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Selling blood plasma for gas money?

Posted by Catmman on Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:50:47 AM
 
Why not ride your bike to work?  Carpool?  Get a bus pass?  Walk? 
 
 
Correspondent Jeff Glor then reported on how, "...desperate times call for desperate measures. Some people are doing anything they can to save on gas, while others are trying to avoid buying gas altogether." As one example, Glor highlighted a woman from San Antonio, Texas named Jessica Busby: "Then there's Jessica Busby, using her bike to get to a blood donation center two times a week. She pumps out her own blood, making $40 a pop so she has enough money to pump gas."
 
Jessica Busby, 19, is one of a growing number of people that are donating some of their blood’s plasma for gas money.
 
The growing numbers of people doing this for gas money?  Give me a frickin break!  These stories really tick me off.  I'm supposed to get all mushy feeling for this person?  I live in San Antonio just like this moron.  San Antonio is pretty spread out, but give me a break.  I have three kids, a mortgage, two car notes, bills, and pay for gas just like everyone else.  I commute forty miles to work each day round trip - that's 200 miles a week, 800 miles a month.  And I still manage to have enough money to fill up my cars, even with the higher prices - and not have to sell off my bodily fluids to pay for it..
 
How many people, really, have adjusted their lives to accomodate the price of gas?  I mean really adjusted?  Not just cutting out some driving, but actually having to make serious, drastic steps to account for the higher fuel costs.  I know it is less than is being hyped by the media.  I'm not saying there aren't people having to make adjustments, but this is this persons ONLY recourse?
 
And the math doesn't add up.  If she is really doing this twice a week, every week - that's $320 dollars in gas a month!  I don't spend that much money on gas filling up two cars with all the driving my family and I do.  Granted I don't drive a SUV to work.  I drive a Chevy Cavalier.  And we also have a V6 minivan.  And we put over a 1000 miles a month on both cars.  And I live in the same town this person does and drive many miles to work every month.
 
I call bullshinola!
 
Busby said she was “totally strapped for cash” and needed to find a way to keep her gas tank full.
 
If I had to guess, this person is living WAY outside her means - like most Americans, and is unwilling to make REAL (though hard) adjustments to her lifestyle.  I bet even money she has a cell phone.  Does she have cable TV?  I find it interesting there is no mention of the type of vehicle she drives in the story - is it an SUV?  A sports car?  It is most assuredly more vehicle than she needs if she is having this much trouble filling it up.
 
Gas here in San Antonio is only a dollar more a gallon than it was a year ago.  So on average (depending on which vehicle) I'm spending about $50-$75 more a month on gas than a year ago for TWO vehicles.  Yes, that's $50-$75 I could be spending on other things but it is hardly enough to cause my family a financial crises.
 
I found this little nugget on the Democratic Underground left by a commenter:
 
I can only hope the Dem nominee and a Dem congress can start to turn this sluggish supertanker of an economy around.
This person is kidding right?  It's under a Dem congress that the gas prices have skyrocketed!  Show me where the government has involved itself in anything and made it cheaper! 
 
I'm sure there is more to this story, but as is typical the MSM doesn't offer too many details. 
 
Just enough info for a sob story to push an agenda.
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Trapped in Arctic Ice...which shouldn't be there

Posted by Catmman on Thursday, May 29, 2008 10:31:33 AM
Irony, it seems, is a dish that is best served cold.
 
And it is very cold in the Arctic...
 
The ice master studies the mountains of white packed around the ship while the 24,000-horsepower diesel engines work at full throttle to open a path. The ship rises slowly onto the barrier of ice, crushes it and tosses aside blocks the size of small cars as if they were ice cubes in a glass. It creeps ahead a few metres, then comes to a halt, its bow firmly wedged in the ice. After doing this for two days, the ship can go no farther.
 
The ice master confers with the captain, who makes a call to the engine room. The engines are shut down. He turns to those of us watching the drama unfold, and we are shocked by his words: "Now, only nature can help this ship." We are doomed to drift.
 
What irony. I am a passenger on one of the most powerful icebreakers in the world, travelling through the Northwest Passage - which is supposed to become almost ice-free in a time of global warming, the next shipping route across the top of the world - and here we are, stuck in the ice, engines shut down, bridge deserted. Only time and tide can free us.
 
"Damn you Al Gore!  Damn you straight to Hell!"
 
More here and here.
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First the Polar Bear. Now...

Posted by Catmman on Thursday, May 29, 2008 9:51:10 AM
Eco-extremists now suing to list the Pacific Walrus as "threatened".

A conservation group gave notice Tuesday that it will sue to force federal action on a petition to list the Pacific walrus as a threatened species because of threats from global warming and offshore petroleum development.
 
Funny how they don't list those saints of the arctic, the Polar Bear, as a threat:
 
"Tastes like chicken..."
 
OK, that's probably a seal, but they DO eat walrus as well.  Look at the link above.
 
I'd be willing to bet more walrus meet their fate from the teeth of the polar bear than any "offshore petroleum development".
 
This is what happens when you give in to the wacko argument.  Lawsuit after lawsuit is sure to follow.
 
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The Real Cost of the "Climate Security Act"

Posted by Catmman on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 11:25:44 AM
Otherwise known as the Lieberman/Warner POS.
 
