WE Blog

Christina Page writes –

On this ‘National Day to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy,’ I thought it would be a fun exercise to compare the sexual activity of teenagers and their pregnancy rates in the most pro-choice states with those of the most pro-life states. I used NARAL’s rankings to determine which were the best and worst states on choice. (Simply, those that scored “F” are the worst and those with an “A” are the best). I then filled in the state data for each from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the National Day sponsors, and compared the pro-choice states with the pro-life states.

Which side is actually doing a better job?

Conclusion: one side has a lot more to celebrate. Turns out pro-life states, those that are prone to tell kids that abstinence is the only proven contraception, and discourage use of actual contraception, then wag their finger at the less “morally superior” states, are where high schoolers are:

· more sexually active

· more likely to have had sex before the age of 13

· more likely to have four or more sexual partners.

Turns out that to be “pro-life” is to be pro-your-young-teen-having-a-risky-sex-life. In addition, the states that are witnessing the most dramatic drop in teen pregnancies are the most solidly pro-choice ones (CA, VT, HI, AK) while the ones where teen pregnancy rates are declining most slowly are anti-choice (NE, MS, WY, OK).

As this election goes from a simmer to a boil, the culture warriors will be dosing ideological gasoline on the flames. Isn’t it time to call the religious right’s bluff? If we measured their agenda based on its results they could only be considered the pro-risky-adolescent-sex-unwanted- pregnancy-teen-mothers-and-more-abortion crowd. They have no right to moralize and no standing to be sanctimonious — that should be our job. They’re wrong. We know it and it’s time the American public did too. Pro-choice people, and most especially pro-choice candidates, have got to use the gifts of evidence we’ve been given (and earned). The American public doesn’t want its 12-year-olds sexually active or their daughters impregnated by one of their four or more sexual partners — but that’s what the pro-life agenda is poised to make America’s reality, and sadly has for too many already. There’s quantitative data to prove it. One thing is for sure, the religious right is not going to mention it.

Global Warming and Cooling – The Reality

Stephen Wilde has been a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society since 1968. The first two articles from Mr Wilde were received with a great deal of interest throughout the CO2 Sceptic community. In Stephen Wilde’s third and exclusive article below, he explores the mechanics and mechanisms involved in the Earth’s warming and cooling. Needless to say, CO2 variations are unimportant

It’s all very well doing what alarmists do which is to say that CO2 is rising and temperatures are rising so in the absence of any other known cause it must be man made CO2 that is warming the planet. That approach ignores both the differing scale of the possible influencing factors and the clear historical relationship between cooler climates and periods of a less active sun. The presence of the sun must be a much bigger influence on global temperatures than the greenhouse characteristics of CO2 on it’s own.

At most the greenhouse effect can only be marginal though some have tried to talk it up by asserting that the planet would be very much colder without a greenhouse effect, which is correct, but avoids the issue of the rather small proportion of the overall greenhouse effect provided by CO2 and the even smaller proportion provided by man. It also begs the question as to whether the oceans are slowly releasing CO2 as a result of natural warming. If the oceans warm for any reason they will release CO2 into the atmosphere because water holds less CO2 at higher temperatures.

The greenhouse effect, as a whole, may smooth out rises and falls in temperature from other causes but is not itself the determining factor for global temperature. If the heat from the sun declines the global temperature will fall with or without any greenhouse effect and if the heat from the sun increases the global temperature will, of course, rise. The greenhouse effect does not create new heat. All it does is increase the residence time of heat in the atmosphere.

In the ice core record, CO2 increase has always lagged behind temperature rises and the lag involved is estimated to be 400 to 800 years. There has never been a period when a CO2 rise has preceded global warming. I have seen it argued that the past 30 years has been so exceptional that it MUST, for the first time in the history of the globe, be CO2 driving the warming trend. That is an assertion of such low probability that it should require very powerful evidence to support it. I have seen no such evidence. Indeed, on a cursory inspection the slow but steady increase in atmospheric CO2 is clearly not coming through in a slow but steady rise in global temperatures. Instead we see rises and falls in global temperatures that bear no obvious relationship to the steady rise in CO2 unless one puts the cart before the horse and announces that there is no other possible reason and the trend period adopted is carefully chosen to suit the proposition.

