global warming

To explain, Fizzbin was a card game invented on the spur of the moment, by Captain James T. Kirk (Star Trek episode ‘A Piece Of The Action’). While held captive on a far-flung planet by a group of 1920s Chicago style gangsters (it’s a long story!), the good captain used it as a diversionary tactic while he planned his escape.

Being the gullible sort, the aliens took Kirk’s explanation of the rules as kosher, even the most ludicrous ones such as: ‘The second card is turned up, except on Tuesdays’ or ‘if a king had been dealt, the player would get another card, except when it is dark, in which case he’d have to give it back’.

As I sit here now, snowbound in our Offshore Command Center, I can see a parallel to the totally unbelievable explanations being given by the proponents of man-made global warming. A few years ago, they stated that snowfalls would become more rare. Now, it is a side-effect of the warming process. Much the same, I guess, as the 17 degree temperatures I experienced last week, a whopping 30 degrees lower than the norm for December.

These folks just won’t admit they were wrong. Those involved in the research don’t want to lose their sizable grants, and governments would have to pull another tax rabbit out of the hat to replace it. After being snowed in at the Copenhagen climate summit last year, they decided on somewhere a little warmer for 2010. Well, what a surprise, they descended on Cancun, Mexico, to enjoy the city’s lowest temperatures for 100 years.

Let’s take a look at the Fizzbin rule book. Ah, here we are, ‘global warming doesn’t apply when there’s an ‘r’ in the month, especially if there’s a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice’. Oh well, that explains it.

Naturally, the kind-hearted liberals are only thinking of the welfare of future generations. That’s the reason why seniors in Britain are dying of hypothermia in their homes, and those surviving are forced to use their free transport passes to ride the warm buses all day. Green taxes have pushed the cost of heating fuel out of reach of those on low incomes. I’m sure these poor souls are relieved to know that they are ‘saving the planet’.

The liberals’ manipulation of the truth and bending of the rules, including the Constitution, is a threat to freedom, the economy and life itself. They must be stopped… now! From January, we have the full House. That beats a Fizzbin… except perhaps in the White House on the eighth day of the week.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

The fight against California's ill advised global warming bill AB32 is heating up as the State's utility companies come to the support of the economy killing global warming initiatives. Yet even as these power companies want to claim the moral high ground for supporting AB32 they are also seeking government approval to merely pass all the high costs of compliance right onto its customers.

So, while people are losing their jobs by the thousands, while taxes are going up, and while AB32 is hampering economic recovery, the utilities also want to pass on higher costs to California’s power customers in a stealth global warming tax.

The California Public Utilities Commission has filed Resolution G-3447 that will give utilities permission to hike prices in order to help the companies pay for the high compliance costs of the global warming law.

Here is the text of that resolution:

Resolution G-3447. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) seeks to modify its gas and electric regulatory accounts to recover from its core and noncore gas and electric customers a portion of the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Assembly Bill (AB) 32 Cost of Implementation Fee (AB 32 Fee) paid to CARB.

San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) seeks to revise its regulatory accounts to record the costs associated with the CARB AB 32 Fee and to recover these costs in customer gas transportation and electric commodity rates.

Southern California Edison Company (SCE) seeks to modify its regulatory accounts to record and recover AB 32 Fees paid to CARB.

Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) seeks to modify its Core Fixed Cost Account (CFCA) and Noncore Fixed Cost Account (NFCA) to record and recover AB 32 Fees paid to CARB.

Unbelievable. As these companies collude with global warming evangelists to "save the earth" they also make to force customers to pay for their supposedly high moral stance.

AB32 is killing the economy in many ways. This stealth tax is just one of them. This is why opponents of AB32 are trying to pass Proposition 23, a law that will put AB32 on hold until the economy returns to health.

This is a true story.

My little 1st grader got home, just as Mom was pulling out and plugging in the vacuum.

Me: "Hey, Baby, how was your day?"

7-Year-Old Baby: "Great, Mom. Today was Earth Day."

Me: [shouting over vacuum]: "Okaaay, great. Your snack's on the table. I'll be right with you." [VRRROOOOOM!!!!]

..

