Open thread tips and whatnot

I’m adding a new page for tips and open conversations.  Much has been occurring on my “about” page, and it doesn’t bother me, but as Kelly points out, it may be a bit confusing to new readers.  There are also a few things I think I should clarify/point out.

As far as staying on topic for each individual post.  I don’t really demand or necessarily want that.  Unlike many other websites, we aren’t constrained by a singular topic or issue.  The regulars here understand that most issues, be it the climate, politics, energy, or economics are all interrelated.

The way I view my role here may be a bit different than other bloggers.  I present perspectives, information, and topics.  If the readers here have other things on their minds, far be it from me to tell them they can’t express it here.  In this sense, I view this as our blog.  And, we’re diverse enough in our knowledge and experience to be able to adapt.

Lastly, I wanted to explain why and why I don’t post on some points some of you guys point out.  There are a few reasons.  One is, I may not be comfortable in my knowledge to say anything on the subject.  Another would be I may not have anything to add to the topic.  For instance, I often find points of interest at Steve’s  or at WUWT, but after the discussions at those sites, I’ve little to add.  And lastly, writing something interesting isn’t always as easy as it looks.  Sometimes, I get to trying to write something and properly expressing my thoughts just isn’t there.

At any rate, here’s a place to just say whatever and whatnot.  Enjoy!

423 Responses to Open thread tips and whatnot

  1. 8/31/12 CME, impressive view from far side of sun starts at 1:37

    • J Sue says:

      Ok… so I’m not sure where to put this, so here is as good of a place as any. To all the “Gems” readers who have been praying for the release of Paco, thank you! He was released today unharmed. Thanks so much for your prayers!

  2. Triassic bugs, from 230,000,000 years ago, found preserved in amber, 100,000,000 million years older than “Jurassic Park” bugs:

    http://io9.com/5938448/these-230+million+year+old-bugs-preserved-in-amber-are-the-oldest-yet

  3. DirkH says:

    Peter Schiff wasn’t the only one having fun at the DNC.
    ‘Journalists For Obama’ T-Shirts Handed Out At Democrat Convention
    …for free… by MRC…
    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/09/07/Journalists-For-Obama-T-Shirts-Handed-Out-At-Democrat-Convention
    “We just thought it would be fun to offer them a way to express their love for the president in an open and honest way,” Robey says. Within ten minutes, the MRC had run out of t-shirts.

  4. NASA WISE telescope discovers ~1000 new type of galaxy being called “hot DOGs”, also, millions of possible new supermassive black holes:

    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/telecon20120829.html

  5. DirkH says:

    DNC makes 15 mio deficit, democrats take 10 mio loan from Duke Energy (DUK), CEO Jim Rogers (but not the famous investor and ex partner of Soros)
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/08/Democrats-Ran-Their-Convention-Like-They-Run-the-Country-At-a-Deficit

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Energy
    “In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized Duke Energy for spending $17.47 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008-2010, instead getting $216 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $5.4 billion, and increasing executive pay by 145% to $17.2 million in 2010 for its top 5 executives.[22] The company has recently become the object of protest for its close relationship to the Democratic Party and its funding for the 2012 Democratic National Convention.[23]”

    I wouldn’t have thought that a coal power plant operator … would be a big supporter of cap&trade as the wikipedia also says… even better:

    “In February, 2010 Duke Energy became embroiled in a battle with the Cherokee Indians over its attempts to build an electrical substation on the sacred Kituwah ceremonial mounds”

    Where’s Fauxcahontas when you need her.

    • kelly liddle says:

      As one of the many points that PhD and Suyts seem to agree on it would be best to start collecting taxes by removing loopholes before worrying about the tax rates.

      • DirkH says:

        Of course, who wouldn’t. Same problem in Germany.
        But don’t take the criticism section of the wikipedia TOO seriously, it’s written by leftists. They don’t understand tax writeoffs for investments.
        What I wanted to point out is the closeness of a coal power plant operator to Obama with his war on coal. I find that pretty bizarre. Maybe it’s about stopping competition from entering the market of Duke by preventing them from building NEW plants.

      • suyts says:

        You can find them here. http://www.us-cap.org/

        It’s like I’ve been saying for some time, energy companies don’t care. They’ll simply raise the rates/prices. And if it gets them tax abatement while they do it, so much the better.

      • kelly liddle says:

        The criticism appears to be correct. Looking at the 2011 annual report in 2009 there were no taxes paid. In 2010 some tax was paid but it may have been for past taxes. We have deferred income taxes at 927 million on 31 dec 2011 listed as a long term liability.

        I know the ATO (Australian Tax Office) wants their money within 5 months. So if the company was to go broke one day then the gov would not recieve the taxes.

        See page 117 and 118 http://www.duke-energy.com/pdfs/DukeEnergy_2011_AR-10k.pdf

        Looking at other aspects of the report less than half their generation is coal and they intend to retire some power plants and replace them with new coal fired plants which will be much more efficient. Prices are regulated in most cases and renewable targets are likely to help them as it may be the case that the regulator offers percentage increases based on cost of production as the case is in some Aus states meaning they essentially work on a commission basis. The higher the cost of production the larger the profit.

        • DirkH says:

          Would you say that capital writeoffs should be prohibited?

        • DirkH says:

          “Deferred tax Assets

          Deferred tax assets generally arise where tax relief is provided after an expense is deducted for accounting purposes.Examples of such situations include:

          a company may accrue an accounting expense in relation to a provision such as bad debts, but tax relief may not be obtained until the provision is utilized
          a company may incur tax losses and be able to “carry forward” losses to reduce taxable income in future years”
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_tax#Examples

          In other words: You incur losses in a given year that exceed your taxable income. You are allowed to carry the part of the losses that exceed your taxable income into future years to reduce your tax load later. A perfectly normal and fair provision. Does Australia not have that? How do you build a large plant? Piecemeal,over a number of years?

        • kelly liddle says:

          Dirk
          No why should capital write offs be prohibited? But really depends what that means. I don ‘t really know the US accounting system but is different to Aus. I know the systems work a lot differently. It appears that in the US companies operate like trusts do in Aus (I am thinking of Enron). This is a lower standard where you can make a profit by giving a certain valuation of land for example and the profit does not need to be real and conversly means you can lower your profit by doing dodgy stuff also. The tax and corporate systems in Aus and US from what I see are chalk and cheese but admit I do not know all that much.

        • kelly liddle says:

          Dirk
          You were giving examples of tax assets not liabilities as the case is with Duke. Yes the tax assets are the same but long term tax liabilities can’t exist in Aus system so far as I know. Maybe Suyts can fill us in but I don’t expect him to know all as every tax system in the OECD is ridiculously complicated and confusing.

    • suyts says:

      Duke energy is a huge energy company heavily vested in renewables. They openly support carbon caps and eagerly pass on the costs to their customers.

      • DirkH says:

        Are they a local monopolist? In that case, I expect they would have to get permission from officials for rate hikes. But probably they get that NQA…

      • suyts says:

        Most of the energy distribution in the US is a local monopoly, though Texas has some peculiar laws. Usually investor owned companies such as Duke will get rate hikes by an approval process through a state board. It isn’t that hard, especially if you show capital investments for huge projects like wind farms, especially in the east where they operate.

  6. Jim Masterson says:

    It appears that WUWT is going after Lewandowsky with a vengeance–not that I mind.

    I see that Steve McIntyre is involved. I liked his blog, but it became extremely difficult to follow the comments on his blog. He would arbitrarily delete or snip the comments. As the comments were numbered and people would reference previous comments by number, this would throw off the numbers. You couldn’t figure out the message-referencing-message relationships.

    I stopped reading his blog for that reason. I’ve noticed that McIntyre’s blog doesn’t use numbers now, but I’ve gotten out-of-the-habit of looking at his blog.

    He’s now having WUWT delete comments that he doesn’t like on his “special post.” (They also misspelled Lewandowsky’s name in the second paragraph.) In other words, he’s up to his old tricks. As a former DBA (database administrator), this wholesale deleting of messages (snipping content is sometimes okay) annoys me.

    Of course, I don’t comment on WUWT very much, so I’m sure they could care less about my opinion. Of the three comments now allowed on Steve McIntyre’s special post, two are his and they shouldn’t be allowed by his own policy. :-)

    Jim

    • DirkH says:

      Steve explained the rules and the purpose of the post clearly so I don’t know why you’re so pissed about it.
      http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/09/14/the-lewandowsky-participation-census-re-booted/#more-71055

      • DirkH says:

        …and he snipped me on his blog with his usual comment “[piling on]“. His blog is no place for banter; that’s Steve’s decision and I respect it.

    • Jim Masterson says:

      Several things are apparent from your comments:

      1) Either I didn’t write clearly, or you didn’t read my comments. I did reference the rules, and still you felt a need to provide a link to them?
      2) It appears that irony is also lost on you as comment #1 and comment #3 violate those rules–yet they remain.
      3) You seem to be on first-name basis with Dr. McIntyre. Unfortunately, I am not.
      4) One thing that “pisses me off” “mildly annoys me” is lack of data-integrity, and that includes the blatant deletion of comments. That’s due to my DBA past. Dr. McIntyre doesn’t respect comments on his blog, and he’s spreading that practice to other blogs.
      5) If the basic complaint (about Lewandowsky’s blog survey) is lack of data-integrity of blog comments, then irony number two is Dr. McIntyre not practicing data-integrity of blog comments.
      6) What really “pisses me off” is bad officiating at football games.

      To help with your logic here is the “Barber’s Paradox” problem that’s attributed to Bertrand Russell:

      “In a village, the barber shaves everyone who does not shave himself, but no one else.”

      So, who shaves the barber?

      Jim

      • DirkH says:

        I didn’t provide the link for you but to make it easier for other people to check the source. And that annoys you so much you mention it?

        I stated my opinion, I guess we can continue to disagree.

  7. HankH says:

    Hold a yard sale to pay for Obama’s election campaign. Brilliant!

    What’s hilarious is all the comments.

  8. kelly liddle says:

    here is a video you might find interesting and I tend to agree with Faber’s comments almost completely. Rather strong language from him. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/faber-says-fed-policy-will-destroy-the-world-5WSieqSKQMCCncsYC7HDRA.html

  9. Sorry, but they have the right to publish them. It is completely her and her husbands fault for being thoughtless. Apparently there are 200 photos and some are “intimate”.

    “France bans further publication of topless pictures of Duchess”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/kate-middleton/9549917/France-bans-further-publication-of-topless-pictures-of-Duchess.html

  10. DirkH says:

    Found a cornucopia of latter days alarmism at countercurrents (“Alternative webjournal culling news and analysis on the fight against economic globalisation and other issues.” according to alexa).
    They’re big in Sweden and NZ, two hippie nations if I ever saw one.
    ( http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/countercurrents.org )

    Now, they’re full of it and have nearly no traffic; but they’re a wonderful aggregator of lunacies.

    Example:
    http://www.countercurrents.org/cc240912A.htm
    “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt; it’s also in places like North Carolina and perhaps even embedded into America’s cultural DNA. According to the latest study from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, the American public’s concern about global warming can be sorted into six categories, ranging from alarmed (13%) and concerned (26%), to cautious, disengaged, doubtful and dismissive (that’s the other 61% of us). Among the many explanations offered for the knowledge gap are clashing worldviews, varying education levels, demographics, and the media’s handling of the issue. ”

    Looks like Yale harbours some American Lewandowskys.

  11. kelly liddle says:

    I think the France might be in competition with USA for high tax rates. If you reinstate the 39% rate and treat dividends as normal income you end up paying an effective tax rate of around 60%. If you are then taxed by the state you live in you are quite competitive with the 75% rate in France. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/tables.pdf See bottom of page 17 and top of page 18 in the pdf file

    • suyts says:

      Yes, that’s true. I’ll probably write a post on that one day. But, there’s much more to add than just the fed income and state income with dividends.

  12. Bruce says:

    Suyts, your going to have to do something about Elizabeth Warren. The latest news is breathtaking.

