-makers, but some are made by the same manufacturer and just re-branded. For example, a Carrier is made at the same factory as a Bryant.

In Bend, Carrier, Lennox and Trane seem to dominate. Online message boards are not kind to Lennox or Trane.

Actually, they're not kind to Carrier either or any other brand.

Check out this website that ranks the various furnace manufacturers. 

When you dig through the rankings you find that all of the manufacturers get trashed by reviewers. The "best" manufacturers just have a tad fewer negative marks.

Isn't that wonderful.

But, it gets worse.

Most of the manufacturers have at least a 10-year parts warranty, while the installer usually offers a one-year labor warranty.

Yet, when anything goes wrong before 10 years are up, many reviewers say that the manufacturers blame the installation and don't honor their own warranties.

The manufacturers have legal cover because, unlike for an electrician or a plumber, there is no licensing requirement for a furnace installer. Anyone can do it, if they're handy enough.

The reputable installers bemoan the fact that shoddy furnace shops tarnish the whole industry.

So, we got bids from Bend Heating and Sheet Metal, which installed our old furnace, Central Oregon Heating and Cooling, based out of Redmond, and Home Heating and Cooling in Bend.

Central Oregon Heating and Cooling, after careful measuring, recommended a furnace with 80,000 BTUs.

Home Heating did the most extensive measuring and inspecting of the house and said 65,000 BTUs would work.

Bend Heating, though, dashed in and checked what the previous furnace was rated in BTUs and quickly left. They recommended a unit of 120,000 BTUs.

I didn't really want to go with Bend Heating because whenever they would come out to repair the old furnace, they really didn't know how to do it. Only Central Oregon Heating could actually fix the unit to make it serviceable.

Home Heating recommended all kinds of extra duct work, that would've probably been great, but we just couldn't afford three times what the others were charging.

The other conundrum in buying a new furnace is choosing between a single-stage and two-stage or a multi-stage furnace.

Much of the info you read online, mostly from manufacturers and installation companies, tout the benefits of two-stage furnaces where the unit only uses the last 25 percent of capacity when it's really needed. In essence, two-state units are more efficient, produce more even temperatures and are less costly to operate. However, this paper shows there is little to gain in efficiency with a two-stage furnace.

Also, a two-stage furnace's initial cost is at least 40 percent higher than a single-stage unit.

After much Googling, I found one installer who made the most sense. He claimed that a single-stage unit worked just great, was as efficient as a two-stage unit and was more dependable and less costly to repair.

That clinched the deal for me. Our single-stage, 96-percent efficient unit from Central Oregon Heating and Cooling cost about $3,500. We're supposed to get an additional $352 tax credit.

We also got, at no extra cost, a Honeywell thermostat with wi-fi capability. After installing the Honeywell app on my Moto G smartphone, I can now monitor and control the furnace from anywhere on my phone.

That is sweet.

The 80,000 BTUs seem to be the right amount for our 2,000-square-foot home. The house is slower to heat up, but maintains the desired temp of 68 degrees evenly throughout the house. Since it takes longer to heat up, the unit kicks in before the desired set time so that it reaches the pre-set temperature right on time. In general, the house seems warmer now with the thermostat set at 68 degrees than it was with the old furnace set at 70 degrees.

Since the thermostat is about 13 feet from the nearest floor register, the slower heat-up doesn't trigger the thermostat to shut off prematurely before the house is fully heated as it did with the old single-stage, 115,000-BTU model.

After using the furnace far more than normal over the holidays, our gas bill was $2 lower than the previous month's bill. That's not much, but I expected it to be at least $30 dollars higher for the same period, like last year. Plus, the gas rate escalated this year.

I am pleased, but I'm under no delusions that this Carrier furnace will run great for more than a couple of years.

I'm just hoping it won't cost that much to repair.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, too

Long before Fox News began its wildly popular "war on Christmas," Americans had willingly conceded victory to Santa Claus.

And why not. He's jolly, dresses well and is oh, so generous.

