Quantum Spin

It's Either True Or It's Not

2011-07-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Today, two bombs exploded in Oslo, Norway doing considerable damage to a Norwegian government building where their prime minister is officed.

There is a link to an Iraqi cleric who threatened the lives of Norwegian politicians, Mullah Krekar, the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam.

This mullah said that, if deported from Norway, he'd be killed, therefore the politicians who deported him deserve the same fate. Norway considered deporting him because they saw him as a national security threat.

In the ABC News article, the writer chose to make an interesting connection. He wrote;

Prior to the Iraq War, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said Ansar al-Islam was the "sinister nexus between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network."

Now then, we've been blasted by the left who assert that Powell was either lying or duped when making this statement. If that is the case, why is it used NOW as supporting evidence of the danger of mullah Krekar?

Either Ansar al-Islam was a connection between Iraq and al Qaeda, or it wasn't. It can't be both. It can't be a connection now, if it wasn't then. If it is a connection now, then it was back when Powell made the statement, too.

So, given the history since Powell said this, if ABC is still reporting it, then I would say there WAS a connection between Iraq and al Qaeda, making Iraq a valid target for invasion in the pursuit of al Qaeda.

Walking Tax?

2010-03-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Transportation Department Embraces Bikes, and Business Groups Cry Foul

By LEORA BROYDO VESTEL

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced “the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of nonmotorized.”

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced a “major policy revision” that aims to give bicycling and walking the same policy and economic consideration as driving.

“Today I want to announce a sea change,” he wrote on his blog last week. “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of nonmotorized.”

The new policy, which was introduced a few days after Mr. LaHood gave a well-received speech from atop a table at the National Bike Summit, is said to reflect the Transportation Department’s support for the development of fully integrated transportation networks.

I wonder if LaHood - wasn't he the bad guy on Pale Rider? anyway - I wonder if Sec. LaHood realizes what pays for road maintenance.

It ain't bikes and pedestrians.

Start squeezing motorized vehicles off the roadways, and they'll have to start taxing walking and biking to make up for the shortfall.

Good Thing The World's Ending in 2012

2010-03-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Otherwise, this might be something to worry about;

CBO report: Debt will rise to 90% of GDP

By David M. Dickson

President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected, and raise the federal debt to 90 percent of the nation's economic output by 2020, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday.

What's That? Social Security Is Doing Just Fine?

2010-03-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

That's what I've been told by some. They claim that SS is so well run and efficient and that it's in fine shape.

Really.

Social Security to See Payout Exceed Pay-In This Year

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Published: March 24, 2010

The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security.

This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Yeah.

Fine shape.
Very efficient.
No problems at all.

Just What The Founding Fathers Ordered

2010-03-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

Obama administration to order lenders to cut mortgage payments for
jobless

By Renae Merle and dina elboghdady
Thursday, March 25, 2010; 7:14 PM

The Obama administration plans to overhaul how it's tackling the foreclosure crisis, in part by requiring lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed, senior officials said Thursday.

Nah, the feds aren't taking over the financial market.

This is just what the Founders had in mind; the federal government dictating to private business.

Hmm.

Dictating.

Wonder what that makes Obama?

Speaking as someone who is jobless and pays a mortgage, I oppose this act by the criminal socialist Obama administration.

I signed a contract with my lender. I have to live up to the terms of that contract. I have the right to renegotiate my contract due to my current status, but my lender is not required to agree. And, unless he does, my contract remains as is.

If the feds are allowed to step in and make contracts null and void, what reliance can be placed upon contracts?

Absolutely none.

Doing America Proud

2009-11-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

This is what 100,000 American soldiers, sailors and marines died for in the Pacific theater.

I Can Feel It

2009-08-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), who was recently appointed to the Senate Energy Committee, can "feel" global warming;

"Climate change is very real," she confessed as she embraced cap and trade's
massive tax increase on Michigan industry - at the same time claiming, against
all the evidence, that it would not lead to an increase in manufacturing costs
or energy prices. "Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying.
The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and
tornadoes."

"We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes."

Let's check on hurricane and tornado activity, shall we?

Let's...

On tornadoes;

Tepid tornado season disappoints some

By Melanie S. Welte
The Associated Press
Monday, Aug 03, 2009 - 10:03:45 am CDT

DES MOINES -- This has been an unusually mild year in Tornado Alley,
which is good news, of course, for the people who live here, but a little
frustrating to scientists who planned to chase twisters as part of a $10 million
research project.

“You’re out there to do the experiment and you’re geared up every day and
ready. And when there isn’t anything happening, that is frustrating,” said Don
Burgess, a scientist at the University of Oklahoma. But he was quick to add that
he is pleased the relative quiet has meant fewer injuries and less damage.

Nationwide, there were 826 tornadoes this year through June 30, compared
with an average of 934 for the same period during the previous three years,
according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.

"[A]n unusually mild year[.]"

11.6% [i]fewer[/i] tornadoes than the previous three years.

So much for "[i]more[/i]" tornadoes. Now, let's look at hurricanes;

Experts predict quieter Atlantic hurricane season

AFPAugust 5, 2009, 6:00 am

MIAMI (AFP) - Weather experts on Wednesday reduced the number of projected
hurricanes in the north Atlantic this season to four, two of them major
hurricanes with winds above 178 kilometers (111 miles) per hour.

After one of the calmest starts to the hurricane season in a decade, the
experts from Colorado State University said the development of an El Nino effect
in the Pacific had caused them to scale back their projections for the
Atlantic.

"[O]ne of the calmest starts to the hurricane season in a decade[.]"

So much for "more" hurricanes.

I wonder what it is that Stabenow is feeling?

Given Obama's recent decision to correct misinformation, maybe he will correct Stabenow's claim.

Nah, doubt it...

But, But, But - It Was The PATRIOT Act!

2009-07-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

In 2004, Obama criticized passing legislation without reading it, without "clear debate."

But, now that it's 2009, he has to have healthcare reform rushed through - no time to stop and read it, not time for debate, it has to be done now!

BARACK OBAMA: ...When you rush these budgets that are a foot high and nobody
has any idea what's in them and nobody has read them.
RANDI RHODES: 14 pounds it was!
BARACK OBAMA: Yeah. And it gets rushed through without any clear
deliberation or debate then these kinds of things happen. And I think that
this is in some ways what happened to the PATRIOT Act.

So.

Now that it's healthcare, why, that's different.

Don't read those 1,000+ pages! Just pass it!

10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 -

2009-07-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

0...all engines running...lift-off, we have a lift-off, 32 minutes past the hour, lift-off on Apollo 11...

Tower cleared...

She's lifting beautifully into the sky, a typically beautiful Saturn V launch.

If I timed this right, 40 years ago, around the time of this posting, we sent men to the moon.

This was an historic and milestone event in Man's existence; to travel to another world and return safely.

Nothing before or since can compare to this achievement.

Yet, for some reason, as of this posting, Google - a site that commemorates everything else by changing their logo - has taken no notice of this momentous event.

That is shameful.

But, their ignorance aside, this is a glorius day and, in just four days, we will have the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's first steps on a surface beyond Earth's.

Those are US flags on the Moon.

So, How Do They Know?

2009-06-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

Supposedly, Obama's "stimulus" has "saved or created" 150,000 jobs so far and he plans to "save or create" 600,000 jobs by summertime. Since the Bureau of Labor and Statistics maintains no record - nor are they able to maintain - on jobs "saved," just what metric does Obama plan to use to demonstrate the success or failure of this plan?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics;

June 09, 2009
The number of unemployed persons increased by 787,000 to 14.5 million in May, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent.

We are already down 14.5 million jobs. Going by Obama's 600,000 by summer goal, that means he should already have saved about 150,000. Yet, we're down 14.5 million, ten times more than what he has "saved" at this point?

Oh! I guess he can say, "Were it not for my initiative, our unemployment would be 14.65 million unemployed, rather than a mere 14.5 million."

But, how does he prove this? How does he prove that the 150,000 jobs wouldn't've been "saved" anyway?

Seems he's given himself quite the safety net. If the unemployed rate rockets by summer, he can always say that it would've been worse by 600,000.

So, why isn't the press picking up on this? Why isn't this chicanery by the Obama administration being examined by the media? We all know that the silly claims about the press being in Obama's hip pocket are false, so why aren't they calling him on this, instead of touting it as success?

If we were on a boat that was taking on 10 times more water than the captain was bailing out, would the captain be justified in claiming that his bail-out plan was successful?

Had Bush made this sort of claim, the press would have keel-hauled him, but Obama?

Nah...

No, No Power Grab At All

2009-03-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Not content to settle for control over US companies, the wonderful, change is good Obama administration has decided that the time has come for the federal government to control the entire US financial system.

Geithner to Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight of Financial System

By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 26, 2009; Page A01

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to propose today a sweeping expansion of federal authority over the financial system, breaking from an era in which the government stood back from financial markets and allowed participants to decide how much risk to take in the pursuit of profit.

The Obama administration's plan, described by several sources, would extend federal regulation for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives and to companies including large hedge funds and major insurers such as American International Group. The administration also will seek to impose uniform standards on all large financial firms, including banks, an unprecedented step that would place significant limits on the scope and risk of their activities.

"Significant limits on the scope and risk of their activities."

Not only does the federal government want the power to seize companies and break contracts, they also want the power to dictate to them what level of risk they may assume.

So, in what way will these financial companies be private companies? In what ways will they not be mere extensions of federal power?

How short will the federal leash need to be, before the People of this nation realize the great danger of this administration?

Will they wait until there is no leash at all?

Oh, Dear Lord, What Fools Have Been Placed Over Us?

2009-03-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

China put forth a proposal to drop the dollar as the global currency and who hitches his wagon to that Chinese horse?

Why, our own tax-cheat, Geithner!

Geithner 'open' to China proposal

Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is "open" to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar, but which Geithner described as more modest and "evolutionary."

Even Obama has the good sense to not support China's proposal;

President Barack Obama described China's proposal as unnecessary during a prime-time news conference Tuesday.

"I don't believe that there's a need for a global currency," Obama said.

But, shall we delve a little deeper into Geithner's idiocy?

"I haven’t read the governor’s proposal. He’s a very thoughtful, very careful distinguished central banker. I generally find him sensible on every issue," Geithner said, saying that however his interpretation of the proposal was to increase the use of International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights -- shares in the body held by its members -- not creating a new currency in the literal sense.

He hasn't even read it, yet! He is making statements about what the US is "open" to, and hasn't a clue what it is. He is going entirely by his opinion of the governor of China's central bank.

Maybe this explains his tax problems; he never read the forms.

Let Them Compete Or Sink

2009-03-26T05:12:00.000-07:00

Newspapers are finding themselves faltering in a world where electronic news is far preferable; where headlines can be read within minutes of a newsworthy event, rather than being forced to wait until the next morning.

Some newspapers are adapting by dropping their print editions and going 100% online. They see what they need to do to compete and do it.

So, what does the US government do, instead of letting the market dictate their fate?

U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers
Tue Mar 24, 20093:05pm EDT
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax
breaks.
"This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat," said Senator Benjamin Cardin.