All it needs to cast doubt on the CO2 theory is an alternative possibility to explain a rising global temperature trend over the past 500 years and there is one. Everyone will have heard of the Little Ice Age and the global temperature would appear to have been recovering from it ever since. On a balance of probability is that not the more likely explanation of an overall warming trend ever since? Why introduce manmade CO2 at all except for politically motivated reasons? By all means exclude a recovery from the Little Ice Age as the reason if one can but the burden of proof is heavy and probably impossible to discharge with current knowledge. There was also a Mediaeval Warm Period (MWP) that preceded it. It has been asserted by some that the MWP was not as warm as the planet is now but there is evidence to the contrary such as Viking settlements in Greenland at the time. It has also been asserted that the MWP was not worldwide but some recent indications have been found in South America that it was warm there at about the same time. In any event it is unlikely that such a warm period affecting Greenland and Western Europe would not be worldwide. The heavy burden of proof is on those who would seek to deny it.

Be that as it may, there is a probability rather than a possibility that the warming trend since the lowest point of the Little Ice Age is continuing to this day and is the real cause of recent observed warming with only a minimal contribution, if any, from man made CO2 emissions.

Then there is the matter of scale. The greenhouse effect is mainly a phenomenon of the land surface and the atmosphere because more of the incoming heat is absorbed by water as compared to land and a lower proportion is reflected to participate in the greenhouse effect. However the surface of Earth is 70 % water. Water has a hugely greater heat carrying capacity than the land or the atmosphere above it. Land loses most of the heat it receives during the day via overnight radiation and the atmosphere loses heat rapidly via convection, rainfall and radiation to space despite the greenhouse effect. The true heat store that we need to consider, dwarfing by far any atmospheric greenhouse effect is all that water. I describe the implications of that below.

It seems so complex but the global heat balance only comes down to three parameters that swamp all others.

Heat from the sun.

The fact that 70% of the planet is water covered.

Heat, radiating out to a very cold Space.

Extra heat is constantly being generated within the Earth by convection and movement caused by external gravitational forces from the sun and other planets but that only seems to disrupt the basic scenario intermittently.

The heat from the sun varies over a number of interlinked and overlapping cycles but the main one is the cycle of 11 years or so. That solar cycle can last from about 9.5 years to about 13.6 years and appears to be linked to the gravitational effects of the planets of the solar system combining to affect the sun’s magnetic field which seems then to influence the amount of heat generated and incidentally affects the number of sunspots. For present purposes I will concentrate on the past 1000 years during which the 11year cycle has been the main factor linked to observed temperature changes. For pre thermometer numbers we have to rely on less reliable indicators of past temperature.

It is clear that temperatures have varied so much over the past 1000 years that there have been substantial effects on human societies so disruption caused by weather and climate is by no means unusual. Many civilisations have fallen as a result of entirely natural changes in climate. Interestingly, they often blamed themselves for offending the Gods, nature or the planet (that sounds familiar!).

It is necessary to note that those disruptive changes have occurred quite quickly. A decade or two is quite enough to see changes that result in considerable hardship.

Because 70% of the planet is covered by water most heat from the sun is accepted by water. The seas take a long time to warm up or cool in comparison to land. Heat reaching the land by day is soon radiated back out to Space at night. Water has a much greater lag both in warming and cooling which also means that as a store of total heat the oceans are hugely effective. The strongest sunlight reaching the Earth is around the Equator that is primarily oceanic. The equatorial sun puts heat into the system year in year out whereas loss of heat is primarily via the poles with each alternating as the main heat loser depending on time of year.

The Earth therefore accumulates or loses heat to and from, primarily, the oceans. The land and the atmosphere are largely an irrelevance. That heat then has to find it’s way out into Space over time. Before it can be radiated out into Space heat has to pass through the atmosphere.

The planet cannot maintain and does not maintain a constant temperature. It is not even possible to identify a specific current temperature for the whole planet and for present purposes there is no need to do so.

All I need to assert at this point is that whatever the Earth’s temperature is at any given moment it will always be in the process of warming or cooling and, of course, the rate of that warming or cooling is highly variable.

Because the Earth is always either warming or cooling the point of balance could well be very fine so to attribute `blame’ to any particular factor we have to ascertain the scale and degree of sensitivity of each factor we wish to consider.

The point I need to make here is that on the basis of historical evidence from weather and solar cycle records the largest single factor influencing global temperature, whatever it might be at any time, is variations in the input of heat from the sun.

It is clear from the historical record that warmer weather accompanies short solar cycles and cooler weather accompanies longer solar cycles. Although I refer to weather the fact is that weather over time constitutes climate so for present purposes they are the same. During the recent warming the cycle lengths were less than 10 years so that meant we were getting more heat from the sun whatever the alarmists say about Total Solar Irradiance (a flawed and incomplete concept).

