Scientific methodology should be sacrosanct — it requires competing hypotheses to be tested over and over again to make sure we have the right conclusion. Sometimes, new data require the old to be thrown out in favour of the new.
[snip]
Here’s an example from the world of climatology. Several years ago, the work of Michael Mann inspired a profound belief that temperature trend lines were shaped like a hockey stick — flat for a long time, then a sharp increase in recent years due to carbon emissions. It took the careful work of two Canadians, Ross McKitrick and Steven McIntyre, to show that Mann’s data and statistical methodology were flawed, disproving one of the bedrock arguments in carbon-induced global warming theory. The “hockey stick” is no longer touted.
[snip]
If anyone should be thrown into jail, it’s someone who believes people should be locked up if they challenge a scientific hypothesis. Instead, it should be left to the scientists to sort out what ideas hold up through empirical verification. This is the essence of good science, and we should make sure we don’t undermine its important process.
[one correction: Mann's infamous hockey stick, which had the minor 'flaw' of returning an upturn-curve even if random data was input - is still used pervasively to this day, and is in fact the underlying 'data' for several of Gore's slides in An Inconvenient Truth - coming to a public school near you...]
READ MORE
Friday, March 7, 2008
Climate change: Science, not insult
OUR ENERGY DEFICIT
The renewed jump in the price of oil underscores the corner we've painted ourselves into. By refusing to drill in either the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) or offshore, the United States can expect less energy, higher prices, growing vulnerability and a shrunken economy.
• As recently as 1973, imports made up 36 percent of our total oil use; today, imports are two-thirds of our 21-million-barrel-a-day oil habit, and climbing fast.
• We're sending nearly $400 billion overseas each year to buy oil.
This has made us uniquely vulnerable, to say the least, to the inherent political instability of the Mideast, Russia, Africa and Latin America -- and to the OPEC oil cartel's anti-Western schemes. But what can we do? Plenty. Start with getting more energy:
• We have at least 40 billion barrels of crude and 250 trillion cubic feet of gas offshore, in ANWR and on federal lands -- enough to replace nearly a quarter of our imports for several decades.
• Another 1.2 trillion barrels of oil lie in shale deposits across the Midwest.However:
• Just 19 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf can be developed.
• The National Petroleum Council estimates that we'll need $4 trillion in investments over the next 25 years just to keep pace with a forecast 30 percent jump in energy demand. "Onshore and offshore public lands could hold enough oil to produce gasoline for 60 million cars and fuel oil for 25 million homes for 60 years -- and enough natural gas to heat 60 million homes for 160 years."
And apart from demonizing oil companies, Congress does nothing. This is madness.
[and they won't unless we insist they do. et tu?]
READ MORE
Notable Quotable
Kris W. Kobach, Former Immigration Law Counsel to the U.S. Attorney General, Regarding a Real-Time, Working Solution to Illegal Immigration:
"On Jan. 1, Arizona became the first state to require all employers to confirm workers' legal status via the federal 'E-Verify' system.
"After just six weeks, Arizona's system is already working: Newspapers in the state report that illegals are self-deporting by the thousands. Apartment complexes in Phoenix and Tucson confirm that thousands of tenants have skipped town. Many are returning across the border to Mexico.
"This success is proof that attrition through enforcement works. The premise is straightforward: The way to solve our illegal-immigration problem is to ratchet up enforcement while making it more difficult for employers to hire illegals
[six weeks. it isn't rocket science]
Source
Foreclosure 'Crisis' Hype: 'American Dream Slipping Away'
Those may indeed be unusually high levels, but the American dream is hardly “slipping away” when 99.17 percent are not in foreclosure and 94.18 percent are paying on time or nearly on time.
READ MORE
Do you have a legal right to own a gun?
Guns, and questions about how much power the government has to keep people from owning them, are at the core of one of the most divisive topics in American politics. Nowhere is that divide more pronounced than in the gap between Americans' beliefs about their rights under the Second Amendment, and how courts have interpreted the law. Nearly three out of four Americans — 73% — believe the Second Amendment spells out an individual right to own a firearm...
[stop: one of the few issues where the American populace has a long standing super-majority of opinion - 3 out of 4 - and the piece starts by calling it 'one of the most divisive' topics in America'? It's only divisive to the small minority in the liberal media that routinely report it with this kind of slant. Typical 'professional' journalism.']
READ MORE
California court: Home school parents must have teaching credential
California
California parents without teaching credentials can no longer home school their children, according to a recent state appellate court ruling.
"Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote in a Feb. 28 opinion for the 2nd District Court of Appeals.
Noncompliance could lead to criminal complaints against the parents, the judge said. An estimated 166,000 students in California are home schooled.
To earn a five-year preliminary teaching credential in California, a person must obtain a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university and complete multiple examinations.
[snip]
"I have sincerely held religious beliefs," he said. "Public schools conflict with that. I have to go with what my conscience requires me."
[yeah the net's afire with calls for the judges head, but that's not the problem. He mentions the lack of constitutional right because that's what's needed not to enforce the laws on the books, which our education 'system' has jury-rigged to require state {by which I mean government at any level} approval before you can teach your own children. That invariably leads to the state deciding what your children will, or won't, be taught (and hence, think). Consider that last point re: religious beliefs - and its implications for any of us that hold any views not embraced by our government. In this country citizen used to tell government what it was and wasn't allowed to do - it's rapidly becoming the other away around, even in matters as intensely personal of what we'll teach our children. The good news is it has the same solution...]
