By analytical chemist and a mathematician Sherwood Thoele
Global cooling or global warming, which is it? It depends upon the latest climate study published. In the 1960s and 1970s, they claimed global cooling because of several years of colder than “normal” temperatures. Academia and certain think tanks claimed this cooling was from too much CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere. That died down and then came a warming spell, so we are now experiencing global warming, because of too much CO2 in the atmosphere. So, too much CO2 causes both global cooling and global warming.
As an analytical chemist, I analyze all the parameters and data from studies: what prompted the study, who funded it, where it was conducted, measuring equipment accuracy and the atmospheric conditions or physical status of that area during the study. Might there be bias for the outcome of the study, either by those conducting the study or those funding it and does the conclusion match the data? I want to know all this information before I accept the conclusions of any study, especially when it comes from someone within a social movement or political group.
Briefly, what is CO2 and what are some of its properties? CO2 is a gas at temperatures above -78.5C (-109.3F) at sea level, and it’s only liquid under a lot of pressure, like in fire extinguishers. CO2 is heavier than air, so without air currents it won’t rise above the ground (stage fog, silos, caves, mines). It is slightly soluble in water at room temperature and lower. So it is more soluble in the moisture in the colder upper atmosphere. CO2 with water makes carbonic acid (carbonated water), making it even heavier. Air is from 0.027 to 0.036 percent CO2, depending on the reference source.
One of the first things you learn in chemistry is that everything moves toward a state of equilibrium. So when too much water is in the atmosphere, along with other conditions, it rains. Along with this moisture is any excess or out-of-equilibrium CO2. CO2 with water is a mild acid with a pH of 5 to 6, which is perfect for plants. This acid helps release other minerals in the soil turning them into carbonates that dissolve easier in water, making them available to plants.
Because CO2 is slightly soluble in water and will come back to the Earth with precipitation, nature corrects for any excess, just as it does with other excess materials from volcanoes and forest fires.
CO2 comes from burning or oxidizing organic material and minerals that contain carbon. Major sources are fermenting (rotting) vegetation like in swamps, compost piles, burning limestone to make lime, gasoline or other petroleum products, volcanoes and forest fires. Nature recycles all of what it considers excess very efficiently. CO2 absorbs some infrared radiation. Infrared absorbers accept the radiation from any direction.
Since infrared radiation is one of many parts of visible light, the biggest source is the sun. Some say excess CO2 combined with the moisture in the atmosphere absorbs infrared radiation from the Earth to create a greenhouse effect by not letting it pass through it. But how then does the infrared radiation from the sun get through the CO2/moisture, and wouldn’t it already have absorbed as much infrared radiation as it could handle from the sun?
There is a limit to the amount of infrared radiation that moisture/CO2 can absorb. Warmth from sunlight means infrared radiation is getting through. The infrared radiation absorbed by the Earth will keep it warm for a while, but as clouds linger and the sun goes down, the warmth goes away quickly. So if there were a greenhouse effect from heat being blocked from leaving the Earth, then the temperature on cloudy days and at night shouldn’t be so different than on a sunny day.
Some claim a 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in the average temperature over the last 100 years, globally. Considering the many variables that cause temperature changes, including the accuracy of the thermometers, the average global temperature has been extremely stable in this short period of time relative to the age of the Earth.
I submit that there is no manmade global cooling/warming, that there is no study or research data that makes a good argument to that effect when carefully examined objectively and that the Earth has many different and wide-ranging cycles that man cannot control, no matter how much he would like to.
U.K. Will Not Deport Gay Iranian Teen After Lover Was Hanged
LONDON — Britain’s Home Office says it will not deport a gay Iranian teenager back to his homeland.
The U.K. Border Agency said on Tuesday that Mehdi Kazemi will be allowed to remain in Britain.
Kazemi came to England to study English in 2005. He discovered his boyfriend had been charged in Iran with sodomy and hanged.
Kazemi asked for asylum, claiming he would be executed if he returned to Iran. Though his application was refused last year, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith agreed to reconsider his case in March.
Is it the idea that man could change this planet threatens your faith?
I mean, all we have to suggest that “God” has any influence on this planet is an old story book.
If there were real evidence (and there is) that man was changing this planet in ways “God” is only SAID to have, does that threaten you and your God?
It shouldn’t you know. Even if there is no evidence of “God’s” existence, that same story book does tell the faithful to be good stewards of the Earth.
Gasoline = $3.79.9 per gallon - the highest I’ve ever seen it. How many times have I said that this summer? Too many.
The House passed legislation allowing the U.S. to sue OPEC over gas prices. Bush, et al. say that suing would actually make the price of gas higher. Their argument made sense, but their lack of providing any alternatives implies that we are going to be victims of this cost from now on.
I don’t actually trust Bush, Cheney, et al. to ever tell us the truth about anything — especially not oil.
I do hope the Bush 2004 voters who cast their ballot for Bush/Cheney because they could keep us safe are enjoying these profound freedoms we now have.
It will take a while to get this country on the right track. McCain has no ability, or even the inclination, to do that.
” A grim diagnosis: Kennedy’s brain cancer is worst kind”
“WASHINGTON - A malignant glioma — the diagnosis doctors gave Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — is the worst kind of brain cancer. Malignant gliomas strike almost 9,000 Americans a year. Survival statistics are grim — few live three years and for the worst subtype, half die within a year.”
For those of us who will, Lib. or Con., I think a prayer is in order for this man and his family. This ain’t gon’a be easy for them or a lot of this nation. We are losing an political icon.
My personal favorite: Shemale Escorts of Cincinnati.
If you have to go to Cincinnati, that is probably information you need. LOL
I still wonder if there is a positive feedback loop whereby the more trackbacks a thread gets, the more in number it will likely receive? And is it necessary to clog up this space with so much crap?
Goodmorning. I recieved this link this morning. http://www.americasnewtanker.com/ . It was attached to an e-mail from Senator Obama. Herbert West III, Candidate for Sheriff, Miami County Kansas, as of May 7th 2008. west.herb@yahoo.com wen2k.com . Hang in in there.
Gas in Norway and most of Europe is almost $7 a gallon, Mexico it’s around $2.50, in Saudi it’s about 90 cents, and in Caracas, Venezuela it’s only 12 cents a gallon.
Maybe we should start drilling our own reserves…or come up with viable alternatives, which makes so much sense it’ll probably never happen in our lifetime.
Hank’s source may be a crackerjack chemist, but he’s not much of a physicist. He writes:
“Since infrared radiation is one of many parts of visible light, the biggest source is the sun. Some say excess CO2 combined with the moisture in the atmosphere absorbs infrared radiation from the Earth to create a greenhouse effect by not letting it pass through it. But how then does the infrared radiation from the sun get through the CO2/moisture, and wouldn’t it already have absorbed as much infrared radiation as it could handle from the sun?”
It’s called the greenhouse effect. When light shines through your windshield on a winter’s day and heats up the inside of your car, does the glass get hot?
Of course not. If the glass got hot, it would radiate the heat back out into the air, and the car wouldn’t warm up much.
What happens is that radiation energy (light) from the sun has a short wavelength which punches through the atmosphere. Then those wavelengths hit something like earth or water, which heats it up. Now the energy is converted into heat with a much longer wavelength. It can’t punch back out through the atmosphere at the same rate it came in, so there’s a net gain in heat energy.
That’s why ham radio operators use long wavelengths like 80 meters (a single wave oscillation is 80 meters long) to bounce off the ionosphere so they can talk to someone in Japan or Australia. (Actually, it can bounce off the ionosphere and the ground several times.)
Short wavelengths like 2 meters just go to the horizon and on out into space for the most part.
Since the thickness of the atmosphere is a main determiner of how much heat is gained, the thicker the atmosphere (by burning coal and gasoline), the hotter it’s going to get.
And if you don’t believe it look at Mars and Venus. Granted, humans didn’t have anything to do with those planets, but still, Mars has a thin atmosphere and is very cold (solid CO2 at the poles means a temp of 110 F below zero) while Venus with its very thick atmosphere is 800 F at the surface.
Thicken the atmosphere — increase the heat of the planet. That’s what we do everytime we burn coal and gasoline that is carbon sequestered in the ground for hundreds of millions of years . . .
This is the inexorable law of physics that all Hank’s parade of nay-sayers cannot refute.
“Thicken the atmosphere — increase the heat of the planet. That’s what we do everytime we burn coal and gasoline that is carbon sequestered in the ground for hundreds of millions of years”
———————-
Simplistic baloney Capn. Other planets don’t have our kind of atmosphere.
The net warming or cooling effect of cloud cover depends on what type of clouds. This article describes an effect wherein as the temperature rises, the cloud cover diminishes to allow cooling. Well designed, wouldn’t you say?
“High clouds over the western tropical Pacific Ocean seem to systematically decrease when sea surface temperatures are higher,” says Arthur Y. Hou of Goddard’s Data Assimilation Office…”
“The researchers compare this inverse relationship to the eye’s iris, which opens and closes to counter changes in light intensity. The “adaptive infrared iris” of cirrus clouds opens and closes to permit the release of infrared energy, thus resisting warmer tropical sea surface temperatures, which occur naturally and are predicted to increase as the result of climate warming.”
Well, I guess then in six months the drilling in ANWR will be over.
I don;t deny the Bush problem with drillin in the Gulf off of Florida? So what? NEw President, new Congress. I don;t support Bush. Haven;t for a long time. And the reason wind farms in one area were not allowed was because of Ted Kennedy. So what.
If we are going to tax fuel consumption as a way of removing ourselves from the teat of foreing oil, and oil in general, then MY PRICE in supporting that is allowing oil development in our back yard.
“A 1998 United States Geological Survey (USGS) study indicated at least 4.3 billion (95% probability) and possibly as much as 11.8 billion (5% probability) barrels (0.9 to 2.5 km³) of technically recoverable oil exists in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 1002 area, with a mean value of 7.7 billion barrels (1.7 km³). In addition, in the entire assessment area, which covers not only land under Federal jurisdiction, but also Native lands and adjacent State waters within three miles (5 km), technically recoverable oil is estimated to be at least 5.7 billion (95%) and as much as 16.0 billion (5%) barrels (0.7 to 1.9 km³), with a mean value of 10.4 billion barrels (1.2 km³).”
“The U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels (3,200,000 m³) daily. If the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil reserves were used to supply 5% of the U.S. daily consumption — most is imported from Canada (19%), Mexico (15%), Saudi Arabia (11.5%), Nigeria (10.5%) and Venezuela (10.5%)[11] — the reserves, using the low figure of 4.3 billion barrels (680,000,000 m³), would last approximately 4300 days, or almost 12 years. Using the high estimate, the reserves would last approximately 11800 days, or 32 years.
Total oil independence at 20 million barrels per day (using the before mentioned 10.5 billion barrel mean) would only supply the United States for 525 days (or less than a year and a half, but this complete supporting is impossible). Using the increasing price of oil this supply (with 10.5 billion barrel mean and crude oil at over $120 a barrel) would be worth 1,260,000,000,000.00 ($1.26 trillion).”- Wikipedia
And by the way, I am putting my money where my mouth is. I drive nearly 400 miles a week. (sometimes more) a 50 cents per gallon tax is going to put a big hole in my pocket.
