The United States has a White House chef . . . and now is the time for a White House Farmer.
Everyone, from your family and friends to our First Family and their guests, needs to know who grew their food and how it was grown.
Thank you for your 100 nominations of knowledgeable, passionate farmers out there who could fill this post. Nominations are now Closed, but PLEASE VOTE for the farmer of your choice. The Poll will close at Midnight on January 31.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
From Pork to Tubers
Hope and Change indeed:
What Victory Looks Like
I'd call this a Victory: Iraqis held their most peaceful election since the fall of Saddam Hussein on Saturday, voting for provincial councils without a single major attack reported anywhere in the country.Notes:
"The purple fingers have returned to build Iraq," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a televised address after the polls closed, referring to the indelible ink stains on index fingers that show voters have cast their ballots.
The 2005 election took place amid an al Qaeda-inspired Sunni insurgency and was followed by a surge in sectarian slaughter between once dominant Sunni Arabs and majority Shi'ite Muslims.
That violence has dropped dramatically since 2007.
Just about every MSM outfit has spent time discussing "glitches" in the Iraqi elections ... I wonder how American elections would look if every little "glitch" became part of the election story.
It's interesting to note, that the Iraqi constitution requires that 25% of the elected positions be held by women.
Basra seems to have gone overwhelming to moderate parties ... and this after the British were defeated there, but the city saved by Iraqi and American forces. The soft approach to the extremists resulted in suffering and chaos ... the "hard knock" saved the city and guaranteed positive election results. Might their be a lesson in this?
Had Democrats had their way, we'd today be watching a bloodbath instead. As it is, for now at least, American soldiers who sacrificed did not do so in vain.
ps: Thank you Mr. Bush.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Celestial Junk Mea Culpa
I predicted that although The Big O was a Marxist at heart, he would govern to the center, simply out of expediency.
I was wrong:
I was wrong:
Imagine that. The most expensive social experiment in American history — one that will cost taxpayers more than both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined — was allotted less than a single day of debate in Congress.ht: Hope
How many speed-reading whiz-kid representatives do you think slogged past their own pork to read the entire 647 (or so) pages of the "stimulus" menu?
This week, more than 200 notable economists — including three Nobel laureates — signed an open letter in The New York Times challenging President Barack Obama's false suggestion that all economists agree a bailout is needed. It was titled: "With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true."
"Progressive" Justice: Time Out for Adults
"Progressives" have brought us gross aberrations like "restorative justice" and the notion that jail time isn't punishment ... that jail is a place to restore the killer so that they may one day return to a productive life.
You can thank "progressives" for this nonsense ... you can thank them each and every time a known killer or molester goes free to do evil deeds once again or simply to go on to live life while their victim, robbed of the most precious gift anyone will ever own, rots in the ground. It’s the “progressive” notion of a “time out” for naughty adults.
"Progressives" have made it impossible in Canada to lock up killers for longer than 25 years unless the killer is deemed an ongoing threat to society ... a threshold difficult to attain. Unlike in the USA, a “life” sentence in Canada only applies to the victim.
So it is, that a mother who looked her daughter in the eye and strangled her, will be eligible for parole in 15 years:
You can thank "progressives" for this nonsense ... you can thank them each and every time a known killer or molester goes free to do evil deeds once again or simply to go on to live life while their victim, robbed of the most precious gift anyone will ever own, rots in the ground. It’s the “progressive” notion of a “time out” for naughty adults.
"Progressives" have made it impossible in Canada to lock up killers for longer than 25 years unless the killer is deemed an ongoing threat to society ... a threshold difficult to attain. Unlike in the USA, a “life” sentence in Canada only applies to the victim.
So it is, that a mother who looked her daughter in the eye and strangled her, will be eligible for parole in 15 years:
Karissa Boudreau died begging for her life in the cold and dark as her mother held her down and methodically strangled her.
"Mommy, don't," she pleaded.
The words — the last Karissa, 12, ever uttered — didn't soften Penny Boudreau's heart or stop her from twisting tighter the length of twine. But they provoked loud sobs as they were read from an agreed statement of facts in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Bridgewater, N.S., Friday, nearly a year to the day later.
The New Cool in Global Warming: The Deniers
I mentioned the other day that the number of scientists signing on for the denier side will become a tsumani.
The first waves may be breaking ashore:
It's going to get to the point that nobody will want to be the last man standing on teamscience IPCC.
The first waves may be breaking ashore:
“I had the privilege of being fired by Al Gore, since I refused to go along with his alarmism. I did not need the job that badly… I have spent a long research career studying physics that is closely related to the greenhouse effect, for example, absorption and emission of visible and infrared radiation, and fluid flow… Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science.”
It's going to get to the point that nobody will want to be the last man standing on team
Thursday, January 29, 2009
A Gitmo Wrinkle
The Big O just got his first rebuke:A military judge threw a wrench yesterday into the Obama administration's plan to suspend legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, denying the government's request to delay the case of a detainee accused of planning the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.ht: Wilson
To halt proceedings for 120 days -- as Obama wants in order to conduct a review -- the Pentagon may be forced to temporarily withdraw charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and possibly 20 other detainees facing trial in military commissions, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Nashiri, a Saudi citizen of Yemeni descent, is facing arraignment Feb. 9 on capital charges relating to the al-Qaeda strike on the Cole in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. service members and injured 50 others in October 2000.
The chief military judge at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Army Col. James Pohl, said that he found the government's arguments "unpersuasive" and that the case will go ahead because "the public interest in a speedy trial will be harmed by the delay in the arraignment."
The Global Warming Foggy Window
The Author:
Hendrik (Henk) Tennekes: (born December 13, 1936, Kampen) was the director of research at the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, or KNMI), and was a professor of aeronautical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Tennekes pioneered methods of multi-modal forecasting. He authored The Simple Science of Flight and A First Course in Turbulence. Tennekes was a strong proponent of scientific modeling, and he challenged the use of incomplete or unproven scientific models by those[who?] trying to explain complex phenomena such as global warming.
The Essay:
Roger Pielke Sr. has graciously invited me to add my perspective to his discussion with Gavin Schmidt at RealClimate. If this were not such a serious matter, I would have been amused by Gavin’s lack of knowledge of the differences between weather models and climate models. As it stands, I am appalled. Back to graduate school, Gavin!
A weather model deals with the atmosphere. Slow processes in the oceans, the biosphere, and human activities can be ignored or crudely parameterized. This strategy has been very successful. The dominant fraternity in the meteorological modeling community has appropriated this advantage, and made itself the lead community for climate modeling. Backed by an observational system much more advanced than those in oceanography or other parts of the climate system, they have exploited their lead position for all they can. For them, it is a fortunate coincidence that the dominant synoptic systems in the atmosphere have scales on the order of many hundreds of kilometers, so that the shortcomings of the parameterizations and the observation network, including weather satellite coverage, do not prevent skillful predictions several days ahead.
A climate model, however, has to deal with the entire climate system, which does include the world’s oceans. The oceans constitute a crucial slow component of the climate system. Crucial, because this is where most of the accessible heat in the system is stored. Meteorologists tend to forget that just a few meters of water contain as much heat as the entire atmosphere. Also, the oceans are the main source of the water vapor that makes atmospheric dynamics on our planet both interesting and exceedingly complicated. For these and other reasons, an explicit representation of the oceans should be the core of any self-respecting climate model.
However, the observational systems for the oceans are primitive in comparison with their atmospheric counterparts. Satellites that can keep track of what happens below the surface of the ocean have limited spatial and temporalresolution. Also, the scale of synoptic motions in the ocean is much smaller than that of cyclones in the atmosphere, requiring a spatial resolution in numerical models and in the observation network beyond the capabilities of present observational systems and supercomputers. We cannot observe, for example, the vertical and horizontal structure of temperature, salinity and motion of eddies in the Gulf Stream in real time with sufficient detail, and cannot model them at the detail that is needed because of computer limitations. How, for goodness’ sake, can we then reliably compute their contribution to multi-decadal changes in the meridional transport of heat? Are the crude parameterizations used in practice up to the task of skillfully predicting the physical processes in the ocean several tens of years ahead? I submit they are not.
Since heat storage and heat transport in the oceans are crucial to the dynamics of the climate system, yet cannot be properly observed or modeled, one has to admit that claims about the predictive performance of climate models are built on quicksand. Climate modelers claiming predictive skill decades into the future operate in a fantasy world, where they have to fiddle with the numerous knobs of the parameterizations to produce results that have some semblance of veracity. Firm footing? Forget it!
Gavin Schmidt is not the only meteorologist with an inadequate grasp of the role of the oceans in the climate system. In my weblog of June 24, 2008, I addressed the limited perception that at least one other climate modeler appears to have. A few lines from that essay deserve repeating here. In response to a paper by Tim Palmer of ECMWF, I wrote: “Palmer et al. seem to forget that, though weather forecasting is focused on the rapid succession of atmospheric events, climate forecasting has to focus on the slow evolution of the circulation in the world ocean and slow changes in land use and natural vegetation. In the evolution of the Slow Manifold (to borrow a term coined by Ed Lorenz) the atmosphere acts primarily as stochastic high-frequency noise. If I were still young, I would attempt to build a conceptual climate model based on a deterministic representation of the world ocean and a stochastic representation of synoptic activity in the atmosphere.”
From my perspective it is not a little bit alarming that the current generation of climate models cannot simulate such fundamental phenomena as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. I will not trust any climate model until and unless it can accurately represent the PDO and other slow features of the world ocean circulation. Even then, I would remain skeptical about the potential predictive skill of such a model many tens of years into the future.
Hendrik (Henk) Tennekes: (born December 13, 1936, Kampen) was the director of research at the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, or KNMI), and was a professor of aeronautical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Tennekes pioneered methods of multi-modal forecasting. He authored The Simple Science of Flight and A First Course in Turbulence. Tennekes was a strong proponent of scientific modeling, and he challenged the use of incomplete or unproven scientific models by those[who?] trying to explain complex phenomena such as global warming.
The Essay:
Roger Pielke Sr. has graciously invited me to add my perspective to his discussion with Gavin Schmidt at RealClimate. If this were not such a serious matter, I would have been amused by Gavin’s lack of knowledge of the differences between weather models and climate models. As it stands, I am appalled. Back to graduate school, Gavin!