Governor: governor@governor.ca.gov and http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
CA State Legislature = http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
Thursday, March 6, 2008
.
.
"I am not accusing the New York Times of screwing up again by publishing an insufficiently sourced article, then defending itself with a preposterous assertion that it wasn't trying to imply what it obviously was trying to imply. I am merely reporting that some people worry that other people might be concerned that the New York Times has created the appearance of screwing up once again."
.
.
Progress in Iraq Approaches Point of Irreversibility
[there...]
The former commander of Multinational Corps Iraq reflected today on vast improvements made during the past 15 months and said Iraq is approaching the point where no single incident or chain of events will be able to reverse those positive trends.
“We were focused for 15 months in Iraq on improving the security situation, which allowed a window of opportunity for economic development, improved governance and enhancement of the Iraqi security forces,” he said. “The improved security conditions, in part from the surge of 2007, have given the Iraqis an opportunity to choose a better way"
Odierno emphasized that gains made in Iraq have come with big sacrifices in injuries and lives lost.
“Their sacrifices were (not) and will not be in vain,” he said. “And because of them, Iraqis have the right to choose their own destiny. Let us forever remember our noble and gallant warriors who gave everything so others can enjoy life and liberties of a truly free people.”
READ MORE
War-Funding Delays Harmful Within Months, Deputy Secretary Says
[here...]
War-funding delays will become harmful within months if continued, the Pentagon’s second-ranking official said here today ... lawmakers have approved less than half the fiscal 2008 request of $189 billion to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“At some point, that delayed appropriation will be harmful,” ... “We do manage to keep stretching (the appropriated $86.8 billion), but at some point here in a matter of months, we will start to run out of money again.”
The deputy secretary called the appropriations “vital” for funding daily operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world.
The request, which marks a $35.9 billion increase over fiscal 2008 funding, accounts for about 4 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product, ... By comparison, defense spending accounted for 11.7 percent of the GDP during the Korean War, and 9 percent during the Vietnam War.
“Fortunately, our economy has grown to support the kind of military we need in this complex (security) environment we have today,” he said. “I view the 4 percent as … the insurance policy to protect our freedom and liberty and frankly it sounds like a pretty reasonable amount of money.”
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Pay Now, Nothing Later
After studying and living with the Middle East for a few decades one sees certain patterns endlessly repeated, though always with a new set of details. Understandably, naïve newcomers fall for the carnival con-man's traps. They should learn after one disaster. Veterans have no excuse.
The pattern is this: They say we have been your victims so you must make up for it. Violence arises from our grievances. You must solve the root causes of problems. In short, you owe us big time. Pay up to show you've changed your ways.
A common Western response: In our usual style of self-criticism and trying to do better, we acknowledge fault and do nice things to build credibility with you. Then you will like us better, trust us more, and make a deal.
Proper analysis: Such behavior not only convinces the Middle East side that the West is weak, scared, and surrendering but is also taken as acknowledging the West's guilt and the rightness of their own cause. Grievance and outrage, in this context, are bottomless pits. Playing this game establishes a terrible relationship along the lines of--probably the worst thing Shimon Peres ever said--our task is to give, their job is to take. This pattern never gets broken.
Correct response: If you have grievances, have suffered, and root causes must be resolved then it is in your interest to make and implement an equitable, workable deal. You are not doing us a favor by making peace, stopping terrorism, or being moderate. It is in your interest and you must show credibility, too. If it is true that you are so terribly suffering, then you are the ones with an incentive to compromise. Things are the exact opposite of what you say.
[but the name of the game is victimhood - forever. Recommended > ]
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French deputies approve amendment permitting adoption of EU treaty
French MPs have voted in favour of amending their country's constitution to allow adoption of the EU Lisbon Treaty. Prime Minister Francois Fillon called the decision: "a vote that distinguishes the actors of history from the spectators."
The Versailles assembly, bringing together both the French Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, voted 560 to 181. Of the 893 voters present, 741 votes were cast
The opposition Socialists abstained in protest at the decision to "take the parliamentary road" to pass the treaty rather than hold a referendum.
[i.e., the French people voted against it - so the government took away their ability to have a say in it and passed it 'for' them...]
READ MORE
THE SICKENING FOR OUR NATIONAL SOUL
Sen. Clinton's plan is to use a federal mandate to force every American to buy health insurance. The government will regulate health care, define acceptable health insurance and force every American to buy a plan based on the government established standard. When asked how purchase can be enforced, she told ABC's George Stephanopolous, "we will have an enforcement mechanism . . . you know, going after people's wages."
Indeed, we have a problem in the delivery of health care in our country, says columnist Star Parker. But if we want cheaper and more creatively delivered health care we need less, not more, government. According to Dr. David Gratzer of the Manhattan Institute:
• About half of health care expenditures in 1960 were directly controlled by consumers; today, it's about 15 percent.
• Over the same period in which consumers have relinquished control, per capita health care spending has quintupled.
Beyond the pure economic calculus lies the moral question of individual responsibility and freedom. Our health care ills are symptomatic of our social ills. And our social ills reflect a society where the link between personal responsibilities and costs and personal rights and benefits has been largely severed. More individual freedom, choice, and responsibility in both the delivery and purchase of health care is our only hope, says Parker.
[the problem is that the paying customer, employers, and consumers, us, aren't the same. Subsequently we don't care when a hospital charges 17$ for a Tylenol - it's not our money - hence no price pressure whatsoever. Consumerism and competition work everywhere else to raise service while lowering costs - it would here too - if allowed to.]