Well, Senator Cardin, you're not doing enough! Where's your bill to rescue Town Criers? When will you address the plight of the buggy whip industry? The daguerreotype companies need your help, Senator; why don't you aid them?

Could Wipe Out His Cabinet

2009-03-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

From the mouth of the tax-cheat who is now Secretary of the Treasury;

Geithner: Obama to crack down on tax evaders
(NECN: Washington) - Over the next several months, the president will propose a series of legislative and enforcement actions to reduce tax avoidance," this afternoon said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Can the hypocrisy be any more clear?

Obama needs to watch out, though. Cracking down on tax cheats might leave him with no cabinet.

Tom Daschle had to pay back taxes, Nancy Killefer pulled because of tax issues and now, Ron Kirk, former mayor of Dallas, owes back taxes. Oh, but Ron has agreed to pay those back taxes. Isn't that big of him? He agreed.

And, we have Mr. Big, Tim Geithner, SecTreas, who didn't pay taxes.

How many more in this misbegotten administration are - lax - on tax isues?

Well, maybe "cracking down" is subjective...

He's got, I understand, a fairly popular radio show

2009-03-03T05:29:00.000-08:00

"He's got, I understand, a fairly popular radio show."

That's what someone said about Rush Limbaugh.

Is this person;

Someone living out on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific?
Someone living in a cave?
Someone living under a nicely decorated rock?
A homeless guy living on the street?
The White House press secretary?

If you guessed #5, you win a cookie*.

Yes, the press secretary for the Obama administration merely "understands" that Rush has a "fairly popular" radio show.

It would appear that we can add "clueless" to the list of criteria necessary to work in the Obama administration.

* - see your cookie directory for details. Cookie may not be exchanged for other cookies and may not be used in conjunction with other cookies. Cookie is non-refundable and not valid where prohibited by law. Cookie only good Sunday through Thursday. Do not eat cookie. Cookie consumption has been found to cause genital gigantism in lab rats. Do not use cookie as personal floatation device. Cookie not intended for internal consumption. If cookie splashes in eyes, seek immediate medical attention. The White Zone is for loading and unloading passengers only. Please do not park in the White Zone. Cookie may contain peanuts or peanut by-products. Do not mix cookie with peanuts.

A Meteorologist says...

2008-12-19T05:13:00.000-08:00

Ya know, one of those guys whose job is the weather;

CNN Meteorologist: Manmade Global Warming Theory 'Arrogant'
Network's second meteorologist to challenge notion man can alter climate.

By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
12/18/2008 11:02:44 PM

Unprecedented snow in Las Vegas has some scratching their heads – how can there be global warming with this unusual cold and snowy weather?

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers had never bought into the notion that man can alter the climate and the Vegas snowstorm didn’t impact his opinion. Myers, an American Meteorological Society certified meteorologist, explained on CNN’s Dec. 18 “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that the whole idea is arrogant and mankind was in danger of dying from other natural events more so than global warming.

I guess this guy didn't get the memo from the "consensus."

I do have one problem with the article, though...

Dr. Jay Lehr, an expert on environmental policy, told “Lou Dobbs Tonight” viewers you can detect subtle patterns over recorded history, but that dates back to the 13th Century.
“If we go back really, in recorded human history, in the 13th Century, we were robably 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than we are now and it was a very prosperous ime for mankind,” Lehr said. “If go back to the Revolutionary War 300 years ago, it as very, very cold. We’ve been warming out of that cold spell from the Revolutionary War period and now we’re back into a cooling cycle.”
Lehr suggested the earth is presently entering a cooling cycle – a result of nature, not man.

It strikes me that, "We’ve been warming out of that cold spell from the Revolutionary War period and now we’re back into a cooling cycle." is outright saying that the earth is entering a cooling cycle, not just suggesting it.

Some may condemn Chad Meyers as not being an expert, of not having any experience in meteorology. I would remind them that he is an American Meteorological Society certified meteorologist. I think he qualifies as an expert and has experience.

The End Of The World On Wednesday!

2008-09-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

Well, not really, but 10-Sep-08 is when the LHC is going to rev up for the first time at .45 TeV.

If the world still exists on Thursday, then they hope to ramp up to 5 Tev by the end of the year and eventually to 7 TeV.

The sad part is, the potential end of the world should have been at the SSC, not CERN.

Short-sighted Congress...

We May Want Global Warming

2008-08-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

According to this article in Milenio, the IPCC used only mathematics and did not include the Sun in their scenarios.

Auguring brief era of ice in 2010

Researchers from the UNAM considers erroneous reports on global climate change

An expert from the National Autonomous University of Mexico predicted that in about ten years the Earth will enter a "little ice age" which will last from 60 to 80 years and may be caused by the decrease in solar activity.

Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM, as argued earlier during a conference that teaches at the Centre for Applied Sciences and Technological Development.

...

Velasco Herrera [Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM] described as erroneous predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), pursuant to which the planet is experiencing a gradual increase in temperature, the so-called global warming.

The models and forecasts of the IPCC "is incorrect because only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity," said the specialist also in image processing and signs and prevention of natural disasters.

If Herrera is correct, then the IPCC is woefully incompetent to make any sort of predictive claims at all. To ignore the Sun's contribution to the temperature of the Earth is sheer ignorance.

It may be that we need to INCREASE our carbon footprints, rather than reduce them.

Miller vs. Heller

2008-07-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

No, not the latest UFC heavyweight bout.

But, an exploration of an interesting twist in the law...

In January 1939, the US District Court for the Western District of Arkansas heard argument in US vs. Miller concerning a sawed-off shotgun found in the defendant's truck when a raid for a still failed to find anything. Defense argued that Section 11 of the National Firearms Act violated the Second Amendment. U.S. District Court Judge Heartsill Ragon agreed.

The USAG appealed to the supreme Court and in March 1939 the Court heard the case. They reversed the lower court's decision saying that there was no evidence presented that a sawed-off shotgun had any value as a militia weapon and so did not fall under the protections of the Second Amendment. Essentially saying only military-style weapons are protected.

Now, fast forward almost 65 years to Feb of 2003.

A lawsuit is brought against the District of Columbia contesting the District's draconian gun laws. The District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the suit.

The case was appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals and they reversed the decision saying the Second Amendment protected an individual right.

Petition was made to advance the case to the supreme Court and they agreed in November of '07 (looks like things went a lot faster seven decades ago).

In June of '08, the Court decided and reversed the Circuit Court's finding. That the "District's ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense."

The supreme Court also decided, "The term was applied, then as now, to weapons that were not specifically designed for military use and were not employed in a military capacity."

So, to give the Cliff's Notes version, Miller says the Second Amendment protects military-style weapons and, so, a sawed-off shotgun is not a protected firearm.

But, now we have Heller that has decided that the Second Amendment protects only non-military use firearms (actually, a silly decision - what non-military firearm is of any use to a militia?).

Heller has reversed the prohibition in Miller and given Second Amendment protections to the sawed-off shotgun.

I wonder how long before this sinks in...

Duh - It's Private Property

2008-07-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

There is no "right" to free speech in online forums. They are not public venues; the are private. Privately paid for and privately maintained.

'Public' online spaces don't carry speech, rights
Jul 6, 2:17 PM (ET)
By ANICK JESDANUN
NEW YORK (AP) - Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer
generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or
provocative.
Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other
constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.

For example, in this forum, I can delete, modify or allow anything I please and no one has any recourse - except to not participate. I can not be forced to allow content I do not want.

Others believe companies shouldn't police content at all, and if they do,
they should at least make clearer the rules and the mechanisms for appeal.
"Vagueness does not inspire the confidence of people and leaves room for
gaming the system by outside groups," said Lauren Weinstein, a veteran computer
scientist and Internet activist.
When the rules are clear and the grievance procedures are clear, then people
know what they are working with and they at least have a starting point in
urging changes in those rules."

Companies can police their webspace to any extent they wish and their rules can be as painfully bureaucratic or insipidly vague as they like. They can be, if so desired, totally non-existent. They pay for the space, they can do with it as they please.

The cause of freedom is not served by forcing one group to bow to the rules of another.

Absolutely No Yellowcake In Iraq.

2008-07-07T05:47:00.000-07:00

Hey, wait a minute - what's that 550 tons of yellowcake?

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq
Jul 6, 4:45 AM (ET)
By BRIAN MURPHY
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile
of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a
secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship
voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for
higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the
books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi
authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers
crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

Gee, I wonder if this could have been for WMDs?

Nah.

Probably used it for potting soil...

How Are Those Flip Flops, Obama?

2008-06-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

No, not the ones on your feet, the ones on your campaign promises.

In November 2007, Obama answered "Yes" to Common Cause when asked "If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?"

Obama wrote: "In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election. My proposal followed announcements by some presidential candidates that they would forgo public financing so they could raise unlimited funds in the general election. The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

But, now, he's decided to forego public financing.

Obama won’t accept public financing

By Sam Youngman
Posted:
06/19/08 08:46 AM [ET]

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) announced Thursday morning that he will not accept public financing for the general election, a move that will give him a major advantage over Republican standard-bearer Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

So, just like he claimed that he did not accept PAC and lobbyist money, the truth is that he did.

Now, he claimed that he'd accept only public money for his campaign, when the truth is that he will not.

Not real big on your promises, eh, Barack?

I guess it depends on what your definition of "aggressive" is.

Obama Is Confused

2008-06-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

Obama says he would impose oil windfall profits tax
RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Obama said on Monday he would impose a windfall profits tax on U.S. oil
companies as he sought political gain from Americans' pain over high gasoline
prices.

Just a little education on the Constitution for Obama - since, obviously, he hasn't read it...

Barry - The president can't impose any taxes. Only Congress can.

Oh well, I guess he wasn't in Congress long enough to know this.

Maybe someone will get him a copy of the Constitution so he can get up to speed...

Elitist Attitude Doesn't Help

2008-05-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

Marty O'Malley is frustrated that no one seems to share his outrage at our presence in Iraq.

Well, maybe, if he didn't give idiot advice like this;

As he and two other protesters waited, Maddie Smith, a student at the Art
Institute of Pittsburgh, approached Mr. O'Malley and asked for a sign for her
lawn in Brookline.
He gladly gave her one. He also gave her instructions:
"Put it so it's facing traffic. Otherwise no one will see it."

he might find people more willing to listen to him.

Does he really think it is necessary to give such obvious advice to an adult?

Or, is it that those who do support him are such dolts that they need this sort of advice?

Or, might it be that those who support him are so enamored of themselves, so full of their own importance, that they purposely face their signs towards their own homes, such that they may admire their handiwork in comfort while sipping a latte?

If he gives all of his advice in such a condescending manner, it's no wonder no one showed up.

Oil Prices Continue To Rise

2008-05-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

Well, oil futures went above $122 today, based on a Goldman-Sachs prediction that it could go to $200 in two years.

Oil prices have nearly doubled from about $62 a barrel a year ago, which Goldman
sees as a sign that the world is in the midst of a "super spike" in oil prices.
Analyst Arjun Murti said in a research note released Monday that prices would
ultimately force demand to fall sharply.

The key word, as I see it here, is "spike."