    Surely a law professor, strategist, Obama protege and all-round blue-eyed gal of the Democratic Party can’t have thought she’d get away with all that she has.

    Fauxahontas, Cooker of cookery books and now Legal Beagle. She should stand for President

    • suyts says:

      Lol, yeh, I don’t think I have to do much about Elizabeth “Spreading Bull” Warren. I think she’s done herself in. Though our friends in Mass. are some very poor voters.

  13. DirkH says:

    Taxpayer-funded Tesla Motors running out of cash. 465 mill USD loan. Market cap an absurd 2.9 bn USD. No profits.
    http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/questions-about-electric-cars-as-a-manufacturer-struggles/

  14. kelly liddle says:

    Suyts just a post on another blog you might find interesting. http://catallaxyfiles.com/2012/09/27/potentially-the-most-transforming-president-of-the-twenty-first-century/ Ignore my comments to it if you are offended easily lol.

  15. DirkH says:

    This is amazing. Matt Damon had to rewrite the script for his anti-fracking movie “The Promised Land” because nobody could find fracking-related pollution in the real world.

    Now his script has evil oil companies plant paid shills as pseudo environmentalists that protest fracking.

    Of course, Matt Damon is a champagne s0cialist and will do everything to denigrate the capitalism that made him rich – BUT he inadvertently does us a great service – If anyone watches his movie, it will damage the reputation of the green orgs that ARE paid shills (like the Sierra club that took money from the gas industry)

    AND it turns out that Dam0n himself is a paid shill of OPEC.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/09/28/New-Matt-Damon-Movie-Funded-by-OPEC-Member-Country-Trashes-American-Oil-Companies

  16. DirkH says:

    Hit’em where it hurts!
    NYT hacks forced to choose between pension reduction or lump sum payment.
    http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/09/14/new-york-times-looks-to-cut-pension-liabilities/

    • Bruce says:

      ROFL! That just has to be one for Chris at SG. Why do I get this feeling that Michelle is Condoleezza’s opposite in more than just politics?

  17. DirkH says:

    You want security? What, because of those two bombings? nah…
    “U.S. Consulate in Benghazi Bombed Twice in Run-Up to 9/11 Anniversary”
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/02/u-s-consulate-in-benghazi-bombed-twice-in-run-up-to-9-11-anniversary.html
    (Sorry if this has already been mentioned. One loses track.)

  18. This blog has inspired the following blog posting of my own:
    http://www.crasseux.com/blog/?p=62

    “Television debate is destroying politics.

    The day that politicians stopped explaining their intentions, beliefs and convictions to the public in written form, was the day that democracy died.

    P.S. the way I just deleted my twitter account. The above comment is too long to be posted!

    P.P.S. Please re-tweet.”

  19. HankH says:

    http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/BdjoHA5ocwU?rel=0

    If Romney were to launch a “whites for Romney” he would be tarred and feathered by the LSM.

    Sorry James, I’ve been up to my neck in alligators trying to remember that the original objective was to drain the swamp (an old civil engineering joke that seems to fit). I’ve been visiting suyts space daily, composed one or two comments but was so tired I wanted to wait to read them in the morning to see if they made sense. Then the next day the alligators arrive again. E-mail forthcoming.

  20. Jim Masterson says:

    Test test test

    Jim

      • Jim Masterson says:

        Test again.

        Jim

        • suyts says:

          You’re good so far!!

        • Jim Masterson says:

          I don’t know why sometimes I can post on your site and sometime I can’t. I’ve tried different browsers, and it doesn’t make a difference. I wonder if it’s something to do with my WordPress account. All of a sudden my regular browser is working again–for the time being.

          Jim

        • suyts says:

          Maybe it does have something to do with the account. WordPress does some strange things. If your problem persists, I’ll write wordpress about it, but, I don’t know if that will have any effect. But, please let me know if it does persist.

          IDK, it’s strange. There doesn’t seem to be any logic about this to pinpoint why this is happening. At least on this side.

  21. kelly liddle says:

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/security-team-commander-says-ambassador-stevens-wanted-his-team-to-stay-in-libya-past-august-2/

    This is what might be seen as a mistake. But no reason to blame Obama or Hillary yet as the information may not have reached them. They can’t literally be responsible for millions of employees.

  22. DirkH says:

    Looks like the Chicoms fear a Romney victory. obama.com is owned by an American living in Shanghai who is a big Obama bundler. How many of the sub 50$ donations came from China?
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/08/Obama-com-Owned-by-Bundler-in-China-with-Business-Ties-to-Chinese-Government

    • suyts says:

      I was just reading about $3-$5 solicitations for campaign money from the Obama to Chinese web sites. The small amounts means it isn’t reportable.

  23. kim2ooo says:

    Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute is out with a report today on foreign and fraudulent campaign contributions. It is the most comprehensive treatment of the issue to date. The key findings relate to the Obama campaign:
    The Obama campaign lacks the “industry standard level” of credit card security for donations
    The website Obama.com was purchased by an Obama bundler based in Shanghai, China, with questionable ties to state-run enterprises
    68% of the traffic to Obama.com is foreign, and the site was linked to a specific donation page on the official BarackObama.com campaign website for ten months

    Schweizer also finds that, based on the security measures currently in place, nearly half of Congress is vulnerable to fraudulent and foreign donations. Schweizer provided this statement to Powerline, which covers the report here:
    When it comes to money in this campaign all the focus has been on Super PACs. But far more troubling in my mind is the reality of how easily foreign governments or individuals can inject funds in the U.S. presidential campaign. The FEC does not require basic security for internet donations. And in the case of the Obama campaign, the gate appears to be wide open. You need to use the CVV security code on your credit card to buy an Obama hoodie but not make a donation. And there is very real evidence that the campaign is not using the address verification system (AVS) in any real way. There are simply too many contributions they accept with either no zip code or an incorrect zip code. To make matters worse, donations under $200 don’t even need to be disclosed. Twenty years ago that might not matter but in the era of robo-donations its a huge problem. ‘]

    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/329676/obama-campaign-being-financed-foreign-donations-eliana-johnson

    Here’s the report

    http://campaignfundingrisks.com/

    With many outside news links.

    Full report PDF http://campaignfundingrisks.com/wp-c…Vulnerable.pdf
    __________________

    • kim2ooo says:

      If Mr Obama gets reelected:

      From an email;
      Dear Friend,

      If President Obama is re-elected, Obamacare will continue to go into effect piece by piece. By now, you already know about the 20 new or higher taxes in the bill, but most Americans are not yet aware of the intrusive role the IRS will play in enforcing Obamacare.

      Starting in 2014, all Americans who file income tax returns must complete an additional IRS tax form- the Obamacare Individual Mandate Tax Compliance form. Under the Obamacare mandate provision, you must disclose your personal health ID information to the IRS. To educate voters about this rarely reported requirement, Americans for Tax Reform has released a projected tax form to help American families realize how much more the IRS will be invading your personal lives going forward.

      “Highlights” from the Obamacare Individual Mandate Tax Compliance Form include:
      Determination of “qualifying” health insurance. Under the Affordable Care Act, most Americans must purchase health insurance deemed “qualified” by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) starting in 2014.
      Disclosure of personal identifying health information. Every family that files a tax return (140 million households) will have to disclose whether or not they were covered by a qualifying plan, in which months they were covered, and what type of coverage they received.
      IRS penalties and interest on unpaid mandate taxes. Because the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate penalty is a tax, the IRS will be able to assess interest and non-criminal penalties on those families who will not or cannot pay the tax. The IRS will issue regular, periodic correspondence audits to these families to help them comply with their filing responsibilities.

      Take action now by making sure your friends and family are aware of the new IRS requirements and what the Obamacare Individual Mandate Compliance Form could look like in the future. Obamacare played a major role in reshaping Congress in 2010; it can have the same impact in 2012.

      Please make sure your friends and family know what’s coming in 2014 if Obama wins!

      Onward,
      Grover Norquist
      President
      Americans for Tax Reform

      A link to their page:
      http://www.atr.org/irs-tax-form-obamacare-individual-mandate-a7274

  24. kim2ooo says:

    Check spam bin please :)

    • suyts says:

      I got it girl. I’m gathering information right now. This is all over the conservative blogs. Right now, I’m not sure how all of this will resonate with the public. It needs to be put in a more concise format.

      How are you?

      • kim2ooo says:

        It sure leaves one to wonder of the Obama – China connection?
        AND this:
        [ "You need to use the CVV security code on your credit card to buy an Obama hoodie but not make a donation. And there is very real evidence that the campaign is not using the address verification system (AVS) in any real way. There are simply too many contributions they accept with either no zip code or an incorrect zip code.']

        I’m fine,thank you :)
        I’ve been pretty busy at CAF what with the debate.

        Hope all is well,here.

        • suyts says:

          CAF?

          Yes, seems to me, the lack of a CVV check invites fraud.

          All is well here, a couple of readers have noted your absence. You’re missed. ;)

        • kim2ooo says:

          Catholic Answers Forum = CAF

          I do a lot of research over there – political and climate related [CAGW AGW ].

          [' Yes, seems to me, the lack of a CVV check invites fraud.'] IMO it invites intentional fraud?

          Awww…missed you all, too.

        • suyts says:

          Oh, right, CAF…… well give ‘em ….errr… give them heaven over there!

        • suyts says:

          Yeh, I haven’t had time to dig into the “religious polls”, but they don’t accurately reflect the views of religious people.

        • kim2ooo says:

          PEW [ As does the DNC - witness the fawning over "Nuns of the Bus" who are NOT PRACTICING Catholics ( meaning adhering to Catholic Teachings ) ] uses the term “Catholic” hmmmm dishonestly IMO.

          The Question should be, “are you Catholic by Baptism” – Or “are you Catholic by Church Teaching”?

          By Catholic Teaching: Catholics are Conservative Natured – not “Nuns on the Bus” Radical
          Activists. BTW “The Nuns [two] on the Bus” and their order as been under investigations for a year or more now by The Vatican for going against Catholic Teachings on “intrinsic evils”.i.e abortion etc.

          Obama – DNC has used them to hopefully sway The Catholic Vote – Just as the used Peloski.during the Obamacare fiasco
          .
          Personally,,I refer to her as Ms Campbell…not Sister Campbell.

  25. “PBS NewsHour’s “Fact-Checking Debate Claims on Libya Attacks” skips their own 9/12 facts” http://www.redstate.com/russellc/2012/10/18/pbs-newshours-fact-checking-debate-claims-on-libya-attacks-skips-their-own-912-facts/

    “When the NewsHour leaves out critical details in their own reporting of their reactions to the President’s September 12 Benghazi remarks, it further undermines their own credibility in light of prior instances of inexplicable lapses in journalistic integrity, and they look ever more like the proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’ when it comes to the public sensing the entire mainstream media should be viewed with suspicion rather than with unquestioning trust.”

  26. NASA video of the sun using a gradient filter

  27. DirkH says:

    CEO of Algae fuel company, with a degree and background in the entertainment industry: God made me do it.
    http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x1400188891/CEO-has-background-in-entertainment-industry
    ““God qualified me to do this,” Walker said. “It is beyond anything I could come up with on my own with any type of degree. I feel I am spiritually blessed.””

  28. DirkH says:

    AMAZING!
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/10/22/Scott-Adams-Endorses-Romney-Professional-Left-Freaks-Out
    Dilbert author endorses Romney, believing he would give states more leeway to decide about Marihuana policy themselves.
    Obama loses the pot brigade!

