Still some skeptics

Some people won’t believe there’s a biofuel complex north of Stanfield until it ships its first products.

Bob Doughty is trying his best to make believers out of the skeptics, but even after Wednesday’s show-and-tell meeting at the site along Canal Road, south of Feedville Road, some muttered that Doughty still didn’t have his act together. Gathering 40 or more players together and encouraging them to exchange business cards was unprofessional, one wag said.

Doughty should be excused if his approach to this project is somewhat akin to Jed Clampett’s. After all, he’s never built a biofuel plant before. But if owning the property means anything, Doughty should at least get credit for taking care of business. Wednesday, after the meeting, he signed papers to secure the last of 487 acres Inland Pacific Energy Center needs to build its biodiesel, ethanol and other plants.

Now, if he can just get the financing, and the feedstock, he’ll really be in business.

England’s army chiefs have a dilemma

Prince Harry, 22 years old and third in line to the British throne, wants to go to Iraq with his regiment for a six-month deployment starting in May. The royal second lieutenant is training to become a reconnaissance troop leader who pinpoints enemy positions using a Scimitar tank.

The British Ministry of Defence is wrestling with the pros and cons of sending a prince to the front lines.

The cons are daunting. Insurgents already have posted threats to the prince online, saying if Harry steps onto Iraqi soil, he will come back in a box. Some of Harry’s countrymen fear the prince would become an immediate target, endangering himself and his regiment.

However, if Harry is kept home, insurgents might celebrate a symbolic victory, of sorts. The headstrong prince also has threatened to quit if he is barred from deployment.

Obviously, Harry feels he is stuck in a gilded cage and resents it. And while British leaders probably feel his pain, they have to consider the prospect of a prince killed in action.

Though Harry is showing incredible courage, his deployment increases the risk to his fellow soldiers. Harry – let your country’s leaders off the hook. Stay home.