Not plateau, not level, but spike.

That implies a sharp drop after the peak is reached.

So, are we seeing the next bubble? Tech, housing, oil?

Might there be an oil bubble burst?

If You Don't Believe...

2008-04-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

...the Powers will bring you down.

The founder of the National Hurricane Center, William Gray, is a harsh critic of climate change and receives support from Colorado State University.

A year ago, CSU told him they were going to cease supporting him.

However, since then, CSU has changed its position a mite. They say they'll continue to support his hurricane forecasts, as long as they remain co-authored by a former student of Gray's, Phil Klotzbach. But, if Klotzbach leaves CSU, either the forecasts will be produced at his new location or they will end.

CSU says that Gray's global warming criticisms have nothing to do with this. That it's because they only have a one-man media staff.

Well, OK. Their poor media guy is overworked and can't handle the load of Gray's work. I can see that.

So, how does requiring Gray's forecasts to remain co-authored with Klotzbach change the media guy's workload?

The sole media staffer had a workload 'X' when Gray's forecasts were co-authored with Klotzbach and CSU regretfully had to terminate supporting Gray because of it - according to CSU.

So, under the new and improved plan, under which CSU will continue their support, the sole media staffer will still have a workload 'X', but only as long as Gray's forecasts are co-authored with Klotzbach.

Like, what's the diference on the media guy's workload? How has it changed? That was the reason CSU was going to drop support and their new plan doesn't alter it at all. The only change is that Gray is no longer the main guy in the forecasting; Klotzbach is. Gray's future forecasts are linked to Klotzbach. In fact, if Klotzbach leaves, Gray's status is irrelevant; the forecasts either go with Klotzbach or they come to an end.

Still, no change in the media guy's workload.

Now, I don't know about others, but if I have a staffer who can't handle a certain workload and I want to alleviate his woes, I'll hire him a helper. Keeping his workload the same won't cut it.

So, maybe Prof. Gray has a point in his complaint against CSU. It would also be interesting to learn of Dr. Klotzbach's views on global warming.

When Government Gets Involved In Business

2008-04-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

Things start to fall apart.

From the article;

One factor being blamed for the price hikes is the use of government subsidies to promote the use of corn for ethanol production. An estimated 30% of America’s corn crop now goes to fuel, not food.

Well, maybe if government didn't subsidize the idea, then it would succeed or fail on its own merits in the marketplace. But, can't have that, can we? Gotta have that gubmint in there telling us what to do, what to sell, where to sell it ... running our lives.

"It takes around 400 pounds of corn to make 25 gallons of ethanol," [Benjamin] Senauer, also an applied economics professor at Minnesota, said. "It’s not going to be a very good diet but that’s roughly enough to keep an adult person alive for a year."

Regardless of whether I agree with Senauer's political position, I hate the sort of foolish, emotionalist arguments as he makes here.

Yeah, 400 pounds of corn might keep someone alive for a year, but, at the end of that year, the adult who's only had corn will be in serious shape from vitamin deficiencies.

That adult is going to need more than just 400 pounds of corn to keep himself going.

The most obvious impact the food crisis has had in America, aside from higher prices, is the imposition of rationing at some warehouse stores to deal with a spike in demand for large quantities of rice, oil, and flour. The CEO of Costco Wholesale Corp., James Sinegal, is blaming press hype for the buying limits, which were first reported Monday in The New York Sun.

I agree with Sinegal. I, too, think that the food "crisis" in the US is due to media's incessant need for a shocking headline and to get the scoop.

There were banks before the Depression that were in no danger of defaulting, but, because of word of mouth, a run would develop on a perfectly healthy bank, destroying it.

Now, with the Internet and media operations competing for an ever smaller piece of the pie, a run on anything can happen within minutes.

Speaking in Kansas City, Mo., yesterday, the federal agriculture secretary, Edward Schafer, blamed emotion for the spurt of rice buying at warehouse stores. "We don’t see any evidence of the lack of availability of rice. There are no supply issues," he told reporters, according to Reuters.

Emotion and fear has caused a spike in demand - I wish I'd bought rice futures - fueled in a major part by media's need for attention. I read yesterday that Philipinos in the US were scarfing up rice at stores like Sam's, WalMart and CostCo and shipping it to their families in the Philipines. There really can't be too much of a crisis in the US, if these people feel secure enough in their own needs to ship the rice overseas.

And, what I believe are irresponsible articles like this from the Wall Street Journal do nothing but throw gas on the fire.

Update: So, It Was A Hoax

2008-04-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

The "art" I posted about yesterday was a hoax.

Appears Shvarts' entire goal was simply to "spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body." The "art" was to fake everyone out.

Well, it seemed to have worked well.

Though I am relieved that she is not committing the heinous acts she claimed were her intents, I still find her newly described "art" repugnant. She twisted and manipulated a very important issue to meet her own ends.

Given this new information - assuming it is true; after all, this confession might be the performance art and she might still intend to carry out the abortion - I must modify my earlier accusation that she was committing murder and say that she is simply an idiot.

But, she does seem to have opened up an entirely new defense against slander, libel or even perjury - maybe others. Just say, "Hey! It was performance art! I was simply trying to spark debate on the human condition."

Art Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

2008-04-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

But, this is obscene beyond belief.

Beginning next Tuesday, [Art major Aliza] Shvarts [’08] will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

Is human life merely a toy to be extinguished upon a whim? Of no more importance than a tube of paint?

Is it proper to begin a human being with the INTENT to destroy it?

This was not an accident. This was not a pregnancy gone wrong. This did not threaten the mother's health. This was not a case of rape or incest. This was not a sudden misfortune making the mother unable to care for a child. This was not a child perhaps being born into an unloving relationship. This was not even - what, to my mind was the most inexcusable reason for an abortion - a change of heart.

No, this was none of these things or any of the other reasons given to allow abortion.

This was a cruel, evil woman who intentionally became pregnant for the specific PURPOSE of terminating it.

Murder most foul.

This reprehensible thing known as Shvarts is using oxygen that could be better used by the most vile child molester.

More Proof Of The Effectiveness Of Gun Laws

2008-04-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

I thought Texas was the stereotypical state for random shootings. After all, with our relatively lax gun laws we should be having high noon shootouts every second Thursday and random killings the rest of the time.

But, looks like California, that bastion of strict gun control, takes the award.

Like the article says, "Car-to-car shootings are not uncommon in the area." And, that's with strict gun-control. I wonder why in Texas, with very few gun laws, car-to-car shootings are uncommon.

Just in recent weeks;

110 off-ramp.
I-10.
US-101.
San Diego County highway.
San Francisco freeway.

Maybe gun laws don't do what their proponents think they do.

A Democrat Idea I Partly Agree With

2008-04-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Democrats may to require Iraq to use its oil revenue to pay for its own reconstruction.

This is something I wholeheartedly agree with. One of the points Bush made towards finishing up the Gulf War was that Iraq would not have to pay for our effort.

I could see not having them pay upfront, but I always thought that they should refill our coffers, once the war was won.

Now, I am unsure how US legislation has any hold over another sovereign nation. Since when is Iraq under US law? If Iraq were a possession of the US, or a colony - not a bad idea, by the way - then our legislation has teeth. But, as long as Iraq is sovereign, we can't tell them what to do.
We can persuade them, but not dictate to them.

So, how the dems figure to make this work is something I'd like to hear. Sure, we can cut out funding, but that won't force them to make up for the lack. It is still a matter of Iraqi choice.

That was the part I agreed with. Now for what I don't agree with.

The second part of the bill would be to have the Iraqis tke the lead in military operations.

Yeah, that's a great idea. Put the unskilled in charge - there's a sure path to success.

If you go in for major surgery, do you want the skilled surgeon with steady hands to work on you, or the med-school freshman?

This democrat plan is insisting on the freshman.

Leave it to dems to botch up even a good idea...

Senate Rejects Pork Bill

2008-03-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

Well, the Senate has lived down to expectations and rejected a bill to restrict pork spending.

And, the idiocy was not confined to one side of the aisle.

What really burns me is the excuse given by those who opposed it; They'd not be able to meet the needs of their constituency.

News for these Senators, their job is not to meet the needs of their constituency - it is to meet the needs of the NATION.

It is up to the states to meet the needs of their constituencies.

Kentucky Lawmaker Would Criminalize Founding Fathers...

2008-03-10T06:37:00.000-07:00

...if his bill were around in the 1700s.

State Rep. Tim Crouch of Kentucky wants to criminalize anonymous web-posting.

Yes, this bozo is a Republican, sad to say, though he seems to make a better Nannyist. Gotta save us from online bullies, donchya know?

Had his legislation been around in the late 1700s, it would have sought to criminalize Hamilton, Madison and Jay since they used the psuedonym Publius to write the Federalist Papers.

Alexander Hamilton also had Pacificus, Cattalus, Horatius and Philo Camillus. Newspaper publisher Benjamin Franklin had Silence Dogood, Alice Addertongue, Fanny Mournful, Obadiah Plainman and Busy Body. John Adams had about 25 or so false names that he wrote under, including Populus, An American, A Son of Liberty and the unusual "Vindex the Avenger".

This man would make criminals of the Founding Fathers. If made law, his legislation would be an oppression of liberty, a condemnation of freedom, a government shackle upon the right to free speech.

We do not need such as these in our party. Let him go to more like-minded grounds - the democrats.

No Money From PACS or Lobbyists, Eh?

2008-02-29T06:25:00.000-08:00

Obama has been making a big noise that he's "not taking any money from lobbyists." Nor is he using PAC money.

But, is this true?

According to the Boston Globe, it's not.

===========================
A Globe review of Obama's campaign finance records shows that he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs as a state legislator in Illinois, a US senator, and a presidential aspirant.

In Obama's eight years in the Illinois Senate, from 1996 to 2004, almost two-thirds of the money he raised for his campaigns -- $296,000 of $461,000 -- came from PACs, corporate contributions, or unions, according to Illinois Board of Elections records. He tapped financial services firms, real estate developers, healthcare providers, oil companies, and many other corporate interests, the records show.
===========================

8% of Obama's campaign money comes from PACs. Hillary had only 4%.

In fact, he has his own PAC, Hopefund, which took in contributions from other PACs to the tune of $115,000 in the '05/'06 election cycle. These contributions included those from "defense contractors, law firms, and the securities and insurance industries."

So, what was that about no lobbyist or PAC money?

For The Apprentice Fans

2008-02-15T05:55:00.000-08:00

So, who else felt like throttling Omarosa last night - besides Piers?

Her behavior was reprehensible considering the topic of this season; to raise charity funds.

Not only the snide and disgusting remarks she made to Piers - using his family, his children, as tools for her attacks - but also for her condescending and insulting laughter in the boardroom segment. Lennox hit the nail on the head when he called her attacks, "ghetto."

For my money, because of the seriousness of the situation, at her first fit of sniggering, as Trump, I'd've canned her from the game there and then.