Pardon me, PC-ers. Hell. It's not even about PC anymore. In today's American progressive body politic, we are openly being bullied into adopting a lifestyle not many of us would have chosen for our own. No one even thinks about who funds the junk science anymore, or who the researchers, hungry for cash to keep themselves employed in this freaking economy, are really working for -- science or the state?

Enviro-statism has wormed its way into every crevice of society, without even being legislated through Congress. It was Ban ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN, who said that these sort of progressive ideas needed to be "embedded into the culture."

Right.

So, now we have children coming home throughout the year, mumbling about recycling, badgering us about our light-bulb usage, showing us their colored recycling diagrams alongside their completed math handouts. We have "Environmental Stimulus Cash Back!" stickers posted on every appliance at Sears (where we just got our new energy-efficient dishwasher). We have recycled milk jugs, our spouses filling out energy consumption reports, our corporations reporting on how they protect the environment via corporate citizenship.

All without passing a single Environmental piece of legislation through Congress.

Some would say, "Without firing a shot."

Do many of us consider the depth of environmental "embedding" into our culture? Do many of us try to trace back or apply true meaning to the policies that are manifest in our daily lives? No.

Too many of us are trying to survive, keep our jobs, feed our children. The time we do have, the time we try to carve out of our meager existence here in America, we try to have fun and remove ourselves from the obvious: that nearly everything we do is politicized.

Where is our "life"?

Well, I know the depth of the embedding .. I know how the progressive agenda is trying to put "meaning" into my life, so to counter that, today, in honor of Earth Day, I will do this: make ferocious love to my husband and do it like there is no tomorrow, in remembrance of God creating man to be stewards and lord of all the Earth and of all the creatures and slimy things.

I will remember the naturalness of our bodies, and how they fit together and were intended to procreate.

I will remember how marriage and procreation glorify God.

I will remember that "children are the embodiment of the marital embrace," as my husband has whispered to me during our lovemaking, and celebrate how children, the fruit of our lovemaking, are a blessing, not a burden or a punishment.

I will remember that we come from the Earth, to be lord over the earth, not its slave, and that the Earth is a gift from God, but that the Earth is not God. Nor is the almighty dollar nor that guy in office.

I will remember that my life is a gift from God, and that lives of my husband and children are gifts from God, and are a gift to me in my lifetime, and are an expression of His love for me.

I will remember that my husband is a gift to me, a most precious gift, from God.

And I will reward my husband, with my body, and show him how much I love and appreciate that he is a conservative, God-fearing man who loves his wife, kids, friends and country.

Today, when he gets home, I will show him that no single man has it better than him, and that for all his sacred honor and the noble life I know he would give in a moment to protect me, our kids, and our country, I will be Me, Every Woman and No Other Woman to him.

This is the prerogative and duty of every conservative woman out there.

The femni-Nazi, pro-abortion whores who belittle the Conservative Woman and the Conservative Mother, they have no holds over us, girls. We will love our men and steal our families back from the brink of hell, which is Progressivism, even if it means doing it with our own bodies, just as the men we love would sacrifice their bodies so that we may live.

Our bodies.

They've been to hell and back and we can handle it. Especially while giving joy to the ones we love most, and having fun while doing it.  

What we can give, the pleasure we can bestow, it's almost nothing, yet everything at the same time.

..

So.. after the vacuuming:

Me: Okay, Baby, tell me what happened today.

7-year-old-Baby: Mom, we're having a very special day..

Me: You mean Earth Day?

7-year-old-Baby: No, Mom .. we have a very special day coming up.

Me: What's that?

7-year-old-Baby: Mother's Day! Today we started making our cards for you!

What a damn, cool teacher.

Earth Day, ladies and gents. Go celebrate your earthy selves, maybe try to make an earthy baby to add to the conservative population to kick these Progressives the hell out of office in future, and steal back our American democracy they want to steal away from us for all perpetuity.

Tonight, log off of Twitter, close your browser, shut down the computer, and put down your cell phone with all those cool apps. 

Tonight, make love, not political war.

Let's thank and remember God, first and foremost, for our ability to do so.

While we still can, before the size of our family is "embedded" away.