  29. derise says:

    Asthma sufferers owe a little grattitude (or something else) to the Montreal Protocol, for this year a product, Primatene® Mist, the only nonprescription bronchodilator inhaler, is no longer available in the US. Yes, the CFC propelled life saver is gone as of Dec. 31, 2011 (not an asmatic, kids are, no one in my family uses it). One option for asthmatics is gone because of the Ozone scam.
    Link: http://www.aanma.org/2011/12/primatene-mist-going-going-gone/
    I noticed a sign announcing the inavailability of Primatine Mist when I was at a pharmacy, picking up a prescription for another inadequate replacement for a drug that was pulled off the market. That reminded me of the ban on CFCs as propellents, even including asthma inhalers, and the lack of truly adequate replacements for them. That made the arguments of the EPA and every crackpot linking asthma to global warming seem sick and jaded. These crackpots are banning the very breath of asthma sufferers, and by 2013, all CFC propelled inhaler will be removed from the market.
    I have had the pleasure of having a safe and effective drug, one that I used for 30 years with no ill effects and with good effect on my condition (migraines), removed from the market. Supposedly there were other drugs on the market that could replace it, all the new drugs had a laundry list of “may cause” up to and including death. I tried them all and none of them worked.
    So asthma sufferers begin a search for a replacement for what has and is being taken away. I hope somebody is able to bring some sanity back to the country and end bans like this insane ban on CFCs peopellents.
    End rant, place soap box back in closet.

  30. DirkH says:

    “He is harshly critical of his own party and the Obama administration, arguing that the president is no different than most other Washington Democrats in his willingness to kowtow to Wall Street.

    President Obama and Biden, he writes, are “both financially illiterate.”

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82897.html#ixzz2AP43WTWC

  31. DirkH says:

    Facebook allowed MB to organize power grab in North Africa and terrorist bragging after 9/11/2012 but censors SEALs to protect B. Hussein Obama.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/10/30/Facebook-Censors-Navy-SEALS-To-Protect-Obama-on-Benghazi-Gate

  32. DirkH says:

    Bill Clinton connects Sandy to Sea Level Rise, defends Obama’s announcement of making the seas recede. (Ignores that it’s another promise Obama didn’t keep)
    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/10/30/Clinton-Politicizes-Hurricane-Sandy-Uses-Deadly-Storm-To-Defend-Obama-Claim-To-Turn-Back-The-Seas

  33. kelly liddle says:

    James
    I somehow got onto looking at your trade balances and can happily say that the US consistently produces trade surplusses with Aus. But to look at your current situation the US is currently buying about $6 per day per man woman and child more than they sell in the entire world. Just looking at the figures the question has to be asked how long can this continue and also is it your multinationals actually exporting from foreign countries to the US? http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0015.html

    To me this is all quite confusing. Thinking it is all about China will not solve anything even if they do make up half.

    • DirkH says:

      Peg your AUD to the USD at a fifth of its fair value and watch whether your exports to the US go up as an experiment. You’ll need currency controls to do that. You can look up how China enforces it.

    • suyts says:

      Kelly, it isn’t so much that China is our only problem, it is the most visible. We can use it as an example of our trade balance failures. Dirk is correct in that the currency manipulation is a large part of the problem. One of China’s few advantages over the US is it’s cheap labor. But, the labor costs should have raised significantly vs the US dollar in recent years. If the labor costs were allowed to float up, then the cost of transport would cover the rest of the differences. This is the problem for all developed nations. There’s little we can do about our labor costs without harming the economy. It turns out that the US is targeted because we’re still the largest consumer market in the world.

      China’s trade imbalance with the US isn’t anything new. Before them was Japan, and before Japan was Germany. But, maybe this will change a bit with the coal exports.

      I’m all for free and fair trade. I’m against unfair trades.

  34. HankH says:

    CBS learns that during Bengazi attack, Obama never even convened the Counter Terrorism Security Group – the task force that is supposed to coordinate response. Lack of coordination by the task force led to confusion and inaction (at least that’s how I’m reading it).

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57544026/sources-key-task-force-not-convened-during-benghazi-consulate-attack

  35. DirkH says:

    Obama’s war on business: Herman Cain gives some examples of destructive regulations.
    http://www.newsmax.com/HermanCain/Obama-War-Small-Business/2012/10/29/id/461932

  36. DirkH says:

    I and others mentioned Nate Silver. Turns out he’s not so much a genius mathematician but an ordinary conman.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/02/nate-silver-patron-saint-of-confirmation-bias
    “Earlier this year, however, it was reported that Silver was working in close coordination with the Obama polling team throughout the ’08 campaign. He was given access to thousands of internal Obama polls. “

  37. DirkH says:

    CIA says Benghazi defenders used lasers not to mark the mortar but to warn attackers.
    Turns out marking targets is done with infrared lasers, invisible to the naked eye, while warning/scaring people is done with the usual visible red lasers. Defenders had both; and
    “A source present the night of the attack says that the GRS team that was defending the annex asked where the air support was at midnight.”
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/04/what-laser-capability-did-benghazi-team-have/

    • DirkH says:

      They mention in the article that enemy fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq learned to use their cell phones to detect/intercept the invisible marking laser. This is due to the fact that the CCD chips used as sensors in digital cameras are sensitive to near infrared radiation and can therefore be used as a rudimentary night vision system.

  38. kelly liddle says:

    One thing that concerns me about Obama and his team is they are really good at politics and much smarter than the Republicans at the moment (I believe the Republicans should have won the presidency given the state of things), Why does it concern me? Because of this statement in particular. “Labor figures, including members of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s personal staff, have been given access to parts of the successful Obama campaign’s inner workings and plan to adapt them for Australia.” http://www.afr.com/p/national/boxing_in_abbott_labor_obama_strategy_9WSmWsgKYoqa9KtBJCMQeK

  39. Jim Masterson says:

    There’s a new comet inbound. It’s nickname is ISON, and by November 2013 its brightness should exceed the brightness of the Full Moon.

    Jim

  40. LLAP says:

    James: Check out this epic comment at small dead animals, regarding power outages from Hurricane Sandy:

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/021892.html#c775162

    Here is an excerpt:

    “I lived in New York in the 1990′s. I could have written that report. The f-ing power went off every time it snowed because they didn’t cut trees and the trees ripped the lines down. They also didn’t plow the roads, but that’s a story for another day.

    You want to know why they don’t cut the f-ing trees Davenport? It isn’t because they are stupid, it isn’t because they don’t know, it isn’t because private enterprise is inherently corrupt, it isn’t even because union workers are a bunch of rent-seeking layabouts. Its because every time they go to cut down a tree, some local Greenies get up a petition or a court order to make them stop. So they stop. So the trees break and knock down the power lines. Same thing all over the North East until you get up into snow country, where even the f-ing tree huggers know better.

    Well -this- time it all came home to roost the same day, and every overhanging branch from New Jersey to Connecticut took out a line.”

  41. DirkH says:

    Your simple one stop solution to all matters benefitial.
    http://www.benefits.gov/

  42. tckev says:

    Reports of SARS-like virus in Middle East

    Two are dead. Both fatalities occurred in Saudi Arabia, and reports of the virus had been limited to that country and Qatar and one man had been transported to UK for treatment.
    http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/deadly1-new-sars-like-virus-reported-in-outbreak-in-middle-east-2-dead/

  43. Scott says:

    Hi James,

    Wanted to give you a heads up on something. A few days ago, David Appell made a reasonable comment claiming that NOAA’s temperature record wasn’t biased vs RSS or UAH because the trends couldn’t be shown to be statistically different at the 95% conf int. Well, he didn’t take into account that the lower troposphere should be warming faster than the surface, which I called him on immediately, and after taking that into account his approach to the analysis would put it right at the 95% ci.

    But because he was looking at the difference in the trends rather than the trends of the differences, his analysis had a lot of added noise that wasn’t needed. By looking at the trends of the differences, I showed that the NOAA values are biased over the expected amount vs UAH and RSS with well over a 99.9% confidence value. Because David himself was the one who proposed the hypothesis, it’ll be interesting to see how/if he responds to the result from a proper analysis of his own hypothesis. Here’s a link to my in-depth analysis, and you can scroll up for the rest of the conversation:

    http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/smoking-gun-that-ushcn-adjustments-are-fraudulent-2/#comment-161382

    Now, I’d prefer you not post on this until David has had ample time to respond, because it’s quite possible that I did something way wrong, but I still suggest reading it now and giving your thoughts as a replay to this comment of mine here.

    Thanks,

    -Scott

    • suyts says:

      Heh, that was already on my list of things to read up on. I don’t comment on other blogs as much as I would prefer, but, I do try to keep up.

      I won’t post on this until afterwards, if at all. The difficulty I’ve had with this is deciding upon which sat data set to go with and what amplification ratio to use.

      NOAA is clearly an outlier. But, if one uses HadCrut3 and UAH, they tend to line up nearer the expected results.

      I would very much enjoy having you write up a post on this after you and David have finalized your exchange. Would you be interested in such?

      • Scott says:

        Hi James,

        I’m typically pretty busy (part of the reason I didn’t respond to David until today even though I had the idea Friday), so maybe it’d be best for you to just have a post with a summary of the results and linking to the conversation. If you want, I could write that summary and participate in comments, but I probably can’t do much more than that. Family is too important for me to neglect.

        I’d be interested to see what the response it. My analysis could be flawed, but we’ll have to wait and see. Personally, I think it’s a real test to the character of David (if the analysis is right), and I won’t hypothesize on what his character will show.

        -Scott

    • Jim Masterson says:

      >>
      Scott says:
      November 27, 2012 at 2:21 pm

      Well, he didn’t take into account that the lower troposphere should be warming faster than the surface . . . .
      <<

      It’s the result if you model the GHE. It’s a requirement of the model. The lack of warming is what invalidates the GHE as the primary modus operandi at the moment.

      Jim

      • Scott says:

        I wouldn’t say it invalidates it right now. What’d I’d say is that it could mean many things, but my best guess would be that the surface record exaggerates the warming, and if the surface record were corrected to fit with the LT data then climate sensitivity is much lower than what the alarmists claim and may even indicate net negative feedbacks.

        -Scott

  44. DirkH says:

    Idolatry: Oil portraits of Rodham Clinton, Lisa Jackson etc on taxpayers dime.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/29/What-Fiscal-Cliff-White-House-Appointees-Have-Portraits-Taken-on-Taxpayer-Dime
    I see an opportunity for a new card game…
    The Administration – collect them all, trade with your friends!

  45. DirkH says:

    Pizza chain owners forced by Obamacare to install 34 million signs describing the nutritional content of every possible pizzy combination. That is, 34 million signs per shop.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/30/Domino-s-Obamacare-Requires-34-Million-Pizza-Nutrition-Signs-In-Stores

    I’m sure legislators will find a solution – like, outlaw pizza customization or fine it with a billion dollar.

  46. DirkH says:

    Italy record unemployment 11.1 %, youth unemployment 36.5 %.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/11/30/Italian-unemployment-hits-record-111

    It would be interesting to see regional numbers – all the industry is north of Rome AFAIK so the south should look even grimmer.

  47. DirkH says:

    Iranian news agency Reuters spreads photo of alleged Iranian drone invention, conceals that they stole the photo from a Japanese university’s drone building group.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/12/01/Iran-Caught-Photoshopping-Claimed-Drone-Invention

  48. DirkH says:

    Obama honors Steven Spielberg’s Forrest Gump by inserting himself into history (again), this time into Rosa Park’s bus ride.
    http://twitchy.com/2012/12/02/narcissist-in-chief-president-obama-honors-rosa-parks-anniversary-with-picture-of-himself/

  49. Scott says:

    Hi James,

    You’ve probably already seen this or similar, but I thought I’d post the link anyway:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-01/why-americans-have-lost-drive-earn-more

    I have some friends who lived in New Zealand for a few years, and they say that’s the way of life over there. The welfare state is so nice in NZ, far better than the lowest tier jobs, that no one wants to work.

    -Scott

  50. DirkH says:

    Another throwaway leftist group wants to use the canard of climate change to destroy America, the West. Produced video saying Exxon hates your children. Collects money.
    http://twitchy.com/2012/12/05/classy-lefty-eco-zealots-mount-exxon-hates-your-children-campaign/

  51. DirkH says:

    IRS prepares to rob homeowners blind. Says the fact that they don’t have to pay rent means they have an income that rent payers don’t have; wants to tax it.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/08/the-most-absurd-loophole-in-the-tax-code

    Even for statists that’s pretty inventive.