So far, the current solar cycle (number 23) is into the 12th year in length and may go to the full 13.6 years for known astronomical reasons. The very fact that it is longer than the previous two cycles suggests we are getting less solar energy already and, surprise, surprise, it is now being accepted by alarmists that warming has stalled and the planet may be cooling for the next 10 years at least. All they can do now is bleat that the underlying man made warming signal is still there but they cannot prove that to be the case nor can they demonstrate the scale of it in relation to natural causes.

As far as I can see nobody seems to be able to say why the observed changes in weather that accompany changes in solar activity actually happen. They seem to be disproportionate to the changes in heat coming from the sun. This is where I feel the need to make a suggestion.

The ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) Cycle has been heavily investigated for many years but seems to be looked at as a freestanding phenomenon that just redistributes heat around the globe, sometimes warming and sometimes cooling.

I think that is wrong. I believe that ENSO switches from warming to cooling mode depending on whether the sun is having a net warming or net cooling effect on the Earth. Thus the sun directly drives the ENSO cycle and the ENSO cycle directly drives global temperature changes. Indeed, the effect appears to be much more rapid than anyone has previously believed with a measurable response occurring within a few years of a change in solar energy input. Indeed I see some evidence for the proposition that for various reasons cooling occurs faster than warming but I will save that for another time.

It was no coincidence that during the years from 1975 to 2000 we had a strong emphasis on El Nino with warming-also known as a period of positive Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and now, with an emphasis on La Nina we have cooling or at least a stall in the warming (a period of negative PDO).

As regards the Pacific Decadal Oscillation that is simply a periodical change in the predominance either of El Nino (positive mode) or of La Nina (negative mode). El Nino events can occur in a positive PDO mode and vice versa.

I believe that both ENSO and PDO are manifestations of the same process and are directly driven by shifts in the balance of heat output from the sun as it switches to or from net warming and to or from net cooling effects on the Earth.

It was no coincidence that the change from one ENSO mode to the other was approximately contemporaneous with the extension of solar cycle 23 to a period longer than the preceding two solar cycles and at about the same time the PDO switched from positive to negative.

Although there are similar periodic oscillations in other oceans such as the Atlantic and the Arctic I believe that they follow the lead of ENSO and PDO. In effect they simply continue the distribution of the initial warming or cooling state around the globe and of course there are varying degrees of lag so that from time to time the other lesser oceanic oscillations can operate contrary to the primary Pacific oscillations until the lag is worked through.

I believe that this is a clear and simple theory of solar driven global climate change which should now be tested empirically.

Just looking at the activity levels of the past few solar cycles and the temperature and ENSO changes that occurred at about the same time would have revealed the truth if those who should have known better were not trying to implicate man generally and western nations in particular. Refer to my two earlier articles for fuller detail.

The fact is that the Earth could well be a highly sensitive water based thermometer as far as solar input is concerned. The balance between overall warming and overall cooling is probably finely linked to the energy received or not received from the sun over decadal time periods or possibly even less.

Advances have been made in predicting the likely activity levels of the sun so it should be possible to make general predictions as regards the onset of warming or cooling trends on Earth from solar observations and astronomical measurements of planetary influences on solar cycles.

Finally, one should consider whether other warming or cooling influences might have any significance to humanity and the environment.

The fact is that the solar effect is huge and overwhelming. Other influences can only ever delay or bring forward what would have happened anyway because of the time scales involved with solar changes that tend to develop and intensify over centuries. One must also remember that, the warmer the Earth gets, the faster the radiation of heat to Space because of an enhanced temperature differential so it would be false to propose an ever increasing positive differential as a result of adding any warming effect of man made CO2 to the effect of solar changes.

The length and intensity of a solar cool down would strip out the human portion of any extra CO2 quite ruthlessly because the cooler temperatures would increase the amount of CO2 absorbed by the oceans and oceanic life would flourish to lock it away in the carbon cycle again in the form of organic calcium carbonate from a multitude of tiny sea creatures (which generally prefer cooler waters) falling to the sea bed.

In effect, all life on Earth has the benefit of an oceanic and atmospheric air conditioning system that clears out excess CO2 as well as well as dust, other particulates and noxious substances created by either the planet itself or the life forms on it from time to time.

Of course a single organism can upset the balance of it’s own environment for a time but the planet always renews itself and repopulates with new life forms if necessary. The solution is always a new balance between numbers and lifestyle for any particular organism and that includes us.

That is why, despite hugely different environmental conditions in the past, including far higher CO2 levels, there has never been a `tipping’ point that changed the pattern of glaciations and interglacials that have occurred with clockwork precision based on astronomical movements throughout the historical record.