Oh, my lawdie - did anyone catch the finale of “Dancing with the Stars” last night? My fave, Adam Carolla, made a repeat appearance - and he couldn’t have been any cuter. He really stuck it to O.B. Laden and his ilk - all the while exuding his usual humor and personal charm.
I even endured the appearance of Marlee Matlin, whom I have long since pardoned for ensnaring the once-gorgeous William Hurt. The two co-starred in the insipid 1986 flick “Children of a Lesser God” and fell in love and lived together for 2 years. Now, I believed back then that I would have made a most delightful deaf-mute; the sight of the eye-gasmic, Oscar-winning thespian nearly compelled me smash my eardrums, beseech him to marry me and take me away from all this, and ravage me on the steps of the Braille Institute in the gathering dusk.
But he didn’t. After winning the 1985 Oscar for “Kiss of the Spider Woman” - he chose his nubile co-star instead.
Oh well, I don’t REALLY want to be deaf; then again, if he had married me, the sound of my own screams might have deafened me anyway…..okay, too much information.
I was glad Kristie and Mark won - they heartily deserved to do so.
And Marlee and Bill broke up in the fall of 1987. I guess the once-babealicious actor was awful to live with. But, da-yummie, it ain’t every day that someone could make this music lover want to be deaf. That’s sayin’ a lot right there.
‘Cause this is one Spider spinster who once wished to be kissed. Passionately. With panache. Too bad the dude has lost most of his looks. What a cruel thing time is……
The government should not be involved in any way with researching alternative fuels. Did not ethanol prove anything? The gas companies have huge profits to fund the development. Let them use their own money. The market will dictate the most viable solutions. Subsidies and grants cloud the issue.
Don;t you understand that the oil companies are evil and will supress any informaiton/technology that challenges their stealing of money from poor people around the world? DOn;t you understand that the government is the only solution to todays’ problems? Don;t your understand that petroleum based energy will kill all of mankind?
while I agree with you in principal, I am tired of fighting with those who think like my first paragraph. I am willing to compromise, and put my money on it.
I believe we’ve entered the “New World Order”, and the U.S. is descending down the ranking list.
There needs to be an excise tax on everything sold to the OPEC countries that is continually counter balancing to their price increases.
When they see it’s not getting them anywhere maybe prices will go down.
It’s Opecs oil. THey have a right to charge whatever they can get for it. We need to remove ourselves from the teat as much as possible, while we develop alternative energy.
But you are right, our stuff is our stuff. We can charge them whatever we want. Of course, some other country will just give it to them at half that.
Sel sufficiency is the answer. And while educating folks about th ebenefits of conservation is good, it is also long term. Answers need to be found now. ANswers of energy availability within our own country
I believe we’ve entered the “New World Order”, and the U.S. is descending down the ranking list.
You got that right. And the candidate that gets it (Fiat money, no nation building, strong defense, limited government…) was made out to be the ‘kook’. Then when people saw through the media bias (those with a clue anyway) they blacked him out.
God forbid the voters hear the truth. That the fiat monetary system would fail, that foreign intervention only brings harm to all sides, the current war has devastated our military while growing our enemies. God forbid we hear the truth.
And when those with a clue enter into the political system as delegates, the GOP changes the rules so that the beloved and anointed McCain isn’t embarrassed by his infinite lack of wisdom regarding foreign policy and the economy. See below. There are many many more instances, just google it. BTW, isn’t it funny how the New Hampshire recount never happened?
LJ, I was thinking about a world wide OPIC cartel, that’s the only way it might work. If they can collude against their customers, their customers should be able to collude against them.
The news comes as the White House is denying a new report it plans to attack Iran before President Bush leaves office. On Monday, Israel’s Army Radio reported a senior member of President Bush’s entourage told a high-level meeting last week in Jerusalem that Bush and Vice President Cheney believe an attack is called for. President Bush was in Israel last week marking its sixtieth anniversary.
Clinton Fundraiser Accused of Trying to Buy Support of Superdelegates
Meanwhile, the Huffington Post reports one of Hillary Clinton’s top financial supporters recently offered $1 million to the Young Democrats of America while he pressed for the organization’s two uncommitted superdelegates to endorse Clinton. The billionaire entertainment magnate Haim Saban reportedly made the offer in a call to the group’s president, David Hardt. The group turned down Saban’s offer. Saban has not denied talking to the Young Democrats of America, but he says the report in the Huffington Post is not true.
The price of oil remains at near record levels despite a promise by Saudi Arabia to pump an additional 300,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Saudi Arabia made the announcement on Friday while President Bush was meeting with Saudi’s King Abdullah. In exchange, Bush has pledged US support for a Saudi nuclear power program. As part of the deal, Washington will help Saudi Arabia receive enriched uranium for its nuclear reactors.
Veterans Facility Urged Not to Diagnose Veterans with PTSD
The Washington Post is reporting staff members at a veterans facility in Texas were urged not to diagnose soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments. In an email, psychologist Norma Perez wrote, “Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out.” Instead, Perez recommended the veterans be diagnosed with “adjustment disorder.” Veterans diagnosed with PTSD can be eligible for disability compensation of up to $2,500 a month. Those found to have adjustment disorder generally are not offered such payments. A recent study estimated about 300,000 US military personnel who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from PTSD or major depression.
“I don’t have any health care Capn.I spent today tearing up a floor throwing up all the time.
Tomorrow, I get to retile that floor probably throwing up all the time.I’m getting paid 35 dollars for the entire job.My exploiter is an Obama supporter. And my own brother.”
JR, I’ve been out of pocket for a few days but saw the above post on the Clinton Thread. Later, you posted this is not the flu, but you have had this for sometime and it is continual.
I may not agree with your lifestyle or political preference, but I can’t watch a person with a health issue which may be very serious if left untreated.
You MUST go to the hospital or a clinic. Be adamant - and insist you be helped. Keep a record of the times you get ill (vomit,chills,temperature,time of day), and show the doctor it is a long term and recurring problem. Providing him the above, may help with a diagnosis - in addition provide evidence your problem is NOT the flu. It also is harder for a physcian, when confronted with documented medical history - to gaff you off.
This is important not just for your LIFE - but you have a son who depends upon you and needs you.
Further, you are not Cinderella. You don’t have to do the work for your own brother at slave wages. Unless, your brother truly does not have the resources to pay you a fair wage. This later I can understand. But if he is just taking advantage of you, you need to grow some brass balls and insist your own blood pay you better.
Additionally, you can use the internet for free - and research your health issue. There are websites which you can access which will help you diagnose what “potentially” is ailing you. Not exact and certainly NOT preferrable to seeing a real doctor, but it might SCARE you enough to see the many potential life threatening disease/illnesses which your symptoms could be.
Maybe then you will be kicked in the butt to go see a doctor, instead of whining on the blog.
Your whine (yeah, I’m taking a pot shot here), really does reflect a cry for help. I can’t help via this blog directly.
But hopefully your fellow lib bloggers have something they call “compasssion” and will open their lib hearts to get you help - or also via private email INSIST you get to a doctor.
You might also consider getting more sleep. If you are sick, it might be better to spend the time in bed, rather than blogging late at night. Or like I said - research on line your sickness
(besides the liberal one, of course).
Spies for Hire: Carlyle Group to Become Owner of “One of America’s Largest Private Intelligence Armies”
The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest and most secretive investment funds. Nicknamed the Ex-President’s Club, Carlyle’s employees have included both President Bush, H.W. and George W. Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci. Amidst growing public scrutiny over its dealings, the company has recently scaled back its holdings in military contractors and its links to controversial political figures.
But that appears to be changing. On Friday, the intelligence firm Booz Allen Hamilton said it would sell its government-oriented unit to Carlyle Group for $2.5 billion. Booz Allen has been a major figure in the privatization of government intelligence. Current National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell was Booz Allen’s director of defense programs before his appointment last year. Booz Allen has been deeply involved in some of the Bush administration’s most controversial counterterror programs, including the infamous Total Information Awareness data-mining scheme. The Carlyle-Booz Allen deal awaits shareholder and regulator approval.
California Supreme Court Overrules Gay Marriage Ban
In California, the State Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage. In a five-to-four ruling, the court said state restrictions on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional. Beth Teper of Colage, a group for the children of gay couples, welcomed the ruling.
Beth Teper: “Children with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) parents deserve our families to be respected, validated and protected legally and culturally. The Supreme Court ought to be applauded for their decision today.”
The decision came out of a challenge to hundreds of gay marriages performed in San Francisco in 2004. The California Supreme Court had intervened to stop the weddings and later invalidated the documents. On Thursday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the court’s new decision could have national implications.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: “And by the way, as California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It’s inevitable. This door is wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not. This is the future, and it’s now.”
California joins Massachusetts as the only states extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
Now I feel marriage should be between two consenting adults as the only qualifier. The problem I have with this is that the state voted to ban them. For the government to overrule the will of the people is not right. The government is supposed to be of, from and for the people, not deciding what is best after the citizens have spoken.
The government did not overrule the people. The Court ruled on the Law, which is its function. The Court found the Law to be unconstitutional. We need to keep that straight.
The Hunter Health Clinic on East Central might be a low cost alternative. They have good P.A.s there, I hear - Geno Salerno (sp?) the guy who carved the wood statutes all over town, is one of them - used to be at least.
Email me if I can do anything.
My wife and I make 6 figures plus a year. We’re not rich, but I thought of us as comfortably middle class. With everything going up - gas, food, ad nauseum, I have to more carefully budget now than I have at any time since college. I think the economic sewer we have now will result in a 1964 styled repudiation of the GOP come this November.
Remember the then Arizona state Senator who carried his home state and Idaho, I think?
It is just a logical extension of the “globalization of America” the Repubs. have been heralding. A truly global comapany has no loyalty to any country, and can not be counted on to have the domestic interest at heart. We’ve seen it manifested by defense firms as well as the oil industry.
When oil hits 150 the masses will raise up and demand nationalization of the oil industry.
J R
I don’t know if they’re still there, but the World Impact Clinic on 13th Street was a godsend to me when I first moved here. The doctor (don’t remember her name) is an angel from heaven.
I have read the latest news regarding Senator Kennedy. It would seem that my father died of a very similar situation nearly 36 years ago. His tumor was inoperable, as the Senator’s appears to be. However, modern-day medicine has advanced considerably since the summer of ‘72.
This was the fate that awaited my father: In the fall of 1971, as I was just turning 13, my father began losing his photographic memory. His razor-sharp cognition, which had won him bonuses from his employer every year, now began to fail him. Slowly, inexorably, agonizingly, the very faculties (besides his prodigious alcohol consumption) which sustained him abandoned him.
Not surprisingly, he suffered excruciating headaches before the (correct) diagnosis was made. And let me assure everyone: whatever weaknesses some families exude are magnified one-million-fold when terminal illness strikes. In late May 1972, my father suffered a seizure while visiting his friend Frank in Wilson, KS. He then lost consciousness, an ambulance was summoned, and he was initially taken to Hadley Hospital in Hays.
As I would come to know well as I advanced into womanhood, Hays had very few specialists at that time. No one knew what had befallen my father, until finally he was taken to Wichita (Wesley) - and the tumor was properly diagnosed. There were no cures, no treatments, nothing to do but await the inevitable.