  52. kelly liddle says:

    If some of the market commentators are correct about the Fed’s QE4 EVA then it will be around $10 per day per person. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/what-is-the-federal-reserve-s-qe4-eva-9u2jcAZDTzeYoIKv3gks_Q.html

    The number is also roughly equal to the Gov deficit. Maybe just print the governments deficit spending and get it over with. For me all this is quite confusing (including anything to do with money supply) and not sure what it is supposed to achieve. I think there is no serious person who believes this will all be paid back, some of the mortgage securities maybe but the government debt.

    Phil if you see this what are your thoughts as this is your area of expertise and can you expain it in laymans terms?

  53. philjourdan says:

    Took me awhile to find it. First I will repost from the other thread:

    Kelly, Sorry, but the freedom of the press is not the same as the freedom of speech. While similar, they are distinctly different. And while I do not know the criteria that went into the study you linked to, I suspect it has more to do with the application, and not government interference (Since I see no government interference that would merit such a low rating).

    Speech is for the individuals. Press is for institutions. The former refers to opinions. The latter to news. While they can (and often are) intermingled, they are still inherently different.

    Now let me read this one and then comment.

  54. Bruce says:

    And these people are teaching economics to your children:

    Only In California: School Owes $1 Billion On $100 Million ‘PayDay’ Loan

    NPR reports that more than 200 schools across California are coming to the shocking realization that the upfront cash they needed so badly came at quite a price. These ‘Capital Appreciation Bonds’ are unlike normal bonds (requiring regular coupon payments and principal repayment); instead they provide the ‘lent’ money upfront and defer all interest and repayment to some magical faery land time in the future (by which time the interest accrued has grown exponentially as the interest accrues on the rising ‘principal plus previously accrued interest’).

    My emphasis. They’re mad, completely fiscally bonkers. Michigan unions might be off the planet, but Cali school administrators are clearly out of the solar system and somewhere west of the Magellanic Clouds.

    • LLAP says:

      @Bruce: That isn’t all they are teaching our children:

      http://miltonconservative.blogspot.ca/2012/12/education-great-divide-my-time-in.html

      P.S. James … this may be the start of a blog post for you ;) .

    • suyts says:

      I probably couldn’t write about it without being reduced to tears several times. But, the author of that article touches on some of the same things I’ve written about in the past. Our educational system has been used as a weapon, wielded against the very foundations of our society.

      • LLAP says:

        “Our educational system has been used as a weapon, wielded against the very foundations of our society.”

        Absolutely! Somebody once posted the goals of the communists from the early 1960′s on Steve Goddard’s blog (a few months ago). Much of what they desired has come to fruition, largely in part to family breakdown and educational breakdown too.

  55. Scott says:

    So I assume you’ll post about the recent school shooting. Supposedly it was a teacher that had recently been fired? I do ask that you try to be sensitive about the topic. Seems while everyone is talking about gun control and mental illness recognition, the aren’t even mentioning WHY there is a prevalence of mental illness. Anything to do with the cultural revolutions the last few decades?

    -Scott

    • suyts says:

      I’m going to wait until the facts are verified.

      The question of “mental illness” is difficult to realistically broach. Society likes to brand people as “madmen” and whatnot when this occurs. However, it isn’t necessarily a mental illness. Sociopathy isn’t a true mental illness, but it certainly is a disease. I would absolutely assert the cultural changes have an impact in these events.

    • kim2ooo says:

      I do ask that you try to be sensitive about the topic.

      xxxxxxxx
      Explain please.

      • Scott says:

        Simple Kim,

        Look around at the discussion. People immediately took advantage of this situation within hours of it happening to try to advance their views on banning guns, arming everyone, even pyschological healthcare. Think about how insensitive that is–there are people out there that lost their children today. James is doing the right thing by delaying discussion of this for a while.

        -Scott

  56. DirkH says:

    This is from July 2012; I missed it.
    Iowahawk: You didn’t build that – Readings from the Book Of Barck; excerpt:
    “11 Then Govt said, “Let there be police, and firefighters, and teachers according to their kind, for they will create more jobs”; and it was so. 12 And then Govt bade the void bring forth crime, and arson, and stupidity, that each would yield seed to bring forth more police, and firefighters, and teachers, and jobs. And Govt saw that it was good.”
    http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2012/07/you-didnt-build-that.html

  57. Latitude says:

    We need a good old fashion race thread…..
    I’m white, christian, conservative……and I’m not going to take it any more
    ;)

  58. DirkH says:

    Case-Shiller up, more indication that the house price slump (as denominated in USD) is over.
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-26/case-shiller-posts-9th-consecutive-increase-driven-phoenix-detroit-back-2003-levels-

  59. DirkH says:

    Brits discover that despised capitalist Branson provides services to their beloved socialist NHS, are outraged. Demand 100% socialist health care; longer waiting lists (I think).

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323316804578163371159940186.html?mod=WSJ_hp_Europe_EditorsPicks

    (I’m sure the protesters are only the usual socialist elements; not the public at large. Although, you never know how many crazies there actually are in the UK. Funny piece of news nevertheless.)

  60. philjourdan says:

    This came to me over the holidays. It is a stark reminder that those who want us to be more like China probably know more than most of us about the REAL China:

    Halloween decorations carry haunting message of forced labor
    By Special to The Oregonian
    on December 23, 2012 at 9:00 AM, updated December 25, 2012 at 11:49 AM

    http://blog.oregonlive.com/happy_valley_news/print.html?entry=/2012/12/halloween_decorations_carry_ha.html

    The letter came in a box of Halloween decorations purchased at Kmart, but for a year Julie Keith never knew. It gathered dust in her storage, a haunting plea for help hidden among artificial skeletons, tombstones and spider webs.

    Keith, a 42-year-old vehicle donation manager at a southeast Portland Goodwill, at one point considered donating the unopened $29.99 Kmart graveyard kit. It was one of those accumulated items you never need and easily forget. But on a Sunday afternoon in October, Keith pulled the orange and black box from storage. She intended to decorate her home in Damascus for her daughter’s fifth birthday, just days before Halloween.

    She ripped open the box and threw aside the cellophane.

    That’s when Keith found it. Scribbled onto paper and folded into eighths, the letter was tucked between two Styrofoam headstones.

    “Sir:

    “If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persicution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever.”
    The graveyard kit, the letter read, was made in unit 8, department 2 of the Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang, China.

    Chinese characters broke up choppy English sentences.

    “People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays. Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment (10 yuan/1 month).”

    Ten yuan is equivalent to $1.61.

    “People who work here, suffer punishment 1-3 years averagely, but without Court Sentence (unlaw punishment). Many of them are Falun Gong practitioners, who are totally innocent people only because they have different believe to CCPG. They often suffer more punishment than others.”

    The letter was not signed.

    Shocked, Keith sat down as her mind reeled.

    Wow, that’s daring, she thought. She imagined the desperation the writer must have felt, the courage he or she must have mustered to slip the letter into that box. If caught, what would happen?

    Like a message in a bottle, the letter traveled more than 5,000 miles over the Pacific Ocean. It could not be ignored.

    ***

    View full sizeThis package contained a letter folded into eighths and tucked between styrofoam headstones.
    Unsure of where to start, Keith turned to Facebook.
    “I found this in a box of Halloween decorations” she typed beneath a photo of the letter. She wanted to spread the message.

    The Facebook post sparked a slew of responses. Her friends had heard of labor camp horrors. But a letter from one of those camps? Never.

    “I’m sure that person feared for his/her life to include that letter in the products, but it was a chance they were obviously willing to take,” one friend wrote. “We take our freedom for granted!”

    “What’s weird to me is someone is actually thinking about, and praying something comes of this … every day of their life since they sent it out,” another wrote. “Makes me sad this even happens”

    Some friends offered help, others asked for updates.

    The anonymous letter evoked skepticism, too. Written largely in English scrawl, it was almost too bold of an act to seem plausible. Still, U.S. authorities on China took note.

    “We’re in no position to confirm the veracity or origin of this,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “I think it is fair to say the conditions described in the letter certainly conform to what we know about conditions in re-education through labor camps.”

    China’s re-education through labor is a system of punishment that allows for detention without trial. Various reports allege followers of the banned spiritual group, Falun Gong, are sent to the reform camps – claims supported in the letter – but the facts are difficult to confirm.

    Masanjia labor camp is located in the industrialized capital of the Liaoning Province in northeast China. A Google search of the camp yields pages of grim results.

    “If this thing is the real deal, that’s somebody saying please help me, please know about me, please react,” Richardson said. “That’s our job.”

    ***

    If truly created in a forced labor camp, the Halloween graveyard kit from Kmart’s “Totally Ghoul” product line could bring a blow to the U.S. chain of discount stores.

    Title 19, section 1307 of U.S. Code generally prohibits the importation of all items “mined, produced or manufactured” in any foreign country by convict labor, forced labor and/or indentured labor.

    After the Oregonian informed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the letter, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations began looking into the case, public affairs officer Andrew Munoz confirmed.

    Sears Holdings Corporation, which operates Kmart, released a statement on the matter:

    “Sears Holdings has a Global Compliance Program which helps to ensure that vendors and factories producing merchandise for our company adhere to specific Program Requirements, and all local laws pertaining to employment standards and workplace practices. Failure to comply with any of the Program Requirements, including the use of forced labor, may result in a loss of business or factory termination. We understand the seriousness of this allegation, and will continue to investigate.”

    Daniel Ruiz, section chief of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center’s commercial fraud unit, said it would be difficult to predict the length of an investigation like this, which would involve American and Chinese authorities. Investigative findings would be released, he said, only if the agency takes action.

    ***

    Julie Keith now checks the label of everything she buys, down to the Gingerbread house she purchased for the holidays. Her friends, she said, do the same.

    “If I really don’t need it, I won’t buy it if it’s made in China,” she said. “This has really made me more aware. I hope it would make a difference.”

    – Rachel Stark

    • DirkH says:

      “China’s re-education through labor is a system of punishment that allows for detention without trial. ”

      Detention without trial? China is run by American Progressives!

  61. DirkH says:

    Finally I understand Krugmanomics. And it only took a blonde female econ prof to explain it.
    Guess what – it’s exactly like in the land of unicorns.

    (Putin TV from DEC 2012)

  62. HankH says:

    My son attended a gun show last week. He reported that it was like going to a shoe store that didn’t sell shoes. He said the show was very crowded – long lines to get in. People were buying up every gun and round they could get their hands on. Every merchant was sold out. Even ammunition was slim pickings.

    Then I ran across this which I think may explain why:

    http://www.bob-owens.com/2012/12/something-funny-happened-on-the-way-to-the-tyranny/

    It’s interesting reading irrespective of whether or not you accept the author’s conclusion.

    Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone. This isn’t a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned. This is a society preparing for war.

    • suyts says:

      That it is. The question is how far are people willing to go? Many if not most of the gun owners I know will not give up their arms. It’s just that simple. So, for the totalitarian leftists, to advance their argument against violence, they will have to commit the ultimate act of violence against their fellow citizens. Given that most leftists are cowards, this won’t happen.

      I’ve a brother-in-law who happens to be a police detective. Over the holidays, I spoke to him. I asked if he was ready to hand over his guns. He told me he’d bury his and tell the authorities he no longer has them. I suspect he’s not alone in this thought. So, one has to ask, who is going to come get our guns? Let Nancy Pelosi or Barry Zero come get them. We’ll see how this works out.

      • HankH says:

        The comments following the article were rather telling. There’s some pretty pissed off people out there who seem quite ready to draw a line in the sand. Most gun owners I know are stockpiling and making plans not unlike your brother-in-law.

        It is doubtful that the house will pass the gun ban bill once it leaves the Senate. The other option is to enact it by executive order but that won’t play well. People will be plenty riled up if congress passes it but if Zero enacts it by executive order, all hell will break loose in a flash. The Dems are sitting on a huge uncorked powder keg and might just be too stooopid to know it.

      • philjourdan says:

        Liberals only get violent when they have an unfair advantage (many to one or a mob). When confronted one on one, or with an equal force, they are very cowardly.