Nor need we fear any man made addition to solar warming because the proportion of the warming which we would be responsible for would be insignificant against the scale of the solar induced portion. In any event, since cooling is worse than warming for humanity and most life on the planet, our production of CO2, however large in our puny terms, would be wholly beneficial for life on Earth. CO2 is the least of our problems so our attention and resources should be better directed to a more general concept of sustainability

“The debate is over.”

Al Gore

Wrap up session at the state house:

THE BUDGET
Movement on the coal bill indicates that the leadership GOP in the Legislature is finally marching toward the end of the wrap-up session.
Late Tuesday night, legislative leaders were saying that an impasse over the final state budget bill was clearing. The House leadership pretty much gave in to the Senate . . . letting the powerful Senate leaders have their projects, while giving in on many important pieces for the most vulnerable Kansas people.
One item in the final budget would help finance expansion of the K.U.School of Pharmacy. A late-night deal would provide the school with $20 million in bonds for the fiscal year that starts July 1, and then $15 million from expected gambling revenue in each of the next two fiscal years.
Another is a road in the Parsons area. House members wanted to add language to the final bill to strip the $750,000 road project from the budget. Many argued the project should be weighed against other potential projects before the Department of Transportation, not singled out. After all, Kansas has a comprehensive transportation plan, which operates on priorities set outside the political process. The road
leads to the old Army Ammunition Plant and House members argue that the area should be developed with a coordinated plan before funding is passed. Local officials note that the plant was targeted by federal officials in 2005, the state’s only real casualty in a round of military installation closings. Daniel Goddard, the plant’s executive director, said the project championed by Umbarger is in reality the “road to economic recovery and greater prosperity,” not a road to nowhere. Senator Umbarger said House members’ nickname was an attempt to demean the project and had little to do with its merits.
Umbarger also noted numerous examples of legislators earmarking money for individual projects in the budget. For example, last year, lawmakers set aside $1.5 million last for a dam project in the district of House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Sharon Schwartz, a Washington Republican.
And then there is the bonding for a new state prison in Yates Center. This issue has been around for several sessions, beginning as an effort to allow a private prison there. The prison expansion program was authorized last session as discretion for the Secretary of Corrections to consider the bonds for four projects providing 668 new beds. There was no immediate need found for prison expansion, so the legislators thought the bonds would only be used if a sudden jump in prisoners occurred because of the strict sexual predator law passed last session. The Secretary’s possible projects were two new cellhouses at the state’s maximum security prison outside El Dorado, expansion of the state prisons in Ellsworth and Stockton, and a new 240-bed drug-and-alcohol treatment center for inmates in Yates Center. Yates Center, a city, with 1,500 residents 80 miles south of Topeka, has been trying to attract a prison for more than two decades, an effort to boost its economy. The Corrections Secretary, Roger Werholtz, foresaw the Yates Center project as an opportunity to help rebuild programs decimated when the state experienced budget problems in 2002 and 2003. Between 70% and 80% of the state’s inmates have a substance abuse problem. During the interim since last legislative session, the Secretary got approval to issue bonds. House members, starting with the House Judiciary Committee, were upset that the Secretary was issuing bonds when prison expansion is not needed, wanted to quash the expansion program, noting that the state’s prison population declined slightly in the last half of 2006 and has not jumped appreciably.
Earlier Tuesday, scores of Kansans with disabilities and their advocates protested outside the House and Senate chambers, urging lawmakers to complete the final state budget. They chanted, “People, not politics!” and “Kansas is waiting, shame on you!” The group, many in wheelchairs, some signing their chant, others with canes for guidance or support, wanted legislators to approve funding for key human service programs. Contained in the final budget is $6.1 million for home- and community-based services for the elderly and developmentally disabled. Advocates also are hoping for $375,000 for an assistive technology program to restore a loss in federal funds. “I hope they give us our funding so that we don’t have waiting lists, or people dying while on waiting lists,” said Linda Spunaugle, a coordinator with the Southeast Kansas Independent Living resource center. They also were lobbying for funding for the Assistive Technology for Kansans (ATK) program. ATK provides medical and occupational equipment to people with disabilities. It also maintains an exchange system for used equipment. A 50-year-old resident of Pittsburg who is blind said he would be unable to work without help from the assistive technology program. He said ATK provided him with an electronic Braille display that allows him to read a computer screen by touch and also arranged for him to get training without having to go to Topeka for it.
The budget bill eliminated funding for community mental health centers, waiting lists for frail elderly, the educational opportunity for military children interstate compact, Early Detection Works funding for breast and cervical cancer, disaster relief, a COLA for retired state employees, community area agencies on aging, and added the pet pork projects for powerful Senators.
Gov. Sebelius already has signed most of the next state budget into law, and the bill before legislators would add about $33 million.
Overall spending would increase $391 million, or about 3%, during the next fiscal year. Most state employees would receive a 2.5% pay raise and many retired teachers and government workers would receive a one time additional $300 payment.
The omnibus budget bill passed the House at 9:45 p.m. after a long wait while the Senate debated and discussed.