A weather model deals with the atmosphere. Slow processes in the oceans, the biosphere, and human activities can be ignored or crudely parameterized. This strategy has been very successful. The dominant fraternity in the meteorological modeling community has appropriated this advantage, and made itself the lead community for climate modeling. Backed by an observational system much more advanced than those in oceanography or other parts of the climate system, they have exploited their lead position for all they can. For them, it is a fortunate coincidence that the dominant synoptic systems in the atmosphere have scales on the order of many hundreds of kilometers, so that the shortcomings of the parameterizations and the observation network, including weather satellite coverage, do not prevent skillful predictions several days ahead.
A climate model, however, has to deal with the entire climate system, which does include the world’s oceans. The oceans constitute a crucial slow component of the climate system. Crucial, because this is where most of the accessible heat in the system is stored. Meteorologists tend to forget that just a few meters of water contain as much heat as the entire atmosphere. Also, the oceans are the main source of the water vapor that makes atmospheric dynamics on our planet both interesting and exceedingly complicated. For these and other reasons, an explicit representation of the oceans should be the core of any self-respecting climate model.
However, the observational systems for the oceans are primitive in comparison with their atmospheric counterparts. Satellites that can keep track of what happens below the surface of the ocean have limited spatial and temporalresolution. Also, the scale of synoptic motions in the ocean is much smaller than that of cyclones in the atmosphere, requiring a spatial resolution in numerical models and in the observation network beyond the capabilities of present observational systems and supercomputers. We cannot observe, for example, the vertical and horizontal structure of temperature, salinity and motion of eddies in the Gulf Stream in real time with sufficient detail, and cannot model them at the detail that is needed because of computer limitations. How, for goodness’ sake, can we then reliably compute their contribution to multi-decadal changes in the meridional transport of heat? Are the crude parameterizations used in practice up to the task of skillfully predicting the physical processes in the ocean several tens of years ahead? I submit they are not.
Since heat storage and heat transport in the oceans are crucial to the dynamics of the climate system, yet cannot be properly observed or modeled, one has to admit that claims about the predictive performance of climate models are built on quicksand. Climate modelers claiming predictive skill decades into the future operate in a fantasy world, where they have to fiddle with the numerous knobs of the parameterizations to produce results that have some semblance of veracity. Firm footing? Forget it!
Gavin Schmidt is not the only meteorologist with an inadequate grasp of the role of the oceans in the climate system. In my weblog of June 24, 2008, I addressed the limited perception that at least one other climate modeler appears to have. A few lines from that essay deserve repeating here. In response to a paper by Tim Palmer of ECMWF, I wrote: “Palmer et al. seem to forget that, though weather forecasting is focused on the rapid succession of atmospheric events, climate forecasting has to focus on the slow evolution of the circulation in the world ocean and slow changes in land use and natural vegetation. In the evolution of the Slow Manifold (to borrow a term coined by Ed Lorenz) the atmosphere acts primarily as stochastic high-frequency noise. If I were still young, I would attempt to build a conceptual climate model based on a deterministic representation of the world ocean and a stochastic representation of synoptic activity in the atmosphere.”
From my perspective it is not a little bit alarming that the current generation of climate models cannot simulate such fundamental phenomena as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. I will not trust any climate model until and unless it can accurately represent the PDO and other slow features of the world ocean circulation. Even then, I would remain skeptical about the potential predictive skill of such a model many tens of years into the future.
It's Going to Be a Long 4 Years
... for Democrats:
Obama got through his "perfect campaign" (if we overlook Joe the Plumber, the birth certificate, and the Berlin Speech among other incidents), and the "flawless transition". (Putting to the side Bill Richardson, Blago, and Timothy Geithner) But eventually, despite the media's best efforts, his gaffes are going to catch up with him. (Particularly if he continues pulling things like last week's staring
contest in the White House press room -- Mussolini used to do that too.) People are going to begin asking, where is the flawless superman we voted for, where is the miracle worker, where is man with an answer for everything?Several months ago, I wrote a piece for AT defining Barack Obama as a flake. People have asked me since, do I still believe that?
As the lady said: you betcha.
It's going to be a great four years.
Premature Withdrawal Means No Birth
Clearly, those crowing for Canada and even ISAF to pull out of Afghanistan don't want the birth of a civilized nation:
On that note, what are we doing "over there"?
Human rights are culturally relative, the thinking goes, and the universality of human rights is some sort of western imperialist construction. It is as though girls have no right to read if their "culture" forbids it. It is a rarely scrutinized assumption, but it is ubiquitous in Canadian universities, and it reaches its most toxic concentrations in "anti-war" debates...
[...]
"[The Taliban] want what they had before 2001: an extremist, eccentric Islamic state where the sports stadium is used for public executions of dissenters, homosexuals and women accused of adultery," Cheryl Benard of the Rand Corporation recently reminded us here in the "West." What the Taliban want is a place apart from humanity, where "religious police roam the streets with sticks to beat anyone whose beard or chador is too short; and all education for girls is eliminated."
... Yet to hear from some of the more prominent "troops out" voices in Canada, the Taliban are merely "dissidents" or "the resistance." To listen to these voices, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Taliban were some quaint tribe, engaged in a noble fight against the power-hungry, capitalist West.
On that note, what are we doing "over there"?
When we got back to Camp Nathan Smith from the patrol into Dand, I was buzzing. The entire event drew such a high degree of focus from me, I was still coming down when we were told the bad news: there was a comms shutdown. An IED strike had hit a joint Canadian-Afghan foot patrol, and there was a critical Canadian casualty, although not VSA (Vital Signs Absent).
Between the high of the patrol and the sobering shock of the wounded soldier whose name we never learned, I'll admit I wasn't paying too much attention when LCdr Babinsky told us we could stash our PPE in our quarters before going to watch Afghan prison guards being trained. If I hadn't been so absorbed in my own thoughts, I'd probably have dismissed the Corrections training photo-op as filler put on to the schedule between the end of the patrol - which could have been anytime, given the realities of what can happen outside the wire - and dinner. I certainly wasn't expecting a great deal from the experience.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
The Story Behind Global Warming
Did you ever wonder how it all came about?
Once upon a time, there was a man named Roger Revelle:
Once upon a time, there was a man named Roger Revelle:
The story begins with an Oceanographer named Roger Revelle. He served with the Navy in World War II. After the war he became the Director of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in La Jolla in San Diego, California. Revelle saw the opportunity to obtain major funding from the Navy for doing measurements and research on the ocean around the Pacific Atolls where the US military was conducting atomic bomb tests. He greatly expanded the Institute’s areas of interest and among others hired Hans Suess, a noted Chemist from the University of Chicago, who was very interested in the traces of carbon in the environment from the burning of fossil fuels. Revelle tagged on to Suess studies and co-authored a paper with him in 1957. The paper raises the possibility that the carbon dioxide might be creating a greenhouse effect and causing atmospheric warming. It seems to be a plea for funding for more studies. Funding, frankly, is where Revelle’s mind was most of the time.
Next Revelle hired a Geochemist named David Keeling to devise a way to measure the atmospheric content of Carbon dioxide. In 1960 Keeling published his first paper showing the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and linking the increase to the burning of fossil fuels.
These two research papers became the bedrock of the science of global warming, even though they offered no proof that carbon dioxide was in fact a greenhouse gas. In addition they failed to explain how this trace gas, only a tiny fraction of the atmosphere, could have any significant impact on temperatures.
... keep reading.
Say Hello to the Romans
The Romans ate roasted wren, dipped in honey ... our Roman emperor is into Wagyu.So much for champions of the downtrodden and most needy among us:
Can the Obama administration be anymore tone deaf? After pushing his $1.1 trillion Generational Theft Act of 2009 through the House last night, the White House apparently decided to throw itself a swank cocktail party. According to ABC’s Jake Tapper, the menu included alcoholic beverages (vodka martinis are an Obama favorite, reportedly) and wagyu steak.
Yeah, “wagyu steak.” $100 per serving delicacy. I had to look it up, too.
Ask and Ye Shall Receive
They came seeking wisdom ... they grovelled ... they questioned ... they pleaded.
And, they were not disappointed:
And, they were not disappointed:
The lawmakers gazed in awe at the figure before them. The Goracle had seen the future, and he had come to tell them about it.
What the Goracle saw in the future was not good: temperature changes that "would bring a screeching halt to human civilization and threaten the fabric of life everywhere on the Earth -- and this is within this century, if we don't change."
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry (D-Mass.), appealed to hear more of the Goracle's premonitions. "Share with us, if you would, sort of the immediate vision that you see in this transformative process as we move to this new economy," he beseeched.
"Geothermal energy," the Goracle prophesied. "This has great potential; it is not very far off."
Another lawmaker asked about the future of nuclear power. "I have grown skeptical about the degree to which it will expand," the Goracle spoke.
A third asked the legislative future -- and here the Goracle spoke in riddle. "The road to Copenhagen has three steps to it," he said.
Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) begged the Goracle to look further into the future. "What does your modeling tell you about how long we're going to be around as a species?" he inquired.
The Goracle chuckled. "I don't claim the expertise to answer a question like that, Senator."
It was a jarring reminder that the Goracle is, indeed, mortal. Once Al Gore was a mere vice president, but now he is a Nobel laureate and climate-change prophet. He repeats phrases such as "unified national smart grid" the way he once did "no controlling legal authority" -- and the ridicule has been replaced by worship, even by his political foes.
"Tennessee," gushed Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Gore's home state, "has a legacy of having people here in the Senate and in public service that have been of major consequence and contributed in a major way to the public debate, and you no doubt have helped build that legacy."
If that wasn't quite enough, Corker added: "Very much enjoyed your sense of humor, too."
Humor? From Al Gore? "I benefit from low expectations," he replied.
The Goracle's powers seem to come from his ability to scare the bejesus out of people.
"We must face up to this urgent and unprecedented threat to the existence of our civilization," he said.
And: "This is the most serious challenge the world has ever faced." And: It "could completely end human civilization, and it is rushing at us with such speed and force."