        Did you catch the marine letter to Feinstein? http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-902515

        I love that line – “I am not your subject”. Kelly needs to read that. And understand he IS someone’s subject.

  63. philjourdan says:

    Apparently, more than the Brits that read your blog do not like Piers. 8k signatures and counting to keep him here!

    http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/01/03/piers-morgan-anti-deportation-petition-claims-no-one-in-uk-wants-him/?intcmp=features

    • suyts says:

      That’s heartbreaking, but, I suspect that practice isn’t confined to South Africa. I’ve witnessed some over here that I thought may be their goal.

  64. HankH says:

    VP Biden announced today that President Zero to deal with guns by executive orders.

  65. HankH says:

    James, occasionally you come up with some great captions on the photos included in your posts. How about having an occasional caption contest on a current event photo or something? I think it would be amusing given the wit of some of those who comment at suyts space.

  66. tckev says:

    Lest we forget.
    It is people that do the killing and not the contraption they build.
    Dr. Jacob Bronowski was deputized to the British Chiefs of Staff Mission to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, visiting Japan in 1945, after which he wrote a well-regarded report The Effects of Atomic Bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
    The Nazi reduced the human condition to a demented formula of destruction and in this old clip from Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man – a 30 year old documentary television series produced by the BBC & Time Life – with a relevant message for today.
    As he says -
    “Into this pond where flushed the ashes of some four million people, and that was not done by gas, it was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance…”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2h4cw7TVvc

    .
    .
    Guns don’t kill people do!

  67. DirkH says:

    Peter Schiff tests the CPI for whether it reflects real inflation, compares price development of a basket of products against CPI -
    for the time period 1970-1980
    and for the time period 2002-2012

  68. Latitude says:

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/01/lawsuit-alleges-cronyism-in-obama-administration-green-energy-loans.php

    A lawsuit recently filed in the United States Court of Claims may shed further light on the corruption of the Obama administration’s “green energy” programs. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of XP Vehicles, Inc. and Limnia, Inc., companies that competed for Department of Energy loans under a Congressionally-authorized program. The owners of XP eventually realized that there was no real competition, and that the whole Department of Energy program was a scam intended to funnel money to Obama and Democratic Party campaign contributors and political allies. They allege in addition that DOE misappropriated proprietary technology that they submitted in connection with their loan applications, and gave that technology to Obama administration cronies.

  69. DirkH says:

    Progressive socialist scum from Journal News faigns second thoughts, removes names and addresses from their google map of registered gun owners.
    http://www.lohud.com/article/20130119/NEWS02/301190075/Letter-from-publisher-gun-permit-holder-map
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/01/18/Gun-Outing-Newspaper-Removes-Gun-Map

    • DirkH says:

      Their mother company
      http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=GCI+Interactive#symbol=gci;range=my;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;

      List of their daughter companies:
      “It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. Its assets include the national newspaper USA Today and the weekly USA Weekend. Its largest non-national newspaper is The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Arizona. Other significant newspapers include The Indianapolis Star, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessee, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, NY, The Des Moines Register, the Detroit Free Press and The News-Press in Fort Myers. Gannett owns 23 television stations through Gannett Broadcasting Inc.[4] and is the largest group owner of NBC-affiliated stations.[5] Gannett also holds substantial properties in digital media including PointRoll, BNQT Media Group,[6] Planet Discover,[7] Ripple6[8] and ShopLocal through Gannett Digital.”
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gannett

      One should consider whether one wants to do business with them. I don’t see anything I ever used; but of course as a German I would only come in contact with their websites.

  70. Gary Meyers in Ridgecrest says:

    This is a pretty good read. It is particularly relevant to me since I am a native Californian. Luckily that I live in a predominately conservative (isolated) area and don’t have to put up with most of the day to day liberalism that pervades this beautiful state. But I digress.

  71. philjourdan says:

    The removal can be viewed as not doubling down on stupid – or a tacit admission of guilt in a civil suit (since crimes have already been committed). I think several citizens have a slam dunk case, regardless of the feeble explanation that the TP media outlet expressed.

  72. philjourdan says:

    I have done business with some in the past. But I long ago stopped. This is merely icing on the cake of my justification not to waste money on trash.

  73. philjourdan says:

    I would sue based upon the US Constitution, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3.

  74. kelly liddle says:

    The day before, the U.S. Senate and House — where there is broad agreement that the direct farm payments program should be scrapped — both voted to keep the money flowing as part of a last-minute agreement to avert most of more than $600 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts slated to take effect this month. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-23/united-states-of-crisis-seen-costing-jobs-wasting-money.html

    What is going on over there? There was apparently agreement to cut some spending of substance (if billions count any more) and they decided not to because esentially they had better things to do apparently. Was the new bill so vast they couldn’t find the right bit that should be removed or altered?

  75. Latitude says:

    I was just reading this on Drudge…..
    What happens when someone knows where a gun is, grabs it, uses it to stop a crime…
    ….the gun is not registered to them
    are they in a heap of shit?

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/23/man-who-shot-dogs-biting-boy-could-face-charges/

  76. Gary Meyers in Ridgecrest says:

    Check this out. Finally, Obama oversteps his powers and gets called onto the carpet for it! But the SCOTUS still might overturn the lower court’s ruling.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2013/01/25/appeals-court-unanimously-rebukes-obama-on-recess-appointments/

  77. kelly liddle says:

    I would just like to ask all the Americans here what is your opinion about what will happen to natural gas, will you go free market and allow exports as by all accounts at the moment you have a surplus or will you continue to keep most of it to yourself? If you go freemarket your prices will rise and if you keep it all to yourself it will discourage investment in production at some stage and cause waste of the resource and probably lost income for the country.

    • philjourdan says:

      I believe it will go free market. The problem is transporting it. The facilities to turn it into transport mode (liquifying it) have not been built yet, and given the animosity of the current regime to anything carbon, I doubt will be in the next few years. But eventually the potential profits – and jobs, will over ride the paranoia in the government.

      And in case you have not heard yet, income is not a priority with the current regime.

    • suyts says:

      It depends on the nutters. They’re trying to block the exports. If we let it become a global commodity, then it would be a huge boon to our economy. So, probably not. At least not for the next 4 years.

    • kelly liddle says:

      Thanks for that Phil and Suyts.

  78. philjourdan says:

    And we both posted remarkably similar comments – 4 years, the current term of the current regime.

  79. HankH says:

    Military conducts unannounced (as in no public service announcements) joint exercises with police over Miami, flying over city freeway in helicopters firing blanks from machine guns at traffic and scaring the s**t out of the public. What could they be training for?

  80. scott says:

    The unintended consequences of a gun by back here in Seattle would have been predictable for anyone with a functioning brain:

    …About an hour later, after the backlog was processed, police briefly reopened the event, but a lot of people with unwanted guns went home disappointed, while others turned to the dozens of private gun buyers who had swarmed the surrounding streets, hoping to pick up valuable weapons on the cheap.

    “We had a gun bazaar break out on the streets of Seattle outside a gun buyback,” exclaimed Mayor Mike McGinn at a morning press conference the following Monday. “This is insane.” It sure is, but as McGinn explained, the city does not have the authority to prevent the private sale of guns.

    In other words, what a great way to sanitize/launder/etc. your illegal guns! Yay! Good job, Seattle!

    Link to source: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/we-need-more-gun-buybacks/Content?oid=15877069.

  81. scott says:

    It was pretty funny that they could be so stupid. I actually laughed out loud when I first heard the story on our local NPR radio station. It sounded like most of the people doing the private buying were collectors. That I have no problem with & good for them. But I openly wonder & worry how much of a criminal element took advantage of the situation.

  82. DirkH says:

    Amusing duck-and-cover style video by your lavishly funded DHS.
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-01/advice-department-homeland-security-if-attacked-shooter-grab-some-scissors

    Office shooter? Just grab your scissors and cower under the desk while the good guys WITH THE GUNS finish off the shooter. Cower,citizens!

    • kim2ooo says:

      ATTENTION! Important message from Barack Obama.

      Effective this Day ALL Schools will be required to purchase a pair of ObamaScissors to stop mass shootings in Schools.

      Each School will post this sign:

      BEWARE to anyone considering mass shootings.

      This School has official ‘ObamaScissors’ for protection.

      They will also have to mark each desk with a federally-approved placard advising students: “In Case of Mass Shooting: Grab ObamaScissors and Cower Here”.

      “Glock, paper, scissors”

  83. kim2ooo says:

    Snickerin’ …..HEY! today is some big Super Football thing.

    Mrs A?

    Ms Vickie?

    We could take over Mr.Sexton’s Blog :)

    Can you come out and play?

  84. Latitude says:

    this is interesting……of course, they would never say that less arctic ice…is getting back to normal

    “The genetic analysis revealed differences found between ancient and modern population diversity, including the recent disappearance of unique maternal lineages over the past 500 years, the possible result of habitat loss during the Little Ice Age (a period of climatic cooling that occurred between the 16th to 19th Centuries) and/or extensive whaling in the region”

    So what happened is more ice in the LIA isolated the whale populations….less gene diversity/inbreeding……and now with less ice, the whales tribes are interbreeding again

    ..and that’s a good thing….

    So for all the “arctic is melting” nutjobs…..normal is less ice

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121019130502.htm

    • Latitude says:

      I’m going to keep bumping this up…until it sinks in….LOL

      This is interesting, and shows that we have too much ice in the Arctic now.

      500 years ago, the LIA increased the Ice extent in the Arctic so much that it separated groups of bowheads into tribes.
      Gene work have established that, and shows that in the past 500 years bowheads have lost some of their genetic diversity (maternal genes) because the different tribes are not interbreeding any more. Just recently the tribes have started to interbreed again, which means, just now things are getting back to normal.

      Which proves that all the people that started measuring ice at it’s peak, are wrong.
      and it proves that “normal” is less ice……and the amount of ice they keep claiming as normal…was not normal

      • Latitude says:

        and keep adding to it as I find stuff…
        Oldest bowhead fossils are around 40,000 years.
        Gene tracking shows no diversity loss before the LIA.
        There wasn’t enough ice before the LIA to cause them to have to divide into tribes.

      • Latitude says:

        ok, this has me bumfuzzled…
        It was a lot colder 40,000 years ago, and has been getting warmer since then.
        But it wasn’t until the LIA that gene tracking shows a divergence.
        Does that mean there was more ice in the Arctic in the LIA than up to 40,000 years ago?
        Why did the ice in the LIA do this, and never do it before?

        …still working on it!

      • suyts says:

        I tracked down the study that the article references. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.397/full This is why I haven’t posted anything about it…..

        Conclusions

        These results highlight the complex interplay of factors – including climate history, behavioral ecology, and past exploitation – that shape population genetic patterns in polar marine mammals. In contrast with our initial hypothesis that Pacific and Atlantic populations were last connected during the mid-Holocene (e.g., Dyke et al. 1996), the genetic data presented here instead indicate recent and high gene flow between these areas. At the Holarctic scale, these results suggest that the presence of persistent sea ice does not appear to be a good predictor of genetic exchange in bowhead whales.

        Mid-Holocene was ~ 6000 years ago. In other words, they’re rejecting the notion that the arctic has been this diminished in the past, ergo, the ice isn’t an obstruction for the whales. Can’t question the nutty thoughts about ice in the arctic!

        • Latitude says:

          thanks……I was looking for it too!
          Looks like they were thinking about the ice first too….

        • Latitude says:

          well, I read it all…..at least they admitted that less ice in the summer is better for the whales…and that summer ice could have contributed to a mass mortality by keeping them from their summer feeding grounds

  85. LLAP says:

    The Virtual Inaugural, with Bill Whittle … excellent speech:

  86. DirkH says:

    I found out why Kelly thinks the government owns all his money.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
    “In Australia part IV of the Banking Act 1959 allowed the Commonwealth government to seize private citizens’ gold in return for paper money where the Governor-General “is satisfied that it is expedient so to do, for the protection of the currency or of the public credit of the Commonwealth.[18]” As of January 30, 1976, this part’s operation is “suspended”.”