More from the wrap up session:

LEGISLATURE PASSES 2012 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION
The majority of legislators want a presidential primary in 2012 on the first Saturday in February. The primary was included in the Voter ID bill sent yesterday to the Governor. Kansas last had a presidential primary in 1992. Legislators since then haven’t provided funding for primaries. This year, Democrats and Republicans conducted heavily attended statewide caucuses for selecting presidential candidates. The law says a primary will be on a date set by the secretary of state in concert with at least five other states, or if that isn’t possible, then the first Tuesday in April. The cost of a presidential primary was estimated at $1.5 million this year.
Governor Sebelius and many Democrats have opposed the voter I.D.
requirement, calling it an effort to suppress an already low voter turnout. The margin of victory in the House was not enough to override Gov. Sebelius, should she decide to veto the measure, now known as House Bill 2019. The governor’s office was noncommittal, but Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said he expects the governor will veto voter ID as she has in the past. Rep. Sawyer served on the House-Senate conference committee that handled the bill. In a meeting Saturday, he said the governor had expressed concern about enforcing the requirement to show ID before 2012. The committee settled on 2010 and sent the measure to the floor without the consent of Sawyer and the other Democrat on the committee, Sen. Donald Betts of Wichita. The bill sailed through the Senate 27-3, a veto-proof majority even with four senators abstaining and six absent.
The House approved it by a less-enthusiastic 67-56.
In another election-related matter, the House and Senate passed a bill to require a special election to fill a Kansas seat in the U.S.
Senate if there is a vacancy between regular elections. HB 2683 passed
64-59 in the House and 23-8 in the Senate. This bill also includes language to establish a date for a presidential primary election on the first Saturday in February. However, whether a presidential primary election will be held will depend on whether future Legislatures budget the money.

“Boxlock” –

You shouldn’t cut words out of quotes to distort my post.

The full statement is, “I used NARAL’s rankings to determine which were the best and worst states on choice. (Simply, those that scored “F” are the worst and those with an “A” are the best). I then filled in the state data for each from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the National Day sponsors, and compared the pro-choice states with the pro-life states.”

Typical Con. Can’t fight the facts so you attack the source.

Monkey,
Still looks like the information was drawn from NARAL’s rankings to determine which were the best and worst states on choice.
And it remains; “NARAL Pro-Choice America (pronounced “NAY-ral”) is a pro-choice organization in the United States that engages in political action to oppose restrictions on abortion and expand access to abortion. NARAL is often used as a short form of the name.”

“I just assume from the start it’s a lie; it usually has been before.”
GMC70
Ditto!!!

Ops,
GMC70
I guess I didn’t get it stopped and corrected in time there buddy.

“GMC70″ chimes in with –

“Boxlock … simply pointed out your source was less than unbiased, and has a distinct ax to grind on this issue.”

The NARAL numbers were based on the states’ respective anti-choice laws on the books.

The OTHER side of the equation comes from the rabidly anti-choice National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. (A fact you and “Boxlock” choose to ignore.)

And the numbers are clear. The states which emphasize abstinence sex-ed and throw up artificial barriers to women’s reproductive services (birth control, free or subsidized Pap tests, etc.) have more sexually active 12-year-olds, more STDs, more unplanned pregnancies, etc.

“And the numbers are clear”

Numbers are NEVER clear. Those with an agenda will always jigger the numbers to fit the agenda.

Has always been so, will always be so.

“The OTHER side of the equation comes from the rabidly anti-choice National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy”

“Strengthen a culture of personal responsibility regarding sex, getting pregnant, and bringing children into the world, as well as strengthening the practice of always using contraception when you aren’t ready to have a child;
Support responsible policies that will increase the use of contraception, particularly by those who cannot afford it and by those at greatest risk for having an unplanned pregnancy; and
Provide more education to teens, parents, and young adults in their 20s that encourages them to take sex and pregnancy seriously, stresses personal responsibility and respectful relationships, and includes extensive information about contraception”

Doesn;t seem to match

open thread says –25 comments. Why can I only see 3? And I cannot see my post on it this morning.

It is one of those unusual aspects of urban warfare, I was watching CNN coverage of open warfare that has broken out between Hesbollah and Sunnis in downtown Beirut. The anchor was talking with a reporter on the scene:

“You say that was a Rocket propel grenade? “
“Yes it went off back behind the Dunkan donut!”.