She has a far overblown sense of self-importance, a facade that was torn to shreds in last night's episode when she came face to face with the fact that she is, truly, not a celebrity. Her "celebrity" status only comes from being a complete twit in the first season of Apprentice as the contestant everyone loved to hate. Her claim to fame is as a failure on national TV and her consequent appearances on other shows stem from that failure. As a result, she was unable to raise a cent for her team's goal, when the true celebrities were able to raise thousands. Almost $40-thousand, as it turned out.

Gotta say, though, from Trump's point of view, his pairing of Omarosa with Piers made for an excellent episode. So, she was used by Trump; a tool. Piers, also, to an extent, but not so much, I don't think, as Omarosa was.

About That Consensus

2008-02-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

This site shatters that fallacy of anthropogenic global warming.

Not that it takes an anti-AGW stance, but that it seems - after a cursory glance - to fairly present both sides.

And, the fact that there are two sides to the issue- one of which staunchly in opposition - disproves any claims to consensus.

And, in a way, the mere fact that there is such a large following that goes against the AGW grain would lend credence to their argument; that more research is needed. That the answer has not been found. That even the cause of global warming is still in question.

At any rate, for the lay person, or the undecided, this site looks like a good read.

In A Quandary

2008-02-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

For the first time in my voting life, I am unsure of where to cast my vote.

If Romney or Huckabee win the nomination, then I will have to do as I did with Bush; bite the bullet and vote for them to do my part in keeping a dem out.

But, if McCain wins - which seems likely - my vote will be less certain.

If Hillary wins the dem nomination, then I'll be forced to go with McCain, but I won't like it.

If Obama wins is where I have the real problem - and, I'm thinking it looks like he will. In this case, my vote could go 50/50 either way. I still won't like it, but my loathing for McCain is greater than my loathing for a democrat by enough to offset his party bonus.

Actually, I probably have a three-way tie. McCain/Obama/Independent by 35/35/30.

Well, I said a long time ago, this would be an interesting election year.

Oh, That Wacky Climate!

2008-01-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

Back in January of 2007, the BBC reported that 2007 would be the world's warmest year on record.

But, the facts are;

2007 was just as warm as every year back to 2001.
Even though CO2 is up 4% since 1998, global temps have remained flat.

Yet, the UN is still going to lead the lemmings' Charge of the Light Brigade over the cliff of anthropogenic global warming.

AlGore asserts that "The debate in the scientific community is over."

Thing is, it's not. More than 100 scientists wrote a letter to the UN to say that climate change - up or down - is a natural event. Historical data from the Paleozoic to today shows that, if anything, the historically normal temperature for the Earth is a lot warmer than it is now.

Little sidebar here - as I search about the Internet to try to find out what the Earth's CURRENT average temperature is, I find it very difficult to locate the information. Three separate articles on Wiki show plenty of temperature change data, but they never show the baseline; the change from what temperature. That's interesting. It's like saying that when Bob's income raises 100%, he's become a rich man. But, no one says that Bob's original income was $2.50/hour.

Ah! Here we go, a site with current temp data. Looks like it's around 15-degrees C. OK, then, back to our story.

As I was saying, historical data from the Paleozoic to today shows that, if anything, the historically normal temperature for the Earth is a lot warmer than it is now. There are periodic dips, but the baseline seems to be 22-degrees C; 7-degrees C greater than today.

The IPCC - who says "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal" - a false statement since it is hardly "unequivocal" - has the temperature rising from 1.1 to 6.4-degrees C during the 21st Century - Hey guys! Way to get a focus on that prediction! Only a 5.3 degree spread, nah, no appreciable variance there.

Looking at the history of global temperatures, the variances have been sharp valleys from 22 to 12-degrees C and back up again. But, the length of time in the valleys have been far shorter than the intervening peaks.

We have been in one of the minimas of the data, on our way to a maxima. And, to follow the trends, we are headed to a higher temperature than the IPCC's most dire prediction.

And, the amazing thing?

Each of the global warming events - one in the Silurian, Permian, and Cretaceous - had no Humans around to cause them. In fact, the warming in the Permian went even higher than 22-degrees C; it went to 23-degrees C.

The historical data shows that the climate we have today is not the norm. The Earth has experienced approximately 67.08 million years at today's temps or below. That's only about 10% of what we have records for.

So, for 90% of the Earth's recorded history of average temperatures, we have had temps FAR higher than today or what is predicted by AGW adherents.

Today's temps are not normal. Historically, they are unusually well below normal. Our global warming is the Earth returning to normal.

Egads! He's An Ent!

2007-11-19T07:14:00.001-08:00

First, pre-historic Hobbits, now a living Ent;

=========================
Tree man 'who grew roots' may be cured

By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 8:27am GMT 19/11/2007

An Indonesian fisherman who feared that he would be killed by tree-like growths covering his body has been given hope of recovery by an American doctor - and Vitamin A.

Dede, now 35, baffled medical experts when warty "roots" began growing out of his arms and feet after he cut his knee in a teenage accident.
=========================

Where Socialized Medicine Can Lead

2007-11-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

To discrimination;

=============================
New Zealand bars British man's 'fat' wife

By Paul Chapman in Wellington
Last Updated: 1:24am GMT 18/11/2007

A British man who moved to New Zealand has been told by officials that his wife is too fat to join him.

Richie Trezise, 35, a rugby-playing Welshman, lost weight to gain entry to New Zealand after being rejected for being overweight and a potential burden on the health care system.
=============================

Ignorance Like This...

2007-11-19T06:24:00.000-08:00

Is the strongest reason why I have my doubts about anthropogenic global warming;

=========================
UN Panel Gives Dire Warming Forecast

Nov 17, 11:11 PM (ET)
By ARTHUR MAX

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) - Global warming is "unequivocal" and carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere commits the world to an eventual rise in sea levels of up to 4.6 feet, the world's top climate experts warned Saturday in their most authoritative report to date.

...

He [U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon] said he witnessed the devastation of climate change in disappearing glaciers of Antarctica, the deforested Amazon and under the ozone hole in Chile.
=========================

Clue for Mr. Ki-moon - Amazon deforestation is NOT due to global warming, but to human expansion; farmland, grazeland and homes.

Statements like this from world leaders tells me that they haven't an inkling of the science behind the issue and since this Valencia report is from the "world's top climate experts," Ki-moon's words are based upon what they have told him. Some "top scientists."

Oh, and about "unequivocal?"

That's only if they ignore the scientists who question them.

Such a wonderful science these "top climate experts" practice! If someone doesn't agree, simply ignore them.

Gotta have faith, baby, gotta have faith.

This is a religion, not science.

And, as long as faith is clothed in a veneer of psuedo-science, I - and many others - will oppose this AGW religion.

Oh, The Devastation!

2007-11-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

Sound the alarm!

Fear! Fire! Foes!

Global warming is our top concern!

Why?

You DARE need ask?

=============================
A world dying, but can we unite to save it?

Pollution in the seas is now speeding global warming, says a devastating new climate report. 'IoS' Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports from Valencia
...
Europe

Winter sports suffer as less snow falls in the Alps and other mountains
=============================

Europe might not be able to ski!

I Think I'll Pass On England...

2007-11-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

But, with a single vowel change, I'd be promoting British tourism;

===========================
Controversy Over Eurostar's Shock Advert

By Jo CouzensUpdated:13:16, Friday November 16, 2007

An advert depicting a tattooed skinhead urinating into a china teacup is being used to promote British tourism.

===========================

At any rate, I certainly don't want to go there and see the "sights;"

===========================

Lesley Retallack [a spokeswoman for Eurostar] added: "You could walk down Camden market and you can see someone like that.

===========================

Who would want to see someone like that?

If Mexico's Not Going To Do Anything

2007-11-15T06:32:00.000-08:00

Then, send troops into northern Mexico to put a stop to it.

=============================
Lawmen under siege along Mexico border

By Jerry Seper
November 15, 2007

Alien and drug smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border have spawned a rise in violence against federal, state and local law-enforcement authorities, who say they are outmanned and outgunned.

"They've got weapons, high-tech radios, computers, cell phones, Global Positioning Systems, spotters and can react faster than we are able to," said Shawn P. Moran, a 10-year U.S. Border Patrol veteran who serves as vice president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 1613 in San Diego.

"And they have no hesitancy to attack the agents on the line, with anything from assault rifles and improvised Molotov cocktails to rocks, concrete slabs and bottles," he said. "There are so many agent 'rockings' that few are even reported anymore. If we wrote them all up, that's all we would be doing."
=============================

Meanwhile, Chertoff needs to do what he said he'd do and put more BP personnel on the line.

Dropping the effectiveness of the border at San Diego by 88% is not protecting it.

Well, Isn't He Just Special

2007-11-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Of course, he supports an estate tax. It won't affect him.

His heirs, yes, but not him.

And, his heirs won't be all that affected. But, those who inherit a tad less than Buffet's estate can be substantially impacted by an estate tax. To the point where a family business or farm could be destroyed in order to pay the tax.

==============================
Buffett backs U.S. estate tax and decries wealth gap

Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:33am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Billionaire Warren Buffett on Wednesday warned of widening U.S. income disparity and endorsed the estate tax as a check on wealth accumulation, while two senior lawmakers said they want the tax repealed.
==============================

Isn't it great of him to also decry the "wealth gap?"

I wonder if he "decried" it while he was making his billions, or only now that he has them.

Does he decry it enough to spread his own wealth? Or, does he merely give lip service while ensuring that his $40+ billion earns more?

Does he live in a modest 3-bdrm, 2,000sf home with a Kia or maybe a Ford Aerostar in the two-car garage?

Does he put his money - a meaningful part of it, such that he would feel its loss - where his mouth is? Or, only enough to look good to the masses, but still get a profit?

Global Warming Indicator Bites The Dust

2007-11-14T06:33:00.001-08:00

If this indicator is a non-issue, what about others? This is why the anti-AGW crowd want more RESEARCH rather than blind faith.

Faith is for religion, not science.

==============================
NASA Sees Arctic Ocean Circulation Do an About-Face

November 13, 2007

PASADENA, Calif. – A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming.

...

"Our study confirms many changes seen in upper Arctic Ocean circulation in the 1990s were mostly decadal in nature, rather than trends caused by global warming," said Morison [James Morison of the University of Washington's Polar Science Center Applied Physics Laboratory, Seattle].
==============================

Global Warming Report

2007-11-14T06:17:00.000-08:00

[Insert frantic ticker-tape sound FX here]

Just in from our Dubai newsdesk...

=================================
Brad and Angelina buy Dubai island: report

Nov 14 03:41 AM US/Eastern

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have bought a man-made island in the shape of Ethiopia that is part of an ambitious luxury development off the coast of Dubai, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Hollywood couple intend to use the reclaimed piece of land to showcase environmental issues and encourage people to live a greener life, the Emirates Today newspaper said.
=================================

So, I thought global warming was going to raise sea levels and submerge low-lying areas?

Yet, these two enviro-whacks are buying an island to "showcase environmental issues and encourage people to live a greener life."

Whadda they gonna do when it sinks?

I mean, if the Goreacle is correct...

Science Or Faith?

2007-10-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

Doubt is the foundation of scientific thought.

Yet, doubt is tossed out the window when global warming is the issue.

We are expected to accept the content of An Inconvenient Truth upon faith alone. Those who doubt this piece of work, who question its scientific content, are ridiculed and demeaned.

