City Council Endorsements

Well, the Tribune did as expected and endorsed the incumbent city commissioners. I think that Beecher, and to a lesser extent, Rosenbaum have done adequate jobs in their terms of office.

However, this is part of a crew that has been responsible for too many bad decisions, such as the Wave Rider, that have cost our town too much money. However, that is not the only reason that I am recommending the election of the two challengers in this race, Burke and Stevens.

Ryan Burke seems to be the only candidate, for commission or mayor, who is focused on the meth and crime problems we are having in Great Falls. He doesn't have any "new" ideas to solve the problems, just time tested (and expensive) answers that have proven to work.

He is suggesting a 25% increase in the staff level for the Great Falls Police Department. I think that this is a great idea. However, I would be much happier if he was proposing ways to pay for it.

Nonetheless, I think that we need the commission to do more to combat the meth problem in this city. Ryan Burke seems to me to be the man for the job, and he has my vote.

I was not expecting to endorse John Stevens. Before the commission candidate forum, I thought his resume looked too light, and that his age would keep him from being an active commissioner.

However, watching him in action changed my opinion. He is easily the most engaging and sharp candidate in the entire race, for commission or mayor. He is focused on economic development and wants to help Great Falls regain the momentum we lost 30 years ago when Anaconda went belly up. He has my vote.

However, if you are concerned about his age, and the (admittedly likely) chance that he would not be able to serve out his full term, I would recommend that you look toward Bill Beecher. Bill has been a fixture in the business community in our town for many years, and he understands that attracting well paying jobs is the only way to bring our town out of our economic doldrums. He did not earn my vote, but he came a very close third.

Neighborhood Council 7 endorsements

I have not had a chance to speak with the candidates. Beyond a Google search of them, all I know about them are the endorsements made by Dona Stebbins on this blog last week.

I will let you do your own Google searches, if you like. There is some pretty interesting (and in some cases, scary) information that has been posted by at least one candidate. Dona's opinion here carries a great deal of weight with me. My opinion here hews pretty close to hers.

Therefore, I recommend the following five people;

• Kim Thiel-Schaaf (i)
• Clary Cory (i)
• Robert Gaskell (i)
• Mike Taylor
• Karie Howell

For specific information about each individual, I recommend both Dona's endorsement and Google.

City Election is Tomorrow

Our municipal election is tomorrow. Municipal elections are the ones that attract the smallest number of voters, but I find elections like these to be the ones that are the most relevant. As I will probably pontificate at much-to-great a length in future posts, I feel that national, and to a smaller extent, State races are just games played by powerbrokers jockeying for position.

City and county issues, however, directy impact the governmental services we use most often. The water I use when I turn on the tap and the sewer I use after I am done using that water is a city resource and responsibilility. The trash that I throw away is taken to a city dump by city employees after I put it in a city receptacle.

When I feel that I am in danger, I call for a city-employed policeman. If there is a fire, I call for a city-employed fireman. A problem on the street, or a loose animal bothering the community? Also jobs for the city.

We should care about these issues, as they directly affect us. That is the main reason that I have spent so much time on this blog in recent months talking about the candidates.

After much consideration, I have also changed my mind on whether or not to endorse candidates from this blog. Originally, I had thought to write about the issues as I saw them, and leave the reader to make their own choice. However, the more I think about it, that viewpoint is a cop-out. After all, by laying out the issues as I seem them, I am in effect making an endorsement, anyway. The choice is still yours to make; I am simply telling you who I will vote for. And besides, its my blog. Nyah! ;-)

So today, I will post my opinion as to who is the best candidates in the various races before lower North and South side Great Falls residents.

Whether you agree with me or not, tomorrow please remember to vote.

Geeguy takes me to task ...

Yesterday, in a post about an unfair and suspiciously timed headline in the Tribune, I asked about the true societal costs of gaming. In response, Geeguy started a discussion about the high taxes already paid by gaming interests. I don't think of myself as an anti-gambling zealot. However, as I posted on his blog, I believe that the true costs of gaming to small businesses and families in our community is higher than the tax revenue we currently receive.

Hopefully, this can turn into a productive and interesting discussion. Go to Geeguy's blog, or this one, and post your thoughts.