It looks like the Republicans will be winning back many seats in Congress this fall. Here’s how: by screwing up horribly during the Bush years, they gave the Democrats an overwhelming victory in 2008, leading to great hubris. Americans love punishing hubris during midterm elections.

This is not a winning strategy.

Giving the other side rope to hang itself on can make it lose elections, even in Massachusetts, but in the process you leave a lot of rope lying around. Even if Republicans gain a majority in both houses as a mandate to repeal Obamacare, will they be able to fulfill this mandate? Not without a 2/3 majority in both houses they can’t. If you are just trying to rack up a bunch of R victories, this strategy may work, but if you are a conservative or conservative-libertarian, this is a path to incremental disaster. After the damage has been done, you don’t need conservatives, you need reactionaries. Reactionaries are even harder to get into office.

The Republican Party needs to evolve it wants to have a future. If it wants to rule again, it needs to concern itself with America’s future.

For starters, how about coming up with a credible plan to stop global warming? The no-nothing line popular among Limbaugh listeners may play well to selfish geezers, but it doesn’t work so well for the younger generations -- those who may still be alive to experience the effectives of future significant climate change. It doesn’t play so well to the not-so-selfish senior citizens who worry about the fate of their grandchildren either.

Yes, I know that the magnitude of future warming is quite uncertain. Someone might come up with cheap carbon free energy alternatives long before global warming becomes a real problem without any government action whatsoever. It’s also possible that the Soviet Union might have collapsed without the Reagan arms buildup and covert actions. But aren’t you glad we had Ronnie? Guess what: today’s Republicans are to the global warming threat what Jimmy Carter was the Soviet threat.

This doesn’t mean the Republican Party should run yet more RINOs, offering a lite version of the current liberal prescriptions. We don’t need to micromanage our way out of the fossil fuel economy. We need to make use of the market. We need a carbon tax. Jack up the price of burning fossil fuels, and the market will find the optimum way to burn less. And if global warming turns out to be a false alarm, we will have saved the earth’s limited supply of cheap fossil fuels for future generations. We will have also taxed our enemies. Radical Islam is funded heavily by the Saudis; put a hefty tariff on imported oil and they will have to either give up on funding fanatic indoctrination centers or take up a Spartan lifestyle themselves. We can justify a foreign oil tariff simply to pay for the Iraq war and keeping the Persian Gulf open.

We could use the proceeds of a carbon tax to get rid of a more heinous tax. A carbon tax would be an order of magnitude simpler than either the Flat Tax or the Fair Tax. Or we could use it to balance the federal budget. Those concerned about America’s financial future worry about the deficit. The Tea Party movement isn’t just conservatives; it’s also the remnants of the old Perot coalition. Don’t take them for granted. While Obama looks bad on the deficit today, he could manage a turnaround before 2012. Remember, the last president to preside over a balanced budget was Clinton.

Bush squandered the surplus. The Perot voters might well remember that fact. Don’t be overconfident.

Ever since the epic FAIL of the Copenhagen climate conference, even the MSM has caught on there's something rotten in the state of climate science.

CT Democratic Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal hasn't gotten the memo. Here's his Wikipedia entry on the topic.

Blumenthal has been a vocal advocate of the position that human activity is responsible for rising global temperatures and that prompt action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must be taken. He has urged the Environmental Protection Agency to declare carbon dioxide as a dangerous air pollutant. "I urge the new Obama EPA to declare carbon dioxide a danger to human health and welfare so we can at last begin addressing the potentially disastrous threat global warming poses to health, the environment and our economy. We must make up for lost time before it's too late to curb dangerous warming threatening to devastate the planet and human society." [20] He has brought suit against a number of electric utilities in the Midwest, arguing that coal burning power plants are generating excess CO2 emissions. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed to allow Blumenthal's lawsuit to proceed.[21] Blumenthal personally has stated "no reputable climate scientist disputes the reality of global warming. It is fact, plain and simple. Dithering will be disastrous." 

I'd comment further, but I have 10'' of "global warming" to clear off my truck.

In Obama’s fictional world all must be well, because the recession MUST have turned the corner…the enlightened one has told us so. IN THE REAL WORLD IT AIN’T. It’s a frigid winter out there, just ask the global warming freaks who’ve suddenly discovered an incipient ice age and are scrambling their intellectual faux-scientific fannies off trying to spin it up.