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Welcome to the new Ice Age
Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.
The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."
China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.
There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses.
READ MORE
Here Come the Green Car-Jackers
No amount of energy efficiency will ever do the trick -- the only way to save the planet is to surrender your car altogether. That's the conclusion reached by a group of Australian energy experts from last week's partial release of Professor Ross Garnaut's long-awaited climate change report.
You may recall that this was the very analysis Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told last year's Bali conference he must await before embracing specific targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Well, the wait is over, the cherry-picked facts are in and the hysteria is in full bloom. As reported by The Age:
"THERE is no doubt that global warming is the world's greatest crisis, the real weapon of mass destruction against which a workable defence strategy must be found, and found soon..."And even though all of these cooling indicators coincide quite neatly with recently diminished solar activity, the Big Green Scare Machine continues its mission to control world economies by fomenting blind hysteria about manmade atmospheric CO2 concentrations...
[they've too much money at stake to ever concede they've been caught - their deceptions will only grow. Our active refutation against their legislative designs must increase in like measure or they will prevail]
READ MORE
Border Insecurity
[yet again]
About 75 percent of the public wants our border secured. I guess that does not include the president -- nor the Democratic Party candidates to replace him. [nor the 'Republican' candidate - that leaves us.]
1) Border control advocates want an actual physical fence. 2) Respectable Bush comprehensivist types like Chertoff want to substitute a sophisticated hi-tech 'virtual fence.' 3) Border control types say the 'virtual fence' won't work. 4) Respectable Bush comprehensivists like Chertoff in fact cut back on actual fencing, choosing the 'virtual fence.' 5) Where it's installed, the actual fence works. 6) Where it's installed, the 'virtual fence' doesn't work."In other words, we've all just been taken for a ride. In order to do whatever possible to avoid building an actual physical fence Bush (et al.) made sure a monumental amount of money was wasted on a fake, untested, unreal fence to placate conservatives."
The Bush administration and the leaders of the Democratic Party both want (for different reasons) no obstruction to the full flood of illegal workers (for the Republicans) and voters (for the Democrats) into the United States, thus their adamantine opposition to a physical obstruction to such passage.
[this will not get done unless we literally force our 'representatives' to do so on pain of termination {metaphorically of course} - ready?]
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ABOUT THAT MIDDLE-CLASS SQUEEZE
Democrats seem unable to stop themselves from promoting higher taxes for the wealthy and lower taxes for the poor. But if the public knew the facts, their rhetoric would have no resonance. The poor in America pay virtually no taxes at the federal level. What taxes they do pay have been falling for decades:
• The total effective federal tax rate -- for income, payroll and excise taxes -- for the bottom 20 percent of U.S. households was halved from 1979 to 2005.
• From 2000, the year before President Bush took office, to 2005, after his tax cuts had fully kicked in, their total effective federal tax rate fell by nearly a third.
• If you look at households with children, the difference is even more stark -- for the top incomes, taxes have risen, while those at the bottom saw a whopping 85.7 percent cut.
Don't think that the poor's tax burden has been passed to the average American family:
• The total effective federal tax rate for the middle quintile has fallen faster than the top two quintiles.
• The effective tax rate for middle-class Americans has fallen since the late 1970s.
• While that was happening, the median after-tax household income jumped by more than a quarter.
With taxes down and incomes up, all quintiles are doing better.
[yeah stats can be filtered to show nearly anything, but beware those comparing current economic circumstance to the whacky 90's (as is routinely done), which were hardly 'average'. What ever happened to the moral aspect of stealing from one person to give to another - is that what we want our democracy to stand for?]
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=289527073199247
Wheelchair ramp will cost $100,000 a foot
California
Where else but San Francisco City Hall could a 10-foot-long wheelchair ramp wind up costing $1 million? Thanks to a maze of bureaucratic indecision and historic restrictions, taxpayers may shell out $100,000 per foot to make the Board of Supervisors president's perch in the historic chambers accessible to the disabled. What's more, the little remodel job that planners first thought would take three months has stretched into more than four years - and will probably mean the supervisors will have to move out of their hallowed hall for five months...
{yeah; where do I sign up to put my health care in these folk's hands? {A: the polls}]
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Nets Turn on McCain: Just 30% Positive; Obama: 67% Good Press
Meanwhile, Barack Obama enjoys overwhelmingly positive coverage of 84 percent positive coverage. Hillary Clinton got 53 percent positive. (Factoring in neutral coverage, Clinton earned more good than bad press.)
[I.e., help McCain to become the Republican nominee, once done, back to supporting the Democrats (just like the NYT, which endorsed him prior to running a fabricated hit piece on him. Are we really not supposed to notice this? {rhetorical} ]
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State Democrats determined to raise taxes
California
SACRAMENTO -- Democratic legislative leaders declared this morning that they are prepared to delay the state budget this year if that's what it takes to get tax increases, which they called the only reasonable solution to California's multibillion-dollar shortfall. "This is going to be the fight of a lifetime," Senate leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) declared at a news conference.
[snip]
Asked how Democrats propose to make up the difference, Perata said: "Raise taxes. That clear enough? Raise taxes."
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly said they will not vote for any budget that includes new taxes.
READ MORE
[what do you think? tell 'em. {I certainly told mine, name of Perata}]
Governor: governor@governor.ca.gov
Your state legislators: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
MSNBC Ad: Hyper Partisan Olbermann Calls to 'Ignore Partisanship'
In an MSNBC "Decision 2008" ad, Olbermann spoke of the need to "ignore partisanship" under inspirational music and prominent American flag displays.