Death, when it came, was merciful. I’ll never forget that moment. My (maternal) grandmother phoned with the news; I hopped onto my little yellow one-speed bike, scurried over to Dillon’s, and pored over the latest copy of 16 magazine and its sister publication, Tiger Beat. I was madly infatuated with an actor/musician who was featured rather often in their pages, and this was what compelled my attention.
This, to be sure, is why I admire and respect the Kennedy’s, despite their myriad failings. They, like many of us, are complicated, flawed, worthy individuals. But of one thing you cannot fault them: Nobody would ever deem them indifferent to their progeny.
I really cannot stomach the thought of anyone trotting out the Senator’s mistakes. What discernible benefit will this enact? It’s not that I’m accusing anyone of lying - it’s that the timing is vastly inappropriate.
Nothing I could say would enable anyone to understand parental disengagement and indifference. You’d have to experience it firsthand, and I don’t wish that on anyone who is human.
As an ancient philosopher once said, “Go know” - and that’s about the only g-day-ummed way you’d understand.
“truly global comapany has no loyalty . We’ve seen it manifested by defense firms as well as the oil industry.
Reworded as
“truly global consumers have no loyalty to any country, and can not be counted on to have the domestic interest at heart.” They will shop anywhere, to buy merchandise made anywhere, to save even small amounts. Hence, the rise of Wal Mart and demise of American Manufacturing.
Gee whillikens, Max, are you sinless? Are you perfect? Got a freakin’ halo over yer head?
If so, can I kiss your ring? ‘Cause I’ve always wondered what perfection felt like! Please, let us know what flawlessness is like! Please? Pretty, pretty please????
“Max manages to be offensive to Chas and Kennedy at the same time.”
Hey Max! Sounds like you got a twofer. Now that is what I’d call effective blogging.
No further comments on JR/BlueJay. My post was sincere (although sincerity is no guarantee for the truth). I hope he logs off long enough to seek help.
And he does have friends here - whom I hope will make the connection.
Have you ever considered having your own blog? Your ideas and posts are so diverse, a blog of your own would give you the window you need to address them all. There are tons of free ones out there that require very little computer knowledge (if that’s a problem). I like Blogger.com, but there are many, may others.
Thank Goodness–outlander links to an article claiming that fewer cirrus clouds will reduce total effect of global warming.
Unfortunately, on the same site, we read this:
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels Highest On Record
ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2006) — In 2005, globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded. The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) 2005 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, published Nov. 3, says quantities of CO2 were measured at 379.1 parts per million (ppm), up 0.53 per cent from 377.1 ppm in 2004.
After water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are the three most prevalent greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere respectively. Greenhouse gases are some of the major drivers behind global warming and climate change.
Stupid is as stupid does. For your reading plesure
“Teen Nabbed For Naked MySpace Photos
Cops: Boy posted explicit shots of ex-girlfriend as way of “venting”
MAY 21–Meet Alex Phillips. The Wisconsin teenager is facing felony child pornography charges for allegedly posting naked photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. When contacted by police about the two images, Phillips, 17, balked at removing the pictures of the girl. Warned that he could face jail for publishing images of the minor, Phillips told an investigator, “F#@$#$ that, I am keeping them up,” according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in Lacrosse County Circuit Court. Phillips, pictured in the below mug shot, told cops that he posted the photos last week “because he was venting.” The cell phone camera photos had been taken by the girl, who provided them to Phillips. Along with posting the photos, Phillips added explicit captions like, “Yo, U see how big her hole is! Its from me!” While claiming that his goal was not to harm the girl, Phillips acknowledged that, “he probably should not have done this,” according to the May 20 court filing. Along with the child porn count, Phillips was charged with defamation and sexual exploitation of a child. (3 pages) “
I was running a few errands this morning, driving on Meridian just north of Pawnee, when I saw a fawn running south. I slammed on the brakes and the fawn cut in front of me and ran across the street into the parking lot of the Flea Market.
When I got home, I made a call so that the authorities could capture the deer before she and/or other drivers got hurt.
I made the first call to Animal Control, and was given another number to call. I listened to a recorded greeting for several minutes before being given another number to call. That was to the Wildlife folks and they asked me (!) what I thought they should do. Then they gave me another number to call.
When I finally got through to a human, the person that took the call seemed totally disinterested, but took the information.
Granted, I didn’t come across a grizzly bear or a man-eating coyote, but a frightened fawn running loose could cause a serious auto accident, especially around a heavily populated area.
I didn’t call 911, because I consider that to be a number for really human emergencies. I don’t like to tie up the lines with “non-emergencies.”
In retrospect, maybe I should have just called 911.
MaxGlob’s ignorant comment shows the inherent fallacy of CON thinking.
When faced with an unjust system, they put the responsibility on the individual, knowing full well the individual is powerless against the corportocracy.
“However, I would support a system the controls costs and provides essential health care for all who need it.
That I would willingly contribute to, consistent with my ability to pay.”
So, you are contributing to the likes of the Hunter clinic?
Ummmm. That sounds like a shot, and it kinda is, but not like most mean it. I am sending sending out that question, painful or not, to all. That includes myself. I have never considered giving to the Hunter clinic, or other such entity. I don;t know why, but I haven;t I have rectified that situation today, and will continue to do so. I would suggest everyone else do so. Of course, it is up to you as to what nonprofits you support.
“However, I would support a system the controls costs and provides essential health care for all who need it.
That I would willingly contribute to, consistent with my ability to pay.”
So, you are contributing to the likes of the Hunter clinic?
Ummmm. That sounds like a shot, and it kinda is, but not like most mean it. I am sending sending out that question, painful or not, to all. That includes myself. I have never considered giving to the Hunter clinic, or other such entity. I don;t know why, but I haven;t I have rectified that situation today, and will continue to do so. I would suggest everyone else do so. Of course, it is up to you as to what nonprofits you support.
I don;t know what else you could have done. Government bureaucrats. Even at lower levels, exhibits a few negative tendencies. You did well to even report it. It is my experience that most would not have even bothered.
I probably would have called 911. After all, with 911 you get a human being and they’re in the business to respond to threats to human safety.
Now, they may or may not have perceived the fawn’s plight the threat to people that you do. (I think your concern is valid on that point, btw.) But by the time you got home, went through phone trees at Animal Control, the fawn was probably nowhere near where you saw it. What were they gonna do? At least 911 might have alerted patrol cars.
CapnAmerica
Posted May 21, 2008 at 12:23 pm | Permalink
MaxGlob’s ignorant comment shows the inherent fallacy of CON thinking.
When faced with an unjust system, they put the responsibility on the individual, knowing full well the individual is powerless against the corportocracy.
————————————————–
Ahh, the Powerless People routine again!
Woe is mean. I taint nuthin without Big Brother Government to take care of me, and the deer too.
Oh, I pay plenty. I’m in the StevenDavis income range (see above).
BTW, raising one in six America children in poverty–as our society currently does–costs some 500 billion dollars in future crime, untreated disease and lost productivity.
There’s no free lunch in a modern society, Max. You pay now (education, health care, food stamps) or you pay later (crime, unemployment, prisons).
When it really matters, we need a comprehensive federal program to run it.
Why stop there? You cradle to gravers are missing out on the big picture.
Government should run the schools. The federal government, because of course the states aren’t bright enough to get it right.
Guaranteed jobs with the government. I mean after y’all are done, there will be nothing left that is private. Jails can be leveled because no criminal is at fault, it is the government’s fault for not raising him/her correctly.
Guaranteed housing. Everyone has the exact same cookie cutter house. Wouldn’t want you to envy the Joneses. I mean if they actually educated themselves and worked to achieve 10 times what the fat and bloated nanny state riders did, why should they have a nice house?
Free food. From government farms and government grocery centers. You get the same bag of grub everyone else does. Don’t like what you got? Tough. The government says it is good for you.
Government provided mass transit. Turn in all your cars. Not everyone has one, so no one will have one.
If you want a government that wipes your butt from cradle to grave, move to a socialist country.
And capn, you will not give gladly (as you do not do that now) it will be taken from you without your permission.
During spring break time I saw a ladder on the roof of a neighboring school. It looked very suspicious and was around the time we were hearing lots of news about copper being stolen from schools and parks, etc. Like you, I don’t dail 911 unless it’s an emergency. I looked up the number for the nearest police substation and called there. Guess what they told me to do? Yep, call 911. Still shaking my head about that one!
I don’t have an suggestions. You tried. Gotta have someone capable and competent on the other end to do any good.
“BTW, raising one in six America children in poverty–as our society currently does–costs some 500 billion dollars in future crime, untreated disease and lost productivity.
There’s no free lunch in a modern society,”
I don;t know where you got the number, but whatever it is, there is definately a price.
Biggest cause, as I recall? single parent homes, not corporations.
“UnitedHealth provides health care as a fringe benefit to both its 55,000 workers and to retirees. But under both federal and Minnesota law, if UnitedHealth decides to cut off this benefit the retirees are out of luck. Not so [a retired CEO like] McGuire. His employment contract requires the compay to reimburse him for the full cost of replacement coverage.”
“When it really matters, we need a comprehensive federal program to run it.”
Yup. No one can truly foul things up like a comprehensive federal program. And nothing says compassion like a massive federal bureaucracy, eating away endless tax dollars.
These are the same folks who brought you the $800 hammer, remember? Just WHAT in recent history would make us believe the feds competent to find their ass with both hands, let alone run the health care system?
Usually if there is one deer, there are others. In populated areas, if you see a deer it is best to report it to the Sheriff Department who can then notify the appropriate agency (highway departments) to go out and survey the area to see if a deer crossing sign needs to be put up.
Why? Because urban areas often disrupt the travel patterns of deer and they will alter their routes, so drivers need to be warned that deer are in the area.
On the darker side, the Sheriff Department and the Department of Wildlife often carry lists of people that will pick up deer for consumption. Road kill and all that…
From Paul Krugman, “Poverty Poisons Childrens’ Brains”
L. B. J. declared his “War on Poverty” 44 years ago. Contrary to cynical legend, there actually was a large reduction in poverty over the next few years, especially among children, who saw their poverty rate fall from 23 percent in 1963 to 14 percent in 1969.
But progress stalled thereafter: American politics shifted to the right, attention shifted from the suffering of the poor to the alleged abuses of welfare queens driving Cadillacs, and the fight against poverty was largely abandoned.
In 2006, 17.4 percent of children in America lived below the poverty line, substantially more than in 1969. And even this measure probably understates the true depth of many children’s misery.
ANd some of those countries have better health care and some of those countries have worse health care (depends of the definitions used). So? ANd the Japanese have one of the highest suicide rates among industrialized nations. Or did. So, better health care - higher suicide rate? Of course not. Neither does government run health care guarantee better health care. Bet it wouldn;t take me long to drum up some countries with government run health care that are ‘worse” than ours, now would it.
“So everyone, janitor to ceo, should make the same pay, same benefits same bonuses.”
Of course not.
But it is hard to fathom, on the other hand, how a CEO of a large company in the 1960’s was only worth 40 times the pay of an average worker and now that same CEO is valued at about 500 times. http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/26/news/economy/ceo_pay/
The CEO of Walmart makes more in two weeks than a floorworker will make in her entire life.