Granted, he's more generous to some than others, but that's because some people are more equal than others.

And, even Santa Claus is not immune from ridicule.

Who could forget the "Sanity Clause" from "A Night at the Opera."

The point is, people who send out Christmas cards that say "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" aren't trying to offend anyone.

They're just trying to spread some holiday cheer.

That's not a bad thing.

As we all know, the dating of the birth of Jesus on Dec. 25 emerged sometime in the 4th century from winter solstice commemorations where festivals of lights and gift-giving meant to celebrate that brighter, and certainly longer, days were ahead.

Of course, there were discrepancies as to the actual date depending if one used the Julian or the Gregorian calendar.

It gets complicated.

Also, the reverent use of Xmas dates back to the earliest days of Christianity.

That is why it's best to believe in the best intentions of well-wishers, even that guy with the zombie Nativity scene in Ohio. Okay, maybe that's a bad example. What's with this zombie craze anyway.

Perhaps Calvin Coolidge said it best:

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."

Who knew that a president known as "Silent Cal," and who helped lead us into the Great Depression, could be so pithy. Then again, he was a Congregationalist, but I'm not sure what that means.

Safe to say that Christmas means different things to different people.

 I'd like to think it's a time to set aside differences and get along, at least for one day. British and German Soldiers did that 100 years ago today in Belgium and France.

Even the stingy hearts of Scrooge and the Grinch gave way to generosity.

We can try to believe that the best things in life aren't things. Admittedly, I have so many things that I could build a giant thingamajig with them. And, just as useful.

I know, Yoda once said, "Do or do not. There is no try."

But, Yoda had a weird way of saying things.

One thing I know, Yoda is no "Sanity Clause."

Even Jesus Christ would agree with that.

On torture and 'The Interview'

Canceled, at least for now

As MMXIV draws to a close, we can say goodbye to a regrettable and ridiculous year.

First, the regret.

The Senate finally released its long overdue report on the torture practices of this country and the responses were predictable.

Never mind that torture doesn't even work.

In fact, the opposite approach -- gaining the trust of the prisoner -- produces "actionable intelligence."

Leave it to Dick Cheney to vigorously support such a terrible practice. He boasted that "he'd do it again."

Cheney never tortured anyone. He's too much of a chicken-shit chicken-hawk to ever put his money where his mouth is. He repeatedly dodged serving in the military during the Vietnam War, yet claims that war was worthwhile.

Leave it John McCain to become the voice of reason when he said, "the use of torture compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies, our belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic human rights."

In other words, we forsake our "exceptionalism" when we torture.

Unlike Cheney, McCain actually served in Vietnam, was captured and brutally tortured.

Aside from the political posturing over the release of the report, most Americans shrugged. We've moved on and we don't want to think about those dark days after 9/11. We're busy shopping for Christmas.

Ten years ago, when these torture stories first trickled out, a slight majority of Americans were opposed to the use of torture. Today, a slight majority now deems torture acceptable.

Why the change in attitude?

Well, we can thank the Fox TV show, "24," and others, where torture was portrayed and deemed effective.

Incredibly, we turn to fiction instead of facts to justify our actions.

Which leads us to the ridiculous.

Who would think that a funny, little movie about assassinating a real leader of a foreign country would cause any problems?

Evidently, Sony Pictures didn't think much of it when "The Interview" was given the go-ahead.

Unfortunately, that leader is Kim Jong-Un, the newest tyrannical ruler of North Korea, the worst country on the planet.

Even though Kim and most of the North Korean leadership deserve to be shot, it's best not to telegraph it by way of a movie.

As the film neared its release date, North Koreans hacked Sony Pictures' computers and stole digital copies of movies and some embarrassing e-mails, which revealed how inept Sony Pictures' leaders are.

The North Koreans threatened 9/11 type terrorism on any theater that showed "The Interview."

Now, the North Koreans are always making empty threats against us or South Korea or anyone.