There are those who would be the first to ridicule those with a religious faith as fools, who take this movie and the unproven "science" within without demanding the slightest proof. They condemn faith on the one hand and embrace it on the other.

There are those who ridicule others as lemmings for adhering to a policy of which they disagree, but blindly follow the leaders of anthropogenic global warming into the unknown.

Those who follow An Inconvenient Truth and AGW demand that science be followed by ignoring its basic tenet.

They are espousing a religion, a faith, not science.

The System Works

2007-09-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

===========================
2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful

Sep 26 07:17 PM US/Eastern

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."
===========================

Of course, sometimes, the system fails, as in Kelo v. New London - or, Dred Scott. But, that doesn't make notice of successes any less important.

Flippity-Floppity

2007-09-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

Past - We can do it!

Present - No, we can't!

================================
Hillary flip-flops, contradicts Bill - & herself - in N.H. debate

BY IAN BISHOP and MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, September 27th 2007, 1:58 AM

HANOVER, N.H. - Sen. Hillary Clinton scored with a Democratic audience last night by contradicting her husband's belief that a terrorist could be tortured to foil an imminent plot - but what observers didn't know is she was contradicting herself, too.

"It cannot be American policy, period," Clinton (D-N.Y.) told debate moderator Tim Russert, who asked if there should be a presidential exemption to allow the torture of a terror chieftain if authorities knew a bomb was about to go off, but didn't know where it was.

When Russert revealed ex-President Bill Clinton advocated such a policy on a recent NBC "Meet the Press" appearance, Hillary Clinton won huge applause from the Dartmouth College audience with a deadpan comeback:

"Well, I'll talk to him later."

She may have to give herself that talk, too.

Last October, Clinton told the Daily News: "If we're going to be preparing for the kind of improbable but possible eventuality, then it has to be done within the rule of law."

She said then the "ticking time bomb" scenario represents a narrow exception to her opposition to torture as morally wrong, ineffective and dangerous to American soldiers.

"In the event we were ever confronted with having to interrogate a detainee with knowledge of an imminent threat to millions of Americans, then the decision to depart from standard international practices must be made by the President, and the President must be held accountable," she said.
================================

So, Hill, which is it? Torture, Yea or Nay?

How To Lose A Majority

2007-09-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

In one easy step...

=============================
Plan Uses Taxes to Fight Climate Change

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; 7:34 PM

WASHINGTON -- Dealing with global warming will be painful, says one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress. To back up his claim he is proposing a recipe many people won't like -- a 50-cent gasoline tax, a carbon tax and scaling back tax breaks for some home owners.

"I'm trying to have everybody understand that this is going to cost and that it's going to have a measure of pain that you're not going to like," Rep. John Dingell, who is marking his 52nd year in Congress, said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
=============================

Voters don't tend to vote for those who do what they don't like. Republicans found that out in 2006 and the dems don't seem to have been paying attention.

Not Dingell, anyway.

The Backpedaling Begins

2007-09-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

Looks like Bush won't be the only president - actual or potential - keeping the troops in Iraq;

==============================
Dems Can't Make Guarantee on Iraq Troops

Sep 27, 6:26 AM (ET)
By BETH FOUHY

HANOVER, N.H. (AP) - The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013.

"I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state.

"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
==============================

I wonder how MoveOn will bastardize their names?

More Of That Fluff Science

2007-07-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

And, from the magazine, Science, that rag!

===========================
Oldest DNA ever recovered shows warmer planet: report

Jul 5 03:14 PM US/Eastern

Scientists who probed two kilometers (1.2 miles) through a Greenland glacier to recover the oldest plant DNA on record said Thursday the planet was far warmer hundreds of thousands of years ago than is generally believed.

DNA of trees, plants and insects including butterflies and spiders from beneath the southern Greenland glacier was estimated to date to 450,000 to 900,000 years ago, according to the remnants retrieved from this long-vanished boreal forest.

That contrasts sharply with the prevailing view that a lush forest of this kind could only have existed in Greenland as recently as 2.4 million years ago, according to a summary of the study, which is published Thursday in the journal Science.
===========================

If the planet was "far warmer hundreds of thousands of years ago than is generally believed," where did that heat come from?

After all, the present heat levels are assigned to human-induced greenhouse gasses. Obviously - well, it should be obvious, anyway - this was not the case hundreds of thousands of years ago, a time when it was WARMER.

But, I guess Science is another Big Oil sponsored rag, right?

And, then there's this;

===========================
They also indicated that during the last period between ice ages, 116,000-130,000 years ago, when temperatures were on average 5 C (9 F) higher than now, the glaciers on Greenland did not completely melt away.
===========================

Well, whaddya know...

Even though it was HOTTER, Greenland's glaciers didn't melt away entirely.

And, since then, they actually grew back.

Imagine that.

Big Brother Will Be Watching

2007-07-02T08:33:00.001-07:00

Even though the Texas legislature is nearly unanimous in opposing this new technology, TxDOT is still going ahead with it;

=============================
Texas DOT to Install
Federally Funded Highway Speed Cameras

Despite the opposition of the state legislature, the Texas Department of transportation proposes a federally funded speed camera test.

Despite the near-unanimous opposition in the state legislature to the use of speed cameras, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is moving forward on a proposal to deploy photo radar on state highways using federal gas tax funds. Legislation awaiting Governor Rick Perry's signature prohibited only municipalities -- like Marble Falls and Rhome -- from installing automated speeding ticket systems. It was silent on the possibility of a state-run system.
=============================

So much for Government of the People, by the People, for the People. The People, via their duly elected representatives, have spoken that they do NOT want this system. Yet, the executive is going ahead with it anyway. I have come to regret having voted for Rick Perry and have written to him expressing that regret.

Not that it will do any good. He is ignoring the voices of millions of Texans by ignoring the will of the Legislature. Why should he care about a letter from an individual?

That aside, is the goal of this system to make the roads safer?Is it to ensure compliance with the law?

Of course not.

This is the goal;

=============================
In its request for proposals, TxDOT cited success of speed cameras in the UK and Washington, DC. The UK government generated 120 million pounds (US $240 million) in revenue in 2003 while the Washington, DC red light and speed camera program has issued $217 million in tickets since 1999.
=============================

Revenue.

Money.

That is the goal - to generate funds for the State. This is a tax, not a law enforcement effort. It is a tool to generate revenue.

Another interesting tidbit is this;

=============================
TxDOT's vendor will send notices -- warnings at first -- to motorists driving just 5 MPH over the limit with an accuracy level of +/- 2 MPH[.]
=============================

It's not even being monitored or enforced by duly appointed law enforcment officers of the State. It is being monitored and enforced by the vendor, a private entity.

Then, there's the Sixth Amendment. The one that says "[T]he accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him[.]"

How can a camera be a witness? A camera is not a living being.

Get me on a Jury and I don't care if the camera caught you doing 110 in a school zone - I'll acquit. I will not support this system in any way or for any reason.

KHAN!!

2007-06-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

==============================
First artificial life 'within months'

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 6:42am BST
29/06/2007
Scientists could create the first new form of artificial life within months after a landmark breakthrough in which they turned one bacterium into another.
==============================

No, it's not Ricardo Montalban crawling out of a test-tube, but maybe something more dangerous.
Or, maybe something beneficial.
Or, maybe as beneficial as it is dangerous...

==============================
In a development that has triggered unease and excitement in equal measure, scientists in the US took the whole genetic makeup - or genome - of a bacterial cell and transplanted it into a closely related species.

This then began to grow and multiply in the lab, turning into the first species in the process.
==============================

I wonder if we really know enough about genetics to do this sort of thing safely. Are we really able to predict what our DNA manipulation will produce? Do we really know enough about it to ensure that an artificial DNA strand doesn't have any sequences that might cause it to become the foundation of a microscopic bug that we have absolutely no immunity to?

What is in the Pandora's Box we are opening? Toys or fatally poisonous barbs? Do we have any clue?

No One Is Listening To Us!!

2007-06-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Waaaaahhhh!!

So, we gotta stamp out feet and demand that the government control what everyone hears! Who cares about that First Amendment! Since no one wants to listen to us, we'll have to force them to and make sure that they don't hear what they actualy want!

==========================
REPORT: The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It

The Center for American Progress and Free Press today released the first-of-its-kind statistical analysis of the political make-up of talk radio in the United States. It confirms that talk radio, one of the most widely used media formats in America, is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives.
==========================

See, this unbiased report explains it all;

==========================
The new report — entitled "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio" — raises serious questions about whether the companies licensed to broadcast over the public radio airwaves are serving the listening needs of all Americans.
==========================

Never mind that this is a thinkprogress report, heck, they have no bias at all!

As an aside, does anyone else find it odd that the Center for American Progress and Free Press is demanding to restrict the free press? Even sadly laughable?

Live Free or Die

2007-06-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

New Hampshire's state motto may need updating to "Live Free as long as you don't smoke or allow smoking on your private property or Die."

Maybe a little cumbersome, but more accurate;

==========================
N.H. prohibits smoking in bars and restaurants

By Associated PressJune 20, 2007

CONCORD, N.H. -- Governor John Lynch signed a law yesterday banning smoking in New Hampshire's bars and restaurants.

"The science is clear -- secondhand smoke poses a dangerous health risk, and that is why this new law is so important," Lynch said.

More than a dozen states and hundreds of cities and counties around the country ban smoking in restaurants, bars, or both. New Hampshire was the only state in New England that did neither.

The law will take effect in 90 days.
==========================

We learned so much from Prohibition in the 20s and 30s.

Oh, not that it doesn't work, not that at all.

We learned that you don't prohibit something you don't like by a sudden, massive denial.

Goodness, no.

We learned that, if you want to control the free actions of others, you must do so in small steps. Steps that are only an annoyance, but will be tolerated. Once tolerated and accepted, you move to the next step.

And so on.

With sufficient long sight and planning, why, Americans could be denied all sorts of freedoms.

And, they'll lap it up, because it's good for them.

Did they decide it was good for them?

Well, no. They had to be told, silly. Of course, the average American is too dum - ah, concerned with other, more pressing, issues - to understand the danger in things they do. So, we must look out for them - whether they want it or not - to save them from these dangers that they might otherwise not give adequate heed to.

After all, we know what's best for Them. They certainly don't and must be taken by the hand and led along the proper path.

The Constitution?

Oh, that. Well, we know which parts best serve our purposes and how to get the less useful parts ignored or twisted. After all, it's a Living Document. It's only binding when we want it to be and can easily be managed to loosen up where we think it should.

You see, the Constitution is like a tool-box. You only pick the piece you need to do a certain job and ignore the rest, certainly if you don't need them. And, like a tool-box, if it has tools you don't like, you just throw them out. If you need new tools, you just add the ones you like.

Oh, pooh on all that law stuff. That's for lawyers, not real life. Like I said, only the parts we like are binding.

Yup. Just look far enough ahead and plan well, and Americans will give up anything...

But, They Only Want To Come Here For A Better Life

2007-06-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

What's a few forest fires and assaults between friends, anyway?