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
AGW ... Hail Mary Full of Grace
picture: Warmists need to go back to schoolMay AGW Rest in Peace:
Today, a founder of the International Journal of Forecasting, Journal of Forecasting, International Institute of Forecasters, and International Symposium on Forecasting, and the author of Long-range Forecasting (1978, 1985), the Principles of Forecasting Handbook, and over 70 papers on forecasting, Dr J. Scott Armstrong, tabled a statement declaring that the forecasting process used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) lacks a scientific basis. [2]Read the whole thing ... if it is even half true, it shows just how shoddy and amateur IPCC work has been.
650 AGW Heretics Are No More
There are no longer 650 Climate Warming heretics for the warmists to deal with ... there are now a lot more:
One can tell how religious the fervor of most warmists is, when they either mock out, or dismiss out of hand, the fact that a growing number ... not a shrinking number, of very capable and knowledgeable scientists are becoming deniers. And, that in this number are former IPCC members.
In the very least, I'd expect warmists to become a bit more cautious about their claims.
A U.S. Senate Minority Report released in December 2008 details over 650 international scientists who are dissenting from man-made global warming fears promoted by the UN and yourself. Many of the scientists profiled are former UN IPCC scientists and former believers in man-made climate change that have reversed their views in recent years. The report continues to grow almost daily. We have just received a request from an Italian scientist, and a Czech scientist to join the 650 dissenting scientists report. A chemist from the U.S. Naval Academy is about to be added, and more Japanese scientists are dissenting. Finally, many more meteorologists will be added and another former UN IPCC scientist is about to be included. These scientists are openly rebelling against the climate orthodoxy promoted by Gore and the UN IPCC.
One can tell how religious the fervor of most warmists is, when they either mock out, or dismiss out of hand, the fact that a growing number ... not a shrinking number, of very capable and knowledgeable scientists are becoming deniers. And, that in this number are former IPCC members.
In the very least, I'd expect warmists to become a bit more cautious about their claims.
Where is the Economy Going?
Celestial Junk Economic Prediction:
The recession we are experiencing right now will hit bottom this summer, at which time recovery will begin.
I base this prediction on what a growing number of economists are saying. The financial system will be in trouble for longer ... but it too will recover with a little more help from us.
So, why the panic to "stimulate" the economy?
It's simple really. In the USA, the Democrats have a huge list of special interests that have been waiting a long time to get paid ... and now is the time. And, what better way to buy votes than by bribing people with their own money. What delicious irony it'll be though, if by this summer the economy starts to wake up ... and the bulk of "stimulus" bucks haven't even begun to take effect.
That's why there is a panic ... that's why the hurry it up. If Democrats are going to be able to claim that their massive cash giveaway did the trick ... they'll need to get the cash flowing yesterday ... not tomorrow; and to hell with their grandchildren who'll be stuck with the bill.
And in Canada, PM Harper simply bows to political expediency and gives the people of Canada what they want ... only thing is, we ain't going to see a half of stimulous. By the time Harper and crew get to dishing it out ... there will be no need.
If I'm wrong ... feel free to drop by and mock me this September ... I'll take my lumps humbly.
More thoughts from IBD.
The recession we are experiencing right now will hit bottom this summer, at which time recovery will begin.
I base this prediction on what a growing number of economists are saying. The financial system will be in trouble for longer ... but it too will recover with a little more help from us.
So, why the panic to "stimulate" the economy?
It's simple really. In the USA, the Democrats have a huge list of special interests that have been waiting a long time to get paid ... and now is the time. And, what better way to buy votes than by bribing people with their own money. What delicious irony it'll be though, if by this summer the economy starts to wake up ... and the bulk of "stimulus" bucks haven't even begun to take effect.
That's why there is a panic ... that's why the hurry it up. If Democrats are going to be able to claim that their massive cash giveaway did the trick ... they'll need to get the cash flowing yesterday ... not tomorrow; and to hell with their grandchildren who'll be stuck with the bill.
And in Canada, PM Harper simply bows to political expediency and gives the people of Canada what they want ... only thing is, we ain't going to see a half of stimulous. By the time Harper and crew get to dishing it out ... there will be no need.
If I'm wrong ... feel free to drop by and mock me this September ... I'll take my lumps humbly.
More thoughts from IBD.
What Have We Become?
An airliner takes off and heads skyward... all seems well. Then, a flock of geese flash past and strike both engines causing catastrophic failure. For all intents, the passengers and crew are doomed.
But, that's not the way it plays out ... this aircraft is different ... it's piloted by an extraordinary captain who brings the plane down onto water without it breaking up. All passengers and crew emerge safe and sound to go on with their lives.
But then, the sickness kicked in ... that mentality born only of Western decadence, and at least some among those spared start to think ... "I wonder how much cash I can leech off of these guys?"
But, that's not the way it plays out ... this aircraft is different ... it's piloted by an extraordinary captain who brings the plane down onto water without it breaking up. All passengers and crew emerge safe and sound to go on with their lives.
But then, the sickness kicked in ... that mentality born only of Western decadence, and at least some among those spared start to think ... "I wonder how much cash I can leech off of these guys?"
In addition to recovering losses, Hart says he's concerned about having trouble flying. He's flown on six planes since the accident, and each flight has gotten "progressively more difficult."
He says he was tense, sweated and "felt every bit of turbulence" on a Los Angeles-to-Philadelphia flight last week, though it wasn't that turbulent a flight.Hart says he has talked to a lawyer in North Carolina but hasn't decided whether to take any legal action.
"I want to see how things play out with US Airways," he says. "I'm hopeful US Airways understands the significance of the incident."
Kreindler & Kreindler, a New York law firm that has represented plaintiffs in crashes, says it has been contacted by several passengers on the US Airways flight.
The firm's lawyers are determining what injuries and emotional distress passengers may have suffered, and what parties might be liable under New York state law, says Noah Kushlefsky, a partner in the firm.
The Amazing Return of Attila the Hun
Horse-archers terrorized mostly Eastern Europe on and off starting in the 400's. Most famous of these were of course the Huns, and then later, the Mongols. When their era ended, they took with them the art of horse archery. Nobody, absolutely nobody, preserved in writing or oral traditions the details of what it took to be a mounted archer.Then along came Lojos Kassai, a Hungarian so obsessed with Attila the Hun and mounted archery that he set out to rediscover the lost art. To put it simply, it took Lojos years to accomplish his task, where he had to abandon traditional archery skills and replace them with almost Zen-like reflexs. Everything from learning to notch arrows at full gallop to actually hitting a target from a surging steed took trial and error and almost monk-like dedication. In the end, he could rapid fire arrows at tossed targets to either side, forward, and behind.
Lojos not only rediscovered the skills required, but made sure to recreate as closely as possible what we know of Hun equipment.Lojos' archery prowess spawned a whole cult-like following which is growing in popularity. And like the Huns, it is attracting not only men, but women, who fought in Hun formations. Today, mounted archers have a number of training facilities worldwide and host competitions.
Imagine a field of battle in the 400s. Thousands of Hun warriors attack a static line of defenders. They form 2 massive counter rotating circles ... each archer firing arrows as they approach the enemy line ... then firing as they turn to gallop along the enemy front. As each warrior turns to exit, they fire over the back of their horse. The back side of each giant wheel is well away from the enemies front ... and it is here that mounted archers rearm on the run from tenders ... they return to do it all again.
John Man, author of Attila the Hun (2005), estimates that Hun formations could deliver 12,000 arrows a minute ... a rate of fire equal to about 10 machine guns.
With this picture in mind, enjoy the following videos:
The first video is of a Lojos Kassai competition. It doesn't allow embedding so I'll give you the link. It features some absolutely amazing archers. Anyone who has shot recurved bows from the ground, will be stunned at the ranges these riders strike from ... on a galloping horse of all things. At about the 3:00 mark we are treated to a rider who is incredible ... the speed he reloads at and gallops at is stunning; I think its Lojos himself. Keep in mind that Hun archers grew up on horseback ... grew up with horse archery in their veins. Any formation would consist of thousands of archers equally skilled.
Video One
Lojos on Show
Canada even has a fledgling organization:
Human Caused Global Warming is Dead
Mark today on your calendar ... it is the day that one of the most important "thousand" cuts was delivered to AGW theorists.
Global Warming is hoax because those pushing know full well that the science they rely on is far more shake than they openly admit.
Global Warming models produce false results because they can't account for significant unknowns and climate systems too complex to "model" at this time and as of today, their predictions have been off.
Some warmists have even manipulted their data to get the results they want.(that's cheating for you warmists out there who worship this crap)
Politics has driven AGW theory and policy and funding ... removing the science itself from the realm of true science, placing into the realm of pseudo-science.
Say 5 "Hail Marys" for AGW Science ... and let's move on.
More details from Watts.
Global Warming is hoax because those pushing know full well that the science they rely on is far more shake than they openly admit.
Global Warming models produce false results because they can't account for significant unknowns and climate systems too complex to "model" at this time and as of today, their predictions have been off.
Some warmists have even manipulted their data to get the results they want.(that's cheating for you warmists out there who worship this crap)
Politics has driven AGW theory and policy and funding ... removing the science itself from the realm of true science, placing into the realm of pseudo-science.
Say 5 "Hail Marys" for AGW Science ... and let's move on.
ht ... SDAJames Hansen's Former Boss Declares Himself a SkepticWashington
DC, Jan 27th 2009: NASA warming scientist James Hansen, one of former Vice-President Al Gore’s closest allies in the promotion of man-made global warming fears, is being publicly rebuked by his former supervisor at NASA.
Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist, Dr. John S. Theon, the former supervisor of James Hansen, NASA’s vocal man-made global warming fear soothsayer, has now publicly declared himself a skeptic and declared that Hansen “embarrassed NASA” with his alarming climate claims and said Hansen was “was never muzzled.” Theon joins the rapidly growing ranks of international scientists abandoning the promotion of man-made global warming fears.
“I appreciate the opportunity to add my name to those who disagree that global warming is man made,” Theon wrote to the Minority Office at the Environment and Public Works Committee on January 15, 2009. “I was, in effect, Hansen’s supervisor because I had to justify his funding, allocate his resources, and evaluate his results,” Theon, the former Chief of the Climate Processes Research Program at NASA Headquarters and former Chief of the Atmospheric Dynamics & Radiation Branch explained.