The ECONOMIC chill in this country is proceeding apace. The FAUX economic intellectual DeMarxists hard at work DESTROYING your way of life and YOUR FUTURE are also hard at work spinning and spinning, but lo and behold there’s a severe lack of raw materials from which to spin much of anything. What’s more, what does manage to emanate from the party machinery and the sideline media these days, immediately runs afoul of the Conservative new media and Conservative blogosphere which is quick to unravel the untruths/lies of the left.

The administration was quick to trumpet that the world was brighter in December because the unemployment rate held steady at 10%. TYPICAL, they DIDN’T tell you that 661,000 job seekers had dropped off the radar entirely BECAUSE THEY HAD GIVEN UP looking for work, which was the only reason the unemployment figure remained at 10%.

Worse yet, moodys.com (Moody’s Reports) forecasts TWO POINT FOUR MILLION FORECLOSURES for 2010. This doesn’t reflect the commercial foreclosure wave forecast for this year and next either. Realty-Trac, who publishes the largest database of foreclosures, auctions and bank-owned homes in the nation, states that there have been THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND FORECLOSURES since February, when you will remember the Anointed One and his DeMarxist allies threw 838 BILLION dollars to the winds with meaningless promises to homeowners facing foreclosure. They keep telling us the recession has TURNED the corner. The FACTS tell us differently.

The economy grew at a SUB-TEPID rate of 2.2% last year. In the first quarter of every recovery since World War Two the economy grew at a rate of SEVEN POINT THREE PER CENT. Do you get the idea you might be being lied to? Does ANYONE out there still think that this President or this Congress has their interests at heart?

Continue the Conservative march to freedom. Continue to make your comments and opinions known. Your continuous pressure IS HAVING AN EFFECT. CONTINUE your calls, faxes, emails, letters and visits to Congress members’ offices. Keep the heat on these cretins…support your Conservative candidates…and for goodness sake GET ACTIVE in your localities.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

 Americans have been vilified and conditioned to believe that they are the worst polluters on the planet.   The USA has the assignment; worlds whipping boy for any and all environmental abuse on the earth. Somehow it’s all our fault that 16 of the worlds 20 most polluted cities are in China.     None of the top 20 most polluted cities are in the U.S., however.   In fact of the 10 cleanest cities in the world  we, here in the U.S., have 3 cities on that list.   And that is an accomplishment to be proud of and should not be taken lightly. It wasn’t always so good, however. 

It was June 22nd,1969 when Cleveland Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire. That’s right – water so polluted it just started burning.   Ignited by a spark from a passing train, some believe. This, of course, made the national news. The incident is credited with motivating the American public to get on about the chore of cleaning up their environment. Not too long afterward came the Clean Water Act of ’72 and Clean Air Act of ’70. And today the Cuyahoga River has recovered and is frequented by local fisherman.   