===========================
Illegals light border fires to sidetrack U.S. agents

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 19, 2007

U.S. Border Patrol agents seeking to secure the nation's border in some of the country's most pristine national forests are being targeted by illegal aliens, who are using intentionally set fires to burn agents out of observation posts and patrol routes.

The wildfires have destroyed valuable natural and cultural resources in the National Forest System and pose an ongoing threat to visitors, residents and responding firefighters, according to federal law-enforcement authorities and others.

...

Wildfires are being set by alien and drug smugglers, authorities said, to create a diversion in an attempt to gain undetected access across the border. The fires correspond to a dramatic rise in assaults against Border Patrol agents -- up more than 100 percent over last year.

...

She said law-enforcement personnel have been assaulted, threatened with weapons and shot at, and their vehicles have been rammed by cross-border violators. Because of the remoteness of the area, she said, timely assistance from other law-enforcement agencies is not always possible, and communications limitations and active interference with radio frequencies in Mexico create additional safety risks.
===========================

But - but - but ... they only want to come here to do the jobs lazy Americans won't do!

They only set fires and assault our public servants so that they can come clean YOUR toilet! And, if that means they have to interfere with the Border Patrol's radios as they call for help, well, so be it!

Uh-oh! Oil's Running Out

2007-06-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

Again...

==========================
World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists

Scientists challenge major review of global reserves and warn that supplies will start to run out in four years' time

By Daniel Howden
Published: 14 June 2007

Scientists have criticised a major review of the world's remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit.

BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show that the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world will run dry.
==========================

Let's see ...

If I remember right, back in the 70s we were told that we would be out of oil in 25 years or so.
So, let's see...

1970s plus 25...

... carry the 2 ...

Looks like we done ran out already somewheres twixt 1995 and 2004...

Now, we're gonna run out again?

Heck, why bother with vehicle emmissions control? After all, now we're gonna be out of oil - again - in four years. That'll put the kaibosh on emmissions, won' it...

Isn't It So Much Better...

2007-06-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

... now that Israel is out of Gaza?

Children playing in the parks, women shopping in the markets, dressed in gaily colored clothes, men contentedly drinking coffee while calmly discussing local and world affairs;

===============================
Hamas Overruns Fatah Security Command

Jun 14 07:11 AM US/Eastern
By DIAA HADID
Associated Press Writer

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and killed them in the street.
===============================

See?

So peaceful and tranquil.

Why, Israel is nothing but a villainous monster to have prevented this harmony in the past. It is good that they left Gaza and, the sooner they leave the Middle East entirely,the better. Then, all of Palestine - maybe all of the region - can be as pleasant and affable as the Gaza example shows...

On Gun Control

2007-05-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

I am struck by a conundrum.

Schools and Post Offices are Gun-Free Zones. Yet, we have Columbine, Virginia Tech and the events that gave us the catch phrase, "going postal."

Now, since these events occurred in Gun-Free Zones, what carnage must have happened at places where there are thousands of guns and hundreds are armed - a gun show.

I am not aware of a single shooting at a gun show. Is anyone?

Why is that?

I found this to be a good watch...--

What A World, What A World

2007-04-25T09:03:00.001-07:00

A ham sandwich in the presence of moslems is a hate crime, but a Crucifix in urine is art.

First One Story...

2007-04-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

...then another;

==================================
Global warming may spur wind shear, sap hurricanes

Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:02pm ET
By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - Global warming could increase a climate phenomenon known as wind shear that inhibits Atlantic hurricanes, a potentially positive result of climate change, according to new research released on Tuesday.

The study, to be published on Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters, found that climate model simulations show a "robust increase" in wind shear in the tropical Atlantic during the 21st century from global warming.
==================================

The story was that global warming was to bring a strong '06 hurricane season.

Now - maybe because the predictions proved to be so utterly inaccurate - global warming is going to "inhibit" hurricanes.

"Global warming is gonna freeze us!"
"No, wait, it's gonna cook us!"

"Global warming's gonna make worse hurricanes!"
"No, wait, it'll stop hurricanes!"

As Tommy Flanagan would say, "Yeah... That's the ticket!"

Tax Day Is A-Comin'

2007-04-12T06:55:00.001-07:00

But, this year, we get an extra day.

Ain't the IRS gracious?

Anyway, I wonder how long we'd have income taxes if we didn't have painless withholding by our employers?

What would be the reaction of the tax payer, if we had to actually write checks to the government personally, rather than the easy route of our employers just not giving it to us in the first place?

I'm willing to bet that a lot of government programs would be axed in a real hurry, if we had to pay our taxes out of our own bank accounts...

Wait A Minute...

2007-04-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

So, now, Global Warming is going to cool us?

===========================
Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future

Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday April 9, 2007
The Guardian

...

Climate change

There is "compelling evidence" to indicate that climate change is occurring and that the atmosphere will continue to warm at an unprecedented rate throughout the 21st century. It could lead to a reduction in north Atlantic salinity by increasing the freshwater runoff from the Arctic. This could affect the natural circulation of the north Atlantic by diminishing the warming effect of ocean currents on western Europe. "The drop in temperature might exceed that of the miniature ice age of the 17th and 18th centuries."
===========================

So, which computer model are we to believe? The one that says global warming is gonna heat us up and make deserts out of Palm Springs?

Or, the one that says we'll have an ice age?

Sheesh...

I will cede that there is ONE aspect of global warming that Man has control over - the panicky jitters. Ya know, the ones that sell ad-space...

Police Put Lives On The Line

2007-04-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

Risking life and limb, New York City police apprehended a dangerous criminal. Not knowing if this desperado was armed or not, they bravely risked their lives to ensure the safety of innocent citizens;

=========================
13-Year-Old Arrested In School For Writing On Desk

Principal Urges Cops To Arrest Girl For Writing 'Okay'

Tanya Rivero
Reporting

(CBS) NEW YORK In this day and age where young students are frequently charged for serious school offenses such as possessing weapons, dealing drugs, or assaulting other students on school property, one Brooklyn teen's arrest may come as a surprise. A 13-year-old girl was handcuffed and placed under arrest in front of her classmates in Dyker Heights after she wrote "Okay" on her desk.
=========================

Now, what th'?

This is ridiculous.

This principle who insisted on arresting this girl needs to be put under professional care. He is a threat to the well-being of the student population.

Probably another case of zero-tolerance gone stupid.

Yeah, He Was Muzzled, Alright

2007-03-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

========================
Climate scientist sees cover-up

By Eric Pfeiffer
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 20,
2007

A NASA scientist who said the Bush administration muzzled him because of his belief in global warming yesterday acknowledged to Congress that he'd done more than 1,400 on-the-job interviews in recent years.

James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who argues global warming could be catastrophic, said NASA staffers denied his request to do a National Public Radio interview because they didn't want his message to get out.
...
Mr. Hansen yesterday said the Bush administration threatened him and his office over his stance on global warming.

"It was an oral threat made to a public affairs person in New York and relayed to me," said Mr. Hansen, who is listed as a senior adviser to Mr. Gore and consulted on Mr. Gore's global warming film, "An Inconvenient Truth."
...
Mr. Deutsch, who was 23 at the time, said Mr. Hansen was prohibited from doing the interview because of his prior refusal to notify NASA officials when he was granting interviews, not for political reasons.

Citing what he called his "constitutional right" to give interviews, Mr. Hansen admitted violating NASA's press policy but defended his actions.
...
Mr. Hansen refused to denounce earlier comments he made referring to the White House as a "propaganda office," and saying, "It seems more like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union than the United States."
========================

Let's see - Hansen says he was denied an NPR interview [1 out of 1,400 others, a whopping 0.07%], yet we discover that the denial was due to his violating NASA policy, a violation he admits.

Yeah, that is so "Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union."

Supposedly, he received some horrendous threat.

Given orally
To someone else
Somewhere else and
Relayed to him

So, it was a "threat" that he heard from someone else that was said by some third party.

Yeah. What a threat...

So, this guy was "muzzled" for one interview out of 1,400 because he violated policy and he heard he was threatened by some guy who heard it from someone else.

Gee, sounds like anthropogenic global warming science at its best...

Consensus Might Be The Problem

2007-03-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

Because it is being used as a club to beat down - or up - dissenting views;

========================
Scientists
threatened for 'climate denial'

By Tom Harper, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:24am GMT 11/03/2007

Scientists who questioned
mankind's impact on climate change have received death threats and claim to have
been shunned by the scientific community.

They say the debate on global
warming has been "hijacked" by a powerful alliance of politicians, scientists
and environmentalists who have stifled all questioning about the true
environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions.

Timothy Ball, a former
climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg in Canada, has received five
deaths threats by email since raising concerns about the degree to which man was
affecting climate change.

One of the emails warned that, if he continued
to speak out, he would not live to see further global warming.

"Western
governments have pumped billions of dollars into careers and institutes and they
feel threatened," said the professor.

"I can tolerate being called a
sceptic because all scientists should be sceptics, but then they started calling
us deniers, with all the connotations of the Holocaust. That is an obscenity. It
has got really nasty and personal."

Last week, Professor Ball appeared
in The Great Global Warming Swindle, a Channel 4 documentary in which several
scientists claimed the theory of man-made global warming had become a
"religion", forcing alternative explanations to be ignored.

Richard
Lindzen, the professor of Atmospheric Science at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology - who also appeared on the documentary - recently claimed:
"Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their funds disappear, their
work derided, and themselves labelled as industry stooges.

"Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they
fly in the face of the science."

Dr Myles Allen, from Oxford University,
agreed. He said: "The Green movement has hijacked the issue of climate change.
It is ludicrous to suggest the only way to deal with the problem is to start
micro managing everyone, which is what environmentalists seem to want to do."
Nigel Calder, a former editor of New Scientist, said: "Governments are
trying to achieve unanimity by stifling any scientist who disagrees. Einstein
could not have got funding under the present system."
========================

Death threats?
Loss of funding?
Derision?
Insults?

Is this the cost of "consensus?"

"Consensus" is feeding us BS because many scientists would have their bread and butter snatched away if they dare dissent - or, they might even be killed. What sort of "consensus" is that and how is it a good thing?

About Fluff Science

2007-03-08T06:05:00.000-08:00

Seems NASA has an opinion on global warming models.

Current models "must be improved more than tenfold in accuracy[.]"

Sure, let's jack with the US economy based upon the data from models with a less than 10% accuracy...

Oh, wait, it's NASA. Sheesh, what do they know?

A Turncoat In The Ranks!

2007-03-05T06:22:00.000-08:00

Braving the potential consequences, Dr. Claude Allegre, one of France's leading socialists and among her most celebrated scientists, a former promoter and supporter of Anthropogenic Global Warming, has had a change of heart and mind.

From the article;

[T]he many climate models and studies failed dismally in establishing a man-made cause of catastrophic global warming.

Failed dismally.

The religion of Anthropogenic Global Warming is slowly being exposed for the facade that it is.

Unfortunately, the fanatic believers have their own Inquisitions to ridicule, denigrate and oppress any view that opposes their credo. Many follow this creed not out of any scientific foundation, but out of sheer faith. They believe that Man causes Global Warming, therefore it is so.