"We as citizens must at some point ignore partisanship, not that we may prosper as a nation, but that merely we may function as a nation."Olbermann has called President Bush a "fascist" "engaging in terrorism," a "liar" and "idiot in chief." He even asked if there is an element in the Republican party that wants to re-segregate America.
[hilarious]
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Bonus: What Is An American?
[HT:MC]
We have a shared history and ideals and a shared future. But beyond that you have so many options that it boggles the mind: Gay ministers are good Americans and conservative gun proponents are good Americans too. We are a nation full of liberty and spectrum. But two general answers come to mind.
First of all, to be an American is to want what is best for America. This sounds like the utterance of a politician, but we have forgotten it. If you violate our laws and only complain about America you may not be a good American. If we need to change our institutions for your cultural group you are probably not a good candidate to be an American.
For example, Muslims are currently challenging our basic holidays – holiday – build footbaths in quasi public institutions; change our photo identification laws and who gets served in markets and taxis. This is a bad sign. People are not fitting in. They are not contributing to what's American they are contesting it. And in the name of multiculturalism we are caving. We have to remember we have a culture and it requires some accommodation. If you are too inflexible to meld to our ways, you are probably a bad candidate for being an American.
Immigration that does not recognize the rule of law is another area of concern. Again, if we need to change our institutions to fit you, it is a bad sign. Many immigrants believe that we need to dismantle our border laws to suit them. When people do not pay taxes once they are here or overuse public services and send money “home” it is not clear that they have America’s best interest at heart. A good American has upholding American law and fiscal stability as a goal.
This gets us to our last category. If you are a businessperson who puts profit above nation, you are a bad American. Divesting from America and running sweatshops domestically undermines our tax base. It enervates the middle class – which is a foundation of liberal democracies. If this country devolves into class hostility and violence – ala Mexico – we will lose liberties. Where will the businessman then live and enjoy a good quality of life? Do you really want to be secluded from America?
Would it not feel better to be a part of an America that is strong free and something you can proud of? When your conscience is so checked out that you think porn on television and gangster rap on radio and no social questions arise, you have forgotten that we are all in this together. And remembering that we are all in this together is a big part of being a good American.
As an American, I speak with people about what I think will make America better. I attend rallies. But more than that, I try to improve myself and be a really good person in order to do credit to my grandfathers and our forefathers and our traditions. I work hard at what I do and take my work and role in America seriously.
READ MORE
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Heroes: Sergeant’s Art Funds Surgeries for Children
On any given day, the squadron’s noncommissioned officer in charge of operations management can be found sorting through leftover wood scraps and paints in his shop to create paintings and donate the proceeds to help pay for heart surgeries for children whose parents are unable to pay for the surgeries themselves.
“Possibilities are endless; everybody has a talent and can use it to help others who are less fortunate,” Sommers said. “This is what I am trying to do.”Two local doctors perform these surgeries free of charge. But an oxygenator is needed for each operation, and each costs $560.
During his five-month tour, Sommers’ donated proceeds have paid for three oxygenators.
“There are many people in this world who by some circumstance are less fortunate than we are,” he said. “I viewed this tour as a possibility to help a few of these people.”READ MORE
Operation Gratitude in Iraq
One of the most effective groups at work on behalf of our troops is Operation Gratitude, an assemblage of Americans who put aside every difference among them in the common cause of loving our soldiers. Since its founding in 2003, this one group of all-volunteer supporters has sent 300,000 care packages to our troops serving in harm's way.
And all of it started because one American mom decided that she could not sit idly by in her safe, comfortable home doing nothing while our young men and women willingly left safety and comfort behind to fight for the rest of us...
[good reading, Recommended > ]
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A Brash Proposal [for Israel]
... But every move of self-defense is condemned by the “international community” -- consisting primarily of Israel’s enemies and even a few countries who ought to know better. Does Israel attempt to take out the rocket lunching areas and those who man them with a few air strikes or a ground raid? That’s “disproportionate.” Does Israel administer a dose on non-violent reprisal such as lowering the amounts of electricity or fuel it sends to the Gazans? That’s “collective punishment” and “inhumanitarian” treatment.
[snip]
(1) Make all retaliation indisputably “proportionate.” That is, design some rocketry similarly incontrollable to the Qassams and fire them willy-nilly at populated Gaza areas. Same for mortar shells and Katyusha-equivalent missiles. One for one exactly. What could be more proportionate than that?
[could you imagine the uproar if Israel sent uncontrolled (indiscriminate) rockets into Gaza? Yet that's what Gazans have been doing to Israel for years on end. Yet when Israel targets the bad guys hiding among the populace they're the ones demonized?]
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This is Restraint, Secretary-General
[predictable update I guess...]
It's official. It's on the record. The words have been spoken out loud. Israel, according to Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, is using "excessive and disproportionate" force in Gaza.
Now the Security Council knows it. Now the world knows it.
After years of being pounded by missiles and rockets from Gaza, after weeks of escalating Hamas instigated and led attacks, Israel chose to respond. And in turn, the world has responded --- by condemning Israel.
What did Israel do? Did Israel raze a village, bomb an orphanage, massacre an entire village? No. Israel officiated a counterattack, striking at those terrorists hiding within a civilian populace who are targeting Israeli cities and citizens with Qassam rockets and with missiles
What would be an acceptable, proportionate response? Let me offer some suggestions. Perhaps, Israel should:* day after day, for the next few years, indiscriminately lob rocks into residential areas
Would that change the thinking of those who are now condemning Israel? Would those be less excessive and proportionate responses?