 The Great Lakes are also on the mend and a home to a thriving sports fishing industry. Boston Harbor, called the “filthiest harbor in the nation” back in the early ‘80s, is well on its way to a full recovery.   And does anyone remember the “LA Smog Alerts”? Fact: the last LA Smog Alert was in 1997! A monumental accomplishment that Californians and Americans should be extremely proud of.   Not just LA but most of the major U.S. cities have decreased Particulate Matter in the air dramatically over the past couple of decades ( link ).  Additionally, much of these advances were prior to the introduction of hybrid vehicles.  Thanks to technology, vehicle emissions have decreased and we are actually driving many more miles and polluting much less.  The reduction of particulate matters in the air have no doubt ( link2 ) contributed to the increase in U.S. life expectancy.    And what ever happened to “acid rain”? Apparently those sulfur dioxide scrubbers in power plants have helped considerably.   And the Ozone Hole? Where did it go?   And the Whooping Crane? Down to 21 birds in 1941. Now there is a heavily protected population of 300 birds.   Successes we get little credit for.  Here’s a cool website: ( link3 ).   This site gives the current/daily Air Quality Index status for our nation.   The site is provided by our own government. Monitoring the site over a period of time and you’ll have to conclude that our USA is a clean/ healthy place to hang out, for the most part. Rarely an “unhealthy” rating is observed. More and more, the incessant diatribes from our critics simply do not appear to be grounded in reality.   And regarding greenhouse gas emissions. We’re continuously getting chided and berated because of our alleged excessive greenhouse gas emissions, here in the U.S.   Its been said that the burning of fossil fuels will cause carbon dioxide to be pumped into the air causing this greenhouse effect (hence warming), yet we continue to have record cold winters and scientists have proven that the oceans are actually cooling a bit.   A fairly reliable indication that the earth’s temperature is not rising to any significant or dangerous levels and that the concerns over these emissions have been exaggerated.   Sadly, the recent and tragic emergence of the Climategate emails have deeply tainted all of the Environmental Sciences. Because of the lust of a few for political power and money, the entire scientific community has lost a large measure of credibility.   Especially the political-agenda-driven environmental science cabal, headed up by a former vice-president of the United States. It will be difficult for the scientific community to win back that confidence and until that day comes, Americans need not accept or tolerate any criticisms/blame for causing any sort of climate change.  And they need not give up their SUV’s!  It is now time to put the man-made climate change debate back on the shelf until we have some solid proof that man is responsible. Not a collection of loose, unproven theories. An honest and open debate must take place with both global warming proponents and skeptics allowed to participate.   In my “layman’s” view it seems there are factors that are not being - factored in.  (maybe purposely) Think about plants. During daylight hours plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. During hours of darkness that is reversed – unless there is artificial light available. Then photosynthesis continues.  Next time you’re at some high-rise office building, do a quick count of all the plants you see - hundreds. Nasa has proven the value of indoor. Plants that may actually save your life.   Some plants actually absorb not only CO2 but toxins from the air. Two indoor plants per 100 square feet can make a significant and healthful difference. Another American success story! Yes, we Americans are house-plant fanatics.   We love and nurture millions of plants that help absorb many of the impurities out of the air and in return they emit sweet oxygen. How many indoor plants would you estimate are in a 40 story office building under artificial light?   It’s a factor!  And, hey, we humans eat many plants. We love the edible ones, too!   During the growth cycle of these plants they are absorbing CO2 and emitting oxygen. The more people, the more they will need to eat and the more plants will be grown for the purpose of feeding these people. Millions of acres of plants being raised for food – absorbing/emitting. Another factor!  And what about the Forest Products sector? Almost half of the of all wood supply is now planted and grown on plantations.   Yet these plantations make up only 5% of the worlds forests! Which precludes the need for deforestation in the worlds natural forests. One mature tree (whether planted or naturally grown) can absorb approximately 48 pounds of CO2 per year! The Forest Products Industry has been planting and reforesting for decades. Couple that with the number of trees/shrubs that individuals plant  on their personal properties. Massive amounts of CO2 absorbed. Massive amounts of oxygen emitted. A massive factor, for sure!  And, lest we forget…our Nations valiant U.S. Forest Service Firefighters who have saved millions of acres of forest land. From the Hot Shot Crews to the Smoke Jumpers.   Some have made the ultimate sacrifice…(link).   Our gratitude goes to these brave women and men. An ultimate factor.  We get so much negative input from our media, the blogs,  the entertainment industry, foreign nations and world governing bodies regarding the damage that we Americans do to the environment. And personally, I don’t want to hear any more of their doom/gloom predictions.   I didn’t have to work very hard to find America’s true, positive environmental impact. But I know I missed much. If you readers have other reports of home grown U.S. environmental successes, please add them to the comments. I’d love to hear more upbeat news.   One day, when pigs fly, Time Magazine might once again celebrate the American People as they did back in 1969 by naming them as  “Person of the Year”. It was a far different publication back then.    But I’m not going to wait.  Nor am I going to wait on timid politicians, who run like scared rabbits from this debate/issue and are afraid to heap this sort of praise on you. Think of the political fallout!    Therefore, I am honored to perform this duty. I do hereby name the Citizens of the U.S.A. -  “2009 Darvin Dowdy Person of the Year”  for being Great Stewards of the Environment. I salute you and applaud you. And I exhort you to hold your heads high and make no apologies.  And don’t get rid of your SUV’s! DD          

While American businesses try desperately to get into the black, and the nation's government sinks deeper into the red, we have found that for many Democrats (and girlie men)  there's no way you can be too Green.