    • kelly liddle says:

      Dirk
      But they never did it. They did in the US though.

      I find it quite ironic that you and Phil have some belief system that does not match your reality. Both the US and Germany are in the 40%+ range of government spending to GDP. The government does not own my money but should they change there mind they can (Australia could start to create a state 50% more socialist than we already have to match your countries and no I would not stop them as I am unlikely to be able to but it will have an influence on my investment decisions noting I am the only one who seems preparded if my government did go really bad, keeping significant amounts of my wealth in overseas investments). Your governments are further down this path than my government but you seen to not accept (accept I mean realise what is happening versus agree with) what is happening to you in your socialist states.

      • PhilJourdan says:

        Kelly, our “belief” system is reality. We do not live in a hypothetical. If the moon were made of green cheese – if the sun was made of diamonds, etc.

        While it is entirely possible that a future government will throw over the constitution, and declare all money to be theirs, it is not reality today. And that is your problem. You are trying to play a “what if” game and say it is happening today.

        here’s a what if game. If Jesse James comes back and robs me of all my money, then it is his money. So I have to say that it is not my money, but Jesse James’ money. That is your argument. And that is why it is false.

        We live by a set of rules, called laws. They can (and will be) changed. But until they are, those laws state, that the money I earn through legal means is MY MONEY. Not the governments. What the government MAY do in the future is irrelevant to what it is doing today, and the laws that govern us.

      • kelly liddle says:

        Phil
        Then I would argue that the government definately is a majority owner with our income then because at the marginal rate (income + payroll) in Australia, Germany and USA they are willing to take over 50%. This is reality now. Ok it is not 100% but the French are getting pretty close and with the wealth tax they have it is quite concievable that you could end up paying more tax than your income.

  87. HankH says:

    California doctors want out.

    So, what’s California’s solution to this lack of doctors?

    Redefine who can provide healthcare. Broaden the definition of “primary care provider” to include physician assistants, pharmacists, and even optometrists.

    Doctors say this could greatly threaten patient safety. But, at a meeting for healthcare advocates this past December, Diana Dooley, Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said “We’re going to have to provide care at lower levels. I think a lot of people are trained to do work that our licenses don’t allow them to.

    In other words, provide medical care at lower quality.

    http://townhall.com/tipsheet/ashleybrooks/2013/02/11/californias-solution-to-its-doctor-shortage-n1509926

    • kelly liddle says:

      Hank
      I don’t think you should jump to conclusions. It has been suggested to me that nurses in Australia can do much more than nurses in the US and this does not lower the service but the cost. If there were 2 people who saw me at the site of an accident, an experienced nurse and an inexperienced doctor I know who I would prefer to try and save my life.

      • PhilJourdan says:

        Kelly, you are not watching the other hand. Clearly Nurses are (for the most part) ably capable of dispensing basic health services. But the difference between Australia and the US is that one is going up, the other down. And the direction is not going to change based upon an incomplete comparison.

        The quality of health care is on the decline in the US, and on the rise in Australia. Due to simple economics. So instead of an experienced nurse and an inexperienced doctor, your question should be: who do you want to provide emergency medical assistance to you? A person who believes in his vocation, or a disgruntled employee not happy with being told he has to work for nothing?

      • kelly liddle says:

        In any job you would prefer someone who is there because that is what they want to do. A wage freeze wouldn’t neccessarily mean lower levels of service. You could probably easily cut the pay of medical staff by 10% and have them being more happy if every single patient was polite and appreciative. I am assuming you have the same issues over there as we do here in some patients being actually violent and abusive towards people saving there lives or the lives of others. I know this has become an issue with ambulances especially.

        “The quality of health care is on the decline in the US, and on the rise in Australia.”

        I don’t know if this is true but I would prefer our system based on cost (at the moment) and consider both pretty good based on outcomes.

        • PhilJourdan says:

          What most people do not realize is that the US system is nothing like any other socialized system. That is because there is no consensus, so democrats break it so they can then justify additional legislation to “fix” what they broke.

          That is why Obamacare is a nightmare. Not because it fixes a thing, but because it breaks so much that the democrats now hope to fix.

      • HankH says:

        Yes, you are correct, nurses in your country do considerably more than in my country. They’re trained to because of how your system works.

        Most nurses in my country are inexperienced in diagnostic medicine because our medical and legal system prohibit nurses from many forms of diagnostic medicine without the direct supervision of a doctor. Our nursing schools turn out RN’s with only 15 months of training. They’re basically taught how to pass the state examination and have little medical experience. Added to which there is a growing shortage of nurses. To fill the gap hospitals have resorted to recruiting nurses from other countries with substandard training.

        The real story is the doctors are leaving, forcing states to lower medical standards to cope with the increasing demand on the medical system with fewer doctors and nurses.

        It happens that my own family physician announced to me on my last visit that he’s leaving the practice because he can’t afford to stay. It’s a shame because he has foundations and centers named in his honor for his accomplishments. One of the doctors at my center, an incredible specialist, told me he’s leaving medicine to return to university to pursue a degree in engineering. He wants no part of Obamacare. We have a very different situation here as compared to Australia. Our medical system is in a serious decline.

  88. PhilJourdan says:

    It will be interesting to see how the Alarmist spin this one. Other than ignore it, I do not see any good news for them.

  89. HankH says:

    Asteroid 2012 DA14, which is due to pass within the the orbit of earth satellites tomorrow afternoon (Feb. 15, 2013). It won’t be visible to the naked eye. The best location to view it with binoculars or telescope will be Indonesia. Several telescopes will be trained on 2012 DA14 and broadcasting their images live on the Internet. Here are the links:

    Bareket Observatory in Israel is offering a free live webcast of the close approach on February 15 beginning at 20:15 UTC (2:15 p.m. Central Time in the U.S.), for a duration of about 3 hours.

    http://www.bareket-astro.com/live-astronomical-web-cast/asteroid-2012-da14-flyby-webcast.html

    Clay Center Observatory will offer real-time high-definition video, weather permitting, beginning at 1:00 UTC on February 16 (5 p.m. CST on February 15). Clay Center Observatory’s Ustream channel is here:

    http://www.ustream.tv/channel/clay-center-observatory

    NASA Television will provide commentary starting at 19:00 UTC (1 p.m. CST) on February 15. The commentary will be streamed live online at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.

  90. HankH says:

    James, check your moderation panel. I posted four links for watching the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 live. The links triggered your moderation filter.

  91. DirkH says:

    Random find, old – from 2011 – but nice. The worlds worst public art.
    Including a bunch of Greek modeling the visage of Dear Leader himself.
    http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/04/worlds-worst-public-art-human-obama-sculpture-neon-teddy-bear/237659/#slide1

  92. DERise says:

    I thought Matt Damon was full of s**t for that flop movie on fracking, now he’s gonna be full of s**t literally if he Follows though with this. http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/02/12/matt-damon-goes-on-strike-to-raise-awareness-for-clean-water/. LOL Bourne in a diaper.

  93. DirkH says:

    Gold is in backwardation. Last time backwardation (except for short term flukes) happened with a precious metal was with Silver at around 05/17/2012. Silver proceeded to shoot up by 20 % over the next 4 months.
    (Source for the Silver backwardation at that time:
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-backwardation-gold-and-silver )

    I don’t know WHY this happens, only stating the correlation…

  94. DirkH says:

    Bloomberg’s soft drink obsession. He’s outlawing carafes of fruit juice now.
    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/soda_ban_to_sap_your_4t5pEK0hvo3PoNZEBOdZ2L

  95. Bruce of Newcastle says:

    Kansas just exploded Paul Ehrlich’s head. Quite an achievement. You should be chuffed James.

    • suyts says:

      Heh, I love my fellow Kansans, but, I wish they’d have a better command of the English language. But, yes, this is a dart thrown directly at nutters like Ehrlich. Most Kansans despise these nutjobs. It probably stems from the fact that we have more experience with windmills than most. We understand how useless such nutty ventures are.

  96. DirkH says:

    Small fry UK professor “for urban studies” punishes people for driving vehicles they should not be driving in his dictatorial opinion, gets caught.
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/381230/Mercy-for-university-don-who-scarred-cars-in-drunken-spree

    Guess he can write a lot of papers on leftist lunatics running amuck in big cities now.

  97. PhilJourdan says:

    More zeros in education: http://www.fox4now.com/news/local/194396721.html

    Teen suspended for wresting gun from student pointing it another.

    Idiots.

  98. DirkH says:

    Video: Scarborough of MSNBC (!) annoys Krugman by citing pre-2008 writings of Krugman. When he was still warning of deficit problems. Krugman doesn’t deliver an argument but calls it all ad homs.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/03/05/Dirty-Looks-Snide-Remarks-and-Sparks-Fly-as-Scarborough-and-Krugman-Go-Head-to-Head-in-Debt%20Debate

  99. DirkH says:

    S&P hits all time high;
    Obama’s buddy Hugo dies.
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-05/venezuelas-hugo-chavez-dead

  100. Scott says:

    Hi James, I assume you’ve heard about this, but looks like Skeptical Science has been involved in making spam bots to wage their war against reality. There’s an article with it at WUWT, but here’s the kicker for you as a website owner:

    For anyone with websites, the simplest way to block these auto-bot SPAM comments from Al Gore and John Cook is to put “clmtr.lt” as a blocked web address in your system SPAM filter. I’ve done that for WUWT and recommend all other climate blogs do the same.

    -Scott

  101. philjourdan says:

    For most here, the death of Chavez is a foot note. For me it is bittersweet. My adopted daughter is from Venezuela. A political refugee that the Obama administration is actively trying to deport. I guess she does not fit the image of a criminal (like the 5000 they just released) who “deserve” to be on American welfare. My daughter, and 2 of my grandchildren are breathing a little easier today.

    • DirkH says:

      Why bittersweet – what could be sweeter than the death of a corruptocrat. Chaved amassed several hundred million Dollars. Equality for the masses, all the spoils for El Lider.

      • philjourdan says:

        Think about it this way – would we be better off if Obama died and Biden took over?

        Chavez was cold and calculating. Maduro is simply stupid and brutal.

  102. HankH says:

    The Gore Effect is strong today. Capital Hill hearing on global warming cancelled due to snow storm.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/mar/6/hill-hearing-global-warming-cancelled-dc-snowstorm/

  103. philjourdan says:

    Second, we have this quote for Kelly, but it is worthy of a discussion in itself (even though I am not a Keynesian, that does not mean he was ALL wrong):

    “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate,
    secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their
    citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the
    existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process
    engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of
    destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million
    is able to diagnose.”
    –”The Ecconomic Consequences of Peace”, John Maynard Keynes, 1920

    • suyts says:

      That will be a post in the morning! I’d post it tonight, but, most of my readers pop in earlier. That’s en excellent quote! And spot on!!! Don’t let me forget!!!

  104. philjourdan says:

    Just laugh – and blame me. Everyone else does. ;-)

  105. HankH says:

    Earth is warmer today than during 70 to 80 percent of the past 11,300 years according to a new 73 proxy reconstruction study.

    From the National Science Foundation:

    http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=127133

    They blather on about global warming but overlook that if you do some simple math, there were a total of 2,260 to 3,390 years before now that were warmer than today.

    • HankH says:

      James, I got my hands on their database from the journal Science (where they published). I’m going to make some graphs to see what this reconstruction looks like. I feel an article coming on. We’ll see…

    • suyts says:

      Great!!!! Thanks Hank, let me know what you come up with!!!

  106. Latitude says:

    ok Mister, both hands on the table……

    Sunday, March 10, 2013
    Obvious: Imam who believes women without hijabs deserve to be raped is arrested for attempted rape…
    Copenhagen Imam Shahid Mehdi believes women without hijabs or burkas deserve to be raped .