The Top 25 hedge fund managers make an average of 11 million dollars . . . . .
A week.
This is ridiculous. It’s a class war, and the rich are winning.
For every example you can find of a crack-whore nickle and diming the system, I can find you a thousand millionaires in legal scams getting richer at tax-payer expense.
Besides, the crack-whore was found guilty and punished. The rich never are because what they do is perfectly legal. Why do you think they buy the lawmakers off?
Damn funny — I could swear Eisenhower was Preident 50 years ago…
Johnson wasnt Pres. till Nov, 1963 — and the war on Poverty didnt come till later after that… not sure the exact year.. but certainly NOT 50 years ago… Geez, now we are re-writing the Calendar to make room for right wing pot shots??
C’mon folks… lets at least try to keep the statements REAL…
The reason the CEO’s make 10 times more relative to their workers than they did in the ’60’s is just because they work so much harder and they’re so much more valuable, right, Sol?
It couldn’t have anything to do with government policies and regulations that have made it easier for Boards and CEO’s to collude on salaries or time stock options to insure maximum returns.
No, according to Sol, it’s just natural and inevitable. Nobody plans it, nobody can control it. It’s just the way it is.
If God had wanted more rich people, why did he make so many poor people, right Sol?
The “smallest footprint ever” Alpine oil field touted by pro-drillers. 5 more drill sites were approved on Dec. 4, 2004 — and they want “… 24 more production drill sites, 122 more miles of roads, 7 more airports, 150 miles of pipeline, and 1262 more acres of tundra smothered by gravel.” http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/AlpineNoEnvironmentalShowpiece.pdf
You can clearly see that from a percentage basis, the Federal gov’t was spending 18 percent of budget on education in 1970. In 2007, just over 15 percent.
Nice try, but these stats show the opposite of what you wanted them to. Spending for education under the CONs is going down, not up.
GMC70: Look at the standards of livinging in those countries (add Australia and New Zealand plus a lots more) longevity, along with education and crime stats. Of the top 40 countries who claim to support the free enterprise system, and have representative govenments, only 3 do not have universal health coverage. Turkey, Mexico and the US. I’m not saying that the US should have it, just don’t denegrate them what does! The aims and objects of universal coverage is to provide care based soley on need and the the ability to pay. That carries a lot of problems just like the US system does,but it is an tremendous persuit. Imagine trying to make you well, not make a buck off illness. I got family in two of the countries noted above and they just wince or laugh when they hear their “socilaized” medicine stigmatized by those who never have experienced it.
Capn has obviously not been exposed to the masses on government aid. You have some infantile perception of nirvana and that the government should take care of everything.
Go out and see some of these folks. Able bodied men and women that have become fat and lazy on the government dime. Able to work, but would rather ‘get it for free’. Take a walk in reality once or twice capn. Might open your eyes.
Throwing money and government regulations at ‘problems’ is absolutely no answer. Ever. But keep shilling your socialism.
Problem is, I think you know how wonderful Capitalism is. Why else would you still be here? Why else would you not move to one of the socialist countries you are so proud of?
“So, I don’t know what industrialized country you’re likely to find that’s worse off than we are.”
Here’s one example
Overall Cancer Survival Rates. According to the survey of cancer survival rates in Europe and the United States, published recently in Lancet Oncology:1
American women have a 63 percent chance of living at least five years after a cancer diagnosis, compared to 56 percent for European women. [See Figure I.]
American men have a five-year survival rate of 66 percent — compared to only 47 percent for European men.
Among European countries, only Sweden has an overall survival rate for men of more than 60 percent.
For women, only three European countries (Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland) have an overall survival rate of more than 60 percent.
These figures reflect the care available to all Americans, not just those with private health coverage. Great Britain, known for its 50-year-old government-run, universal health care system, fares worse than the European average: British men have a five-year survival rate of only 45 percent; women, only 53 percent
418 Comments
Global warming or cooling? Who knows?
By analytical chemist and a mathematician Sherwood Thoele
Global cooling or global warming, which is it? It depends upon the latest climate study published. In the 1960s and 1970s, they claimed global cooling because of several years of colder than “normal” temperatures. Academia and certain think tanks claimed this cooling was from too much CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere. That died down and then came a warming spell, so we are now experiencing global warming, because of too much CO2 in the atmosphere. So, too much CO2 causes both global cooling and global warming.
As an analytical chemist, I analyze all the parameters and data from studies: what prompted the study, who funded it, where it was conducted, measuring equipment accuracy and the atmospheric conditions or physical status of that area during the study. Might there be bias for the outcome of the study, either by those conducting the study or those funding it and does the conclusion match the data? I want to know all this information before I accept the conclusions of any study, especially when it comes from someone within a social movement or political group.
Briefly, what is CO2 and what are some of its properties? CO2 is a gas at temperatures above -78.5C (-109.3F) at sea level, and it’s only liquid under a lot of pressure, like in fire extinguishers. CO2 is heavier than air, so without air currents it won’t rise above the ground (stage fog, silos, caves, mines). It is slightly soluble in water at room temperature and lower. So it is more soluble in the moisture in the colder upper atmosphere. CO2 with water makes carbonic acid (carbonated water), making it even heavier. Air is from 0.027 to 0.036 percent CO2, depending on the reference source.
One of the first things you learn in chemistry is that everything moves toward a state of equilibrium. So when too much water is in the atmosphere, along with other conditions, it rains. Along with this moisture is any excess or out-of-equilibrium CO2. CO2 with water is a mild acid with a pH of 5 to 6, which is perfect for plants. This acid helps release other minerals in the soil turning them into carbonates that dissolve easier in water, making them available to plants.
Because CO2 is slightly soluble in water and will come back to the Earth with precipitation, nature corrects for any excess, just as it does with other excess materials from volcanoes and forest fires.
CO2 comes from burning or oxidizing organic material and minerals that contain carbon. Major sources are fermenting (rotting) vegetation like in swamps, compost piles, burning limestone to make lime, gasoline or other petroleum products, volcanoes and forest fires. Nature recycles all of what it considers excess very efficiently. CO2 absorbs some infrared radiation. Infrared absorbers accept the radiation from any direction.
Since infrared radiation is one of many parts of visible light, the biggest source is the sun. Some say excess CO2 combined with the moisture in the atmosphere absorbs infrared radiation from the Earth to create a greenhouse effect by not letting it pass through it. But how then does the infrared radiation from the sun get through the CO2/moisture, and wouldn’t it already have absorbed as much infrared radiation as it could handle from the sun?
There is a limit to the amount of infrared radiation that moisture/CO2 can absorb. Warmth from sunlight means infrared radiation is getting through. The infrared radiation absorbed by the Earth will keep it warm for a while, but as clouds linger and the sun goes down, the warmth goes away quickly. So if there were a greenhouse effect from heat being blocked from leaving the Earth, then the temperature on cloudy days and at night shouldn’t be so different than on a sunny day.
Some claim a 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in the average temperature over the last 100 years, globally. Considering the many variables that cause temperature changes, including the accuracy of the thermometers, the average global temperature has been extremely stable in this short period of time relative to the age of the Earth.
I submit that there is no manmade global cooling/warming, that there is no study or research data that makes a good argument to that effect when carefully examined objectively and that the Earth has many different and wide-ranging cycles that man cannot control, no matter how much he would like to.
Chucklesnort for the day.
(Warning:crude humor)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1290680/gold_bond_powder/
Yep — Crude is one word for it!! REAL crude!!
Chucklesnort for the day.
Peers over top of glasses. (shakes head)
boys will be boys…
But… there was one female in the video!!
Booooo Hissssss
U.K. Will Not Deport Gay Iranian Teen After Lover Was Hanged
LONDON — Britain’s Home Office says it will not deport a gay Iranian teenager back to his homeland.
The U.K. Border Agency said on Tuesday that Mehdi Kazemi will be allowed to remain in Britain.
Kazemi came to England to study English in 2005. He discovered his boyfriend had been charged in Iran with sodomy and hanged.
Kazemi asked for asylum, claiming he would be executed if he returned to Iran. Though his application was refused last year, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith agreed to reconsider his case in March.
(fox news)
Every day and first thing off with the denial.
What is it Hank? Your wife’s petro stocks?
Or is it something deeper?
Is it the idea that man could change this planet threatens your faith?
I mean, all we have to suggest that “God” has any influence on this planet is an old story book.
If there were real evidence (and there is) that man was changing this planet in ways “God” is only SAID to have, does that threaten you and your God?
It shouldn’t you know. Even if there is no evidence of “God’s” existence, that same story book does tell the faithful to be good stewards of the Earth.
Just a quick note here to wish Edward Kennedy a swift recovery and best wishes to all who love and respect him.
Gasoline = $3.79.9 per gallon - the highest I’ve ever seen it. How many times have I said that this summer? Too many.
The House passed legislation allowing the U.S. to sue OPEC over gas prices. Bush, et al. say that suing would actually make the price of gas higher. Their argument made sense, but their lack of providing any alternatives implies that we are going to be victims of this cost from now on.
I don’t actually trust Bush, Cheney, et al. to ever tell us the truth about anything — especially not oil.
I do hope the Bush 2004 voters who cast their ballot for Bush/Cheney because they could keep us safe are enjoying these profound freedoms we now have.
It will take a while to get this country on the right track. McCain has no ability, or even the inclination, to do that.
Why aren’t there gas shortages?
Supply and demand right?
The price of gasoline keeps going up. But supply remains plentiful. If the price goes up, there should be an observable decrease in supply.
But there isn’t.
We are being gamed by the oil companies and futures traders.
I say nationalize the whole thing and take private profit out of it.
” A grim diagnosis: Kennedy’s brain cancer is worst kind”
“WASHINGTON - A malignant glioma — the diagnosis doctors gave Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — is the worst kind of brain cancer. Malignant gliomas strike almost 9,000 Americans a year. Survival statistics are grim — few live three years and for the worst subtype, half die within a year.”
For those of us who will, Lib. or Con., I think a prayer is in order for this man and his family. This ain’t gon’a be easy for them or a lot of this nation. We are losing an political icon.
1811 Trackbacks
The number of trackbacks on the Petraeus thread. It literally takes minutes to scroll thru them all.
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2008/04/petraeus-says-the-glass-is-half-full/#comment-353519
My personal favorite: Shemale Escorts of Cincinnati.
If you have to go to Cincinnati, that is probably information you need. LOL
I still wonder if there is a positive feedback loop whereby the more trackbacks a thread gets, the more in number it will likely receive? And is it necessary to clog up this space with so much crap?
B.J.
“Why aren’t there gas shortages?”
You want a sure fire way to make shortages happen?
“I say nationalize the whole thing and take private profit out of it”
Guaranteed shortages B.J!
“Why aren’t there gas shortages?”
The predictions I am reading is that we will be paying more and waiting in line to get it.
But, hey, there haven’t been any more terrorist attacks. Or, is it possible that the higher prices are the result, in part, of our war on terror?
We’re safer, so what if our eocnomy is reduced to that of a third world country?
The only thing I am going to ask of Bush, please keep campaigning against Obama. It helps your party and the GOP candidate so much.