* sponsor civilians to build and shoot crude and inaccurate rockets into Gaza
* preach hatred, teach about destruction and dream of annihilating the entire Palestinian population
* reprint textbooks eliminating the Palestinian Authority from maps
[UNsalvageable]
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Russia, China block UN resolution on Iran
Vienna, Austria - Russia and China on Tuesday scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran's nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said. (Snip) Asked why Russia and China were opposed, one of diplomats said Moscow decided to withdraw its support ''on principle''
[that would be the 'oppose America' principle. I don't care what Bush thinks he saw in Putin's eyes, we need remember that these folks are not our friends]
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Kremlin Signals Tough Line After Vote
President Vladimir Putin fast-tracked the transfer of power to his newly elected protege Monday and signaled the Kremlin won't back down from its pull-no-punches anti-U.S. foreign policy or ease up on its critics at home. President-elect Dmitry Medvedev credited his overwhelming election victory Sunday to Putin's policies that have ''so effectively been pursued in recent years.'' Medvedev has stressed he will pursue Putin's foreign and domestic agenda...
[how surprising. 'Putin's policies' have consisted of stealing the energy companies from the private sector and reaping the profits of sky-high energy costs, thanks in large part to our refusal to develop our own reserves as he {and every other nation} develops theirs]
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Oil jumps to new record on dollar's fall
The surging price of oil reached another milestone Monday, jumping to an inflation adjusted record high of $103.95. The weaker dollar that has propelled oil and other commodities prices higher sent light, sweet crude for April delivery past $103.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the level many analysts consider to be the true record high for oil, after its $38 barrel price from 1980 is translated into 2008 dollars.
[this is a bit of a distortion: while the depreciating dollar contributes to higher dollar-based costs, analysts say based on supply & demand oil should be around 76$ a barrel, and the primary reason it's so much higher is speculation based on America's consistent signaling that it doesn't intend to do anything about the supply side of the equation {consider: last year's 'energy' bill only mentioned oil in connection with raising the taxes on the companies that provide it. insanity} ]
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TAX CUT FOR HUGO?
If there's anything more dumbfounding than the House's imposition of $18 billion in taxes on oil companies, thereby guaranteeing higher prices at the pump, it's the exemption voted for Venezuela's state oil firm:
* H.R. 5321 scrapped the tax deduction routinely given to the major integrated oil companies -- Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips -- that helps them explore, extract, refine and market the energy that drives our economy.
* However, Congress ensured that its discrimination against the big oils would benefit Citgo,
which happens to be owned by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
* Under the bill, Citgo keeps its 6 percent deduction for U.S. domestic manufacturing -- the one the American oil companies lose -- because Citgo, technically, buys from Chavez.
Worse, the bill includes distorted incentives that will do exactly the opposite of what Congress intends:
* By taxing big oil companies, Congress gives them less cash to develop new sources of supply that would bring these prices down.
* America's large integrated oil companies are profitable, but they also are the biggest spenders on exploration and R&D technologies.
* Now U.S. oil companies have a long-term incentive to locate operations abroad, if only to match the advantage enjoyed by companies such as Citgo.
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PRICED OUT OF THE MARKET
The world's food situation is bleak, and shortsighted policies in the United States and other wealthy countries -- which are diverting crops to environmentally dubious biofuels -- bear much of the blame. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization:
* The price of wheat is more than 80 percent higher than a year ago and corn prices are up by a quarter.[several contributing factors,] Yet the most important reason for the price shock is the rich world's subsidized appetite for biofuels:
* Prices have gone so high that the World Food Program, which aims to feed 73 million people this year, said it might have to reduce rations or the number of people it will help.
* In the United States, 14 percent of the corn crop was used to produce ethanol in 2006 -- a share expected to reach 30 percent by 2010.According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, absent new technologies, the United States, Canada and the European Union would require between 30 percent and 70 percent of their current crop area if they were to replace 10 percent of their transport fuel consumption with biofuels.
* This is cutting into production of staples like soybeans, as farmers take advantage of generous subsidies and switch crops to corn for fuel.
READ MORE
[up to 70% of our crop land to replace 10% of the transportation fuel we need. remember that when next we're' told we need to use alternative energy sources: with the sole exception of nuclear (over time), none of them are a viable alternative - they simply haven't the capacity for our needs. Meanwhile, we float on oceans of oil...]
[Flashback: 061024 post:]
Geologist Refutes Media Myth: World Has Lots and Lots of Oil
A common theme in the media the past couple of years has been that the world is running out of oil, and that energy prices will do nothing but head higher for the rest of time. Well, a University of Washington economic geologist issued a statement on Thursday not only refuting such contentions, but also claiming that we will never fully deplete the earth’s supply of black gold:
"The most common question I get is, 'When are we going to run out of oil.' The correct response is, 'Never,'" said Eric Cheney.
[as previously mentioned, since the oil embargo of '73 the energy industry has found new reserves at a rate more than double the global (including China & India) increase in usage, meaning the supply horizon continues to expand and is already twice what it was in the 70's - the only thing effecting the supply side of the equation is America's (unique) refusal not to exploit its own resources - below link recommended]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/uow-dpb101906.php
bonus...
[HT:MN]
Dan Rather, Katie Couric, and an Israeli commando were captured by terrorists in Iraq.
The leader of the terrorists told them that he would grant them each one last request before they were beheaded.
Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan, so I'd like one last bowlful of hot spicy chili."
The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chili.