So Scott Brown raised the political temperature of chilly Massachusetts this week by coming our against John Kerry's pet cause, the Cap & Trade global warming bill.  

He called on his opponent, Democrat Martha Coakley, to join in opposition.

U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown today called on his opponent Martha Coakley to drop her support for a national cap and trade bill, which will raise energy costs on businesses and consumers and kill jobs at a time when the economy is on the brink.

Yesterday, at an event with environmental groups, Coakley reaffirmed her support for cap and trade, which President Obama admitted in a 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle will cause energy prices to skyrocket. See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNSZ62xiD4M&feature=related

In classic Tip O'Neill "all politics is local" style, Brown pointed out that MA's high energy costs had already cost the state 400 high tech jobs which computer firm EMC was moving to the Carolinas.

Needless to say, Ms. Coakley is a true believer in the global warming crusade, as are her Democrat allies in MA.

I wonder if an even better argument against Cap & Trade isn't that the folks it will benefit are Wall Street commodities and deriviative barons like the wife of Senator Chris Dodd? Do we really need to give Goldman Sachs another government sponsored profit center?

Anyway, I wonder how well the whole global warming schtick is going to sell between now and the January 19 special election, considering much of the Commonwealth is going to be buried under a blizzard tomorrow afternoon.  

Nonetheless, less than 30 minutes after the NWS in Taunton announced the blizzard watch, John Kerry was sending a blast e-mail around complaining that Jim Imhofe snowed on his parade in Copenhagen by telling the folks cap & trade would never pass the Senate.

Kerry said  "Attempts to twist reality and spread distortions won't work if you won't let them"

Could the "reality-based community" please tell us how tomorrow's blizzard is some sort of twisted reality and distortion? It would sure beat running the snowblower.

I think Scott Brown did well this week, since I think many voters in MA may be tired of the snow job the greeniacs have been promoting against the average consumer. 

It seems that this week, half of the executive branch of the U.S. Government is in Copenhagen to try and craft a deal on global warming. This includes our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

On Thursday, Secretary Clinton pledged YOUR tax dollars to contribute to a $100 billion fund (which the U.S. doesn't have - will it mean higher taxes?) to help poorer nations fight global warming.

She just happened to make this announcement on the same day a report came from the Russians showing that the "scientists" who have been assembling the temperature information that the IPCC and others were relying on for years was in fact a total crock (PDF file).

James Delingpole at The Telegraph reports on how the Russians are accusing British scientists of manipulating global warming data.

Russia Today TV discussed this controversy:

(Cross posted @ LeeHernly.com

Looks like my last post attracted some attention.  I guess it's bad I read the Atlantic's website to learn things, since I am "gullible" for doing so. Should I just channel Keith Olberman and let a guy who failed at being Chris Berman be my intellectual light? 

OK, maybe someone tell me why Clive Cook of the Atlantic is some ranting partisan akin to Jim Imhofe

The problem with the "settled science" argument folks is most of these people making it are acting in complete reliance on the East Anglia CRU. If that material is compromised, then the science isn't "settled" unless other independent sources support it.  Now, were I presenting this in court, I'd find this evidence, and perhaps seek a continuance to locate and prepare my case.  But evidently that's what a dumb mick lawyer from the 'burbs does. It takes a brilliant Ph.D to swim in the river of De Nial.    

I recall when a clique of people were accused of having " had facts fixed around" a specific course of action and alleged to have supported their agenda with thin evidence.

Folks, please explain why the Downing Street memo  was definitive proof of a rush to judgment and Climategate isn't. And please don;t say it's because limey scientists are wonderful and Texans are evil.  The Bushies argued that they had the same general view of Iraq's intentions and abilities as that of foreign intel services.  Perhaps a similar argument is called for now before we throw tens of trillions of dollars at a problem which is undefined in scope and to my mind, difficult to achieve "victory" over.     

It probably takes less than two hours to get from Westminster to East Anglia University.  They do seem rather close to me.