“Hansen was never muzzled even though he violated NASA’s official agency position on climate forecasting (i.e., we did not know enough to forecast climate change or mankind’s effect on it). Hansen thus embarrassed NASA by coming out with his claims of global warming in 1988 in his testimony before Congress,” Theon wrote. [Note: NASA scientist James Hansen has created worldwide media frenzy with his dire climate warning, his call for trials against those who dissent against man-made global warming fear, and his claims that he was allegedly muzzled by the Bush administration despite doing 1,400 on-the-job media interviews! - See: Don't Panic Over Predictions of Climate Doom - Get the Facts on James Hansen - UK Register: Veteran climate scientist says 'lock up the oil men' - June 23, 2008 & UK Guardian: NASA scientist calls for putting oil firm chiefs on trial for 'high crimes against humanity' for spreading doubt about man-made global warming - June 23, 2008 ]
Theon declared “climate models are useless.” “My own belief concerning anthropogenic climate change is that the models do not realistically simulate the climate system because there are many very important sub-grid scale processes that the models either replicate poorly or completely omit,” Theon explained. “Furthermore, some scientists have manipulated the observed data to justify their model results. In doing so, they neither explain what they have modified in the observations, nor explain how they did it. They have resisted making their work transparent so that it can be replicated independently by other scientists. This is clearly contrary to how science should be done. Thus there is no rational justification for using climate model forecasts to determine public policy,” he added.
More details from Watts.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
CJunk Q&A
An oldy but a goodie. Keep those letters coming! Enjoy.
Over the years, our once humble blog has grown considerably in popularity and notoriety. Once declared “the mad traditionalist ramblings” of two redneck Bohemian Neo-Con “nut jobs” by Dick Cheney, Celestial Junk is now renowned around the world for its “inexplicably juvenile” reporting and “frankly, odd” writing style.
For instance, said pundit Mark Steyn in private conversation with the Cjunk duo Paul and Junker, “Like my assistant already explained to you gentlemen, I’m only signing my books, and I certainly wouldn’t sign your copy of Mein Kampft under any circumstances, now please move along, there are many others waiting behind you.” A master of prose, truly Steyn’s words capture the very essence of Celestial Junk.
With an ever-growing fan base there is a naturally increasing demand for information about the blogging phenomenon that is Celestial Junk. While our feature Celestial Junk: Between the Posts did much to quell the insatiable demand for Cjunk gossip by Junkies (Cjunk fans), we are still continually bombarded with questions. As surely as our mailbox is filled with Cease and Desist letters, Plagiarism Lawsuit declarations, and Restraining Orders from popular right wing pundits, so to it is filled with fan mail and a plethora of questions about CJunk.
So, with much pleasure, we have taken it upon ourselves to post a few of those letters, and answer them to the best of our abilities. Enjoy, and for all you Junkies out there, remember, “Live Long and Procrastinate”.
Q: As a Psychiatrist and fellow writer, I’m curious about where you guys get your ideas? I mean, seriously, what sort of mental instability or childhood trauma produces such twisted, malicious, and scatological editorials? Even as a trained Psycho Annalist and doctor, I cannot even begin to hazard a guess. Please seek professional help.
P.S. I do owe you a minor thanks of sorts; your works provided the cornerstone of the thesis in my Masters term paper Irrational Neurosis and Acute Immorality in Modern Man. Thanks, I guess.
Dr. Diana Thompson
(Address withheld)
A: Hahaha. We’re glad to see the CJunk tradition of wit and humor in writing is alive within our readers. In answer to your question about our inspiration, it would take an entire article to answer completely as we draw our ideas from a plethora of sources. To name just a few: the poetry of Genghis Khan, Hustler magazine, the woefully undervalued Carrot Top, The New Yorker, Rush Limbaugh, the personal memoirs of Henry IIX, The Davinci Code, and country music virtuoso Kenny Rogers.
Q: In your article Malevolence and Satanic Ritual in Modern Liberals I feel that you did nothing to support a great many outrageous claims about the opposite side of the political spectrum. Among many wild accusations, you claim that Hilary Clinton is a Succubus in personal contact with Beelzebub, the New Democratic Party of Canada was founded by witches, and Bill Maher is a werewolf. Having presented these claims, you continued the article with a string of malicious, nonsensical curses and then recommended that your readers go out and purchase large amounts of garlic and a supply of silver bullets. I pray that this sort of insanity is not what has become of the Conservative movement.
Brian Smith
(Address withheld)
A: Well certainly we at Celestial Junk don’t expect to win 100% approval of our controversial articles, that’s why they’re called controversial. You win some and you lose some, it's all part of the business. Besides, we quite frankly don’t want the approval of blood sucking night stalkers like you Brian Smith. So take your Vampirism back to the Blue States where the rest of your wicked ilk lurks. I’m sure with a little monetary contribution the Democratic Party will have a coffin waiting for you. Now be gone dark one!
Q: Hello CJunk. Long time reader, first time writer-inner, and lifelong Junkie. I’d just like to say that your writing is truly an inspiration to me. Reading and re-reading your articles really helps make my time in the bunker fly by. Just like bayonet drills and Spam, you’ve become a part of my daily routine. More than that, you’re my motivation to continue the struggle against “the man”. Never stop writing.
P.S. I’m well armed with silver bullets in a variety of calibers, but I can’t help but feel this might not be enough. Any other suggestions?
Grand Deacon Carl Hobart
Little Falls, Minnesota
A: It’s good to hear from a true fan. And it never ceases to amaze us how many of our readers own their own bunker. As for your question, we have found that the continued verbal recital of a passage of Mark Steyn or Victor Davis Hanson is usually enough to dissuade the most determined Lib-Vampire. Thanks again for the encouraging letter Carl!
Q: The offices of Johnson and Weinstein, representing Mark Steyn, herby present to the above mentioned proprietors and owners of Celestial Junk an Order of Restraint. The details of the order, including full terms of restraint, are attached as Annex 1. Please refer to Criminal Code 11.216 section C for further details. This Order expires 30 Nov 2022. Be advised that this order is a completely separate legal matter from the pending aggravated assault trial involving the above mentioned party.
Johnson and Weinstein Law Firm
New York, New York
A: It’s nice to see that our old pal Mark Steyn hasn’t grown too “big” to write in once and a while, even if he does have his “people” doing the writing. Fantastic to hear from ya Mark! Hope everything is going well. We look forward to meeting you again in court, and hope you have time to throw the ol’ “John Hancock” on a few of our books.
Over the years, our once humble blog has grown considerably in popularity and notoriety. Once declared “the mad traditionalist ramblings” of two redneck Bohemian Neo-Con “nut jobs” by Dick Cheney, Celestial Junk is now renowned around the world for its “inexplicably juvenile” reporting and “frankly, odd” writing style.For instance, said pundit Mark Steyn in private conversation with the Cjunk duo Paul and Junker, “Like my assistant already explained to you gentlemen, I’m only signing my books, and I certainly wouldn’t sign your copy of Mein Kampft under any circumstances, now please move along, there are many others waiting behind you.” A master of prose, truly Steyn’s words capture the very essence of Celestial Junk.
With an ever-growing fan base there is a naturally increasing demand for information about the blogging phenomenon that is Celestial Junk. While our feature Celestial Junk: Between the Posts did much to quell the insatiable demand for Cjunk gossip by Junkies (Cjunk fans), we are still continually bombarded with questions. As surely as our mailbox is filled with Cease and Desist letters, Plagiarism Lawsuit declarations, and Restraining Orders from popular right wing pundits, so to it is filled with fan mail and a plethora of questions about CJunk.
So, with much pleasure, we have taken it upon ourselves to post a few of those letters, and answer them to the best of our abilities. Enjoy, and for all you Junkies out there, remember, “Live Long and Procrastinate”.
Q: As a Psychiatrist and fellow writer, I’m curious about where you guys get your ideas? I mean, seriously, what sort of mental instability or childhood trauma produces such twisted, malicious, and scatological editorials? Even as a trained Psycho Annalist and doctor, I cannot even begin to hazard a guess. Please seek professional help.
P.S. I do owe you a minor thanks of sorts; your works provided the cornerstone of the thesis in my Masters term paper Irrational Neurosis and Acute Immorality in Modern Man. Thanks, I guess.
Dr. Diana Thompson
(Address withheld)
A: Hahaha. We’re glad to see the CJunk tradition of wit and humor in writing is alive within our readers. In answer to your question about our inspiration, it would take an entire article to answer completely as we draw our ideas from a plethora of sources. To name just a few: the poetry of Genghis Khan, Hustler magazine, the woefully undervalued Carrot Top, The New Yorker, Rush Limbaugh, the personal memoirs of Henry IIX, The Davinci Code, and country music virtuoso Kenny Rogers.
Q: In your article Malevolence and Satanic Ritual in Modern Liberals I feel that you did nothing to support a great many outrageous claims about the opposite side of the political spectrum. Among many wild accusations, you claim that Hilary Clinton is a Succubus in personal contact with Beelzebub, the New Democratic Party of Canada was founded by witches, and Bill Maher is a werewolf. Having presented these claims, you continued the article with a string of malicious, nonsensical curses and then recommended that your readers go out and purchase large amounts of garlic and a supply of silver bullets. I pray that this sort of insanity is not what has become of the Conservative movement.
Brian Smith
(Address withheld)
A: Well certainly we at Celestial Junk don’t expect to win 100% approval of our controversial articles, that’s why they’re called controversial. You win some and you lose some, it's all part of the business. Besides, we quite frankly don’t want the approval of blood sucking night stalkers like you Brian Smith. So take your Vampirism back to the Blue States where the rest of your wicked ilk lurks. I’m sure with a little monetary contribution the Democratic Party will have a coffin waiting for you. Now be gone dark one!
Q: Hello CJunk. Long time reader, first time writer-inner, and lifelong Junkie. I’d just like to say that your writing is truly an inspiration to me. Reading and re-reading your articles really helps make my time in the bunker fly by. Just like bayonet drills and Spam, you’ve become a part of my daily routine. More than that, you’re my motivation to continue the struggle against “the man”. Never stop writing.
P.S. I’m well armed with silver bullets in a variety of calibers, but I can’t help but feel this might not be enough. Any other suggestions?
Grand Deacon Carl Hobart
Little Falls, Minnesota
A: It’s good to hear from a true fan. And it never ceases to amaze us how many of our readers own their own bunker. As for your question, we have found that the continued verbal recital of a passage of Mark Steyn or Victor Davis Hanson is usually enough to dissuade the most determined Lib-Vampire. Thanks again for the encouraging letter Carl!