Rather ate it all and said, "Now I can die content."
Katie Couric said, "I'm a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what's about to happen. Maybe someday someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end."
The terror leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and Couric dictated some comments. She then said, "Now I can die happy."
The leader turned and said, "And now, Mr. Israeli tough guy, what is your final wish?"
"Kick me in the ass," said the soldier."
"What?" asked the leader? "Will you mock us in your last hour?"
"No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass," insisted the Israeli.
So the leader shoved him into the open and kicked him in the ass.
The soldier went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9 mm pistol from under his flak jacket, and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he jumped to his knapsack, pulled out his carbine and sprayed the terrorists with gunfire.
In a flash, all terrorists were either dead or fleeing for their lives.
As the soldier was untying Rather and Couric, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them in the beginning? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass first?"
"What?" replied the Israeli, "and have you two assholes report that I was the aggressor?!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Heroes: Desire to Serve Brought Airman Back to Force
“When I came back from this deployment, I had so many questions from family members, being I’m not from a military family, and so many people I just happened to run across along the way would ask me all these things,” she said. “So it was very important for me to be able to have people know more than what the press is putting out there, because there is more than one way of looking at things, and there are many other stories that are out there that people just aren’t hearing.”
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Troop Surge Belies Deeper Success of New Tactics in Iraq
.
Iraq’s Anbar Province has awakened, the U.S. military is on the offensive, and Al Qaeda and is on the run but it is a mistake to assume this dramatic turnaround is exclusively the result of additional troops,
“It is a wholesale change in tactics that we are seeing. “It’s about getting into the neighborhoods, living in the neighborhoods, conducting census data operations so that we know who lives in the neighborhoods, then controlling who moves in and out.”American soldiers have, over time, fostered a certain degree of good will by virtue of their consistent and respectful treatment of the local population, Johannes explained. This example is not lost on the Sunnis who have been on the receiving end of Al Qaeda’s brutality, he continued.
“Overtime what your are doing is not trying to win hearts and minds so much as it is show that you are a better and more consistent alternative than the enemy,”[are these the tactics the democrats are demanding we 'change'?]
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'Hope' is politics, not real Iran, Iraq policy
The political salvos over Iraq between Barack Obama and John McCain the other day made for good political theater. More important, the exchange offered a revealing contrast between the politics of realism and the politics of hope. (Snip) So what is Obama's Iraq strategy? It seems to be that he knows al-Qaida is in Iraq but he's going to pull out anyway. But if al-Qaida establishes a base in Iraq, he will go back in. Does that sound confused to you?
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Rapid Withdrawal From Iraq Would Negate Security Gains
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“I do worry about a rapid withdrawal … in a situation that wouldn’t call for that in terms of the conditions on the ground, which would then … basically turn around the gains we have … struggled to achieve and turn them around overnight,”
“Sharia Creep” Around the World
Closer to home, Harvard University announced new women-only access times at the student gym, to “accommodate religious customs that make it difficult for some students to work out in the presence of men.”
This decision came one month after men were banned from the athletic center during certain times, following successful petitions from the Harvard Islamic Society as well as the Women’s Center.
Harvard Islamic Society's Islamic Knowledge Committee officer Ola Aljawhary said she does not consider the women-only gym hours discriminatory against male students or a “case of minority rights trumping majority preference.”
As one blogger observed, “I also like how minorities have ‘rights’ while the majority has a ‘preference.’ And here I was thinking we all had exactly the same rights. How silly of me."
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IAEA chief brushes off concern over Arab nuclear development
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency said Sunday that he was not concerned about Arab countries using nuclear energy for power
development, despite international controversy over Iran's atomic program.
Many countries in the Mideast have expressed interest in developing peaceful atomic energy programs in response to rising domestic energy consumption and possibly to counter Iran's nuclear activities.
"All the Arab countries' nuclear activities will be under agency safeguard systems, so I don't see a reason why anybody should be concerned about ... Arab countries using nuclear energy for power development,"Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters after meeting with Arab League chief Amr Moussa in Cairo.
["and possibly to counter Iran's nuclear activities. " - nobody's talking about peaceful uses - we're being insulted by the suggestion]
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China speeds pace of military buildup
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'The pace and scope of China's military transformation have increased in recent years, fueled by acquisition of advanced foreign weapons, continued high rates of investment in its domestic defense and science and technology industries, and far-reaching organizational and doctrinal reforms of the armed forces,'' [snip]
• Chinese computer hackers have launched sophisticated strikes on computer networks around the world in the past year, including U.S. government networks, that might be the work of the Chinese government.
• China's strategy of defense includes conducting pre-emptive attacks "if the use of force protects or advances core interests, including territorial claims, for example, Taiwan and unresolved border or maritime claims."
• China is engaged in "wide-ranging espionage" targeting officials, businessmen and scientists prompting more than 400 U.S. investigations.. [snip]
The report counters the findings of U.S. intelligence analysts who have sought to play down China's buildup by saying it is limited to preparing to fight a war against Taiwan. The report stated that while the near-term focus is on a Taiwan conflict. "long-term trends suggest China is building a force scoped for operations beyond Taiwan."
[they're preparing for war - with us. And we, them? Or will we again try the 'can't we all just get along' tactic and entice their aggression with our perceived weakness?]
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Oil hits a high; some in U.S. see $4 gas by spring
Gasoline prices, which for months lagged the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts fearing they could hit $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily and oil closed at an all-time high on Tuesday of $100.88 a barrel...
[and still we do nothing to increase our domestic supply...]