Sound kind of odd? Did you know there was a Dunkan donut in Beirut?
What next, “the fighting has widen, their in front of the KFC!”
Good news, Hesbollah has finally been driven out from the Taco Bell!

Hey! – Check this out…
In one of the odder stories we’ve spotted in some time, an installation called “Victimless Leather” was on display at NY’s MoMA. The piece was actually a living jacket crafted from mouse embryonic stem cells, fed nutrients through tubes. But after five weeks, it grew too large for its containment flask and had to be killed.

The exhibit’s curator cut the coat off from nutrition and it died thereafter. But the decision haunted her.

I’ve always been pro-choice and all of a sudden I’m here not sleeping at night about killing a coat…That thing was never alive before it was grown.
Personally, it’s the image of a pulsating living rat coat that’s going to keep me from sleeping. Did anyone see the exhibit? [The Art Newspaper via boingboing]
11:30 AM on Thu May 8 2008
By Mark Wilson

I’m not too crazy about this guy as he has consistently been on the wrong side of water issues. However, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

You gotta love a column that starts out by saying neufeld is quite possibly the only person the repubs could have put in the speaker’s position who could make one pine for the good ol’ days of Doug Mays.

And WTF about neufeld and blackmailing? Does anyone know about this and careto share?

http://www.hdnews.net/opinionstory/Staab050808

I don’t, but if you find anything out, please share. This Neufield guy needs ALL the bad press we can find! He has deserved some karma.

From your link I thought how many topics these words cover: “I know I will most likely catch some guff on this. “Glenn, how can you be a Democrat and be against free speech.” I’m not. What more can possibly be written on the subject of wind farms that hasn’t already been written, refuted, re-written, re-refuted and on and on and on and, well, you get the picture?”

But I also suspect we will continue to recycle words on those many topics, and never change a single opinion while we’re at it.

Ellis county recently rejected a wind farm proposal, and it was a hot and divisive topic for a long time. I find it ironic that they support the Sunflower coal plant but then Sunflower is a hometown company and so is Midwest Energy. They loves them some fossil fuels, as long as they dont get burned in THEIR backyard.

Oh, and no wind towers either.

NIMBY all the way.

KFG I read both links and came to the conclusion that most politicians are crooked and self serving. Oh I already had reached that conclusion.

My thoughts on your posts were these:

We are sitting here in a fuel charge explosion, electricity is through the roof, greens are yelling for alternative power sources and we refuse permission to build a coal plant and put a moritorium on even discussing wind farms.

What are we doing to develop another power source? Well we are making more ethanol (per a 20% goal) which will help the farmers who raise it and bankrupt the consumers who buy food. We are refusing to license any new nuclear plants. The 25 year old ban on drilling is still in place. No new refineries have been started in over 20 years. I could go on but I think you get the picture.

We set back and moan and groan about how hard times are but to nothing to correct anything. What is wrong with this picture?

TPTB in Ellis county are all for the Sunflower plants. Glenn Staab, as Ellis County Chair of the Democratic Party, is putting his loyalty with the governor and not the hometown boys.

Wonder if that will have any effect on their local politics?

Probably not.

Here’s another interesting link to show an unintended consequence of the moratorium on wind in Ellis county.

http://www.hdnews.net/Story/seniorhousing050808

NIMBY always benefits someone.

“Drill all you want, just don’t fork up ANWAR for a lousy six month’s worth of oil.”

I wonder why? Why draw a line in the sand there?

Nathaniel
Posted May 8, 2008 at 2:12 pm | Permalink
May 8th, 2008.

Still have not heard anything yet Chas.

Nathan when you do hear something will you let us all know? I’d like to come to the trial and sit behind you in support.

Where do they conduct Courts-martials are here? Would it be 24thMar in Kansas City? Maybe 9th MCD?

Of course that depends upon the type of courts-martial you are given under Art 15, of the UCMJ.
Summary, Special, or General? Will we be flying to NLNS, 4thMarDiv? I hope they time it for Mardi Gras next year. Bourbon Street is party ready as ever, but some of the burbs leave a lot to be desired.

Nathan and AMWay we make this into a blog happening. NO sounds good. We could have a blog meetup for everyone – left and right. Maybe Nancy Grace could cover it for CourtTV and we could have Greta do the color commentary. Let me know the date and I will organize it.

Nathan. I still have some contacts at the USDB if you get long term incarceration for violating something with your posts to Chas.

Both with the MarDet and the 705th MPBn.

On the bright side, you won’t have to worry about spending time in the old 1877 barrack. They closed that historical wreck a few years ago. You won’t have to worry about making little rocks out of big rocks either.