Q: The offices of Johnson and Weinstein, representing Mark Steyn, herby present to the above mentioned proprietors and owners of Celestial Junk an Order of Restraint. The details of the order, including full terms of restraint, are attached as Annex 1. Please refer to Criminal Code 11.216 section C for further details. This Order expires 30 Nov 2022. Be advised that this order is a completely separate legal matter from the pending aggravated assault trial involving the above mentioned party.
Johnson and Weinstein Law Firm
New York, New York
A: It’s nice to see that our old pal Mark Steyn hasn’t grown too “big” to write in once and a while, even if he does have his “people” doing the writing. Fantastic to hear from ya Mark! Hope everything is going well. We look forward to meeting you again in court, and hope you have time to throw the ol’ “John Hancock” on a few of our books.
Are You Long or Short Acorn Futures
With economic geniuses like Pelosi in the driver's seat, and The One owing his very existence to Marxist organizations ... I'd go Long:
GOP Members of Congress are objecting to the Democratic stimulus plan that gives millions of dollars to ACORN-- the largest radical Leftist group in America today.This radical group worked closely with the Obama campaign during the election although the community organizing group was not open about this. The photo below was scrubbed from the ACORN website before the election
... click.
Global Warming: It's Too Late
Well, that's it then ... we've screwed things up so bad that the results will be with us for the next 1000 years. It's a fact ... as pure as the sun in the sky and Al Gore's rhetoric ... we are totally screwed:
Somebody give these guys a medal for creating another amazing divining model of wonder. Who needs old science when we have computer models that guarantee the truth. The NOAA can't predict "weather" 6 months out ... but 1000 years of earth's climate is a mere lark for these geniuses.
The pioneering study, led by NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon, shows how changes in surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level are largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are completely stopped. The findings appear during the week of January 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Somebody give these guys a medal for creating another amazing divining model of wonder. Who needs old science when we have computer models that guarantee the truth. The NOAA can't predict "weather" 6 months out ... but 1000 years of earth's climate is a mere lark for these geniuses.
You Want the Truth ... You Can't Handle the Truth
Those who label themselves as "progressives" are embarrassed of their own culture. They've got a strange love affair with "the others", the sometimes primitive, the quaintly backwards; in other words, the not-so-burdened by democracy.
We find it in the green movement, which seeks to destroy the modern economy and return most of the world back to “mother earth”.
We see it in multiculturalism, where all, no matter how out of step with liberal democracy, are welcomed to abide among us.
We see it in UN adoration, where no matter the mind numbing waste, the duplicity, the corruption; the UN is held up as an authority over even the supremacy of the nation state.
We find it where despite what they say, this same class cheered for the failure of America in Iraq and finds any excuse to hand the barbarians in Afghanistan and Pakistan the victory.
We find it in the bizarre refusal of "progressia" to criticize the excesses of "the other", be it Hamas or the Taliban, yet at the same time savage its own for crimes miniscule in comparison.
So it is, that we find “progressives” ambivalent or even cheering on the prosecution of Wilders and raging against those who point to uncomfortable, if not deeply disturbing, facts about Islam.
Alen West:
We find it in the green movement, which seeks to destroy the modern economy and return most of the world back to “mother earth”.
We see it in multiculturalism, where all, no matter how out of step with liberal democracy, are welcomed to abide among us.
We see it in UN adoration, where no matter the mind numbing waste, the duplicity, the corruption; the UN is held up as an authority over even the supremacy of the nation state.
We find it where despite what they say, this same class cheered for the failure of America in Iraq and finds any excuse to hand the barbarians in Afghanistan and Pakistan the victory.
We find it in the bizarre refusal of "progressia" to criticize the excesses of "the other", be it Hamas or the Taliban, yet at the same time savage its own for crimes miniscule in comparison.
So it is, that we find “progressives” ambivalent or even cheering on the prosecution of Wilders and raging against those who point to uncomfortable, if not deeply disturbing, facts about Islam.
Alen West:
I recently read of the travails of my fellow IFPS board member Geert Wilders. A day later my attention was drawn to President Barack Hussein Obama signing an executive order to shut down operations at the Guantanamo detention facility.
The irony struck me that here we have the new President seeking to extend US Constitutional protections to Islamic terrorists, the enemy. We plan to provide them legal rights under the equal protection clause. Yet in Holland, a fellow democracy, the government is ordering the criminal prosecution of an elected representative for exercising one of the Western world’s most precious freedoms, freedom of speech; and in this case, freedom of speech to discuss the jihadist ideology of the enemy.
What is happening in Western civilization? Have we become so enamored with this illness called multiculturalism that we are embarrassed to honor and defend our own cultural principles? Can nothing be more shocking than to charge a member of the Dutch Parliament with “hate speech” for speaking the truth?
Monday, January 26, 2009
Does Obama Hate Himself?
Nothing else could explain why he is so earnest in taking away from others that which he was granted himself:
Now we must suffer with The Big O, because his mother was punished with a child rather than using a Pelosi Doob or a "progressive" inspired partial-birth abortion.
How strange, that using Obama's own standards, he would've been aborted.
Now we must suffer with The Big O, because his mother was punished with a child rather than using a Pelosi Doob or a "progressive" inspired partial-birth abortion.
How strange, that using Obama's own standards, he would've been aborted.
Once a "Victim", Always a Victim
There is just no pleasing some people; no sooner do they have one grievance addressed, than they invent a new one:
Oh well, it's nice to see that the payments at least inspired some creative "blame whitey" out-of-the-box paradigm shifting ... they must've held a focus group to come up with this lark, then managed to get funding to create the "documents". Now only if they could channel their newfound creativity into something constructive.
Coming up next ... compensation for the compensation.
Payments to Indian residential school survivors meant to compensate them for mistreatment have led to suicides, substance abuse and depression across the country, documents obtained by Canwest News Service show.
In B.C. alone, according to a member of one survivor's group, two dozen deaths have been attributed to the payments.
Oh well, it's nice to see that the payments at least inspired some creative "blame whitey" out-of-the-box paradigm shifting ... they must've held a focus group to come up with this lark, then managed to get funding to create the "documents". Now only if they could channel their newfound creativity into something constructive.
Coming up next ... compensation for the compensation.
Pocket Obama: The Little Blue Book
picture: Pocket Obama, from Mao to OWhen you first examine the "Little Blue Book", you think it's a joke, or a parody ... and then it hits you ... these people are for real, they are dead serious.
Here's a sample from inside the Little Blue Book.
"In order to master the President's ideology, it is essential to study many of the basic concepts over and over again, and it is best to memorize important statements and apply them repeatedly. Learn earnestly and diligently."
It's sold out ... Obama, bringing Latin America and Mao to the US of A.
The publisher's page ... click.
ht: My beloved little piranha fish and her partners in crime.
Update: ... Malkin comments section:
I’m certain this “‘Little Blue Book” is only a joke. I mean I think it’s a joke. Actually, I just hope its a joke.From the Publishers Site:
The problem with the Mighty “O” is that you don’t know for sure until it’s too late.
... there is nothing on the company site that suggests that Pocket Obama is meant to "mock" The One. Pocket Obama is meant to commemorate history. It has an ISBN number and will find its way onto library bookshelves. As of this writing, Pocket Obama is "sold out" ... I'm sure it's conservatives who went out and bought copies ... it'll go perfectly with their Pocket Biography of The One and A Christmas Gift.For over 10 years, we've offered an uncommon range of products that provide a brilliant glimpse of our uniquely American creativity and ingenuity, craftsmanship and style. In the process, we have been able to share the legacy of our roots in the form of fascinating, sometimes quirky gifts, for keeping or giving. At HISTORY COMPANY, the past becomes a present.
Amazing, considering that The One hasn't done anything of note prior to becoming president other than pal with terrorists, Marxists, and Chicago thugs. His first acts of note as Pres were to bomb Pakistan, fund condoms, legalize partial birth abortion, have a hissy over Rush, and offer his first interview to Arabs. Hope and change indeed.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Dam Swindle
So far PM Harper has resisted ... but how long can he stand when the Marxists to the South start mailing billions to "poor" Chinese thugs?
The hydroelectric dam, a low wall of concrete slicing across an old farming valley, is supposed to help a power company in distant Germany contribute to saving the climate — while putting lucrative "carbon credits" into the pockets of Chinese developers.
But in the end the new Xiaoxi dam may do nothing to lower global-warming emissions as advertised. And many of the 7,500 people displaced by the project still seethe over losing their homes and farmland.
"Nobody asked if we wanted to move," said a 38-year-old man whose family lost a small brick house. "The government just posted a notice that said, 'Your home will be demolished.'" …
Similar stories are repeated across China and elsewhere around the world, as hundreds of hydro projects line up for carbon credits, at a potential cost of billions to Europeans, Japanese and soon perhaps Americans, in a trading system a new U.S. government review concludes has "uncertain effects" on greenhouse-gas emissions.
One American expert is more blunt.
"The CDM" — the 4-year-old, U.N.-managed Clean Development Mechanism — "is an excessive subsidy that represents a massive waste of developed world resources," says Stanford University's Michael Wara.
Will Bloggers Save Holland?
Gates of Vienna:
But I think our multicultural friends have bitten off far more than they can chew. For, can we change? Yes, we can! And even better: we are already changing! There is a very good reason why the left can’t manage the Internet. Remember the times when a newspaper bluntly stated “this or that has a 95% approval rate”? You knew it was wrong. Everybody you talked with said so. But nothing was and could be done about it. Yes, you could write a letter to the editor. Usually it would not be printed. If it was, nine out of ten selected letters supported the approval rating. Yours was added for variety’s sake.
Enter the Internet. “Wilders will be indicted”. Headline in De Telegraaf. Within one hour (!) eight thousand comments adorned the article supporting Wilders. The blogging world, at least in Holland is currently almost overloaded. People investigate who are the judges, the accusers and the whole case. Facts that are normally hidden are suddenly published for everybody to see. The official plea (pdf) ‘magically’ dropped in somebody’s mailbox.
It's an O-gasm
It’s the day after the election. Oprah Winfrey and her guests were quivering with O-gasmic delight.Actor Forest Whitaker said, “The light of the New Age is here.”