An Emphasis on Customer Service at the Montana Department of Revenue

My wife just got back from tax school in Missoula. Real exciting stuff--two days being in a room full of accountants talking about new tax laws. Makes my non-accountant head hurt just thinking about it.

She showed me the current working draft of the Montana tax forms and instructions for 2005. The highlight for me was the forms--what used to be four pages of forms is now 12. The instructions are now 36 pages.

The instruction cover sheet advertises itself as "Now Easier to Use!" because they now have, and I am not making this up, "more space between paragraphs."

Busy Few Days in the Race for Mayor

This morning, our very unbiased paper of record, the Tribune, ran a front-page, above the fold, big wood campaign ad for our mayor, Randy Gray.

The article in question, "Gray says casinos want him out", strongly intimates that Dona Stebbins' is the favored candidate of the casino owners in Great Falls.

To my knowledge, this issue first came out in a comment on David's Greaterfalls blog on October 26. The commenter, Loran Keller, at that time intimated that Stebbins' was in the pocket of the city's gambling interests. Stebbins' response to Keller can be found immediately below Keller's comment.

To be frank, I think that Stebbins has to answer this charge. In particular, I found a few paragraphs of the article troubling:

Stebbins said she does not favor doubling gaming taxes to create treatment programs for problem gamblers, saying people also can be addicted to drinking, smoking and other things. She questioned whether gaming taxes should pay to treat gambling addicts.

"If people have no self-control, is that a problem of the state, or the city?" she asked.

I think that legal businesses have every right to go to market in any way they see fit. I don't think that the city, county or state should take away or water down the value of the liquor licenses that are the most significant assets of most taverns. However, I do not think that gaming interests pay a fair share of the costs that society has to bear as a result of the industry.

The state, city and county have to pay for increased police protection and suffer more unemployment and crime due to the existence of our gaming industry. It is only fair that the tax burden borne by casinos pay for that burden.

However, to get back to the issue at hand, I question the motives of the Tribune here. As I posted above (before the tangent), this issue came out before the mayoral forum on Wednesday. The Tribune hosted that forum, and I am fairly sure that they were aware of the issue. Why wasn't the question asked on Wednesday so that Stebbins could publicly answer the charge?

In fact, during the forum a question was asked of both candidates about how they would react to conflicts of interest that arise during their mayoral tenure. While the question was being asked, I was fairly sure that the Tribune was going to ask about Stebbins' ties, if any, to gaming interests. However, Gray was asked about his land deal for MacKenzie River Pizza's parking lot and Stebbins was asked about her husband's job with the city.

This feels like an eve of the election stunt by the Tribune. While the issue is legitimate, the Tribune's timing seems to be solely aimed at ensuring re-election for their favored candidate.

"Don't ever get in an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrel."

Trash showing up on Left in the West ... But Mike has it Covered

The other day, Matt over at Left in the West posted an entry wondering where the pro-Israel rally's were after the recent remarks by the President of Iran. The comments he received were similar to crap I have read on many ... less than reputable sites.

I am glad to see that Mike, as always, has it covered. Read his very well written and informative post here.

Lots to Post ... and no time

Well, this morning's paper was a bit of a surprise, no? I have some thoughts to post on that, as well as Wednesday's mayoral forum.

Unfortunately, there is not much time available today. If I don't get something posted today, check back over the weekend.

My impression of the Commission Forum

First, David did us all a big favor by live blogging the mayoral forum, and posting his almost verbatim notes here. Geeguy has also posted some very relevant thoughts here. The Tribune wrote about the forum here.

However, this post will not be about the mayoral forum. Don't worry; I will have a post about that forum a bit later. Here, I want to discuss the earlier forum among the commission candidates. After all, the mayor is just another commissioner, with no more power or vote than any other member of the city commission.

Despite not-quite getting over the flu, I attended the forum. While I already knew who had won my vote for the mayoral race, I had not yet made up my mind among the commission candidates. I was very impressed by the two challengers, John Stevens and Ryan Burke. Burke was the only candidate that kept on coming back to common sense answers to the meth problem plaguing North-central Montana.

What is Burke's solution? The radical idea of more cops on the street. Not that he poo-poo's billboards and TV ads; but he understands that patrolling the streets actually works. Burke brought up a fact I did not know; in 1965, the Great Falls Police Department recommended to the City Council that the number of police officers in our town should be about 100. Forty years later, with more intractable problems, and we are not there yet.