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MUDDLED PLAN RISES AGAIN
The House of Representatives is once again seeking to introduce a measure to increase taxes on U.S. oil and natural gas companies. Little has changed on the national or global energy stage that would warrant such an increase. And considering the dollars U.S. oil and natural gas companies already pay out, any future tax rise will do more harm than good, according to the Energy Information Administration:
• In 2006, the top 27 energy producing companies paid more than $81 billion in income taxes.Industry reinvestments also lead to additional jobs and provide a booster shot to a weakening economy, in addition to being part of the investment portfolios for millions across America. For our hard-working neighbors whose retirement or pensions are tied into oil or natural gas companies, higher industry taxes spell trouble.
• Industry income tax in 2006 -- as a share of net income -- averaged 41 percent -- manufacturing industries pay roughly 22 percent.
• Since 1992, the oil and natural gas industry has invested $1.25 trillion in hopes of finding new ways to produce, refine and deliver its product to consumers.
• Technological innovations, refinery capacities and distribution methods have all improved thanks to the foresight and reinvestments of American oil and natural gas companies.
[energy costs effect the price of everything else: it's as if they're deliberately trying to sabotage our economy]
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TEXAS V. OHIO
As Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton race around Ohio and Texas, they are telling a tale of economic woe. Yet the real story isn't how similar the two states are economically but how different. Texas has been prospering while Ohio lags, and the reasons are instructive about what works and what doesn't in economic policy. First, Texas's growth puts the lie to the myth that free trade costs American jobs:
• Texas has gained 36,000 manufacturing jobs since 2004 and has ranked as the nation's top exporting state for six years in a row; its $168 billion of exports in 2007 translate into tens of thousands of jobs.But Ohio's most crippling handicap may be that its politicians -- and thus its employers -- are still in the grip of industrial unions:
• Many of Ohio's auto jobs are not fleeing to China, Mexico or India, but rather more business-friendly U.S. states, including Texas, which in 2006 exported $5.5 billion of cars and trucks to Mexico and $2.4 billion worth to Canada.
• Ohio is a "closed shop" state, which means workers can be forced to join a union whether they wish to or not.Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 new plants have been built in Texas since 2005, from the likes of Microsoft, Samsung and Fujitsu. Foreign-owned companies supplied the state with 345,000 jobs.
• Many companies -- especially foreign-owned -- say they will not even consider such locations for new sites.
• States with "right to work" laws had twice the job growth of Ohio and other forced union states from 1995-2005, according to the National Institute for Labor Relations.
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NYT Term for Eco-Terrorists: 'Anti-Sprawl Activists'
Opening paragraph from the New York Times article on the eco-terrorists who burned three new homes north of Seattle today [emphasis added]:
"For people who are anti-sprawl activists — or have baser motives — a new-built house sitting empty in a previously rural area evidently makes a ripe target for an attack by fire."
Consider also the article's headline "House Fires With a Message in the Northwest." Yes, think of it as a bonus. Not just a housefire . . . a housefire with a message!Even the Associated Press manages to say it like it is in its article on the matter. AP headline: "Ecoterror Link Eyed in Wash. Fires"...
[why harp on the Times? Because it feeds its stories to more TV news channels than any other in the country - over 600 - who daily parrot whatever it prints]
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More Americans turning to Web for news
Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe traditional journalism is out of touch, and nearly half are turning to the Internet to get their news, according to a new survey. While most people think journalism is important to the quality of life, 64 percent are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism in their communities, a We Media/Zogby poll showed. (Snip) Nearly half of the 1,979 people who responded to the survey said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, up from 40 percent just a year ago.
[half way there... ;^) ]
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Monday, March 3, 2008
Heroes: Group ‘LEEPS’ to Help Afghan Police
“We simply act as a go-between for the American law enforcement community and the military,” Newton said of the organization, more commonly known as “LEEP.”
[i.e., yet another example of individual US soldiers taking the initiative to help above and beyond their already humbling sacrifices]
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Iraq political 'surge' uplifts U.S. officials
Iraq's parliament in recent weeks has passed a package of laws on the budget, elections and sectarian reconciliation that have given cautious hope to U.S. officials and private analysts that the gains from President Bush's military surge are finally being matched by a political surge as well.
"The popular image is that things are completely deadlocked in Baghdad," he said. "That's not what we found at all."
Instead, he said, the delegation found Iraqi politicians cutting deals, making compromises and forming alliances based more on power and votes that on religious or ethnic bonds.
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Arabs to UN: Scold Israel for hitting Gaza back
The Arab League has demanded — and received — an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council following the Israeli counterattack on Gaza. They want the UNSC to issue a condemnation for Israel’s military action, which has killed over 70 Gazans, essentially blaming Israel for responding to the continuing volley of rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon: The U.N. Security Council is meeting in emergency session at the request of the Palestinians and their Arab supporters who want the U.N.’s most powerful body to condemn the Israeli attack on Gaza and call for a cease-fire.
[Israel's only been responding - i.e., stop lobby rockets into their cities and viola: cease fire. That hasn't been proposed by the arab league.]
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Islamization of Europe and The European Union
Hugh Fitzgerald of Jihad Watch recently suggested a number of things Europeans can do to halt Islamization. The proposals were good, but I think we should focus on the most important obstacle: the European Union. I've suggested in the past that the EU is the principal motor behind the Islamization of Europe, and that the entire organization needs to be dismantled as soon as possible, otherwise nothing substantial can ever be done about the Muslim invasion.