Brand spankin’ new 500 bed facility for long term inmates only.

I might still be able to slip you a saw blade if you know what I mean.

“Maybe Nancy Grace could cover it for CourtTV and we could have Greta do the color commentary. Let me know the date and I will organize it.”

Great idea KSgrm!

As long as I don’t have to pay for any liberals air fare. Chas would be a witness for the defense and probably have all expenses paid; per diem, trans expense, etc…

If not I guess he could hitch hike. Maybe stay in one of them thar gubermint provided trailers. I heard tell they are all painted white.

Anyone ever notice how a lot of the regular posters here disappear for a couple of hours this time of day. They post all morning and afternoon then are gone from around 4PM to say 6PM.

Could it be they are driving home from work?

Did any of you RW types make statements demanding John Kerry’s wife release her tax returns? Fron this article looks like the WSJ and Washington Post did, but have failed to write about Cindy (aka ‘C*nt’) refuses to do so, even if she’s first lady!
http://mediamatters.org/items/200805050001

Hey Regular!

This is our fourth year for the asparagus. First year, JuJuBee dug it all up and scattered it around. Second year we got a little, got quite a bit last year, but we were gone all the time horsin’ and doggin’ and the weeds got it.

I wanted to start over this year but Mama wants to hold what we got.

I got spoiled when stationed in Idaho, it grew wild on the irrigation canals. We’d put about 50 pounds in the freezer each spring!

HLP
Posted May 8, 2008 at 4:59 pm | Permalink
Hey Regular!

This is our fourth year for the asparagus. First year, JuJuBee dug it all up and scattered it around. Second year we got a little, got quite a bit last year, but we were gone all the time horsin’ and doggin’ and the weeds got it.

I wanted to start over this year but Mama wants to hold what we got.

I got spoiled when stationed in Idaho, it grew wild on the irrigation canals. We’d put about 50 pounds in the freezer each spring!
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Ah, too bad about this years crop then.

Yep, them white asparagus spears from Idaho is mighty tasty, expensive too! :D

Hey Phantom,

Don’t think I ever cared much about Teresa Heinz Kerry’s catchup fortune four years ago and I care even less now.

I really believe if you have to make an issue of someone’s money in an election then you are probably lacking in any thing substantive to talk about.

I can come up with twenty things about the liberal, traitorous, war protesting, self righteous, spoiled, lying, pompous, self centered, throwing-his-medals-over-the fence, winter soldering, communist loving, lying to Senate, flip flopping, calling-our-servicemen-traitors, Obama supporting, Christmas in Cambodia, bandaid-purple-hearts, Kennedy supporting butt-boy, U.S. hating, French loving, botox faced, plagiarizing, Massachusetts spoiled brat, Kerry before I’d ever have to mention the fact that he was a gigolo!

Oh, never mind, maybe I could come up with more than twenty!

I hope my friends among the more reasonable of Obama supporters will forgive this.

Remember. This is Kansas. Neither your vote nor mine matters. Kansas will go red and has not enough electoral votes to be worth anything anyway.

There’s the disclaimer.

I don’t THINK Senator Clinton will want the VP slot. Not unless it carries Dick Cheney like powers and duties with it anyway. She can do better in the Senate and in 2012.

But there is another reason I don’t think she’ll take it.

I don’t think she thinks Obama can win, even with her on the ticket. And I happen to agree.

Obama’s chances ARE slightly better with her.

But he still has huge problems as the nominee.

Just curious. Have any of you dem’s computed what the delegate totals would be for Obama and Clinton if the state winner took all the delegates for that state?

In other words, if the popular vote of each state was used to assign delegates: Who would be the leader?

American_Way: Are you a member of the Kansas legislature? Anyway regarding scheduling the Presidential primary four years down the road … it strikes me Kansas might have more influence by scheduling it late in the primary election season like in April/May, 2012.

Hard to predict the dynamics but seems to me these later states are receiving a lot of publicity and they have the benefit of knowing who’s on third base by this time!

Central Avenue, Santa Fe Improvements

Date: May 7, 2008
Contact: Mike Jacobs, Special Projects Engineer
: MJacobs@wichita.gov
: (316) 268-4235

Central Avenue will be closed at Santa Fe Street from 6 am to 8 pm on Sunday, May 18. Dondlinger & Sons Construction, Inc. will install 92-foot long steel girders for the new bridge that now carries train traffic over Central Avenue. The girders will allow the bridge to be widened on the east side to accommodate a third train track.

During the closure, traffic will be detoured to Murdock, which can now carry truck traffic up to 15’-6” beneath the elevated rail bridge. First and Second Streets are also detour options.