Goodmorning. I recieved this link this morning. http://www.americasnewtanker.com/ . It was attached to an e-mail from Senator Obama. Herbert West III, Candidate for Sheriff, Miami County Kansas, as of May 7th 2008. west.herb@yahoo.com wen2k.com . Hang in in there.
Gas in Norway and most of Europe is almost $7 a gallon, Mexico it’s around $2.50, in Saudi it’s about 90 cents, and in Caracas, Venezuela it’s only 12 cents a gallon.
Maybe we should start drilling our own reserves…or come up with viable alternatives, which makes so much sense it’ll probably never happen in our lifetime.
Friedman’s thoughts on topics discussed here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/opinion/21friedman.html?em&ex=1211515200&en=fb8b75ffacef796c&ei=5087%0A
Hank’s source may be a crackerjack chemist, but he’s not much of a physicist. He writes:
“Since infrared radiation is one of many parts of visible light, the biggest source is the sun. Some say excess CO2 combined with the moisture in the atmosphere absorbs infrared radiation from the Earth to create a greenhouse effect by not letting it pass through it. But how then does the infrared radiation from the sun get through the CO2/moisture, and wouldn’t it already have absorbed as much infrared radiation as it could handle from the sun?”
It’s called the greenhouse effect. When light shines through your windshield on a winter’s day and heats up the inside of your car, does the glass get hot?
Of course not. If the glass got hot, it would radiate the heat back out into the air, and the car wouldn’t warm up much.
What happens is that radiation energy (light) from the sun has a short wavelength which punches through the atmosphere. Then those wavelengths hit something like earth or water, which heats it up. Now the energy is converted into heat with a much longer wavelength. It can’t punch back out through the atmosphere at the same rate it came in, so there’s a net gain in heat energy.
That’s why ham radio operators use long wavelengths like 80 meters (a single wave oscillation is 80 meters long) to bounce off the ionosphere so they can talk to someone in Japan or Australia. (Actually, it can bounce off the ionosphere and the ground several times.)
Short wavelengths like 2 meters just go to the horizon and on out into space for the most part.
Since the thickness of the atmosphere is a main determiner of how much heat is gained, the thicker the atmosphere (by burning coal and gasoline), the hotter it’s going to get.
And if you don’t believe it look at Mars and Venus. Granted, humans didn’t have anything to do with those planets, but still, Mars has a thin atmosphere and is very cold (solid CO2 at the poles means a temp of 110 F below zero) while Venus with its very thick atmosphere is 800 F at the surface.
Thicken the atmosphere — increase the heat of the planet. That’s what we do everytime we burn coal and gasoline that is carbon sequestered in the ground for hundreds of millions of years . . .
This is the inexorable law of physics that all Hank’s parade of nay-sayers cannot refute.
Too serious in here. Time to catch a summer movie, this one is lookin good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1kqqMXWEFs
Good article, Steven.
I once raced my friend back to his apartment in Japan, she taking the car and I on the subway.
Of course, I got back about twenty minutes faster than she did because the subway wasn’t stopping ever block for lights.
Also, on a subway or bus, you don’t have to park.
Lastly, you walk a lot more which is why Europeans and urban Americans are a lot thinner than Kansans, heigh ho . . .
“Thicken the atmosphere — increase the heat of the planet. That’s what we do everytime we burn coal and gasoline that is carbon sequestered in the ground for hundreds of millions of years”
———————-
Simplistic baloney Capn. Other planets don’t have our kind of atmosphere.
The net warming or cooling effect of cloud cover depends on what type of clouds. This article describes an effect wherein as the temperature rises, the cloud cover diminishes to allow cooling. Well designed, wouldn’t you say?
“High clouds over the western tropical Pacific Ocean seem to systematically decrease when sea surface temperatures are higher,” says Arthur Y. Hou of Goddard’s Data Assimilation Office…”
“The researchers compare this inverse relationship to the eye’s iris, which opens and closes to counter changes in light intensity. The “adaptive infrared iris” of cirrus clouds opens and closes to permit the release of infrared energy, thus resisting warmer tropical sea surface temperatures, which occur naturally and are predicted to increase as the result of climate warming.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010301072351.htm
I will support a 50 cents per gallon federal tax on fuel consumption if:
1) The money ONLY goes to research and development, and deployment of alternative fuels for transportation usage
2) THe small portion of ANWR set aside for oil development is allowed to be developed
3)Alternative energy sites are not based on
“not in my back yard” syndrome.
Oh, and off shore drilling is no longer considered off limits
“2) THe small portion of ANWR set aside for oil development is allowed to be developed”
There is less than six months worth of oil in ANWR - hardly worth the environmental risk.
“Oh, and off shore drilling is no longer considered off limits”
The reason that permits were denied to drill in the Gulf off of Florida was Jeb didn’t want drilling and George acquiesced.
Well, I guess then in six months the drilling in ANWR will be over.
I don;t deny the Bush problem with drillin in the Gulf off of Florida? So what? NEw President, new Congress. I don;t support Bush. Haven;t for a long time. And the reason wind farms in one area were not allowed was because of Ted Kennedy. So what.
If we are going to tax fuel consumption as a way of removing ourselves from the teat of foreing oil, and oil in general, then MY PRICE in supporting that is allowing oil development in our back yard.
Soory, should have been oil and energy development in our own backyard
ANWR
“A 1998 United States Geological Survey (USGS) study indicated at least 4.3 billion (95% probability) and possibly as much as 11.8 billion (5% probability) barrels (0.9 to 2.5 km³) of technically recoverable oil exists in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 1002 area, with a mean value of 7.7 billion barrels (1.7 km³). In addition, in the entire assessment area, which covers not only land under Federal jurisdiction, but also Native lands and adjacent State waters within three miles (5 km), technically recoverable oil is estimated to be at least 5.7 billion (95%) and as much as 16.0 billion (5%) barrels (0.7 to 1.9 km³), with a mean value of 10.4 billion barrels (1.2 km³).”
“The U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels (3,200,000 m³) daily. If the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil reserves were used to supply 5% of the U.S. daily consumption — most is imported from Canada (19%), Mexico (15%), Saudi Arabia (11.5%), Nigeria (10.5%) and Venezuela (10.5%)[11] — the reserves, using the low figure of 4.3 billion barrels (680,000,000 m³), would last approximately 4300 days, or almost 12 years. Using the high estimate, the reserves would last approximately 11800 days, or 32 years.
Total oil independence at 20 million barrels per day (using the before mentioned 10.5 billion barrel mean) would only supply the United States for 525 days (or less than a year and a half, but this complete supporting is impossible). Using the increasing price of oil this supply (with 10.5 billion barrel mean and crude oil at over $120 a barrel) would be worth 1,260,000,000,000.00 ($1.26 trillion).”- Wikipedia
——————–
That is a lot of oil.
And by the way, I am putting my money where my mouth is. I drive nearly 400 miles a week. (sometimes more) a 50 cents per gallon tax is going to put a big hole in my pocket.
Oh, my lawdie - did anyone catch the finale of “Dancing with the Stars” last night? My fave, Adam Carolla, made a repeat appearance - and he couldn’t have been any cuter. He really stuck it to O.B. Laden and his ilk - all the while exuding his usual humor and personal charm.
I even endured the appearance of Marlee Matlin, whom I have long since pardoned for ensnaring the once-gorgeous William Hurt. The two co-starred in the insipid 1986 flick “Children of a Lesser God” and fell in love and lived together for 2 years. Now, I believed back then that I would have made a most delightful deaf-mute; the sight of the eye-gasmic, Oscar-winning thespian nearly compelled me smash my eardrums, beseech him to marry me and take me away from all this, and ravage me on the steps of the Braille Institute in the gathering dusk.
But he didn’t. After winning the 1985 Oscar for “Kiss of the Spider Woman” - he chose his nubile co-star instead.
Oh well, I don’t REALLY want to be deaf; then again, if he had married me, the sound of my own screams might have deafened me anyway…..okay, too much information.
I was glad Kristie and Mark won - they heartily deserved to do so.
And Marlee and Bill broke up in the fall of 1987. I guess the once-babealicious actor was awful to live with. But, da-yummie, it ain’t every day that someone could make this music lover want to be deaf. That’s sayin’ a lot right there.
‘Cause this is one Spider spinster who once wished to be kissed. Passionately. With panache. Too bad the dude has lost most of his looks. What a cruel thing time is……
The government should not be involved in any way with researching alternative fuels. Did not ethanol prove anything? The gas companies have huge profits to fund the development. Let them use their own money. The market will dictate the most viable solutions. Subsidies and grants cloud the issue.
SolDevVB
Don;t you understand that the oil companies are evil and will supress any informaiton/technology that challenges their stealing of money from poor people around the world? DOn;t you understand that the government is the only solution to todays’ problems? Don;t your understand that petroleum based energy will kill all of mankind?
while I agree with you in principal, I am tired of fighting with those who think like my first paragraph. I am willing to compromise, and put my money on it.
I believe we’ve entered the “New World Order”, and the U.S. is descending down the ranking list.
There needs to be an excise tax on everything sold to the OPEC countries that is continually counter balancing to their price increases.
When they see it’s not getting them anywhere maybe prices will go down.
It’s Opecs oil. THey have a right to charge whatever they can get for it. We need to remove ourselves from the teat as much as possible, while we develop alternative energy.
But you are right, our stuff is our stuff. We can charge them whatever we want. Of course, some other country will just give it to them at half that.
Sel sufficiency is the answer. And while educating folks about th ebenefits of conservation is good, it is also long term. Answers need to be found now. ANswers of energy availability within our own country
Sen. Kennedy now home from the hospital! He now waits to see what treatments will be used. That kind of waiting can be very difficult.
We need to keep him in our thoughts and prayers.
I believe we’ve entered the “New World Order”, and the U.S. is descending down the ranking list.
You got that right. And the candidate that gets it (Fiat money, no nation building, strong defense, limited government…) was made out to be the ‘kook’. Then when people saw through the media bias (those with a clue anyway) they blacked him out.
God forbid the voters hear the truth. That the fiat monetary system would fail, that foreign intervention only brings harm to all sides, the current war has devastated our military while growing our enemies. God forbid we hear the truth.
And when those with a clue enter into the political system as delegates, the GOP changes the rules so that the beloved and anointed McCain isn’t embarrassed by his infinite lack of wisdom regarding foreign policy and the economy. See below. There are many many more instances, just google it. BTW, isn’t it funny how the New Hampshire recount never happened?
GOP cracks down on Ron Paul activists
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/64CF6ED868C2A80286257431000BBF84?OpenDocument
Nevada GOP Caucus In Chaos
http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/13891802.html
LJ, I was thinking about a world wide OPIC cartel, that’s the only way it might work. If they can collude against their customers, their customers should be able to collude against them.
US Denies Israeli Report of Iran Attack Plans
The news comes as the White House is denying a new report it plans to attack Iran before President Bush leaves office. On Monday, Israel’s Army Radio reported a senior member of President Bush’s entourage told a high-level meeting last week in Jerusalem that Bush and Vice President Cheney believe an attack is called for. President Bush was in Israel last week marking its sixtieth anniversary.