Oprah gal pal Gayle King said, “Not only does he hear us. He feels us…he talks to my soul.”
Whitaker saw King’s goofy comment and raised her one by saying, “It’s okay to love” again thanks to the Obamas.
Nutcase historian Doris Kearns Goodwin piped in by saying it’s “extraordinary” to have a president care about history.
But the award for most o-gasmic comment of the day went to Ali Wentworth, wife of ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who, with a straight face, claimed: “I took the Metro. And everyone was singing Amazing Grace.”
Yes Indeed, if this Continues ...
... Canadian Soldiers Died in Vain!
The other day we bruised the tender feelings of some by suggesting that Holland is now spitting on the memory of those Canadians who died for her freedom. Why? Because she refuses to learn the lessons of WW2, and is demostrating a stunning lack of understanding of what freedom is.
As more details leak out each day as to what is going on in Holland in regards to freedom of expression and speech, and how "freedom" is being applied in appallingly unequal ways, we, at Cjunk, grow ever more confident in our criticism of the Dutch.
The other day we bruised the tender feelings of some by suggesting that Holland is now spitting on the memory of those Canadians who died for her freedom. Why? Because she refuses to learn the lessons of WW2, and is demostrating a stunning lack of understanding of what freedom is.
As more details leak out each day as to what is going on in Holland in regards to freedom of expression and speech, and how "freedom" is being applied in appallingly unequal ways, we, at Cjunk, grow ever more confident in our criticism of the Dutch.
They have changed the laws here about free speech. It is illegal to say anything "hurtful to Islam". So far Bloggers, YT account holders, web site owners, have been hauled in for questioning, and shown the error of their ways. If they will not capitulate they are told they are not allowed an internet connection in their homes. (over 1,000 people have been denied the web)
All cartoons and editorial pieces about Islam must be GOVERNMENT APPROVED before publication. A few months ago they hauled a respected editorial cartoonist out of his bed at three A.M. My mother in law who has no idea what's going on anymore said "why are you all talking about the nazis . Are they back?" The nazis had the same approval "kamer"
How Can You Tell the World is Warming?
By watching Antarctica .. that's how:
Brilliant ... simply brilliant. It's a win - win ... for no matter what happens, Ice Age or the Global Warming Fever from Hell, the models predicted it all.
And you wonder why we mock Warmists as being cultists or religious in their fervour. Magic bones and virgin's hair have simply been replaced by tree rings and magical calculations so divine that they shall not be shared with but the most worthy.
So a warming Antarctica and a cooling Antarctica are both “consistent with” model projections of global warming.
Brilliant ... simply brilliant. It's a win - win ... for no matter what happens, Ice Age or the Global Warming Fever from Hell, the models predicted it all.
And you wonder why we mock Warmists as being cultists or religious in their fervour. Magic bones and virgin's hair have simply been replaced by tree rings and magical calculations so divine that they shall not be shared with but the most worthy.
Global Warming Knight Little More Than a Wizard
... who uses smoke and mirrors to enrich himself, and shill for Al Gore who gave him prominence in the first place.
Dr. James (Jail the Deniers) Hansen:
Dr. James (Jail the Deniers) Hansen:
On the other hand, with a plethora of issues with GISS data, including adjustments to pristine data, failing to catch obviously corrupted data, significant errors in splicing and reporting pointed out by bloggers, and pronouncements from the man himself that such people are “jesters” and that vandals in England should be defended and energy company executives should be put on trial, one wonders if Hansen really wasn’t just speaking his mind.
Setting Our Racist and Bigoted Record Straight
Dear Friends:
We at Celestial Junk have found it necessary to defend our honour in the face of charges of the most heinous kind ... those of bigotry and racism. The onslaught has some from incredibly well placed and powerful sources ... shaking our very foundations and determination to continue on.
So well considered and sophisticated are the charges, that we have seen fit to respond on these pages ... not only to rescue our honour, but to stave off any investigation by that most august of institutions, The Canada's Human Rights Commission:
Thus, we share with you the most carefully crafted of accusations ... the ones we will indeed, find most difficult to repel. The following is offered up to you, dear reader, so that you may gain understanding of the erudite and penetrating nature of the accusations levelled against this blog, and by extension, its more than 13 million loyal readers.
The rising star among Canadian "progressive" intellectuals is one who goes by the pseudonym, Canadian Cynic. This academic receives endorsements from the likes of journalistic giant, Antonia Zerbisias and commands a following whose members, to the say the least, are among Canada's most highbrow and elite:
We at Celestial Junk have found it necessary to defend our honour in the face of charges of the most heinous kind ... those of bigotry and racism. The onslaught has some from incredibly well placed and powerful sources ... shaking our very foundations and determination to continue on.
So well considered and sophisticated are the charges, that we have seen fit to respond on these pages ... not only to rescue our honour, but to stave off any investigation by that most august of institutions, The Canada's Human Rights Commission:
Thus, we share with you the most carefully crafted of accusations ... the ones we will indeed, find most difficult to repel. The following is offered up to you, dear reader, so that you may gain understanding of the erudite and penetrating nature of the accusations levelled against this blog, and by extension, its more than 13 million loyal readers.
The rising star among Canadian "progressive" intellectuals is one who goes by the pseudonym, Canadian Cynic. This academic receives endorsements from the likes of journalistic giant, Antonia Zerbisias and commands a following whose members, to the say the least, are among Canada's most highbrow and elite:
You can masturbate all you want to the idea of members of the CF killing civilians, don't expect anybody else to thinks if right.
Fuck you. Fuck you in the neck Paul, you war glorifying fascist pig.
As shocking you may find this accusation, dear reader, it is as mere candle light in the presence of the sun in comparison to what follows. Most sadly, this accusation springs from the fount of academic genius among Canadian "progressives", the one place where one can find, on any given day, a gathering of brilliance that even Noam Chomsky himself would admire and feel humbled to be among. That source, goes by the dignified pseudonym, Red Tory:
Meaning of course, that he [Paul of Celestial Junk] is a grade-A mean spirited anti-Muslim bigot. His apologists attitude toward the Germans seems to indicate a touch of neo-Nazi sympathies. How much do you want to bet a lot of those history book were written by David Irving…
Fuck You Paul. Fuck you in the neck.
Perhaps our readers might, at this point, assist us in one trite matter. It would appear that "progressive" intellectuals ascribe great significance to the neck region. Why could this be?
Nevertheless, in order to clear the air and set the record straight, we endeavour today to repost our biography. It is, our story ... our history, as it were, and we trust that once read and considered, our readers, and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, will understand more fully the true nature of this blog:
Nevertheless, in order to clear the air and set the record straight, we endeavour today to repost our biography. It is, our story ... our history, as it were, and we trust that once read and considered, our readers, and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, will understand more fully the true nature of this blog:
Often, readers inquire about the origins and methods of Celestial Junk. While most fans, and indeed the greater blogging collective, are familiar with the hard hitting and award winning blog posts of Celestial Junk, they crave to know what goes on behind the scenes at this blogging leviathan called Cjunk. They yearn to know, what makes Celestial Junk tick, and where did it all begin? As a result, we have decided to illuminate that which has till now been somewhat murky, and we guarantee that all of our reader’s enduring bewilderments shall be answered. We are this day proud to present to you, the judicious readers of Celestial Junk, a full expose of the history and behind the scenes workings of this, our beloved blog. Without further distraction, we present to you in glorious Technicolor®: Celestial Junk: Between the Posts.Timosh Vladoslav Nedvyed (translated Tim Vlad Bear), came into the world in 1923 just outside of the small Czechoslovakian boarder town of Ostrava. He was born the bastard child of an unsuccessful Moravian turbots farmer and a drifting Bohemian tramp, or as they called them in Czechoslovakia, velka holka (big woman). Bear lived a commoner’s childhood, typical of the era. He spent his mornings collecting lichens from mountain rocks to feed the turbots and in the evenings he “scraped” the fish to collect their valuable slime which was sold as a powerful industrial binding agent. Today, Bear professes that he first gained a disdain for Liberals while working with those cold-blooded bottom-feeders.
Bear’s family was forced to leave the ‘old country’ during the great mad-turbot disease outbreak of ’37. After several years of traveling, they settled in the blossoming western Canadian township of Saskatoon. Here, a young Bear found himself engulfed at the epicenter of Canada’s political scene. While he was always to be found at the core of any political discussion, it wasn’t until the early 50’s that Bear became officially involved in politics. In 1952 , he ran as the candidate for the National Conservative People’s Popular Christian Alliance Front(political wing)[the NCPPCAF(p.w.)] in a heated bi-election for the 2nd seat councilman of the Sutherland township assembly of NNE Saskatoon. While he did manage to garnish a respectable 7.8% of the vote, it wasn’t enough. Disgusted with “official” politics, Bear gave up on his pursuit of elected officialdom.
It was shortly after, that a basket was left at Bear’s small apartment door. The basket contained a tiny infant. An attached note left little doubt that the mother of the child was one of Bear’s many lady acquaintances; either the prostitute he had met once while on vacation in Estevan Saskatchewan, or one of several such lady friends from Saskatoon’s dingy west end. Nevertheless, Bear raised his new son, Phillmore Wentworth Richtenstein Bear. Young Phillmore grew up to be as politically savvy and inspired as his father.
Young Phillmore
Said Karl Rove at the time, “Hot damn those boys have really got something. This is going to revolutionize the way we think about politics.” And indeed, it did.
The “golden” first post at Celestial Junk made waves across the political spectrum. It was entitled simply “F*ck Off You Scrotum Sucking Commie Wanks!” While it consisted mostly of incoherent and indecipherable ramblings and a poorly scanned pencil sketch of Ronald Reagan giving Gorbachev the finger, it took the world by storm. From that day on, pedestrian political speech was no longer denigrated to the coffee-shop; it was mainstream, and people everywhere stood up and took notice.
Recollects Vice President Dick Cheney, “The moment Celestial Junk hit the web, politicians everywhere had to reconsider their entire role in society. What Celestial Junk did, is it brought the mad traditionalist ramblings of a nut-job to the common man. This hit the public harder than a cardiac arrest and transformed politics into something more complicated than quadruple bypass surgery.”
The much lauded “second post” received just as much acclaim. Quaintly titled “I F*cking Hate Commie Pigs!”, it garnered Celestial Junk a record 27 hits, and assured “the boys of Cjunk” the title of Kings of the Blogosphere.