    You have to give Imam Shahid Mehdi credit. Unlike a lot of other Muslim clergy who say that women who don’t wear hijabs or burkas or who leave the house deserve to be raped, but then don’t follow up on it, Shahid Mehdi stayed true to his belief that Islamic morality justifies sex crimes by trying to commit a sex crime.

    http://www.bluegrasspundit.com/2013/03/obvious-imam-who-believes-women-without.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bluegrasspundit%2FNwhs+%28Bluegrass+Pundit%29

  107. Scott says:

    Hi James,

    Just a quick note that ClimateGate 3.0 (the release of the password) has happened. See Anthony’s for details. Password isn’t available to everyone in order to protect personal e-mails in the file.

    -Scott

  108. PhilJourdan says:

    I have not seen you comment on this, and if so, please forgive me.

    Back in February, Obama said that the sequester would cut Children’s Vaccines. On the order of over 100k nation wide. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/sequester-spin-the-white-houses-vaccine-statistics/2013/03/07/798295e2-877a-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_blog.html
    &
    http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/population.html

    The sequester was designed to cut funding for the CDC by $30m. However, In the last budget Obama proposed, he sought to cut CDC funding by $58m (or almost double)!

    Ergo the only conclusion one can make is that Obama sought to eliminate vaccinations for 200,000 children! Coupled with his insistence upon robbing children of their future by spending their money today – http://news.yahoo.com/pm-note-obama-wont-balance-balancing-sake-michelles-230806444–abc-news-politics.html?.tsrc=yfpnewsapp

    It is clear that Obama hates children! And yet you never hear that in the MSM

  109. PhilJourdan says:

    Suyts – I have a comment in moderation – probably due to the number of links.

  110. Scott says:

    Hi James,

    Just a funny little thing you might want to see. Remember how I was a bit disappointed because I locked in my mortgage rate right before the Fed announced that they’d continue to print, print, print (in order to get out of the recession), and that announcement dropped interest rates (already artificially low b/c of the Fed’s behavior) another 1/8% or so? Well, looks like the sequester got a lot of people optimistic…as you know by the stock market…and looks like the free market is pushing rates back up in opposition to what the Fed has been doing. Go to this link:

    http://www.zillow.com/mortgage-rates/

    Click on the graph in the upper right and scale it to 1 or 3 months. I locked in right before the recent dip…but look at the skyrocket right after sequester hit…LOL! Suddenly my lock-in rate doesn’t feel so bad.

    -Scott

  111. kelly liddle says:

    To Suyts and Gator I think you should watch this video. The best point made is “if America does not stand for rule of law what does it stand for?”

    I have found points made by both of you extremely threatening and if you are average Americans then I would say your country is Barbaric putting it very politely. Yes you are a closer threat than any of the dictatorships around the world because your country has actually threatened me personally (planet earth is your current designated battlefield in the war on terror). If you believe that you can do anything to anyone who is not a US citizen then your country should be seen as the threat it is. The argument that it probably won’t happen to me was put to me one time and that is how everyone thinks before a dictator oppresses them otherwise the dictator could have been stopped.

    If you don’t think like this then think before you speak sometimes.

    • suyts says:

      Kelly, what are you on about? I’m a fierce advocate of the rule of law. And I believe in the basic human rights of others. However, our friend Jesse is confused. Acts of aggression towards the US is not a criminal matter, it is a military matter. I have never stated that I “believe that you can do anything to anyone who is not a US citizen “. And, I’ve been pretty clear about it. That you choose to selectively read what I write isn’t my problem, it’s yours.

    • kim2ooo says:

      Mr Liddle,

      I have read the salt ash / tobacco sex education paper.

      http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/015034/article

      AND was able to make sense of it….with only one read through.

      I have reread this post / comment by you…. I have searched for other comments to reference your claims.

      Sorry, I can not make any sense out of this.

      In our country there are two separate houses [ if you will ] of law. Civil / criminal law…and Military law.

      The three detainees at GITMO were not under the protection of Civil / criminal law of the USA – They were under Military law.

      • kim2ooo says:

        The three detainees at GITMO *who were water boarded*

      • kelly liddle says:

        kim
        The problem is you have declared war on every country including your own on suspicion of being terrorist. So your government can just pick me up and imprison me or worse because I am a suspect. It doesn’t matter if you only torture one person that is too many. Since war has been declared against any suspects in my country don’t you think I should be a little afraid? How would I know if I am a suspect? There have been some pretty amazing inteligence failures like the WMDs.

    • kelly liddle says:

      Suyts
      I can’t remember the exact words but you did say something along the lines of right to a trial or not being assasinated is an exclusive right of a US citizen when talking about Obama authorising assasinations of people who are no immanent threat. Your military matters are now as I pointed out world wide in every country and there is the war on drugs stuff to add to it. Declaring war on the world is a universal war or declaration of state of emergency when considering your own country. As you have pointed out indirectly, in a war the normal rule of law goes out the window. The major “Acts of aggression” by non state actors is your gangs not foreign terrorists.

      On this issue I am with Jesse Ventura or Ron Paul.

      • kim2ooo says:

        I think easy to “arm chair”…when your country didn’t suffer the 9/11 attacks. OR the fear [ that's what terrorists do ] this country [ populace ] suffered.

        Did these detainees deserve the protections of USCivil law…. no 9/11 was an act of war on a sovereign country.

      • suyts says:

        Kelly, you’re confusing things, much in the way Ventura and Paul do. Conflating the drug war with terrorism isn’t all that reasonable. And, again, with regards to a right to a trial, there are hundreds of years precedence that says POWs don’t have the same rights as common citizens. This precedence extends well beyond the borders of the US. You may want to check your own nation’s history and view on this.

        But, I’ll break it down as simply as I can. A non-US citizen does not have the same rights and guarantees of the US constitution as US citizens do. Indeed, it would be criminal if we tried. Could you imagine if we imposed our views of free speech on the rest of the world? Or the rest of our Constitution? How then can we extend the judicial rights without the rest of them? We can’t extend them without violating the sovereignty of the rest of the nations of the world. Our constitution is really an all or nothing proposition.

        This is why we need to delineate the difference between criminal acts and acts of war. They are two very separate and distinct things. I can’t help, nor can any American, the fact that terrorists are allowed to freely move about various nations. Were I in control of the various other nations, I’d revisit my thoughts on aiding and abetting enemies of the US. But, that’s just me.

        How is it you believe we could or should protect the rights of non-citizens before we could even protect our own?

        • kelly liddle says:

          Your constitution should apply in your country and not have regard to whomever might be in your country. If I was in the US and charged with murder I think you would agree I should get a fair trial, I would want you to get the same in Australia.
          As a country you should protect the rights of anyone in your country in my opinion.

        • kelly liddle says:

          With mentioning drug war and war on terrorism together it is about what they have in common and that is both of them not being a good idea and costing lives and money.

        • suyts says:

          To a certain extent, yes, Kelly, I agree. There are basic rights extended to visitors, as they should be. A fair trial being one of them.

      • kelly liddle says:

        Kim
        About 100 Australians have died in terrorist attacks although not on our soil. This would equate to 1500 on a per capita basis comparing to the US with about 3000 deaths. The belief at the time was that if attacks were immanent then it would be against western countries with Australia just as much a target as the US. The only thing civil law affords is right to a trial and not being tortured is common to both. Having an open trial is important to find out if a person is actually guilty.

  112. philjourdan says:

    If you are accused of being a “spy” by ANY country, you will not be mirandized, you will not be kept in a country club. If you are lucky, you will be traded for one of THEIR spies. More than likely, you will be tortured for what information you divulged and then quietly “disappeared”.

    Those classified as “enemy combatants” are pretty much spies according to the host country. There is no such thing as a “Civilized War”. Those practicing it are called the losers.

    • kelly liddle says:

      Phil
      Torture does not work. If you are being tortured you will just think of the person you hate the most and say they are involved or give the answer you think the torturer wants.

      Classified as enemy combatants is purely a US thing so the only host country can be the US. I agree there is no such thing as a civilized war but declaring war in a universal manner is a problem.

  113. philjourdan says:

    Kelly, I was not opining on the effectiveness of any procedure. I was detailing what happens the world over when a spy is captured. We can discuss the effectiveness at a later date.

    And the classification of “enemy combatants” is a US thing. The Geneva Convention calls them simply spies. An enemy not wearing the uniform of the aggressor is not accorded any rights under the Geneva Convention. So whether you call them lollipops, spies or Enemy Combatants, they are still corpses waiting to expire.

  114. philjourdan says:

    @Kelly – Re: Constitution should apply – it does. Since the US still has the death penalty, that is why so many do not want it to apply. But you can no more come here and demand to follow Australian laws than we can go to Oz and demand to follow US laws.

    • kelly liddle says:

      Phil
      I haven’t suggested that Australian law should apply in the US but if I am to visit the US then I would like your civilian laws to apply to me and I would like your civilian law to apply to you. I don’t really see anything wrong with me having opinions on your laws such as the death penalty and that despite my dislike for it, it is nothing compared to the war on terror. Suspension of civil law whenever the President and probably Secretary of Defense decides is not a good place to be in, it is basically putting in place a very authoritarian legal framework using terrorism as an excuse noting that the deaths from terrrorism are very very small when compared to other violence in your country. It is nice that these provisions appear to not have been used in any serious way but having it on the books would and does to a point concern me but would concern me much more if I was a US citizen (they are more likely to use it on you than me even if I do visit). If you say enemy combatants are spies then what were they spying on as they were captured on the other side of the world in most cases.

      If you think this is all ok (I know you don’t but I think you might think some of it is ok) then any foreigner should consider the US a country at war and if they are to enter the US then enter at own risk.

      • philjourdan says:

        “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste” – That was stated by the Godfather, Rahm Emmanuel – the sock puppet of Obama. And the administration has played it to the hilt. It took a filibuster by a congressman to get the Attorney General of the US (not a legal scholar by anyone’s standards) to finally answer a simple yes or no question concerning the Administrations adherence to the Constitution on AMERICAN soil (not foreign soil). It took not only the filibuster, but a revolt in his own party to do so. And it was a very weak response.

        You penned a long response to a 2 sentence statement I made. And most of your response had nothing to do with my 2 sentences. I was merely answering a question of yours. Yet you found it sufficient apparently to infer things I have never stated, nor even implied.

        When you ask a question, discuss the answer. Do not infer your bias onto the answer. You can always ask further clarifying questions. But as soon as you start assuming information not presented, you will always be wrong.

        • kelly liddle says:

          ” But as soon as you start assuming information not presented, you will always be wrong.”

          Phil
          By random chance I have to be right some times and I think you are guilty of doing that to me sometimes anyway. A lot of it is both of us not understanding subtleties of what the other person is saying I think along with differences in our way of government etc.

        • philjourdan says:

          @kelly liddle says: March 19, 2013 at 12:02 pm

          It is a hard habit to break. But you do notice I ask a lot of questions – understanding that the cultural differences can be a hindrance at times. But I am not perfect. It was a warning, not a condemnation.

    • kim2ooo says:

      This will be covered tonight by FOX
      We spoke with a representative of Fox News this morning and have been told that our video from last week that showed sidewalk counselor Rae Stabosz, a 63-year old grandmother of 12, being viciously attacked as she attempted to document a botched abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Wilmington, Delaware, is set to air on television tonight on the Sean Hannity Show on Fox News. We were told it would air during the last 10 minutes of his program. (I’m sure that is barring any breaking news.)

  115. DirkH says:

    Marcott & Shakun’s Uptick actually DOES contain instrumental records VIA an EIV-CRU reconstruction that grafted the thermometer record on proxy records post 1850.
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/03/19/a-really-bad-case-of-stickophrenia/#comment-1251972

  116. rg says:

    Early Climate Models – Not much difference
    BC for 3/17/2013
    http://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/bc/s-1292169
    Not sure if this copied well

  117. DirkH says:

    Peter Schiff at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum

    Talks about absurd regulations, freedom, history, leaving the country… Long but worth it.