Yet, the North Koreans have attacked South Koreans over the years and they are crazy enough to do something monstrous.

Which is why Sony canceled the Christmas day release of "The Interview," after theater owners balked at showing the film.

Now, theater chains don't really care about the safety of their patrons. They just don't want to be sued for mega-millions if something terrible happened.

If Batman provoked homegrown terrorism in Colorado, what would "The Interview" incite?

Probably not much.

I giggled when I saw previews for this movie in the same way I laughed about the reaction to Roseanne Barr's crude rendition of the National Anthem at a baseball game in the 1990s.

I mean, what did people expect?

Afterall, "The Interview" was co-written by Seth Rogen, who also co-stars in the film.

Rogen is known for crude, rude and offensive comedy.

He's no Charlie Chaplin, who made "The Great Dictator," a parody of Hitler, in 1940, before U.S. involvement in World War II.

Unlike "The Interview," Chaplin's classic used fictional names for Hitler and Germany. Yet, Chaplin's famous mustache made him look similar to Hitler.

In his 1964 autobiography, Chaplin stated the he would not have made the film had he known about the actual horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.

In America, we've got the freedom to say and do some outrageous things.

And, that shouldn't change.

But, there are consequences if you cross the line, which, admittedly, is drawn in sand.

That said, I do want to see "The Interview" now, if only as a protest against the North Korean threat.

Maybe that's Sony's marketing ploy after all.

Actually, it appears that stupidity is the more apt description.

Unlike Colbert, America sees race

The incomparable Stephen Colbert, of the eponymous "The Colbert Report," almost always tells his African-American guests that he doesn't see race. Not even his own. Some people tell him that he's white and he takes their word for it.

With last week's announcement from President Obama that his administration would delay deportation for as many as 5 million illegal aliens in America coupled with this week's grand jury decision clearing a cop of killing of an unarmed black man in Missouri, we are seeing nothing but race.

It's who we are.

Instead of a "post-racial" America that some saw after President Obama's election in 2008, we are firmly in the grip of racial hatred once again.

The immigration issue, though, reminds me of the Woody Allen joke from "Annie Hall":

"This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, 'Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken.' And, uh, the doctor says, 'Well, why don't you turn him in?' The guy says, 'I would, but I need the eggs.'"

We have this crazy love-hate thing going with hispanics, particularly Mexicans. We love their food, but mostly we love how cheaply they will do manual labor. 

And, it's no longer just farm work or house cleaning. Hispanics now do most construction jobs in California. Even in Bend, roofing companies hire Mexicans because they can pay them less than white Americans.

And yes, many companies that employ/exploit Mexicans are the same ones that then turn around and rail against our government for letting all these illegal immigrants into this country. Is that not crazy?

Without cheap hispanic labor, this country's economy would collapse. 

Like many cultures, we need to exploit many workers to benefit others. 

Afterall, this country was founded on the principle of slavery, which was unpaid, forced labor. 

Yes, it is true that having so many undocumented people living in this country causes some problems, but we are willing to endure the closure of some hospital emergency rooms or the exploitation of our government's social services just so we can keep the hedges trimmed or the pool cleaned at such a bargain.

The problem isn't them, it is us.

President Obama set a trap for Republicans and they were eager to fall for it. Their hatred for Mexicans came shining through. Not exactly a winning strategy.

As for the tragic case in Ferguson, Mo., where yet another police officer shot yet another unarmed black man, the media is fanning the flames there.

Afterall, it is sweeps month, when the networks set their advertising rates based on viewership during November. Riots make for strong visuals or so they think.

Any casual viewer of cable news or listener of talk radio or reader of comments after stories on the web, can realize that racism is alive and well. 

The disgruntlement after President Obama's re-election has turned into vocal outrage. 

Nevermind that the stock market is at record highs or the economy has rebounded. An alarming number of white Americans feel threatened by people who don't look like them. 

This is also a byproduct of the escalating income gap, but that's another story.

The bottom line is that we are crazy. And, we need the eggs.