Dondlinger will assemble and move a large crane into place Sunday morning, and begin lifting girders into place. Each pair of girders weighs 44 tons.

The improvements mark the second and final phase of construction for this bridge, which has been carrying one line of train traffic since October 16, 2007. The remainder of the trains crossing Central Avenue were diverted onto the new bridge on March 16.

When complete, the bridge will have capacity for three overhead tracks, with five driving lanes and sidewalks below, plus an overhead clearance of 15’-6” for large trucks.

This work is part of the City’s downtown Central Railroad Corridor Project that includes new railroad bridges at First, Second, Central, Murdock, and Thirteenth Streets, plus improvements at Douglas Avenue Bridge. Work on the $105 million Central Corridor began on April 18, 2005 and will be completed in four phases to elevate railroad tracks onto new bridges, while maintaining vehicular traffic below. This will be a major accomplishment in improving downtown traffic flow. Work is to be completed in fall 2009.

Still wondering where the edifying posts of Sir Max Grobnic, are? Could it be…? he won’t come back? I will cry many a tear over that unfortunate outcome.

Steven, dont cry too much!!

Does anyone read the posts from Max “Scroll Over” Grobnix any more?

I know that I don’t.

If ya’ read one, then you have read them all.

James worried about violating Blog policy??

Oh gee, where is LLTVET when he needs to be here??? LOL!!! Too funny!!

StevenEDavis
Posted May 8, 2008 at 11:55 pm | Permalink
“Why Steve? Did one of duh Libs cry and whine about being treated badly?”

James, not answering.
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Why not?

HLP posted May 8, 2008 at 6:52 am

“Stephen Wilde has been a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society since 1968.”

Dear Hank Price,

Why isn’t “Stephen Wilde” listed at RMETS?

http://www.rmets.org/about/people/fellows.php
“Below is a list of Fellows of the Society entitled to use FRMetS as a sign of professional competence.”

The list is alphabetical, click “Last” to get the page with “W”s.

cosmos always going for character assasination but too scared to post his real name.

The motto of Libs, attack from secret, disguise your real motive and methods.

Be deceptive.

All of the above describe cosmos to a tee.

“cosmos always going for character assasination but too scared to post his real name.”

Poster called Regular complains about another poster not using his real name LOL

AND, Regular, there is nothing said here about character assasination!! Check your reading glasses, old man!!! :-D

Well you know Box, Climate Change (not Global Warming anymore) can go either way.

Man is cooling the Earth.

Or, sometimes Man is warming the Earth.

Whatever happens, Man is causing the problem. Therefore, we need a big huge International UN Government to keep us under control –

To Save The Earth!!!!!

It looks like Boxlock and Max cannot understand that:

* Climate is long-term weather.

* It is not “climate change” because “Man is cooling the Earth”. “Climate change” refers to the point that global warming also causes changes in precip, etc. It’s global warming AND climate change.

* Natural variations create short-term “noise” that hides the long-term AGW “signal”.

‘Uncertainty, noise and the art of model-data comparison’
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/01/uncertainty-noise-and-the-art-of-model-data-comparison

cosmos,
Like I said somewhere, on one of these threads or another, I should be glad you are watching and worrying about it because then I figure I don’t have to. I think I’ve got better things to do in the ‘here and now’. In all the years I’ve been occupying space on this Earth, and burning carbon in one way or another to stay alive, there’s always been weather variation. Talking about the weather is a joke almost because nobody can do anything about it. Whether it’s called weather or climate makes no difference to me. I just want to know, ‘is it hot outside, or is it cold outside, is it raining or dry outside’….see, that’s all.
I have faith the Earth will manage itself ON IT’S OWN, like it’s done for who knows how long, and that’s not an invitation for you to tell me how long either. ;-)
So, sell your car, ride your bicycle, change out some light bulbs, buy or sell your carbon credits…I don’t care, but don’t get in the way of me living the rest of my life as I choose, and trying to create a comfortable living for a family I love.
Oh, and I will never bow down and worship on the Algore alter whether he invented the Internet or not.

If the shoe fits Monkey…wear it!

Boxlock posted May 9, 2008 at 9:26 pm

“I have faith the Earth will manage itself ON IT’S OWN, like it’s done for who knows how long, …”

Of course it will. The Earth does not care about humans, or any life on Earth.

It simply responds to the various forcings caused by greenhouse gases, changes in solar, etc.

The Earth will eventually reach a new warmer equilibrium, in response to the human-added GHG’s. Plus higher sea levels, and a more acidic ocean.

Oh and when you and your fellow cons see a need for wars in various places?

Leave me out of it. That includes paying for it.