The one thing that Burke did not address was how to pay for the almost 25% increase that he is advocating for the police department. Let me make my opinion clear; I would be glad to pay more city taxes if we could use those resources to get a handle on this scourge that is destroying the lives of so many families in Great Falls.

I also was dissapointed by Burke's answer to a question about how to attract more "young people" to Great Falls. Burke talked about concerts and other forms of entertainment. I have a clear opinion about this; concentrating on bringing more forms of entertainment to Great Falls is allowing the tail to wag the dog. The only way to attract more "young people" is to ensure that they have the means to make an honest living. Everything else will follow after we have the jobs to employ more "young people."

I did not expect to be impressed with John Stevens. After all, his resume was a former actor, and the man is only a year short of eighty. Poppycock. He is bright, engaging, funny and honest. He ran circles around his three opponents. He is focused on the main problem that affects Great Falls; we have been stagnating since Anaconda Copper pulled out 35 years ago. I suggest to you that we have not found an ecomonic reason for existing since "The Company" pulled out. New voices and ideas, even if they come from an eighty year old, are exactly what we need.

The two incumbents, Bill Beecher and John Rosenbaum, defended the record of the city government over the past decade. They rightly pointed to the city's new employers and some of the infrastructure that has been replaced. The city has had successes. However, it has also had expensive failures. Much has been made of the $531 thousand lost due to the lack of attendance at the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Event. However, I am more interested in other expensive failures, like the Wave Rider and the money that the city golf courses are siphoning from our treasury.

Beecher and Rosenbaum point to the fact that taxes are not going be raises since we are covering these expenses with city reserves. However, these reserves will have to be rebuilt. The only way to do that is with increased taxes. The fact that we have banked the money does not mean that we don't have to pay for the loss.

Is the Tribune Scaremongering to Increase Readership?

Today's Tribune ran a front page story on the possible dangers of bird flu infecting the waterfowl at Freezout Lake, a popular hunting area (and, by the way, my favorite place for hunting duck and geese). The story, available here, practically scares people away from hunting fowl this year.

I know that bird flu is all over the news, and that it is an extremely legitimate concern. However, with this big front page article, I think that the Tribune is scaremongering.

The fowl that migrate from the flyways in the Bering straits are constantly monitored. NONE of these birds have exhibited symptoms of the bird flu. The Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has also announced that it does not foresee a problem with hunting fowl this year. In fact, it appears that a FWP release, entitled "Avian Flu No Cause For Alarm For Waterfowl Hunters" is the source of the Trib's story, which they retitled "State wary of Freezout Lake geese". From that source they wrote this story?

The FWP, and the Tribune did recommend some common sense steps that are a good idea whenever you hunt fowl. These steps are good advice:

• Do not handle dead birds or birds that appear sick
• Wear disposable gloves when dressing game birds and waterfowl
• Don’t eat, drink or smoke while handling game
• Wash hands with soap and water, and clean surfaces that come in contact with game
• Cook game meat thoroughly
• Properly dispose of remains of field-dressed birds

We need to be concerned about bird flu. However, we do not need to needlessly scare ourselves. I will be hunting, at Freezeout, this year. Hope to see you there.

Want to Read LEADERless?

Since last week, many people in Great Falls have been talking about a four page publication that has been appearing in businesses lately called the Great Falls LEADERless.

The name, a play on the old Great Falls weekly the Leader, is an election themed publication castigating hizzoner, Mayor Randy Gray. The Tribune ran a story about the publication, mainly questioning the motives of the author and intimating that the publication ran afoul of election law.

I think that it is worth reading. Agree or not, this is an open society and a citizen should be able to write about issues of public interest. The publication raises some very troubling questions about the ethics and judgement of our municipal leaders, and those questions do deserve to be answered.

So here it is, in a high enough resolution that anyone can read the entire document. You will need a pdf reader to open the publication.

Who is Running for Neighborhood Council 7?

Next Tuesday is municipal election day. The contested races for mayor, and to a lessor extent the city commission, has generated a fair amount of interest in our small city.

However, the lower North and South sides also have contested races for our own Neighborhood Council 7. That council represents the entirety of the lower North and South sides, from the Missouri River to 10th Avenue South.