[snip]
The EU's Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini states that Europe must relax its immigration controls and open the door to an extra 20 million "Africans and Asians" during the next two decades. Most of these "Africans and Asians" come from the predominantly Muslim countries of North Africa and the Greater Middle East. The EU thus decided to flood Europe with tens of millions of Muslims at the same time as peaceful Europeans demonstrating against the Islamization of Europe were brutally harassed by the police in the EU capital of Brussels. Frattini has also banned the use of the phrase Islamic terrorism...
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Has Russia got a new Stalin?
Just to be on the safe side, the Kremlin has also banned any of Putin's serious critics from standing. Three unelectable misfits have been allowed to mount token challenges.
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[A: 'yes' - but with a difference: Russia is now getting rich off its oil and gas sales because we refuse to compete with our own reserves. When Russia completes its gas pipelines to Europe, it will virtually enslave it - exactly why Reagan worked so hard to prevent it. Flashback: 2/11/2008:Russia threatens gas cutoff
Russia's state-controlled gas supplier Gazprom on Monday gave neighbouring Ukraine a reprieve of a few hours in a debt dispute, but still said it would stop sending gas to the country of 47 million people if an agreement isn't reached. The conflict is being watched nervously in European Union countries that get Russian gas through pipelines crossing Ukraine, fearing a repeat of the supply disruptions that hit during January 2006 when Russia halted gas to Ukraine for several days amid a fierce argument over price hikes.
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PAYING PATIENTS TEST BRITISH HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Patients, doctors and officials across the health care system widely acknowledge that patients regularly must pay for some parts of their treatment despite a supposedly 'free' system :
> A 46-year-old woman with breast cancer who paid $250 for a second opinion when the health service refused to provide her with one.Officials say that allowing people to pay for extra drugs to supplement government care would violate the philosophy of the health service by giving richer patients an unfair advantage over poorer ones. But others say what is really unfair is a health service riddled with inequities.
> An elderly man who spent thousands of dollars on a new hearing aid instead of enduring a yearlong wait on the health service.
> A 29-year-old woman who, with her doctor's blessing, bought a three-month supply of Tarceva, a drug to treat pancreatic cancer, for more than $6,000 on the Internet because she could not get it through the NHS.
[when it's government run, all aspect of political correctness bleed into it and it's a race to the bottom, including banning folks from buying treatment themselves]
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MEDICARE SPENDING TO SURGE
Driven by the aging of the baby-boom generation and rising costs of new drugs and medical technology, government spending on health care could nearly double by 2017:
> Health-care spending in the United States will hit $4.3 trillion by 2017, nearly double the 2007 amount; equating to nearly 20 percent of gross domestic product.
> In 2007, health-care spending accounted for 16.3 percent of GDP, but more of that cost is expected to shift to government agencies -- even as the federal government struggles to shrink huge deficits.
> Medicare spending alone is expected to grow to $844 billion in 2017, up from $427 billion in 2007.
[the costs of this sector are (and have been) out of control, because we've no cost pressure such as seen in every other industry where people spend their own money (vs. our employers - which is 'free' to too many). Government programs will only make the situation worse; we need tax deferred individual medical savings accounts - the longer we wait, the more harm will be done (one fifth of our GDP!?)]
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The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change
Marriott New York Marquis Times Square Hotel
1535 Broadway
New York City, NY U.S.A.
The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change is the first major international conference to focus on issues and questions not answered by advocates of the theory of man-made global warming.
Hundreds of scientists, economists, and public policy experts from around the world will gather on March 2-4, 2008, at the Marriott New York Marquis Hotel on Manhattan’s Time Square, to call attention to widespread dissent in the scientific community to the alleged “consensus” that the modern warming is primarily man-made and is a crisis.
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When Illegal Immigration Trends Converge
Public School Growth Driven by Illegal Immigration
[snip]
From 1993-2003, a veritable wave of Hispanic students rolled into public schools, representing 64% of all new student enrollments. One particular sentence in the latest Pew Research Center population rings my alarm bell.
"Demographic change has major implications for government spending in key areas such as schools, health programs, community services, infrastructure and Social Security."But that warning only lists implications for key areas of "government spending." What about the consequences related to unemployment, poverty, crime, housing, and public health? Big decisions in the lives of individuals and nations often bring unintended consequences - some good, some not. The full scope of negative consequences takes time to surface.
Future historians will ask,
"What were the nation's leaders thinking when they tacitly adopted an open borders policy that, in a relatively short period of time, dramatically altered the national demographics?"Among answers offered will be these...
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Independent truckers see end of the road
Trucker Robert Griffith is on the road three weeks out of four, pulling oversize loads like crane booms, railroad ties and air conditioning ducts. One of his biggest worries: How he'll find the money to buy his daughter a prom dress. As the cost of diesel doubled over the last four years, his take-home pay has plummeted, from $50,000 to $11,000 last year. He's literally burning money; he spent $64,000 on diesel in the last eight months.
[it's our energy 'policy', stupid]
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What, Me Commie?
Those of us with any understanding of history have a profound disdain for what has become known as Che Chic -- the rampant popularity amongst the ignorant of the recently retired Fidel Castro's designated Revolutionary hit man, Che Guevara.
Shirts, hats, and flags bearing the likeness of the Central and South American Communist assassin have adorned the bodies, heads and campaign offices of some of the world's finest mindless.
So it was with joyous exhuberence that I came upon the current issue of Mad Magazine whilst strolling through the grocer's this afternoon. For the cover art alone (below), it was indeed an absolute must purchase.