Link
Clinton Fundraiser Accused of Trying to Buy Support of Superdelegates
Meanwhile, the Huffington Post reports one of Hillary Clinton’s top financial supporters recently offered $1 million to the Young Democrats of America while he pressed for the organization’s two uncommitted superdelegates to endorse Clinton. The billionaire entertainment magnate Haim Saban reportedly made the offer in a call to the group’s president, David Hardt. The group turned down Saban’s offer. Saban has not denied talking to the Young Democrats of America, but he says the report in the Huffington Post is not true.
Link
US to Help Saudi Arabia Build Nuclear Program
The price of oil remains at near record levels despite a promise by Saudi Arabia to pump an additional 300,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Saudi Arabia made the announcement on Friday while President Bush was meeting with Saudi’s King Abdullah. In exchange, Bush has pledged US support for a Saudi nuclear power program. As part of the deal, Washington will help Saudi Arabia receive enriched uranium for its nuclear reactors.
Link
Isn’t Bush trying to start a war with Iran over the same thing?
Veterans Facility Urged Not to Diagnose Veterans with PTSD
The Washington Post is reporting staff members at a veterans facility in Texas were urged not to diagnose soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments. In an email, psychologist Norma Perez wrote, “Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out.” Instead, Perez recommended the veterans be diagnosed with “adjustment disorder.” Veterans diagnosed with PTSD can be eligible for disability compensation of up to $2,500 a month. Those found to have adjustment disorder generally are not offered such payments. A recent study estimated about 300,000 US military personnel who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from PTSD or major depression.
Link
BlueJay
Posted May 20, 2008 at 11:38 pm
“I don’t have any health care Capn.I spent today tearing up a floor throwing up all the time.
Tomorrow, I get to retile that floor probably throwing up all the time.I’m getting paid 35 dollars for the entire job.My exploiter is an Obama supporter. And my own brother.”
JR, I’ve been out of pocket for a few days but saw the above post on the Clinton Thread. Later, you posted this is not the flu, but you have had this for sometime and it is continual.
I may not agree with your lifestyle or political preference, but I can’t watch a person with a health issue which may be very serious if left untreated.
You MUST go to the hospital or a clinic. Be adamant - and insist you be helped. Keep a record of the times you get ill (vomit,chills,temperature,time of day), and show the doctor it is a long term and recurring problem. Providing him the above, may help with a diagnosis - in addition provide evidence your problem is NOT the flu. It also is harder for a physcian, when confronted with documented medical history - to gaff you off.
This is important not just for your LIFE - but you have a son who depends upon you and needs you.
Further, you are not Cinderella. You don’t have to do the work for your own brother at slave wages. Unless, your brother truly does not have the resources to pay you a fair wage. This later I can understand. But if he is just taking advantage of you, you need to grow some brass balls and insist your own blood pay you better.
Additionally, you can use the internet for free - and research your health issue. There are websites which you can access which will help you diagnose what “potentially” is ailing you. Not exact and certainly NOT preferrable to seeing a real doctor, but it might SCARE you enough to see the many potential life threatening disease/illnesses which your symptoms could be.
Maybe then you will be kicked in the butt to go see a doctor, instead of whining on the blog.
Your whine (yeah, I’m taking a pot shot here), really does reflect a cry for help. I can’t help via this blog directly.
But hopefully your fellow lib bloggers have something they call “compasssion” and will open their lib hearts to get you help - or also via private email INSIST you get to a doctor.
You might also consider getting more sleep. If you are sick, it might be better to spend the time in bed, rather than blogging late at night. Or like I said - research on line your sickness
(besides the liberal one, of course).
All kidding aside: seek medical help.
Spies for Hire: Carlyle Group to Become Owner of “One of America’s Largest Private Intelligence Armies”
The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest and most secretive investment funds. Nicknamed the Ex-President’s Club, Carlyle’s employees have included both President Bush, H.W. and George W. Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci. Amidst growing public scrutiny over its dealings, the company has recently scaled back its holdings in military contractors and its links to controversial political figures.
But that appears to be changing. On Friday, the intelligence firm Booz Allen Hamilton said it would sell its government-oriented unit to Carlyle Group for $2.5 billion. Booz Allen has been a major figure in the privatization of government intelligence. Current National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell was Booz Allen’s director of defense programs before his appointment last year. Booz Allen has been deeply involved in some of the Bush administration’s most controversial counterterror programs, including the infamous Total Information Awareness data-mining scheme. The Carlyle-Booz Allen deal awaits shareholder and regulator approval.
Link
California Supreme Court Overrules Gay Marriage Ban
In California, the State Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage. In a five-to-four ruling, the court said state restrictions on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional. Beth Teper of Colage, a group for the children of gay couples, welcomed the ruling.
Beth Teper: “Children with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) parents deserve our families to be respected, validated and protected legally and culturally. The Supreme Court ought to be applauded for their decision today.”
The decision came out of a challenge to hundreds of gay marriages performed in San Francisco in 2004. The California Supreme Court had intervened to stop the weddings and later invalidated the documents. On Thursday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the court’s new decision could have national implications.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: “And by the way, as California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It’s inevitable. This door is wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not. This is the future, and it’s now.”
California joins Massachusetts as the only states extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
Link
Now I feel marriage should be between two consenting adults as the only qualifier. The problem I have with this is that the state voted to ban them. For the government to overrule the will of the people is not right. The government is supposed to be of, from and for the people, not deciding what is best after the citizens have spoken.
Phantom:
Shouldn’t that be:
Organization of
Fuel
Using
Countries?
Never checked this out, so I don;t know how good a source this is, but it might be a good piece of knowledge for many
http://www.freemedicalcamps.com/vcamp.php?cityid=1429
Carlyle Group: Now, THAT’S a terrorist organization, almost on the scale of Private Capital Management.
The government did not overrule the people. The Court ruled on the Law, which is its function. The Court found the Law to be unconstitutional. We need to keep that straight.
Hey, Annie, that movie looks GREAT! Yul Brynner is HOT, HOT, HOT!
J R,
For once in his life, AmWay is correct.
The Hunter Health Clinic on East Central might be a low cost alternative. They have good P.A.s there, I hear - Geno Salerno (sp?) the guy who carved the wood statutes all over town, is one of them - used to be at least.
Email me if I can do anything.
My wife and I make 6 figures plus a year. We’re not rich, but I thought of us as comfortably middle class. With everything going up - gas, food, ad nauseum, I have to more carefully budget now than I have at any time since college. I think the economic sewer we have now will result in a 1964 styled repudiation of the GOP come this November.
Remember the then Arizona state Senator who carried his home state and Idaho, I think?
BlueJay,
I have some info on medical care to send you, but it’ll take me a bit to find it. Email me.
(Am_Way, will that work for you?)
It is just a logical extension of the “globalization of America” the Repubs. have been heralding. A truly global comapany has no loyalty to any country, and can not be counted on to have the domestic interest at heart. We’ve seen it manifested by defense firms as well as the oil industry.
When oil hits 150 the masses will raise up and demand nationalization of the oil industry.
J R
I don’t know if they’re still there, but the World Impact Clinic on 13th Street was a godsend to me when I first moved here. The doctor (don’t remember her name) is an angel from heaven.
Yes, we are sooo ofuc’d!
I have read the latest news regarding Senator Kennedy. It would seem that my father died of a very similar situation nearly 36 years ago. His tumor was inoperable, as the Senator’s appears to be. However, modern-day medicine has advanced considerably since the summer of ‘72.
This was the fate that awaited my father: In the fall of 1971, as I was just turning 13, my father began losing his photographic memory. His razor-sharp cognition, which had won him bonuses from his employer every year, now began to fail him. Slowly, inexorably, agonizingly, the very faculties (besides his prodigious alcohol consumption) which sustained him abandoned him.
Not surprisingly, he suffered excruciating headaches before the (correct) diagnosis was made. And let me assure everyone: whatever weaknesses some families exude are magnified one-million-fold when terminal illness strikes. In late May 1972, my father suffered a seizure while visiting his friend Frank in Wilson, KS. He then lost consciousness, an ambulance was summoned, and he was initially taken to Hadley Hospital in Hays.
As I would come to know well as I advanced into womanhood, Hays had very few specialists at that time. No one knew what had befallen my father, until finally he was taken to Wichita (Wesley) - and the tumor was properly diagnosed. There were no cures, no treatments, nothing to do but await the inevitable.
Death, when it came, was merciful. I’ll never forget that moment. My (maternal) grandmother phoned with the news; I hopped onto my little yellow one-speed bike, scurried over to Dillon’s, and pored over the latest copy of 16 magazine and its sister publication, Tiger Beat. I was madly infatuated with an actor/musician who was featured rather often in their pages, and this was what compelled my attention.
This, to be sure, is why I admire and respect the Kennedy’s, despite their myriad failings. They, like many of us, are complicated, flawed, worthy individuals. But of one thing you cannot fault them: Nobody would ever deem them indifferent to their progeny.
I really cannot stomach the thought of anyone trotting out the Senator’s mistakes. What discernible benefit will this enact? It’s not that I’m accusing anyone of lying - it’s that the timing is vastly inappropriate.
Nothing I could say would enable anyone to understand parental disengagement and indifference. You’d have to experience it firsthand, and I don’t wish that on anyone who is human.
As an ancient philosopher once said, “Go know” - and that’s about the only g-day-ummed way you’d understand.
“truly global comapany has no loyalty . We’ve seen it manifested by defense firms as well as the oil industry.
Reworded as
“truly global consumers have no loyalty to any country, and can not be counted on to have the domestic interest at heart.” They will shop anywhere, to buy merchandise made anywhere, to save even small amounts. Hence, the rise of Wal Mart and demise of American Manufacturing.
AmWay, maybe you could coordinate a fundraiser to SAVE JR!
You know, like they saved Ferris Buehler.
I’m sure the compassionate Libs here would dive deep into THEIR OWN pockets to support JR and help pay for his health care.
Say Chas, could you say one of the STFU prayers for Kennedy?
He really needs your expertise now.
Max, do you ever actually ADD something to the discourse?
MaxGrobnik–
Could you just please be quiet now. Please?
Gee whillikens, Max, are you sinless? Are you perfect? Got a freakin’ halo over yer head?
If so, can I kiss your ring? ‘Cause I’ve always wondered what perfection felt like! Please, let us know what flawlessness is like! Please? Pretty, pretty please????
How ’bout we do an STFU prayer for you, Max?
No kidding, and thank you, LittleJohn.
Max manages to be offensive to Chas and Kennedy at the same time.
“Sexism didn’t defeat Clinton. Barack Obama did.”
Darn! I hate it when work interfers with bloggin~!
I missed a perfectly good Clinton bashing thread.
I’d like the editor to consider it wasn’t Barack Obama who defeated Hillary. It was actually the vote of the democratic voters (the people).
And it was also all us crossover conservatives who VOTED for Obama that did!
Max seems to be one sad, angry person. Perhaps prayers are sorely needed for Max as well as for Sen. Kennedy.
“Max manages to be offensive to Chas and Kennedy at the same time.”
Hey Max! Sounds like you got a twofer. Now that is what I’d call effective blogging.
No further comments on JR/BlueJay. My post was sincere (although sincerity is no guarantee for the truth). I hope he logs off long enough to seek help.
And he does have friends here - whom I hope will make the connection.