I would venture to say that most of the people in Great Falls work in our neighborhood, medical and military folks excepted. It is our original townsite, and our economic core.

It also is home to two struggling elementary schools, brownfields, abandoned buildings and the most intractably poor residents of our city.

I am proud to call the lower North side my home. I have a vital interest in the decisions that will be made by Neighborhood Council 7. However, I don't know much about the candidates for the job.

There are eight people running for the eight seats on the council. Three of those eight are incumbent councilors. Here is a list of the candidates;

• Clary Cory, (i)
• Robert E. Gaskell, (i)
• Kimberliegh L. Thiel-Schaaf, (i)
• Karie Howell
• Lionel McKnire
• Joseph Moll
• Mike Taylor
• Paul Andrew Zallek

What do these candidates stand for? How will they work to revitalize our downtown?

Do any of these candidates read this blog (probably not, I often think that I am the only reader)? Do they have anything to add?

Does anyone reading this blog have any comments that they would like to post supporting or opposing any of these candidates?

In the coming days, I hope to speak to all of these candidates and post my thoughts. I can't guarantee that it will happen, but I would like to see more information about these potential councilors.

I would also encourage any lower North and South side residents to read the minutes of the last several council meetings. They are online, here.

Nothing New Under the Sun

I was very interested to hear of a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) publication describing the Executive branch's response to the Mississippi River flood of 1927, exacerbated when the river's levees failed in Arkansas and Mississippi after extreme rainfall. I learned about the report in Secrecy News' recent update here. The report may be downloaded here.

Immediately after the disaster, the President Coolidge bore the brunt of criticism that the federal government was not working fast enough to provide relief. (Sound familiar?)

As a response, President Coolidge empowered then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover to act as the director of federal flood response, coordinating action among government agencies, the Red Cross and private organizations. (Also sound familiar?) Members of Congress and many editorials have been asking for a recovery "czar," with powers and responsibilities much like those given to Hoover.

So, how did the government do? Were there any problems? I will let the report summary speak for itself:

This report describes the flood of 1927, and assesses the federal government’s response thereto. In short, the federal response was an executive branch response. President Calvin Coolidge created a quasi-governmental commission that included members of his Cabinet and the American National Red Cross. This commission encouraged the public to donate funds to the relief effort. It also gave Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover near-absolute authority to organize and oversee its response. Hoover used this authority to weave together federal resources, American National Red Cross volunteers, and the private sector to carry out the relief and recovery program.

The concentration of power and the blending of the governmental and private sectors in Hoover’s hands enabled the relief effort to be carried out expeditiously and creatively. President Coolidge’s empowerment of Hoover alone as director of the flood response clarified to federal, state, and local officials and the public who was in charge.

However, this administrative structure was not without costs. There was little direct federal oversight of actual relief provision. So, for example, when local and state relief workers behaved illegally, they were not held accountable. Furthermore, the concentration of power in a single set of hands enabled Secretary Hoover to undertake inadvisable actions with nearly no constraints.

I do not bring up this instance from the past loosely. We are on the verge of appointing a new recovery "czar" to direct the reconstruction efforts from Katrina, Rita and Wilma. I encourage our government to remember both the successes and failures of the past, and structure any new efforts to recreate those successes and avoid those failures. To quote yet another cliché, those that do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.

Tribune City Commission Forum is November 2

The Tribune is hosting a city commission/mayoral forum on Wednesday, November 2 at the City Commission Chambers in the Civic Center.

The four commission candidates will debate at 6:30 p.m. The two mayoral candidates will debate at 7:30 p.m.

This is the first time in recent memory that there are real issues and real races in our municipal government. I encourage any Great Falls resident to attend and decide for yourself who deserves your vote.

Get a Paddlin' -- Masters Swim Meet in Great Falls this Summer

I just heard that there will be a master's swim meet in Great Falls at the Mitchell Pool this summer.

The Mitchell Pool is a 50 meter (yes, kick-your-ass-and-make-your-lungs-cry meter which is almost 10% longer than a yard) pool.

Time to start training.