Despite scientific evidence to the contrary.

Faith is wonderful when it comes to exploring the Beginning of All Things or to provide insight as to why we are here, but it is a poor substitute for science when trying to explain the scientific.

Faith has no place in scientific inquiry. Yet, the anthropogenic global warmers have replaced science with faith in order to justify and rationalize their oppressive "answers" to a warming climate.

If You Don't Agree With Me...

2007-03-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

...you're biased.

So says AlGore.

"Balance as bias?"

So, if journalists present both sides of an issue, they are being biased?

Obviously, we must suppress opposing views. After all, to present opposition is to be biased and we can't have that.

Something Fishy...

2007-01-12T09:52:00.000-08:00

Islands of the US Commonwealth, such as the Northern Marianas, will have to comply with the new minimum wage laws;

==========================
Island rights and wage bill intertwined

By Susan Crabtree

House Democrats plan to bring the Northern Mariana Islands in line with U.S. minimum wage laws under legislation that comes to the floor today, thus ending a decade of policy favoring island businesses secured by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
==========================

Except, not American Samoa.

Why is that? As can be seen from the Hill News article above, the new minimum wage law was to end a dacade of policies favoring island businesses.

So, what is the reason for leaving out American Samoa?

Maybe Del Monte's Starkst Tuna?

Starkist Tuna employs 3/4s of the workers in American Samoa. A minimum wage hike may really affect them adversely.

But, where is Del Monte headquartered?

Why, San Francisco.

Oh! Wait a minute. That's Nancy Pelosi's district.

==========================
Shadegg finds House wage hike a bit fishy

5:29 PM MST Thursday
by Mike Sunnucks
The Business Journal

Phoenix Republican Congressman John Shadegg is criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats for exempting American Samoa and its tuna canneries from the House of Representatives' recently passed minimum wage increase.

Del Monte Foods Co. subsidiary Starkist Tuna employs three-fourths of the work force in American Samoa. Del Monte is based in San Francisco, Pelosi's home district.
==========================

So, what is the big change the democrats brought? A change from Republican cronies to democrat?

How is that a change?

Another Reason To Oppose McCain

2006-12-13T05:58:00.000-08:00

Seems McCain never met a Constitution he didn't like to walk on.

Got a blog?

Know the law enough to identify an "illegal image?"

If your answers are "Yes" and "No," you might get hit for $300,000 if someone posts an "illegal image" to your blog.

And, we all know that it's reasonable to assume that everyone using the Internet is able to readily and reliably identify an "illegal image," right? That's why no one ever falls for those Nigerian scams and no one's computer is hijacked by hackers - because everyone is a consumate computer expert.

First, McCain tramples on the Constitution with his Campaign Finance Reform law that restricts First Amendment guaranteed rights to free speech. Now, he wants to make one criminally liable for the acts of others.

Not really a new idea in theory, though. The DEA has been using this process in the "war on drugs" for years - decades. Got a nice boat, car or home? Better make sure that no one who visits does any drugs without your knowledge and leaves a bit of it behind. DEA will seize your property, because someone else did something that you were totally unaware of.

With the democrats coming in, this sort of government intrusion will only get worse.

It Ain't The Car's Exhaust...

2006-12-11T06:04:00.000-08:00

According to the UN, it's the cow's.

Score one more for Nature...

Chamberlain's Not Dead

2006-12-11T06:02:00.000-08:00

He changed his name to James Baker and put the ol' appeasement jacket back on to see if it fit current fashions.

I'm willing to bet that Hitler reacted favorably to Chamberlain's Plan, too...

When your enemies favor a decision, it's the wrong decision.

Big Brother MPAA

2006-11-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

It's Friday night, you have your 62" DLP ready to watch Casablanca and a bowl of popcorn by your side.

But first, have you made sure your registration with the MPAA is up to date? $500,000 fine, if not, for each movie!

Oh, and those motion sensors in the TV will tell the MPAA if you have any friends over.

Shame on you.

After all, according to Dan Glickman, head of the MPAA, "We have a right to know what's showing in a theater*."

Yup. They have a RIGHT to know what you are doing in your home.

* - The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29" with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon.

Looks Like A Return To The Bad Old Days

2006-11-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

Seems the dems may have the Senate now, too.

Unless something happens, there's probably a good chance they'll take the Executive in 2008, as well.

I'm very disappointed in my party. They had everything and threw it all away when they caught Beltway Fever.

But, whaddya gonna do?

"Join the democrats," some might say.

Not if my life depended on it. I oppose the very fiber of the democrat party. It has been an abomination since the criminal FDR, at least.

No. I will fight them with the tools available - my vote.

However, I think that the democrats will self-destruct. They are a party based upon emotion - Dean's scream, for example - and I don't think they will be able to keep their emotions in check. I believe they will not resist "payback."

I firmly believe that the democrat's entire agenda will be "payback." Will I be proved wrong? I don't know.

If I am wrong, then I think the country is in for socialism. What the Founding Fathers started will be tossed upon the scrapheap of history.

If I am right, then there will probably be some short-term damage, but nothing irreparable. The democrats will shriek and flail and show their true selves. The electorate will recoil and hand them their hats in 2008. Will this usher in a return of Republicans? If they have not, by then, learned from their mistakes that led them to be ousted in 2006, then I hope not. Maybe there will be an opportunity for the Libertarians - unless they trip themselves up.

Meanwhile, I'm going to have two years of material.

Tough Luck Liberals

2006-11-08T05:46:00.000-08:00

It's been decided.

Democrats have taken the House and will probably take the Senate - unless something has changed since I got out of my car.

Now what?

Now, the democrats have a tremendous burden.

They did not win because of their success.

They won because of the Republican's failure.

The democrats now have two years of opportunity. But, they will be under a very hot spotlight. Any missteps will be pounced upon by the Republicans with gusto and magnified by the circumstances that gave them their victory of last night.

I believe that, if the democrats do not produce in these two years, the 2008 elections shall bring a definite Republican victory. Whether for good or ill.

The electorate's memory is short. In 2008, they will not remember why they put the democrats in office. They will only remember what happened as a result.

This is a great opportunity for the democrats to demonstrate that they deserve their victory. But, it is also a great opportunity for Republicans to focus on their failures and correct them.

For me, the democrat party is a failure in and of itself. The Republicans - well, the current set - have not demonstrated themselves as all that much better. I am forced to have faith in the Republican ideology, despite the fact that few Republican leaders seem to give that ideology much credence. But, at least the Republicans have their ideology going for them, even if it's ignored. The democrats lack even that.

Of All The Nerve

2006-11-06T06:09:00.000-08:00

Europe didn't have the balls to help take Hussein down, but they do have the gall to stick their nose in to say what should happen to him. (as of 8 Mar 07, the page has been moved)

Hussein was TRIED by FREE Iraqis.
Hussein was held to the LAW by FREE Iraqis.
Hussein was found GUILTY by FREE Iraqis.
Hussein was sentenced to DEATH by FREE Iraqis.

But, the decision of FREE Iraqis does not quite meet with the EU's approval, so they dare to tell a FREE Iraq what to do.

The EU would take no part in making Iraq FREE, yet the EU has no problem in dictating to them how to apply their laws.

The EU is unable to control their own backyard, what makes them think they can tell others how to mow their lawns?

I'm referring to Milosevic.

Europe couldn't stop him, so they crawled to the US, begging for our aid in doing their job for them. Since 1914, Europe has been unable to see to its own affairs.

I'm of the opinion that the next time a spark falls on the EU house, let it burn to the ground.

File this one...

2006-10-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

... in the "Wise and Proper Use of Municipal Resources" bin.

=======================
The Nebraska city’s elected leaders and police department are urging
residents who see violations to call the 9-1-1 emergency system for an immediate
response.

Omaha banned smoking in public Oct. 2. Penalties are $100 for the first
offense, $200 for the second and $500 for the third and subsequent
infractions.

Teresa Negron, sergeant in charge of public information for the police,
explained the department encourages observers of infractions to pick up the
phone to report the infraction – just like they would for any other crime they
observe being committed.
=======================

See a guy smoking at Omaha's Mickey-D's?

Report'im!

Who cares if you're tying up a line that could be used to report a heart-attack or injury car accident, or rape?

Gotta git dem smokahs!

Cam, PI

2006-10-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I am now a private investigator - of sorts.

A year and a half ago, I spent $7,000 for a computer security track at SMU. I took the course to get some training in Computer Forensics, but got some other training, too (ethical hacking, Security +, wireless stuff and CISSP).

But, since taking the classes, I've been unable to make much use of it. I was interviewed by Dallas Police for a position as manager of their Computer Forensics group, but they decided to promote from within, instead.

I thought of doing some freelance stuff on the side, but found out that any sort of investigations work in Texas must be done by a licensed private investigator. If not, the investigator AND the person who hires them, can be hit with a big fine and jail time.

To get the license, one had to be employed by a licensed PI firm. Or, if working independently (kind of a Rockford or Magnum affair), one had to have three years of investigation experience in law enforcement or with a PI firm. I had neither, so, I was out of luck there.

During some email correspondence, my Computer Forensics instructor asked me if I'd like to do some free-lance consultant work for his agency. His company has a PI license and it covers me as a PI.

Totally cool.

It's just part-time work, but it gets me the time in as an investigator so that I can go it alone down the road, if I like.

All I need now is a Ferrari, an uppity English major domo with two Dobermans and a guest house on a Hawaiian estate...

Google Kneels Again

2006-10-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

It appears Google never met a government it wouldn't kow-tow to, unless it's the US government.

I'm all for the protection of artistic content, and, if there was a question on a video's legality, Google should've removed it on its own. But, instead, they wait until someone complains. And, should that complaintant be a government other than that of the US, Google will fall over itself to comply.

Beam Me Up, Scotty!

2006-10-06T05:48:00.000-07:00

Take that, Heisenberg!

===================
'Star Trek' teleporter nearer reality

June 17, 2002 Posted: 12:47 AM EDT (0447 GMT)

CANBERRA, Australia -- It's not quite "Star Trek" yet, but Australian university researchers in quantum optics say they have "teleported" a message in a laser beam using the same technology principles that enabled Scotty to beam up Captain Kirk.

What the team at the Australian National University have managed to achieve is to take apart an encrypted laser beam and simultaneously rebuild a replica one meter away.

Using a process called "quantum entanglement", the team effectively teleported a radio signal contained in the laser beam of light from one place to another.
===================

Maybe a Heisenberg Compensator isn't needed after all...

The nature of information security with computers based upon this quantum event will change radically. Quantum information is impossible to tap.

Totally cool, Maynard...

This Is Interesting...

2006-09-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

...on a couple of levels.

So, it wasn't Libby, Rove or Cheney.

But, unless Armitage had signed a security access request, agreeing to be bound by the law to the confidentiality of classified information, he didn't break the law.

If an ordinary citizen were to learn, by innocent means, some sort of classified information and then passed it along, that citizen is violating no laws.

Only those who have signed on to receive classified information are criminally liable for improper release of classified information. And, then, only for the particular part they signed on for.

The article had another comment of interest;

============================
Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials.
============================

False charge?

Which one?