FilmFan,
Have you ever considered having your own blog? Your ideas and posts are so diverse, a blog of your own would give you the window you need to address them all. There are tons of free ones out there that require very little computer knowledge (if that’s a problem). I like Blogger.com, but there are many, may others.
Thank Goodness–outlander links to an article claiming that fewer cirrus clouds will reduce total effect of global warming.
Unfortunately, on the same site, we read this:
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels Highest On Record
ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2006) — In 2005, globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded. The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) 2005 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, published Nov. 3, says quantities of CO2 were measured at 379.1 parts per million (ppm), up 0.53 per cent from 377.1 ppm in 2004.
After water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are the three most prevalent greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere respectively. Greenhouse gases are some of the major drivers behind global warming and climate change.
Stupid is as stupid does. For your reading plesure
“Teen Nabbed For Naked MySpace Photos
Cops: Boy posted explicit shots of ex-girlfriend as way of “venting”
MAY 21–Meet Alex Phillips. The Wisconsin teenager is facing felony child pornography charges for allegedly posting naked photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. When contacted by police about the two images, Phillips, 17, balked at removing the pictures of the girl. Warned that he could face jail for publishing images of the minor, Phillips told an investigator, “F#@$#$ that, I am keeping them up,” according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in Lacrosse County Circuit Court. Phillips, pictured in the below mug shot, told cops that he posted the photos last week “because he was venting.” The cell phone camera photos had been taken by the girl, who provided them to Phillips. Along with posting the photos, Phillips added explicit captions like, “Yo, U see how big her hole is! Its from me!” While claiming that his goal was not to harm the girl, Phillips acknowledged that, “he probably should not have done this,” according to the May 20 court filing. Along with the child porn count, Phillips was charged with defamation and sexual exploitation of a child. (3 pages) “
“I’m sure the compassionate Libs here would dive deep into THEIR OWN pockets to support JR and help pay for his health care.”
I’m not interested in helping bloated corporations paying their CEO’s ten million dollars a year make more money.
However, I would support a system the controls costs and provides essential health care for all who need it.
That I would willingly contribute to, consistent with my ability to pay.
A mild bitch to vent a bit……………
I was running a few errands this morning, driving on Meridian just north of Pawnee, when I saw a fawn running south. I slammed on the brakes and the fawn cut in front of me and ran across the street into the parking lot of the Flea Market.
When I got home, I made a call so that the authorities could capture the deer before she and/or other drivers got hurt.
I made the first call to Animal Control, and was given another number to call. I listened to a recorded greeting for several minutes before being given another number to call. That was to the Wildlife folks and they asked me (!) what I thought they should do. Then they gave me another number to call.
When I finally got through to a human, the person that took the call seemed totally disinterested, but took the information.
Granted, I didn’t come across a grizzly bear or a man-eating coyote, but a frightened fawn running loose could cause a serious auto accident, especially around a heavily populated area.
I didn’t call 911, because I consider that to be a number for really human emergencies. I don’t like to tie up the lines with “non-emergencies.”
In retrospect, maybe I should have just called 911.
Thoughts?
MaxGlob’s ignorant comment shows the inherent fallacy of CON thinking.
When faced with an unjust system, they put the responsibility on the individual, knowing full well the individual is powerless against the corportocracy.
What? You don’t have a rifle, Clark?
Hehehe, just kidding. You did what I would’ve done.
I wouldn’t have tied up 9-11 for that level of emergancy.
“However, I would support a system the controls costs and provides essential health care for all who need it.
That I would willingly contribute to, consistent with my ability to pay.”
So, you are contributing to the likes of the Hunter clinic?
Ummmm. That sounds like a shot, and it kinda is, but not like most mean it. I am sending sending out that question, painful or not, to all. That includes myself. I have never considered giving to the Hunter clinic, or other such entity. I don;t know why, but I haven;t I have rectified that situation today, and will continue to do so. I would suggest everyone else do so. Of course, it is up to you as to what nonprofits you support.
“However, I would support a system the controls costs and provides essential health care for all who need it.
That I would willingly contribute to, consistent with my ability to pay.”
So, you are contributing to the likes of the Hunter clinic?
Ummmm. That sounds like a shot, and it kinda is, but not like most mean it. I am sending sending out that question, painful or not, to all. That includes myself. I have never considered giving to the Hunter clinic, or other such entity. I don;t know why, but I haven;t I have rectified that situation today, and will continue to do so. I would suggest everyone else do so. Of course, it is up to you as to what nonprofits you support.
WSCLARK-
I don;t know what else you could have done. Government bureaucrats. Even at lower levels, exhibits a few negative tendencies. You did well to even report it. It is my experience that most would not have even bothered.
I’m sure the Hunter Clinic does good work, and they deserve the donations they get.
But would we fund the U. S. military on a piece-meal, private-donation basis?
Of course not.
When it really matters, we need a comprehensive federal program to run it.
Sorry, I know that’s a red flag to the bull-headed CONs, but it’s the truth.
CapnAmerica
Posted May 21, 2008 at 12:21 pm | Permalink
That I would willingly contribute to, consistent with my ability to pay.
—————————————————-
Always that Lib qualifyer on it.
Oh, I’ll willingly pay whatever I can afford - which is NOTHING!
But, SOMEBODY ELSE can pay for me!
CapnAmerica-
See the post by WSCLARK about the fawn - and then ask yourself if you really want the government in charge of health care.
By the way, I found my wording. It was not meant as a shot, but rather, a challenge. Sorry for the previous bad wording.
Clark, we should probably pay more taxes to employ a Government Surplus Deer Roundup Service.
The GSDRS would respond immediately to Deer Sightings reported via 911.
The deer would be relocated via helicopter to a safer area without harming it.
“WSClark” shares –
“…maybe I should have just called 911.”
I probably would have called 911. After all, with 911 you get a human being and they’re in the business to respond to threats to human safety.
Now, they may or may not have perceived the fawn’s plight the threat to people that you do. (I think your concern is valid on that point, btw.) But by the time you got home, went through phone trees at Animal Control, the fawn was probably nowhere near where you saw it. What were they gonna do? At least 911 might have alerted patrol cars.
(Mmmm. Venison veal road kill….)
CapnAmerica
Posted May 21, 2008 at 12:23 pm | Permalink
MaxGlob’s ignorant comment shows the inherent fallacy of CON thinking.
When faced with an unjust system, they put the responsibility on the individual, knowing full well the individual is powerless against the corportocracy.
————————————————–
Ahh, the Powerless People routine again!
Woe is mean. I taint nuthin without Big Brother Government to take care of me, and the deer too.
Faced with an unjust system….
What is a Just system? Isn’t life fair?
Oh, I pay plenty. I’m in the StevenDavis income range (see above).
BTW, raising one in six America children in poverty–as our society currently does–costs some 500 billion dollars in future crime, untreated disease and lost productivity.
There’s no free lunch in a modern society, Max. You pay now (education, health care, food stamps) or you pay later (crime, unemployment, prisons).
When it really matters, we need a comprehensive federal program to run it.
Why stop there? You cradle to gravers are missing out on the big picture.
Government should run the schools. The federal government, because of course the states aren’t bright enough to get it right.
Guaranteed jobs with the government. I mean after y’all are done, there will be nothing left that is private. Jails can be leveled because no criminal is at fault, it is the government’s fault for not raising him/her correctly.
Guaranteed housing. Everyone has the exact same cookie cutter house. Wouldn’t want you to envy the Joneses. I mean if they actually educated themselves and worked to achieve 10 times what the fat and bloated nanny state riders did, why should they have a nice house?
Free food. From government farms and government grocery centers. You get the same bag of grub everyone else does. Don’t like what you got? Tough. The government says it is good for you.
Government provided mass transit. Turn in all your cars. Not everyone has one, so no one will have one.
If you want a government that wipes your butt from cradle to grave, move to a socialist country.
And capn, you will not give gladly (as you do not do that now) it will be taken from you without your permission.
WSC,
During spring break time I saw a ladder on the roof of a neighboring school. It looked very suspicious and was around the time we were hearing lots of news about copper being stolen from schools and parks, etc. Like you, I don’t dail 911 unless it’s an emergency. I looked up the number for the nearest police substation and called there. Guess what they told me to do? Yep, call 911. Still shaking my head about that one!
I don’t have an suggestions. You tried. Gotta have someone capable and competent on the other end to do any good.
WS,
I would have called 911 on the spot. Justification? The possibility of human fatality in a wreck.
But bully for you for thinking through the problem. Too bad the authorities blew it off.
In 50 years since LBJ started the War on Poverty, still 1 in 6 is ’stuck’ in government handout programs.
Hmmmm……
FDR started the Socialist mess, with his divine vision at engineering society.
Sure, some government help was needed during the depression years, but after WWII and the depression was over, the gravy train should have ended.
Instead, people held out their hands for even more.
Do you not think that welfare perpetuates deadbeats to stay in poverty? What’s their incentive to get out of it?
“BTW, raising one in six America children in poverty–as our society currently does–costs some 500 billion dollars in future crime, untreated disease and lost productivity.
There’s no free lunch in a modern society,”
I don;t know where you got the number, but whatever it is, there is definately a price.
Biggest cause, as I recall? single parent homes, not corporations.
An unjust system is one like this:
“UnitedHealth provides health care as a fringe benefit to both its 55,000 workers and to retirees. But under both federal and Minnesota law, if UnitedHealth decides to cut off this benefit the retirees are out of luck. Not so [a retired CEO like] McGuire. His employment contract requires the compay to reimburse him for the full cost of replacement coverage.”
McGuire’s retirement package from UnitedHealth?
$5 million annually, guaranteed for life.
“When it really matters, we need a comprehensive federal program to run it.”
Yup. No one can truly foul things up like a comprehensive federal program. And nothing says compassion like a massive federal bureaucracy, eating away endless tax dollars.
These are the same folks who brought you the $800 hammer, remember? Just WHAT in recent history would make us believe the feds competent to find their ass with both hands, let alone run the health care system?
“In 50 years since LBJ started the War on Poverty, still 1 in 6 is ’stuck’ in government handout programs.”
Right. It used to be twice as high before those programs.
Usually if there is one deer, there are others. In populated areas, if you see a deer it is best to report it to the Sheriff Department who can then notify the appropriate agency (highway departments) to go out and survey the area to see if a deer crossing sign needs to be put up.
Why? Because urban areas often disrupt the travel patterns of deer and they will alter their routes, so drivers need to be warned that deer are in the area.
On the darker side, the Sheriff Department and the Department of Wildlife often carry lists of people that will pick up deer for consumption. Road kill and all that…
So, GMC, you favor eliminating the military budget and holding bake sales? Make the military budget entirely dependent on private donations?
Cool.
I’m for that too . . .
Let’s see some stats on that Capn.
Show us how successful the war on poverty has been.
What percent of the American population is in poverty today, vs 1968?
$5 million annually, guaranteed for life.
So everyone, janitor to ceo, should make the same pay, same benefits same bonuses. Where does that leave the motivation to excel?
Live in the real world capn. Do y’all have ‘projects’ there? Places for low/no income folks to live? How’s that neighborhood look?
You give it away and it isn’t respected nor valued. Get a clue.
Just WHAT in recent history would make us believe the feds competent to run the health care system?