  118. DirkH says:

    Found the weirdest lunatic ur-socialist ever.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fourier
    “François Marie Charles Fourier (born 7 April 1772 in Besançon, France; died 10 October 1837 in Paris, France) was a French philosopher.”
    “He believed that there were twelve common passions which resulted in 810 types of character, so the ideal phalanx would have exactly 1620 people. One day there would be six million of these, loosely ruled by a world “omniarch”, or (later) a World Congress of Phalanxes. He had a touching concern for the sexually rejected; jilted suitors would be led away by a corps of fairies who would soon cure them of their lovesickness, and visitors could consult the card-index of personality types for suitable partners for casual sex. He also defended homosexuality as a personal preference for some people. Anarchist Hakim Bey describes Fourier’s ideas as follows: “In Fourier’s system of Harmony all creative activity including industry, craft, agriculture, etc. will arise from liberated passion — this is the famous theory of “attractive labor.” Fourier sexualizes work itself — the life of the Phalanstery is a continual orgy of intense feeling, intellection, & activity, a society of lovers & wild enthusiasts.” [11]”

    His “philosophy” was an inspiration for one of the failed American ur-socialist communes.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_Farm

  119. Alfred Alexander says:

    Thank you for allowing me to put my Grace Ole Opry
    video up.I needed to learn how to do that. If you are ever near Wash,DC
    give me a shout,I know you have my email add.,I will get a bunch of
    musicianers in and we will jam. We will find a geetar for and have fun.
    No strings attached. sorry for the pun Hee hee
    Alfred

    • suyts says:

      No problem Alfred…. sounds like excellent fun! And, if you’re ever SE Kansas way, shout out. This summer, my extended family plan on making a few excursions to a nearby lake. We all end up sitting around a campfire and playing….. fishing if you want it, beer either way. :)

      • Alfred Alexander says:

        Thank you Sir. Ah fishing,have not done that in many years.
        My Brother-in Law and I used to fish Pymatunning lake N/W
        Pa.At times we would spend 30-40 hours on the boat. The only
        limit was Walleyes,10 every else all you wanted.After he passed
        it wasn’t much fun.
        Thank for your kindness. I won’t be a bother.

        Alfred

  120. DirkH says:

    First car that can burn underwater – the Fisker – not being made anymore.
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-05/529-million-federal-funding-and-all-jobs-destroyed-or-lost
    529 million $.

    Army bought 900million $ worth of Stryker spare parts they never needed,
    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/31/187297/dod-inspector-general-finds-900.html
    “The off-the-books equipment piled up in a sort of Army accounting netherworld.”

  121. Alfred Alexander says:

    But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 2Cor.4:7

    Earthen vessels,clay pots,not something one would use to store a treasure in.But our Great God in His Wisdom did.Maybe He wanted the Treasure to be the object and not to be subjective.This
    treasure that He has is not held.Not a thing to be hidden but a treasure to be shared,to be spread abroad.
    In Ancient time when potters made clay pots,they fired them in a kiln.If they didn’t do just
    right they would crack and would be unable to hold water.In order to sell them the potters would use wax to seal these cracks.The Latin word for wax is cere.Sans in Latin means,without.If you
    put these two words together you get the word ‘sincere’meaning without wax.So we are to be with
    out wax,not a vessel that has been mended so it will hold this Treasure in,but will let it out for all
    to share.This Treasure we have is the Light of Life.Our Great God chose ‘cracked pots’ so the
    Light would shine out for all to see.He could have vases or urns with beautiful art work painted on
    them.but He me,an ugly wore out piece of clay ,so the Light could through all my cracks for all
    to see. “that the excellency of the power may be of God” And thank Him for choosing

  122. Alfred Alexander says:

    I know I said I would be a bother…
    here i am using your space to learn.
    please for give.
    Alfred

  123. DirkH says:

    Disclaimer: I am not kidding. Everything described in the following sentences is the utter truth and did really happen.

    Portugal: Constitutional court strikes down proposed cut of 14th monthly wage to public servants, calling it unfair as it only strikes the public workers.

    Government now ponders to pay the 14th monthly wage in public debt instead of money.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-07/portugal-considers-paying-public-workers-treasury-bills-instead-cash

  124. Alfred Alexander says:

    James 5

    1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted , and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. 4 Behold , the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud , crieth : and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

    Alfred

  125. DERise says:

    http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/04/06/noaa-assembles-team-to-investigate-ailing-sea-lion-pups/. OMG RADIATION! This article screams Fukishima for many paragraphs, at the end it sez radiation it unlikely to be the cause. Sigh, idiots! I think some astronauts dog is a more likely cause, nudge nudge.

  126. PhilJourdan says:

    It was bound to happen. Government spends more per family than the family earns: http://www.sumnerbooks.com/books/view/completely-predictable

    Yea, that is sustainable. The US has joined the PIIGS

  127. DERise says:

    http://news.yahoo.com/transgender-woman-banned-idaho-store-over-restroom-034559179.html
    Why can’t they use the rooms with the plumbing designed for their plumbing until they get their plumbing redesigned. Ah crap, make me pay for elective surgery to change a male into a female or vice versa, what better use is there for tax dollars? Especially if it is a convicted murderer. http://www.thespec.com/news/world/article/792848–judge-orders-sex-change-surgery-for-transgender-murderer

  128. HankH says:

    Check your mail – interesting graph in it.

  129. HankH says:

    “We’re just going to repeal the 2nd Amendment. You know, go door to door and confiscate guns from law abiding citizens. Then the only people who will have guns will be the criminals. You don’t need guns to protect yourself or family. Just call the police. That’s what they are for. Oh, sign your name here for the petition.”

    There’s a bunch of really stooopid people out there who agree!

  130. Alfred Alexander says:

  131. DirkH says:

    It is Earth Day, an Unesco-invented atheist holiday. As Google so kindly announces.
    The first president of Unesco was Julian Huxley, grandson of “Darwin’s Bulldog” Huxley,
    and president of the Eugenics society (Eugenics was invented by Darwin’s cousin Galton),
    the society which also had John Maynard Keynes as its president, inventor of Keynesianism;
    whose brother was married to a woman from the Darwin family.

  132. Alfred Alexander says:

    You guys are away ahead of me so you may have seen this.
    http://www.youtube.com/embed/Li0no7O9zmE

  133. DirkH says:

    Wheelchair guy: Why did they not put him on a stretcher?
    Look at the distance from his hip to his left knee. It’s too long.
    http://educate-yourself.org/cn/bostonfakery17edit900w.jpg
    Photo found here
    http://educate-yourself.org/cn/bostonbombingdidyouthink20apr13.shtml

  134. tckev says:

    To focus only on where we are going, with no knowledge or understanding of where we have been, is to condemn ourself to the futile deceit of hubris and repeated mistakes.

    We improve ourselves and our fellow travelers on this journey not because we should, or we were told to, and not for pity or empathy but because it is right.

  135. rg says:

    Dont think i can take much more of this drought..

  136. scott says:

    I am at a loss for words. Apparently being a drunk is a disability covered by the Americans with Disability Act. Such that you can sue your employer who fires you for being drunk in their company vehicle. http://www.oregonherald.com/oregon/local.cfm?id=3489. The employer happens to be the Gresham, WA police.

    • suyts says:

      Time to enact “operation boozer” for my retirement plan!!!

      • Alfred Alexander says:

        As I said I work for a Gov. Agcy. I needed a job bad so I
        hired on as a sedan driver.Every Wed. I had to drive the
        drunks to the Pentagon for their for their class on how to
        stop drinking on the job.Most of them where drunk when
        they got into the car.
        Alfred

  137. Alfred Alexander says:

    What ever happened to “yeh I need a music category”?
    Alfred

  138. Scott says:

    Hi James,

    Saw this as a comment on one of the links you gave for the RG3 politically correct quote:

    Political correctness… To shut down discussion and dissent, and to stifle debate, without having to actually discuss the points made, or the merits thereof.

    To attempt to point out the odious nature of political correctness is to restate the crucial importance of plain speaking, freedom of choice and freedom of speech: These are the community’s safeguards against the imposition of tyranny. Indeed, their absence is tyranny. The declared rationale of this tyranny is to prevent people being offended, by compelling everyone to avoid using words or behavior that may upset: Homosexuals, women, non-whites, the crippled, the stupid, the fat or the ugly – by way of a few examples.

    This reveals not only its absurdity but also its inspiration: The set of values that are detested are those held by the previous generation; thus, in an act of infantile rebellion, their subject(s) have become revered by the new generation. Political correctness is merely the resentment of spoiled children directed against their parent’s values, and hence the reason political correctness is so often used by the political Left in America – they are the nation’s children.

    A democracy depends on the widest possible dissemination of facts, and the freest possible discussion of them. Crying ‘racism’ when none is either leveled or implied merely takes the focus from the issue at hand, and re-directs it at the speaker.

    Political correctness is narrowing the range of acceptable opinions, down to those held by a small group that enforces it. It is an attempt, often successful, to coerce the majority to accept the opinions of the enforcing group by suppressing any contrary opinion – and making independent thought unacceptable. The enforcing group may be afraid of the the consequences of open discussion, or of making the facts known. It generally has a practical motivation: It wants something of value (money, jobs, special privileges) to which it has a weak claim. So it attempts to enforce its claim by ruling any disagreement outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. This is unnecessary when the claim is self-evidently strong, but may be the only means of getting the claim accepted when it is weak.

    Don’t know if the original poster copied/pasted that or if it was all original text, but I thought it was a pretty good quote. Honestly reminds me of one Dr. Credentials we have around here who refuses to do any real debating.

    -Scott

    • suyts says:

      That’s an excellent articulation about PC! I’ve never gotten over the stunning assertion that people have the right not to be offended. It’s the stupidest assertion in a free society.

  139. Alfred Alexander says:

    You may have seen this.Don’t know long its been around.

  140. philjourdan says:

    Katherine Hayhoe: As scientists, we’re trained to just stick to the facts. With climate change, we can’t do that anymore.

    h/t to Steve Milloy & Junk Science. http://junkscience.com/2013/05/07/warmist-katharine-hayhoe-we-cant-just-stick-to-the-facts-anymore/

  141. PhilJourdan says:

    Ohio moves to classify unborn children as humans, and apply murder charges when they are aborted, at least violently.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/09/cleveland-judge-sets-ariel-castro-bail-at-2-million-per-charge-at-arraignment/

    If the DA goes through with the charges, PP will be in a totally untenable position. They will have to fight the charge, which means defending the animal Castro. If they do not fight the charge, they will be admitting that abortion does kill humans, not bio masses.

  142. PhilJourdan says:

    Arrgghh! There be pirates a plenty! You probably heard that the feds tried to suppress the 3d gun prints. Too late! They do not call it the Internet for nothing!

    http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2013/05/10/

  143. Bruce says:

    From a picture is a thousand words category.

    Guess Who’s Leading the UN Disarmament Conference?

  144. philjourdan says:

    To believe? no. But they do proclaim. Hence the laughs.

    • HankH says:

      This needs to be added to the list of everything that global warming does. The next study in Nature will propose to hold the North pole in place with some big anchors so it will stop drifting around.

  145. PhilJourdan says:

    Some probably already suspected based on the behavior of your pet trolls: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2325414/Men-physically-strong-likely-right-wing-political-views.html

  146. Scott says:

    I saw this on Steve’s site, and you probably have to, but wanted to let you know just in case:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325786/Douglas-Karpen-Second-house-horrors-abortion-clinic-investigated-Texas.html

    But I thought the Gosnell clinic was a rogue one-off that was totally unlike anything else?

    With both Gosnell and (if it proves true) this site hitting public knowledge, you can be sure that the rabid abortionists & PP will be circling the wagons to make sure the goings on/innards of the average abortion clinic don’t hit public knowledge.

    -Scott

  147. DirkH says:

    Al Gore sings.

    h/t Climate Reality Project

  148. HankH says:

    Obama releases a state by state target list of “climate deniers” on barackobama.com.

    http://www.barackobama.com/climate-deniers/

    This is the most reprehensible behavior of any President. With all the scandals with Zero “targeting” groups, this just reinforces that he’s on a vendetta.

    h/t Junk Science

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s