Southern Alberta Economy should be North-central Montana Model

Today's Tribune ran a series of articles comparing the economy in Chester, MT with that of Taber, Alberta. I think the comparison is a valid exercise, as the ecomomic success story in Southern Alberta should serve as a model for the North-central Montana ecomomy.

My mother is a Canadian, from Calgary. For my entire life, I have regularly traveled to Calgary to visit family. I have always been in awe of the ability of small towns like Taber and Nanton to grow and prosper, as their geography is so similar to Montana's Hi-Line.

More than Taber and Nanton, the city of Lethbridge is a model for Great Falls. This city prospers while we are not. Lethbridge and Great Falls are very similar; twenty years ago we were still the same size and our ecomomies were based on the same things.

Southern Alberta is not based oil, as are ecomomic powerhouses like Calgary and Edmonton. Southern Alberta's success can be attributed entirely to Agriculture and the Ag processing plants that have sprouted up in the surrounding small towns.

Why do Taber, Nanton and Lethbridge prosper while Chester, Havre and Great Falls wither? The Tribune and the Chester activists have put their finger on the exact issue--irrigation districts.

Thirty to forty years ago, the Alberta government invested in its infrastructure to create a series of irrigation districts. The resulting availability of water transformed dryland wheat fields into lush vegetable gardens. Most of the resulting produce is exported out of the province, much out of the country (to the US). The investment by the government of Alberta paid itself off many times over.

It can't remember the last time that I agreed with the Tribune. However, today I do. Modeling ourselves after the successes in Southern Alberta is a goal for which we should all strive.

UPDATE: The two articles from the Trib can be found here and here.

Lewis and Clark Party P&L analysis

To the credit of our city's municipal leaders, a full and final accounting of last June's Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Signature Event (the big party) was released on Friday. That accounting was published in today's Tribune. The first thing I will say is that expenses for this event were not irregular. While they represent more than a half million dollars lost, they do not highlight any graft, greed or corruption. No one got rich over this event.

I was struck by the percentage of income that came from grants, contributions and sponsorships. Of the $1.067 Million of income received, almost $780 Thousand came from this "free" income. Over 75% of total income, that amount paid for about half of the total expenses. We were given half of what we spent.

Unfortunately, we only "earned" $290 Thousand, or less than 20% of total expenses. That $290 Thousand came from about 40,000 visitors. I suggest now that 40,000 visitors should have represented a reasonable success for this event. 40 Thousand people coming through our small, rural community represents a positive achievement that took years of work by many in this community, most particularly by outstanding city employees like Peggy Bourne.

However, this achievement did not represent a success. It represented a half million dollar loss, a debt which we all will have to dig in our pockets to retire. Forty Thousand just did not cut the mustard for an event with a $1.5 Million budget. This begs the question, how many visitors would we have needed to break even?

Well, our "nut", or the amount we had to "earn" was total expenses minus total grants, or $808 thousand in order to break even. With 40 thousand visitors, we achieved only 36% of that amount.

At the rate of income per visitor represented by the information above, our city would have had to attact 111,426 visitors to break even.

The question I ask our city leaders to answer is whether or not they believe that was a reasonable expectation for a rural community like Great Falls.

Many of the variables were known before the event started. The total amount of hotel rooms in the city is a knowable number. June is usually a rainy and chilly month; no one should have been surprised that a coat and umbrella were needed.

This accounting raises serious questions about the scope of the planned event. Our municipal leaders had a fiduciary duty to manage that scope to keep it reasonable. I suggest that the finanical shortfall we experienced shows that such management was nonexistent.

I like and respect our mayor, our city manager, and the members of our city commission. However, they have a duty to be conservative in their estimations. Was a budget that required 112 Thousand tourists to come through Great Falls, MT in our chilliest and rainiest summer month a conservative estimate?

I think not.

