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Ripley Solar Questions Persist

“There are several factors impacting the [Ripley Solar] project, including import tariffs, high interest rates and federal trade policies that bring uncertainty to cost of materials [that] have made this project not economically viable in its current state.” This was a sentence in a recent letter to Ripley landowners who have signed leases with ConnectGen, the developer of the 3000 acre solar project that has been looming over the southwest corner of Chautauqua County since 2018. There has been much opposition to the project from Ripley residents during that time but the ...

Taxing The Left Would Balance Budgets, Too

IRS data indicate that the top 1% of US taxpayers pay about 45% of all income taxes in the United States. The same data indicate that 49% of the US population contributes absolutely nothing. Yet we still hear the nonsensical “Tax the rich!” mantra on infinite replay (yawn). It started with Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto in 1848. Marx – the quintessential socialist who mooched off others all his life - thought that confiscating the earnings of productive people would be fun. Socialist movements always start with “Tax the rich!” and always end in economic ruin. It’s a ...

Democrats Are Raising Energy Prices

New Yorkers pay some of the highest energy prices in the nation. Mandates, surcharges, restrictions and regulatory decisions enshrined into law are the reason why energy prices in New York are less affordable than elsewhere. These high energy prices make it harder to live and work in New York. New York utilities are forced, by law, to charge you with a “delivery fee” which is actually a subsidy for renewable energy companies; the money is collected through your energy bill and passed along to renewable energy companies to artificially lower the cost of producing renewable energy ...

The Truth Behind Sleep In Heavenly Peace

It’s the season of “sleep in heavenly peace,” which to me has always meant finishing the dishes, leaving the stove light on, locking the doors, and listening to the winter wind as I fall asleep in flannels. Sleep is life’s great escape—a reward for getting through the day, especially days like last weekend when chaos seemed to reign. We close our eyes and we are literally unconscious, for what we hope is eight hours of warm bliss. But I’m not letting us off that easy. We humans have a tendency to just accept biological habits without really looking at them in a curious way, ...

It’s All About Faith

As we come to the end of the third week (or six months, if you started in July) of this Christmas Season, and the near end of the Celebration of the eight nights of Hanukkah, and the upcoming arrival of Kwanzaa, many can reflect on the meanings of these special days, weeks, and seasons. During people’s preparation of these times, people often focus on their impact on their religions (if we practice religion), and/or culture (if we honor the heritage and beliefs of Africa), as they relearn and enjoy the meanings of the stories, customs, and traditions of St. Nicholas, Immaculate ...

Seasonal Church Visit That Was A Gift

Dear Richard and I were in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. We had matinee tickets for “White Christmas”, the holiday musical, on stage. When I bought the deep discount tickets, I thought it would be a great way to jump into the mood of the holiday season. We stayed at a friendly B&B and had a fun, chatty breakfast with the two other weekend couples. After breakfast, there was time before our theater afternoon for the Sunday service at St. Marks Anglican Church downtown. It was a good decision because for the past week, I’ve been chewing on a few ideas I ...