The charge that Iraqi uranium-shopping was debunked?
The charge that his report debunking it had been circulated?

If #1, then it seems that Iraq WAS trying to buy uranium in Niger - much to the chagrin of the nay-sayers.

If #2, then it would appear that the decision-makers never received his report debunking the Iraqi shopping, thus the administration did not have that piece of intelligence available to them when deciding what to do about Iraq. So, as best as Bush knew from intel available to him, Iraq WAS trying to buy Nigerian uranium, as he was not aware of any intel to the contrary.

Again, much to the chagrin of the nay-sayers.

They Got Cocky

2006-08-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Israel is having a hard time against Hezbollah.

Why? This is the tiny nation that has taken on the Arab world in five wars throughout it's less than 60 years existance, winning every single one handily.

Why are they having a problem against a militia?

I think they got cocky.

I think Israel began to believe the stories about their invincibility. They have a good military, one of the world's best and with the best training. But, if they go into battle thinking they are so superior, they're going to make mistakes. They're going to underestimate the enemy and get a hard lesson in reality.

They have gotten just such a lesson.

There has also been a major, strategic mistake, one that I pointed out a few weeks ago. Israel is depending too much on their air power at the expense of their ground forces.

Air power is nifty and can turn the tide of battle - the Battle of the Bulge is a good example - but, once it blasts things to pieces, air power must retreat, allowing the enemy to reoccupy the postions they just left. Then, you have to blast them out of there again.

Only ground troops can hold - well, ground. And, Israel has cut its ground forces in favor of sexy aircraft.

Also, they didn't take into account the arming of Hezbollah by other nations; Iran and Syria. Iran and Syria get their their weapons from Russia - no slouch when it comes to anti-tank weapons.

So, Israel was surprised by Hezbollah's use of the Spandrel and Kornet ATMs.

These missiles have tandem warheads; the first warhead blasts away the Israeli's reactive armor - a great defense against HEAT rounds - clearing the way for the second warhead to punch a hole through the armor.

Which they do quite well.

So, Israel is fighting a different enemy than they thought. I believe they can still win, if they have the political will to do so. If not, if they bow to international pressure - pressure that, I believe, would prefer Hezbollah to remain - they may very well lose, emboldening their enemies - not just Hezbollah - to strike while the iron's hot.

They may be learning the error of their ways, but this might become the war that Israel lost. If so, it is their own fault, not because of any real superiority of the enemy.

For data on the Spandrel, go here.

For data on the Kornet, go here.

Very Interesting

2006-08-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

I caught the tail end of an interesting show on the History Channel last night. It was about the Mayan calendar and the inferred end of the world on 21 Dec 2012.

I don't buy into the end of the world bit, but there were two interesting coincidences that made me go - hmmm.

The Mayan had a really complex calendar and just the fact that someone managed to figure it out is fascinating to me, in and of itself, regardless of the portents.

Anyway, the two coincidences were;
On 21 Dec 2012,

The Sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way and
The Earth will be at one exent of its precession.

Now, I don't know if the Maya had some way to calculate these two events or, if it is mere coincidence, but it's very interesting.

Supposedly, according to the show, the time leading up to this date would be filled with change - social, political, climatic - and that there would be increased sunspot activity.

Well, we are going through a lot of change, but the social and political changes are just facets of Mankind. When was there a time when the was no change?

But, the climatic changes that we seem to be seeing were heralded by the Mayan Long Count Calendar. Or, so it seems.

And, we are in a time of increased sunspot activity - the last 70 years have seen more sunspot activity than any other time in the last 8,000 years.

The Long Count Calendar sets up a cycle of 26,000 years. And, that is the same period of the Earth's precession. The alignment of the Sun with the center of the Milky Way may have just been gravy, I'm not sure on that one - like I said, I only caught part of the show.

Anyway, I found this show to be very interesting.

At Least, Not Until They Are Ready

2006-08-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

In 2004, China opposed the weaponization of space. Now, they seem to have changed their tune.

They opposed weaponizing space, but, I surmise, only until they were prepared to do so themselves. No sense in anyone having a leg up on them.

Romney The Wimp

2006-07-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

Oh, c'mon, this is ridiculous.

If he didn't intend it as some sort of insult, then it wasn't and those offended need to get a grip.

Hezbollah Likes Punishment

2006-07-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

They just can't get enough of it, so they do something to attract even more.

Near Miss

2006-06-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

This Monday, we have an asteroid that will pass the Earth at 268,624 miles, just past the Moon's orbit.

I just might set up my telescope for this one...

More Fed Fund Bungling

2006-06-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

Season Football tickets, tropical vacations, divorce lawyers and a sex change; all dire needs of victims of Katrina and Rita.

Who filed for the aid?

Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel.

Yup.

And, Hillary wants the feds to control our healthcare?

Space, The Final Frontier...

2006-06-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hawking is right; we need to expand to space. This little planet can't hold all of us and the idea of a large-scale war to cull the herd isn't all that appealing.

How Do They Know?

2006-06-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Looks like a new species of hammerhead shark was discovered off the South Carolina coast.

Marine scientists find an individual example of this new species and have declared it "rare" and "at risk of extinction."

How do they know?

A photo with the article is captioned, "The shark prefers to breed in South Carolina waters."

How do they know?

They just found the silly thing and they think they know where it prefers to breed? How do they know the INDIVIDUAL they found wasn't a stray from a school of tens of thousands making a trek from Nova Scotia to Bermuda? Or, Argentina?

They find A SINGLE animal and immediately assume that it is endangered and that they know enough about the ENTIRE species to pronounce its breeding habits and preferences.

What sort of idiotic science its this?

My analysis is that this discovery shows that a bunch of researchers are clutching at straws to justify their budgets and to grab a bigger slice of pie. Maybe one of them has his eye on a new Porsche...

This Is A Great Idea

2006-05-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

We need to curtail the influx of illegals and put an end to those who come here merely to give birth to an "anchor baby;" a means to sponsor relatives for citizenship and residency. Representative Ron Paul of Texas, introduced an amendment in March of 2003 to attempt to curb the problem;

=========================
H.J.RES.42

Title: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to deny United States citizenship to individuals born in the United States to parents who are neither United States citizens nor persons who owe permanent allegiance to the United States.
=========================

This has been languishing in the Subcommittee on the Constitution since May 2003.

In 1993, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors reported that two-thirds of births in L.A. County hospitals were to illegal aliens, mostly Mexicans. Even conservative estimates, assuming an illegal alien population of between 8.7 and 11 million, run from 287,000 to 363,000 illegal-alien births per year.

But, this is not just a Hispanic problem. South Koreans have created a birth tourism industry. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2002, Korean tour operators fly Korean mothers into Los Angeles and other American cities, there to give birth — in Korean-owned clinics with Korean staff — to an "American."

Something must be done. But, until the Constitution is amended, we are stuck with "anchor babies" as legal constructs to facilitate questionable - perhaps otherwise illegal - entry to the United States.

Yes, It's All About Feeding Families

2006-05-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

In a pig's eye, it is.

How about, "The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot."-- Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico

Or, "California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave."-- Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations (and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under former CA Governor Jerry Brown. Also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.)

Or, maybe this, "We are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California." [Reconquista = reconquest]-- Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General

It's "reconquest," according to the Mexican Consul General. Well, maybe he has a hungry family to feed back home.

For more, go here.

When Mexican officials start tossing about terms like "reconquest," it becomes a bit more serious.

I wonder if the Second Amendment is still outdated?

Good Ol' CNN

2006-05-16T05:29:00.000-07:00

Gotta hand it to'em. When it comes to embarrassing the president, they're pros. NBC inadvertently cued the president early, stopped him and then he restarted on time. Everyone else showed only the properly timed presentation, but CNN - the sneaky little devils - showed the false start.

Bravo, CNN! Keep up the good misrepresentation!

Here's a little report on it.

Oh, and for those who claim Drudge is nothing but lies, here's CNN's footage.

2006-05-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

Though it now seems to be legal, I still don't like it. But, like income tax, I don't have much choice in the matter.

In 1979, the supreme Court ruled that there is no expectation of privacy regarding the numbers being called. It appears, this would be equivalent to staking out a potential crackhouse. No warrant is required to record who goes in or to take pictures of them. If the cops want to search inside - analogous to recording conversations - then a warrant would be needed. But, to merely watch the outside - or see who's calling what number - it seems the court has decided that's OK.

The actual supreme Court case is Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979)

Here is the relevant part;

===========================
Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979)

Surveillance Power: Expanding the Scope of the Government?s Surveillance Power

PART C: Access to Business Records Held in Third Party Storage

The police installed a pen register, without a warrant, at the central telephone system in order to obtain phone numbers that petitioner was dialing from his home. A robbery victim had been receiving calls from the alleged robber. The police found that the petitioner had called the victim?s home and charged petitioner with robbery. Petitioner contended that the use of pen registers violated his Fourth Amendment rights. However, the state court did not agree with this contention. Likewise, the Supreme Court held that pen registers do not violate the Fourth Amendment. They may be obtained without a warrant because pen registers are not a search within the traditional sense. Pen registers help uncover numbers that someone has dialed and individuals should not reasonably expect that this information is private since the dialed numbers are automatically shared with the telephone company. Therefore, the Court held that the pen register was a proper form of investigation.
===========================

And, here we have the complete decision.

US Aids Mexico

2006-05-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

Not only is the Border Patrol NOT securing the US borders, they are also aiding the illegals in getting across. The Border Patrol has been told to give the location of Minuteman patrols to the Mexican government. Not only are they aiding the illegals by letting them know where crossing sites are being watched, enabling them to go elsewhere, but the lives and safety of those on these patrols is put in jeopardy. The Mexican government is one of the most corrupt on the planet. Who knows what gang or drug cartel is also getting this information?

Further, the Border Patrol has been told many times NOT to go out on a Minuteman call. So, to the Border Patrol Brass, the criminality of entering this country depends upon who's looking.

If the Minutemen were to call in a rape, would law enforcement not respond?

Here we have another incident of upper level law enforcement interfering in the duties of the rank and file. Last week it was the brass stepping in to cover up Patrick Kennedy's drunken accident. Today, it's ignoring citizens - citizens who have every right to monitor the border - who call in to report illegal activity to the agency responsible for its enforcement.

What will it be tomorrow?

Pedal To The Metal

2006-05-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

I read about a fascinating alternate fuel source - metal powder, in this case, iron powder.

Since washing the FeO in hydrogen restores it to a useable state, I suppose a complete tank of iron dust wouldn't be necessary. If one knows the time to wash the oxide in hydrogen to restore it and how many cycles the engine makes in that time, all you'd have to do is carry enough iron dust, maybe 10% extra for variable factors, to run the engine long enough to have the earliest used iron cleaned and returned to the engine.

Then, all you'd need to carry would be the necessary hydrogen - a lot lighter than iron - to do the washing.

Since the exhaust is water - the same as a hydrogen fuel cell - you could dump it or condense it from vapor to liquid to use back at home. It should be pure water, no contaminents, so you could store it for consumption or just to water the yard.

Did Iran Blink?

2006-05-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Has Iran come to its senses, finally?

And, as a result, oil dropped.