To this day, Bear and son Phillmore, AKA Paul and Junker, insist that their thought processes and constructive methods have hardly changed since the early days. They have simply built upon that first “golden post”. Each day of blogging begins when the stalwart writers meet at the Celestial Junk Production and Publication Studio (Bear’s basement computer room). Here the creators begin to brainstorm their ideas for the day. Topics of discussion vary greatly, ranging from “why commies suck” to “how much commies suck”. Lunch hour is spent burning off a little of the friction worked up during the brainstorming session. The stress relief activities usually involve shooting old toilets in the backyard or burning great piles of “Macleans Magazine”, “Green Peace Pamphlets” and the “New York Times” with diesel fuel.
Returning from lunch, the writing and posting begins. In the early days of Celestial Junk, cumbersome proof-reading and spell-checking were quickly dispelled with, as the creators felt they only burdened the “raw” feel they were going after. To this day, no proof-reading is done on any Celestial Junk posts. The authors feel this distinguishes them from other writers who are considered “conventional”, “established”, and “skilled”. And the critics agree. Celestial Junk has been called, “odd”, “peculiar”, and “completely incomprehensible”.
Finally, late in the day with the clock ticking, the final hard copy of a post is sent over the wires and published online at Celestial Junk. The always bold and hard-hitting commentary is eagerly devoured by the readership, and another day at Celestial Junk wraps up. Its grueling work, but nothing is more satisfying to the “boys of Cjunk”.
Currently, the longevity of Celestial Junk is not in question. The authors vow to keep “fighting the good fight”, and indeed there is no reason for us to believe otherwise, even though Bear recently celebrated his 82nd birthday. Says political commentator Rush Limbaugh of the staying power of Celestial Junk, “There’s no doubt about it, ‘Junk’ will be around for decades to come. Those fellows are as tenacious as they are insane.” Or, as the leggie Anne Coulter once confided to Bill O’Reilly of Fox, “That Ol’Bear, he’s pretty hot… I’d love to see him shoot his gun, or both he and Phillmore for that matter!”
Indeed. Like the slime harvested from an east-Czechoslovakian turbot, the monolith that is Celestial Junk is sure to stick with us for a very long time to come.
Phillmore Wentworth Richtenstein Bear at a Moravian cultural event.
Timosh Vladoslav Nedvyed, remarkably sensual and attractive at the age of 82.
I Have a Dream
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Where are the Investors?
Every day that I trade in the stock market, I see it ... it's there in the lines being drawn by many of the tools I use. Trillions of dollars have been pulled out of the market ... and as we speak, they ain't coming back. These aren't losses I'm talking about, these are great riches whose owners refuse to risk them.
One of the obvious reasons for the lack of risk-taking is that investors don't trust that all the hidden dirt within the financial markets has yet floated to the top. Just this past week, Bank of America had to be bailed out simply because it had bought Merrill Lynch. How's that for a confidence builder? One of the biggest banks in the world which was shaken but not broken by the financial crisis, knowingly and willingly put itself into critical condition by buying something it couldn't afford. And then, on command, the Feds moved in to bail it out. Investors though, saw their stocks crash and their dividends slashed to next to nothing.
Yet, there are those who will make out like bandits ... they're the insiders ... the public and private officials who knew it was coming, who allowed it to happen, and who set it up. Do you wonder why B of A board members were buying common stock like drunken sailors the day after B of A stock crashed; not prior to. While others were having their retirements destroyed or threatened, these blood suckers were setting themselves up for future riches guaranteed by the USA government.
Sometimes it'd be great just being a fly on the wall in Barney Franks love shack ... one of many flies I’m sure.
They are parked on the sidelines ... parked there even though the whole market is one big shopping mall full of great buys. They are parked, even though interest rates are now at all time lows and there is no place to gain ground in secured savings accounts. They are parked, because they don't trust that those in charge are ... actually in charge.
It started with Fanny and Freddie, when Barney told us all that Fanny was solid just before her common stock was destroyed by the Feds. Oh sure, I bet Barney's buds did great ... they likely bought short a few day prior ... but the rest of the world got hosed. Entire institutions like Sovereign Bank Corporation and Farmer Mac were put at risk because they had "wisely" invested in the two Fed giants. The world was shaken so badly that an incredible run on stocks followed in every world market ... a run that continued in surges until just before Christmas 08.
So here we are, at the bottom of a stock market crash, just waiting for the trillion withdrawn dollars to re-enter once again. Only time will tell, but it's my guess that it’ll be some time before the owners of that dough will risk it. In the mean time, even solid firms are finding hard to protect their stocks values, deepening an already ugly recession.
For a fantastic follow-up read on the implications of having a completely inexperienced Marxist frat-boy in charge ... click.
One of the obvious reasons for the lack of risk-taking is that investors don't trust that all the hidden dirt within the financial markets has yet floated to the top. Just this past week, Bank of America had to be bailed out simply because it had bought Merrill Lynch. How's that for a confidence builder? One of the biggest banks in the world which was shaken but not broken by the financial crisis, knowingly and willingly put itself into critical condition by buying something it couldn't afford. And then, on command, the Feds moved in to bail it out. Investors though, saw their stocks crash and their dividends slashed to next to nothing.
Yet, there are those who will make out like bandits ... they're the insiders ... the public and private officials who knew it was coming, who allowed it to happen, and who set it up. Do you wonder why B of A board members were buying common stock like drunken sailors the day after B of A stock crashed; not prior to. While others were having their retirements destroyed or threatened, these blood suckers were setting themselves up for future riches guaranteed by the USA government.
Sometimes it'd be great just being a fly on the wall in Barney Franks love shack ... one of many flies I’m sure.
Insider: "pst ... hey Barney ... we want to buy Merrill ... it'll sink us, but if you guys bail us out, we'll make a killing when we buy then flip the undervalued stock in about 2012. It'll work as long as you guys bail us out ... what do you say?"In the meanwhile, regular investors, that all critical mass of people in the middle who need some place to park their savings and retirements, have lost faith in Barney, Bush, and all the rest of the big players. And, you can't blame them.
Barney Frank: "Great plan ... and by the way, thanks for any future contributions to my campaign."
They are parked on the sidelines ... parked there even though the whole market is one big shopping mall full of great buys. They are parked, even though interest rates are now at all time lows and there is no place to gain ground in secured savings accounts. They are parked, because they don't trust that those in charge are ... actually in charge.
It started with Fanny and Freddie, when Barney told us all that Fanny was solid just before her common stock was destroyed by the Feds. Oh sure, I bet Barney's buds did great ... they likely bought short a few day prior ... but the rest of the world got hosed. Entire institutions like Sovereign Bank Corporation and Farmer Mac were put at risk because they had "wisely" invested in the two Fed giants. The world was shaken so badly that an incredible run on stocks followed in every world market ... a run that continued in surges until just before Christmas 08.
So here we are, at the bottom of a stock market crash, just waiting for the trillion withdrawn dollars to re-enter once again. Only time will tell, but it's my guess that it’ll be some time before the owners of that dough will risk it. In the mean time, even solid firms are finding hard to protect their stocks values, deepening an already ugly recession.
For a fantastic follow-up read on the implications of having a completely inexperienced Marxist frat-boy in charge ... click.
Wilders Case Just Part of a Progression
History never repeats itself exactly, but what it does is teach us lessons that should assist us in our conceptualizing of modern problems and in forming more effective solutions.
Western European attempted to stave off conflict in the 30s by ushered in a shortlived era of appeasment and refusal to build alliances. The Dutch, being cheif among those who trusted that being nice would save them were simply rolled over by armegedon when it came.
Did they learn anything?
It would appear not:
Western European attempted to stave off conflict in the 30s by ushered in a shortlived era of appeasment and refusal to build alliances. The Dutch, being cheif among those who trusted that being nice would save them were simply rolled over by armegedon when it came.
Did they learn anything?
It would appear not:
Bruce Bawer has weighed in on the plight of Geert Wilders. He says that this decision to prosecute Wilders was not “out of the blue” but part an ongoing progression:…a long, shameful process of accommodating Islam — and of increasingly aggressive attempts to silence Islam’s critics-on the part of the Dutch establishment.Such knowledge makes Wilders’ prosecution all the more dismal and daunting to contemplate.
Integration ... Not on Your Life
... at least in the UK:
MUSLIMS want to create their own communities and remain segregated from British society.
A shocking 44% think they should be free to develop along separate lines.
But critics claim Muslims will create their own ghettos if they are left to their own devices.
The poll found religion has replaced race as the biggest equality issue, with six in 10 Brits thinking it is more divisive. Mass tension has grown following terror attacks from Muslim fanatics, including the 7/7 Tube bombings in 2005.
I'm Only Human
... but excuse me while I act like a god:
For nearly three months since the election, we have been warned by President Obama, his staff, and the media not to burden him with unreal expectations that no mere mortal could meet.
But why then consciously borrow from Abraham Lincoln’s speeches?And why re-create Lincoln’s historic train ride to his inauguration—especially by flying back from Washington to Illinois to then return to D.C. by slow-moving railcar? Lincoln took the train because it was the only feasible way to get to Washington in 1861, not to copy the grand arrival of some earlier American savior.
Is That a Ghetto Thug Speaking?
... or the President of the United States of America?President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.Hope and change, indeed ... booyakasha!
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.
[...]
In an exchange with Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) about the proposal, the president shot back: "I won," according to aides briefed on the meeting.
"I will trump you on that."
Friday, January 23, 2009
Warmists are Like Mice on a Treadmill
Have you noticed the increasingly shrill rants coming from warmists ... like the one by James Hansen that The Big O has only 4 years to act on AGW or it'll be too late. It's a marvel of science I'm sure, that the 4 years to act coencide perfectly with The Big O's first term ... amazing really.
There is a reason for the shrillness though ... mother nature is not cooperating, the liars, cheats, and just plain stupid are running out of time to sell the canard:
There is a reason for the shrillness though ... mother nature is not cooperating, the liars, cheats, and just plain stupid are running out of time to sell the canard:
... click.Consider the case of Dr. Joanne Simpson described as follows: “the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology, and formerly of NASA, who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.” Then consider her statement. “Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical...The main basis of the claim that man’s release of greenhouse gases is the cause of the warming is based almost entirely upon climate models. We all know the frailty of models concerning the air-surface system.” No, we don’t all know the frailty of the models! Certainly most of the media and thereby the public and politicians don’t know, otherwise the latter would not be planning completely unnecessary, incredibly expensive and society altering policies. But the opening comment is actually frightening and speaks to why the scam has progressed so far. “Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receive any funding, I can speak quite frankly.”