England
Canada
Japan
France
Germany
Spain
Switzerland
Norway
Denmark
Holland
Belgium
Finland
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/opinion/18krugman.html
From Paul Krugman, “Poverty Poisons Childrens’ Brains”
L. B. J. declared his “War on Poverty” 44 years ago. Contrary to cynical legend, there actually was a large reduction in poverty over the next few years, especially among children, who saw their poverty rate fall from 23 percent in 1963 to 14 percent in 1969.
But progress stalled thereafter: American politics shifted to the right, attention shifted from the suffering of the poor to the alleged abuses of welfare queens driving Cadillacs, and the fight against poverty was largely abandoned.
In 2006, 17.4 percent of children in America lived below the poverty line, substantially more than in 1969. And even this measure probably understates the true depth of many children’s misery.
None of which are the US, or are in significant ways anything like the US.
And you’re welcome to move to any of them.
ANd some of those countries have better health care and some of those countries have worse health care (depends of the definitions used). So? ANd the Japanese have one of the highest suicide rates among industrialized nations. Or did. So, better health care - higher suicide rate? Of course not. Neither does government run health care guarantee better health care. Bet it wouldn;t take me long to drum up some countries with government run health care that are ‘worse” than ours, now would it.
US Poverty Rate
2006 12.3%
1996 13.7%
1986 13.6%
1976 11.8%
1966 14.7%
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/histpov/hstpov2.html
That War on Poverty has been very successful?
Right.
US Unemployment Rate
2006 4.63%
1996 5.41%
1986 7.00%
1976 7.70%
1966 3.79%
http://www.miseryindex.us/URbyyear.asp
Case in point capn,
Woman Pleads Guilty to Fraud for Collecting Welfare as Adopted Children Starved
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356864,00.html
“So everyone, janitor to ceo, should make the same pay, same benefits same bonuses.”
Of course not.
But it is hard to fathom, on the other hand, how a CEO of a large company in the 1960’s was only worth 40 times the pay of an average worker and now that same CEO is valued at about 500 times.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/26/news/economy/ceo_pay/
The CEO of Walmart makes more in two weeks than a floorworker will make in her entire life.
The Top 25 hedge fund managers make an average of 11 million dollars . . . . .
A week.
This is ridiculous. It’s a class war, and the rich are winning.
Hundreds of millions of dollars donated to the Osama Obama campaign and none for the poor and starving.
But wait, Osama Obama wants to use your tax dollars, about 1 percent of the GDP to send your dollars OUT of the country to help those poor.
BS, Sol.
For every example you can find of a crack-whore nickle and diming the system, I can find you a thousand millionaires in legal scams getting richer at tax-payer expense.
Besides, the crack-whore was found guilty and punished. The rich never are because what they do is perfectly legal. Why do you think they buy the lawmakers off?
Numbers in poverty
1976 11.8%
1966 14.7%
I think a three percent reduction, which represents tens of millions of people, represents a real success.
Too bad Reagan came along and gutted everything so he could spend more on the military-industrial complex . . . i.e., crony capitalism.
Good afternoon Capn!
Unbelievable! Your ignorance of thermodynamics and physics is only exceeded by your ego!
The CEO of Walmart makes more in two weeks than a floorworker will make in her entire life.
Then maybe the floorworker should strive to be a CEO, or something other than a floor worker.
Or would you just rather hand her a fat check capn?
The Top 25 hedge fund managers make an average of 11 million dollars . . . . .
Bully for them. If that pisses you off, become a hedge fund manager, or you could just STFU and deal with your life choices.
This is ridiculous. It’s a class war, and the rich are winning.
Bumper sticker hype BS capn.
“None [of those countries] are the US, or are in significant ways anything like the US.”
You’re right, GMC.
In terms of wealth inequality, the US is much more like Mexico, Brazil and Russia than Europe or Japan.
Great role models there, eh?
LBJ started the war on poverty 50 years ago??
Damn funny — I could swear Eisenhower was Preident 50 years ago…
Johnson wasnt Pres. till Nov, 1963 — and the war on Poverty didnt come till later after that… not sure the exact year.. but certainly NOT 50 years ago… Geez, now we are re-writing the Calendar to make room for right wing pot shots??
C’mon folks… lets at least try to keep the statements REAL…
capn– methinks the definition of poverty has changed over the years.
In terms of wealth inequality
So let’s take from the successful and give to the lazy.
Again capn, you have a list of socialist countries. The US is not one of them. Feel free to move to the socialist country of your choosing.
Unemployment rate
2006 4.63%
And jr still can’t get a job.
Another content-free post by Sol.
Typical.
The reason the CEO’s make 10 times more relative to their workers than they did in the ’60’s is just because they work so much harder and they’re so much more valuable, right, Sol?
It couldn’t have anything to do with government policies and regulations that have made it easier for Boards and CEO’s to collude on salaries or time stock options to insure maximum returns.
No, according to Sol, it’s just natural and inevitable. Nobody plans it, nobody can control it. It’s just the way it is.
If God had wanted more rich people, why did he make so many poor people, right Sol?
Why isn’t wunnerful public edukation improving the minds of the cheeldren?
Below is a formatted version of the data displayed in the chart.
United States Federal, State,and Local Government Spending Fiscal Years 1970 to 2006
Amounts in $ billion Year Total Education
1970 56.5
1971 63.5
1972 71.4
1973 75.8
1974 81.4
1975 95.8
1976 107.3
1977 114.6
1978 127.2
1979 138.7
1980 152
1981 164.6
1982 168
1983 177.1
1984 189.5
1985 206.5
1986 215.6
1987 230.7
1988 246.2
1989 270.5
1990 292.2
1991 328.9
1992 337.5
1993 356.8
1994 361.4
1995 391.5
1996 406
1997 427.7
1998 458.2
1999 487.7
2000 525.3
2001 565.4
2002 603.1
2003 635.7
2004 664.9
2005 704.1
2006 749.8
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1970_2007&view=1&expand=&units=b&fy=fy09&chart=F0-total_20-total&stack=0&title=Total%20Spending
And, ummmm, what would that $$$$ amount from 1970 be equal to in terms of 2006 $$$$ ???
“Bet it wouldn;t take me long to drum up some countries with government run health care that are ‘worse” than ours, now would it.”
Actually, it would, LJ.
Cuba has a longer life expectancy than we do here, and they’re 36th on the scale. We’re 37th.
So, I don’t know what industrialized country you’re likely to find that’s worse off than we are.
littlejohn posted May 21, 2008 at 9:24 am
“2) THe small portion of ANWR set aside for oil development is allowed to be developed.
littlejohn stupidly believes that almost the ENTIRE Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is only a “small portion” of the Refuge.
A speculative map of what the 2,000-acre “limit” allows,
http://www.inforain.org/Northslope/anwr_3.html
The “smallest footprint ever” Alpine oil field touted by pro-drillers. 5 more drill sites were approved on Dec. 4, 2004 — and they want “… 24 more production drill sites, 122 more miles of roads, 7 more airports, 150 miles of pipeline, and 1262 more acres of tundra smothered by gravel.”
http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/AlpineNoEnvironmentalShowpiece.pdf
‘Potential Impacts of Oil and Gas Development on Refuge Resources’
http://arctic.fws.gov/issues1.htm#section4
Way to lie with statistics, Max
Year Total. Federal Spending. . . . .Education Spending
1970 . . . . . . . .321.8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56.5 .
2007 .. . . . . . 4823.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749.6
You can clearly see that from a percentage basis, the Federal gov’t was spending 18 percent of budget on education in 1970. In 2007, just over 15 percent.
Nice try, but these stats show the opposite of what you wanted them to. Spending for education under the CONs is going down, not up.
Correction–that’s total governmental spending on education, not just Federal.
AND I got the information from Max’s link–I just included the part he left out.
Only Capn could argue that going from 56.5 to 749.6 is going DOWN.
GMC70: Look at the standards of livinging in those countries (add Australia and New Zealand plus a lots more) longevity, along with education and crime stats. Of the top 40 countries who claim to support the free enterprise system, and have representative govenments, only 3 do not have universal health coverage. Turkey, Mexico and the US. I’m not saying that the US should have it, just don’t denegrate them what does! The aims and objects of universal coverage is to provide care based soley on need and the the ability to pay. That carries a lot of problems just like the US system does,but it is an tremendous persuit. Imagine trying to make you well, not make a buck off illness. I got family in two of the countries noted above and they just wince or laugh when they hear their “socilaized” medicine stigmatized by those who never have experienced it.
Capn has obviously not been exposed to the masses on government aid. You have some infantile perception of nirvana and that the government should take care of everything.
Go out and see some of these folks. Able bodied men and women that have become fat and lazy on the government dime. Able to work, but would rather ‘get it for free’. Take a walk in reality once or twice capn. Might open your eyes.
Throwing money and government regulations at ‘problems’ is absolutely no answer. Ever. But keep shilling your socialism.
Problem is, I think you know how wonderful Capitalism is. Why else would you still be here? Why else would you not move to one of the socialist countries you are so proud of?
Max’s figures take no account of inflation and the growth of overall wealth and productivity.
Also the vastly greater number of children educated today than in 1970.
So calculating in all that, the spending is less–that’s why it is less as a percentage of total taxation spent.
“[People] able to work, but would rather ‘get it for free’.”
I know.
Regular.
As for moving to another country, I’ve lived in other countries for years at a time.
I want to live in my own country now, thank you very much.
Unlike the CONs, I want to make it better, and last time I checked, you could still try to do that here.
OK I will try this again >>>>
And, ummmm, what would that $$$$ amount from 1970 be equal to in terms of 2006 $$$$ ???
Unlike the CONs, I want to make it better, and last time I checked, you could still try to do that here.
better = socialist? Me thinks not.
Yeah, he doesn’t know, Chas.
Because it doesn’t seem to make his case if he uses “constant” dollars instead of “nominal” dollars.
By the Captain
“So, I don’t know what industrialized country you’re likely to find that’s worse off than we are.”
Here’s one example
Overall Cancer Survival Rates. According to the survey of cancer survival rates in Europe and the United States, published recently in Lancet Oncology:1
American women have a 63 percent chance of living at least five years after a cancer diagnosis, compared to 56 percent for European women. [See Figure I.]
American men have a five-year survival rate of 66 percent — compared to only 47 percent for European men.
Among European countries, only Sweden has an overall survival rate for men of more than 60 percent.
For women, only three European countries (Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland) have an overall survival rate of more than 60 percent.
These figures reflect the care available to all Americans, not just those with private health coverage. Great Britain, known for its 50-year-old government-run, universal health care system, fares worse than the European average: British men have a five-year survival rate of only 45 percent; women, only 53 percent
Sol — I still think you all need to DEFINE what evils you see in Socialist countries…
Sol says, “Me thinks not.”
Oh . . . I wouldn’t go that far. Sometimes you do think, you just don’t think much . . .
Okay, that lawn isn’t mowing itself.
I’m outta here for now . . .
CapN — get a couple goats — cheaper than mower gas!! LOL
REALLY! LJ
Wow. If I get cancer, I’ll feel so much better knowing that I have an 8 percent chance of living a year or two longer here.
Meanwhile, how do you explain the 10 years or so LONGER the Europeans live than we do?