Terrible response to dealing with Bend's snowfall

Bend was hit with a rare, but not unprecedented, snowstorm last week and the city, predictably, acted too late with a lackluster response.

It's a mess getting around town with huge snow ruts making driving treacherous.

It's not surprising that Bend struggles to clear roadways in a timely manner. Afterall, the city waits about a year to patch deep potholes.

Why do city leaders care so little for the safety of its citizens or visitors?

Well, they budget too little for snow removal and road repair.

A story in the local daily newspaper revealed that a quarter of the city's snow-clearing fleet was broken down. Plus, the city only budgeted between $300,000 to $400,000 to clear the roads during winter.

This means that there is no other money to clear the mounds of snow in front of residential driveways caused by city snowplows.

This left one 72-year-old man, who has to carry around an oxygen tank to breathe, with a snow mound more than 6 feet high in front of his driveway, according to the daily newspaper.

And, the city doesn't seem to give a damn.

It doesn't have enough money to clear the streets of snow within a reasonable amount of time or patch potholes because it refuses to impose a 3-cent local gas tax to pay for these basic services. Plus, there is no state sales tax or local sales tax to fall back on.

Almost every major city in the state has a local gas tax, which is tacked on after state and federal gas taxes.

Obviously, Bend is still a minor city because the city council caves to the sky-will-fall, anti-tax cabal anytime a local gas tax even gets mentioned.

Since Bend is largely a tourist town, you would think that city leaders would want to showcase how well it takes care of its roads in summer and winter.

Obviously, it doesn't.

And, it doesn't care about its elder citizens who have to clear small hills of snow in front of their driveways.

Maybe we should all get oxygen tanks.

Bend city councilors ousted

Voters in Bend took out their frustrations with a city that continually raises water and sewer rates while asking nothing more from developers who require the expansion of those services.

Plus, the city council's recent, tepid approval of the westside location for OSU-Cascades help cost Mark Capell and Scott Ramsay their seats.

And, good riddance. They were inept and shills for the real estate/development crowd.

Speaking of OSU-Cascades, the group Truth In Site, that opposes the westside location, officially filed an appeal with the state Land Use Board of Appeals. Hopefully, this ties up the issue long enough at the state level until the OSU "brain trust" reverses course and puts OSU-Cascades where it belongs at Juniper Ridge.

Also, the state knows Bend has big problems managing its growth by its repeated inability to satisfy state requirements in expanding its urban growth boundary.

Republican Knute Buehler, who easily won the state House seat for Bend, won't be much help because Democrats expanded their control of both chambers in the legislature.

Buehler, who is actually a RINO and easily turned away a voter suppression effort by Oregon Right to Life, will have to work with Democrats to accomplish anything. And, as we've seen before, those Republicans who compromise with Democrats will quickly find themselves voted out by their own party.

Buehler doesn't really care about serving in the legislature anyway. His goal is statewide office and he'll be preening himself for higher office over the next couple of years.

In other election news, voters in Sisters gave a rare rebuke to the school district as it sought $14.5 million to repair relatively new schools and buy computer tablets for students. The dismissal of the longtime manager of the bus system, just shy of her 30-year service to the district, rubbed many voters the wrong way.

The district  was hoping to use the bond money to keep class sizes down and maintain a full school year. Well, the school district will now have to shorten the school year to balance its books.

Lastly, two statewide measures were defeated: GMO labeling and an open primary.

It was surprising that the open-primary measure lost so badly, 68 percent to 32 percent, considering that similar measures passed in neighboring Washington and California.

While the GMO label measure is headed for defeat, it is clear that $20 million in negative advertising did its job, just as mega-millions from Monsanto and others did in Washington and California.

Of course, shoppers are taking matters in their hands and looking to buy more non-GMO items.

And, some growers, food producers and retailers are seeing the benefit in promoting non-GMO foods.

This country is losing business around the world by not reining in the pro-GMO entities. Much of the developed world wants no part of GMO foods and, increasingly, don't want GMO products from America.