[...]
Hansen must know that if the cooling trend continues, as many scientists anticipate, he is in a dangerous position. When a bureaucrat convinces a politician of a scientific position, as Hansen has so forcefully done with Gore and Obama, and they make it a major part of their political positions he is on a treadmill. He has to keep spinning the story and avoid the facts while increasing the threats. Further, Hansen must make sure political actions he advocates, such as carbon taxes, must be implemented before more cooling occurs and Obama’s four-year term ends.
Antarctic Warming? ... Hold the Presses
In the last while ... and in the very near future, a recent "study" that points to Antarctic warming is going to be used as a cudgel to force warmist legislation through Congress.
Before you swallow the "study" hook line and sinker ... read this:
... but then, what would poor Ross know, he's just intimately familiar with Antarctica.
Source
... and when you're done with the "source" ... continue here.
Before you swallow the "study" hook line and sinker ... read this:
Eric,
Let me first say that this is my own opinion and does not represent the agency I work for. I feel your study is absolutely wrong.
There are very few stations in Antarctica to begin with and only a hand full with 50 years of data. Satellite data is just approaching thirty years of available information. In my experience as a day to day forecaster that has to travel and do field work in Antarctica the summer seasons have been getting colder. In the late 1980s helicopters were used to take our personnel to Williams Field from McMurdo Station due to the annual receding of the Ross Ice Shelf, but in the past few years the thaw has been limited and vehicles can continue to make the transition and drive on the ice. One climate note to pass along is December 2006 was the coldest December ever for McMurdo Station. In a synoptic perspective the cooler sea surface temperatures have kept the maritime storms farther offshore in the summer season and the colder more dense air has rolled from the South Pole to the ice shelf.
There was a paper presented at the AMS Conference in New Orleans last year noting over 70% of the continent was cooling due to the ozone hole. We launch balloons into the stratosphere and the anticyclone that develops over the South Pole has been displaced and slow to establish itself over the past five seasons. The pattern in the troposphere has reflected this trend with more maritime (warmer) air around the Antarctic Peninsula which is also where most of the automated weather stations are located for West Antarctica which will give you the average warmer readings and skew the data for all of West Antarctica.With statistics you can make numbers go to almost any conclusion you want. It saddens me to see members of the scientific community do this for media coverage.
Sincerely,
Ross Hays
... but then, what would poor Ross know, he's just intimately familiar with Antarctica.
Source
... and when you're done with the "source" ... continue here.
Why Canadian Soldiers Gun Them Down
... because "they" gun down teachers:
And in other news, Saudi officials are urging the UN to take action on Taliban excesses ... Just kidding! They actually cheered when they heard this one ... click.A teacher who once fought as a mujahideen against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan has been gunned down by the Taliban in Pakistan's troubled Swat valley for not hiking up his 'salwar' or trousers above his ankles.Though the Pakistani Taliban have not issued any edict for the salwar to be worn in this manner, there have been reports of the militants threatening men for not hiking up their trousers.
The militants say hiking up the trousers is essential for offering prayers.
The Torch in Afghanistan
... this piece is loaded with good stuff, so keep reading.I'd almost forgotten what oh-dark-thirty looked like, slack and idle civvie that I am now. And even when I was in, I was never the morning type.
But I wanted to get some groceries in my gate before the 0600 O group for the patrol Laroche and I had been attached to got started, so I dragged my carcass to the Camp Nathan Smith mess and scarfed something back. Guys complained about the monotony of the food, but I found it pretty tasty and the portions were more than ample.
Echoes of Vietnam
I often mocked out efforts by the "progressive" class to compare Iraq to Vietnam ... I did the same when "progressives" delighting in comparing Afghanistan to the same South Asian conflict.
I must admit though, that in Afghanistan, there are indeed eerie similarities:
I must admit though, that in Afghanistan, there are indeed eerie similarities:
The Taliban have established shadow governments throughout Afghanistan, with provincial and militarily leaders appointed to command activities. Last week, the Taliban claimed to be in control of more than 70 percent of Afghanistan's rural areas and established shadow governments in 31 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
More Strikes in Cambodiastan
Not that many years ago it would've been considered the stuff of science fiction to have aerial drones delivering destruction to targets with an accuracy every bit as lethal as any manned (or is it personed) vehicle could deliver.
I often wonder how psychologically devastating it must be to know that it is robots that are killing you. Even if you manage to bring one down ... what have you got ... just a robot.
The ISAF robot war is just another reason why we have no excuse but to win in Afghanistan ... only the whimpering temerity of "progressives" clamouring to pull out can prevent a win in Afghanistan. The enemy knows this, so it's IED war has little or no military signifance other than to impact the Western "Progressive":
I often wonder how psychologically devastating it must be to know that it is robots that are killing you. Even if you manage to bring one down ... what have you got ... just a robot.
The ISAF robot war is just another reason why we have no excuse but to win in Afghanistan ... only the whimpering temerity of "progressives" clamouring to pull out can prevent a win in Afghanistan. The enemy knows this, so it's IED war has little or no military signifance other than to impact the Western "Progressive":
The US launched two airstrkes inside of Paksitan's tribal areas on Friday, ending a three week lull in attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda networks inside Pakistan. Twenty people, including "foreigners" have been reported killed in the Predator strikes in the Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan.
The first attack took place in the town of Zera just outside of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. Three Hellfire missiles are reported to have struck a compound run by a local named Khalil, killing ten people.
The second strike took place in the town of Gangi Khel near Wana in Sourth Waziristan. Two Hellfire missiles were launched at a compound, killing ten more people.
Insulting Canadian World War 2 Dead (update)
picture: Dutch Jews being rounded up. Today, Islamists and other groups are allowed to mock and threaten Jews; while Wilders gets charged.The Dutch were notorious during WW2 for rolling over and playing dead when the Nazis came calling. Sure, they were a tiny little country full of pretty girls with wooden shoes and handsome men more adept at making pancakes than war. But, they didn't have to deliver their Jews up for slaughter, outdoing even the yellow French in providing the Nazis with lots of "Cyclon B" victims.
Nevertheless, Canadian soldier "volunteers" were tasked with clearing much of Holland and they died in droves doing so. My step-son's great uncle has a bridge named after him there ... where he died of course.
I wonder what he'd think were he alive today, to find that Dutch "progressives" have completely forgotten the price that foreigners paid for their freedom? In fact, it appears for all intents and purposes that they don't understand what freedom is:
On 21 January 2009 the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam ordered the criminal prosecution of the member of parliament Geert Wilders for the incitement to hatred and discrimination based on his statements in various media about moslims and their belief. In addition, the Court of Appeal considers criminal prosecution obvious for the insult of Islamic worshippers because of the comparisons made by Wilders of the islam with the nazism.Spencer
Atlas
... and even more from EU Ref:
I am looking forward to the prosecution of all those who compare Israel to Nazi Germany, the fighting in Gaza to the Holocaust and all Jews to members of the SS, as well as the prosecution of all those who scream that Hitler's work must be finished and all Jews should be sent back to the gas ovens. But I will not hold my breath.Gates of Vienna ... click
Update: Some readers are taking exception to my blunt and harsh assessment of the Dutch, especially in relation to WW2.
It is true that the Dutch suffered under the Germans in WW2 ... but they suffered no more than most of those under the German boot. It is true that many Dutch sought to save Jews during the occupation, and many died as a result.
But, it is also true that without Dutch complicity, the Germans could've in no way murdered 70% of Dutch Jews. How soon we forget that Ann Frank, being a symbol of the Dutch Jew in WW2, died because her family was turned in ... not because a German raid discovered her hiding place. This story was repeated over and over again thousands of times where Dutch turned in Dutch.
The experience of the Second World War left Dutch society searching for a national identity from which a new period in their history could begin. This identity was built upon the heroic stories of resistance in the Netherlands to the Nazi regime and the belief that Dutch society had stood by and protected its Jewish citizens. While individual acts of heroism and resistance certainly existed, the formation of a national myth focused upon these acts and extending this heroism to describe the entire Dutch nation obfuscated the truth of the war experience. By attempting to create a story of national unity and solidarity, the national myth has ignored the crucial differences between Jews and non-Jews in their experiences of the war. While the attempt to demystify the past is a crucial step for Dutch society in moving forward while not forgetting the past, it is also vital that Jewish survivors are not simply labeled as victims. These people must be respected as individuals and must not be identified solely as victims. To do so would be to expose them to the same process of identity construction that has formed the myth, where Jewish identity was constructed and therefore Jewish suffering was denied.The point is, that the holocaust wasn't just a German Nazis crime ... it was a pan-European crime in which the Dutch participated more surely than Canadians particpated in the internment of the Japanese or the native residential school system. The Dutch were complicite even while many resisted. The Dutch are not innocent of the holocaust any more than Germans are not innocent. Germany provided the infrastructure and administration ... Europe provided the manpower.
Today, we find the Dutch once again unwilling to defend the basic right to free speech, for while Muslim and radical mobs can march under police protection taunting Jews proclaiming that Jews need more time in the ovens ... Wilders gets charged. The Dutch today need not die for freedom as our men died for them, yet they are failing even this basic test in defending freedom.
The Netherlands is still troubled by guilt over the wartime Nazi collaboration of its authorities and deportation of all but a fraction of its Jewish population, as well as hundreds of Gypsies and homosexuals.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende strongly condemned complicity in the Holocaust, saying the Netherlands had failed to show much compassion when Jews who survived death camps returned.
The government apologized for that in 2000. But Holocaust survivors say the apologies come too late.
"We have to accept them, although it's a bit too late," said Bloeme Evers Emden, who was deported from Rotterdam to Auschwitz by NS trains when she was 17.
"I fear that there is no lesson (from the Holocaust) because anti-Semitism is rising in Europe and even in the rest of the world. But maybe people who are traveling with NS will read the posters and think about it," Emden, 79, said at the ceremony.
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