---

Income						Percent of total expenses
Grants-Federal			$409,000			25.79%
Grants-State			142,500			8.99%
Grants-Misc			126,875			8.00%
Grants-Contributions			82,584			5.21%
Grants-Sponsorship			16,250			1.02%
Grants ("free income") subtotal												$777,209	49.01%
Admissions			203,443			12.83%
Entry Fees			59,710			3.77%
Other			27,105			1.71%
Earned Income subtotal					$290,258	18.30%
Total Income			$1,067,467			67.32%
Expenses
Marketing			$ 383,870			24.21%
Tribal Events			268,828			16.95%
Arts and Culture			149,206			9.41%
Museums and Tours			145,834			9.20%
Misc Vendors			131,530			8.29%
Community			98,217			6.19%
Academia			84,895			5.35%
Salaries			65,598			4.14%
Location Rental			52,644			3.32%
Bus Rentals			43,158			2.72%
Breaks Monument videos			41,000			2.59%
Amenity			38,788			2.45%
Upper Portage Camp			34,694			2.19%
Float Trips			22,172			1.40%
Ticket Seller Fee			16,691			1.05%
Re-enactments			8,635			0.54%
Total Expenses			$1,585,760			100.00%
Profit (loss)			$(518,293)			-32.68%

Evil Squirrels are Overrunning Great Falls

A couple of articles in the Tribune today caught my attention. The big one, of course, is the P&L for the big Lewis and Clark party, which the city finally released. More on that later, after I have finished munging the data with my spreadsheet.

Another blurb that caught my attention was a city effort to control the feral cat population in Great Falls. There are a lot of cats in Great Falls. However, with my tongue not-firmly in cheek, I would like to suggest that having a small feral predator population is not the worst thing in the world, considering that our city is infested with these bloody squirrels.

OK, I admit it. I am biased here. I live near Gibson Park. These "cute" and "fuzzy" rats with bushy tails have made a mockery of my attempts at growing a vegetable garden this year.

I planted about a dozen tomato plants. They ate all the tomatoes as they began to ripen. I planted squash and pumpkins. Every time those plants bore fruit, Chip and Dale grabbed the morsel, took three or four bites, and dropped it in my lawn.

The things are incorrigible, and not afraid of anything. I have a large dog. The dog is lazy, and couldn't care less. They practically walk over the dogs nose.

I tried plastic owls. As you can see from the picture above, that worked out well. Dale over there is practically perched on the plastic owls head to get at my strawberry pot. I tried plastic snakes in the garden. No such luck.

More cats might be just what this city needs. That is an issue I would like to see the city commission candidates discuss; what are their stances on our squirrel infestation?

OK, enough whimsy (although I really do hate these garden thieves; they are not a native population, and they are generally a nuisance). More on what may be a more weighty issue later. 

Oxtail Stew for Chilly October Evenings

Sorry for the dearth of postings lately; not enough time in the day, and the blogging is the first thing to fall off the list.

Many Montana bloggers have been posting recipies lately. I thought I would give you the fixings for an oxtail stew that turned out nicely last weekend.

As always, I am not providing amounts. You can make four cups, four quarts or four gallons with this recipe. The only thing I can say is to use a sparing amount, adding more as necessary, until it "looks right."

Ingredients

• Oxtail. If you want a lot of stew, use more than one.


• Miripoix, diced. The total weight of these veggies should be roughly equivalent to the weight of the oxtail(s) used.


• AP Flour


• Vegetable Oil


• Garlic, chopped fine.


• Barley


• Beef or Chicken Broth


• Red Wine OR Dark Ale and that morning's leftover coffee.


• Water


• Salt


• Pepper


• Star Anise (whole)


• Bay Leaf


• Curry Powder (preferably Madras)


• Chilpote Pepper

Preparation

Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add a small amount of oil to the bottom of the pot. Add the oxtail(s) and salt and pepper generously. Render the oxtail(s), bringing out as much fat as possible and browning them on all sides. Remove the oxtails from the pot.

Add a small amount of additional oil and then add flour, wisking vigourously until you have a smooth roux. The roux should cover the bottom of the pan. Wisk until it is the color of creamed coffee.

Add the garlic to the roux. After it releases its aroma, add the miripoix. Let that cook for about 5-10 minutes.

Add the oxtail(s) back to the pot. Add the broth and the wine or beer/coffee mixture and some water. Add the spices and more salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 3 hours. Add barley and simmer for an additional hour.

Serve on top of egg noodles.

Enjoy!

Marzen makes Patently Ridiculous argument on US Aid to Israel

Berg interviewee Marzen, a Palestinian, just argued that the US had given Israel $250 Billion in aid.

Such an argument doesn't hold water. The US gives Israel $2 Billion in aid a year. The US has only been doing so since the Nixon administration. Marzen's math just does not work out.