Here in America, one such piece of legislation, the Lieberman/Warner climate security act "A bill to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a program to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases, and for other purposes" would result, according to a study by the Heritage Foundation, in:

  • Cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) losses of at least $1.7 trillion and could reach $4.8 trillion by 2030 (in inflation-adjusted 2006 dollars).

     

  • Single-year GDP losses hit at least $155 billion and realistically could exceed $500 billion (in inflation-adjusted 2006 dollars).

     

  • Annual job losses exceeding 500,000 before 2030 and approaching 1,000,000.

     

  • The annual cost of emission permits to energy users to be at least $100 billion by 2020 and could exceed $300 billion by 2030 (in inflation-adjusted 2006 dollars).

     

  • The average household paying $467 more each year for its natural gas and electricity (in inflation-adjusted 2006 dollars). That means that the average household will spend an additional $8,870 to purchase household energy over the period 2012 through 2030.

     

    All in the name of fighting a non-existent threat.

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    "Andromeda Strain" Pt. 2-What a pile of crap huh?

    Posted by Catmman on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 10:30:01 AM
    Another two hours of my life I'll never get back.
     
    I actually laughed more during this movie than the first episode.  It was so full of politically correct pap and slaps at the military and the Bush administration the script must have been written by Daily Kos posters and the entire movie bankrolled by George Soros.
     
    Let's see:  We have reference to "illegal wiretaps", pontificating about terrorists at Gitmo; the Army doctor played by Ricky Shroder (the guy from the first episode who couldn't wait to nuke EVERYTHING) comes out as a closet homosexual being repressed by the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy; the current administration comes off as destroyers of Mother Earth with their continued want to mine deep sea vents; environmentalists attack and capture one of the new vent mining platforms out in the ocean decrying the rape of the planet (to which they suffer no consequences - the President doesn't order the platform recaptured since "enough people have died today");

    BREATH...
     
    The intrepid reporter is hunted by government types who look suspiciously like Blackwater operatives; "Andromeda" (the "virus"), it turns out, comes from our future - sent back by someone to warn us of our raping of the planet:  You see the docs discover that Andromeda can only be killed by a specific bacteria which grow on those same undersea vents the evil President wants to mine.  In the future this mining apparently destroyed the bacteria leaving Earth defenseless in the wake of Andromeda's later appearance at some point in the future.  Of course the paradox plot holes abound at this point:  If Andromeda was created at some point in the future and the future us's wanted to warn us of what we were doing and Andromeda's deadly consequences, then why not just send something else back to the past to warn of our future doom?  And if the bacteria had been destroyed by mining, how did our future us's figure out that the same bacteria could destroy Andromeda?  And the bacteria wasn't retrieved from the vents in present time anyway - it was collected at an earlier point, kept in a lab freezer somewhere.  The Wildfire docs use this frozen bacteria (discovered well before any mining) to defeat Andromeda and use this same frozen bacteria to grow more cultures at Wildfire to ultimately defeat the Andromeda strain in the first place.  The point the docs come up with about how the mining will destroy the bacteria is irrelevant since the bacteria was discovered, collected and frozen before any of the mining ever happened. 

    BREATH...
     
    Then we have a mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man, a la X-Files (who chews nicotine gum until the end of the movie when he then lights up) running a massive government conspiracy to keep a sample of Andromeda for bio-weapon use - killing everyone who gets in the way, except the intrepid reporter and any of the scientists who know about the conspiracy and the players involved.  Instead, the military brass are assassinated by a mysterious character.  Even the family members who were kidnapped by this guy to force one of the Wildfire docs to give up a sample are apparently OK and not eliminated by the mysterious guy, even though they have seen his face, know who he is, and know the extent of his involvement in the conspiracy.
     
    How about the plot hole for the doc at Wildfire who is exposed to Andromeda - it begins eating through her protective gear.  The head doc comes to her rescue, but then has to leave to keep the lab from blowing up.  We don't come back to the doc exposed to Andromeda until the end of the movie - how did she survive her exposure?  What was done to keep the Andromeda released into the room she was in from escaping further in the lab complex?  No resolution whatsoever.  This movie is full of such garbage.
     
    For a more detailed analysis (and a funnier one too), go here.  But just so you can get a flair for what some others say, take a look at this:
     
    It provides a perfect analogy to the entire movie. The only way this mess should get a thumbs-up is if a reviewer cut one off in protest and threw it in the air. The rest of the ending is fairly anticlimactic, with a few assorted assassinations as everyone starts covering up the government’s role in the affair. Everyone’s loved ones suddenly finds themselves free of the personal problems that plagued them. The President declares that he’ll continue vent mining despite the strongly-worded memo from the future, which makes sense; I’d try to kill Future Earth too, after a stunt like Andromeda.
     
    And this:
     
    This remake is the usual Hollyweird treatment: Wretched politically correct excess piled on wretchedly politically correct excess, wholesale revision or replacement of the story with new material and characters not in the book, and endless, heavy-handed moralizing. The acting is poor, and the characters are not credible. It is, in a word, junk.
     
    Indeed.
     
    I'll end with the immortal words of Homer Simpson (paraphrased):
     
    "Yeah Moe, that movie sure did suck last night.  It just plain sucked.  I've seen movies that suck before, but this was the suckiest piece of suck that ever sucked!"
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    "Andromeda Strain" remake...umm...sucks

    Posted by Catmman on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 3:19:41 PM
    Take a bit of sci-fi legend, a great story, mix in a fair amount of BDS and Government (American Government) is evil, and...
     
    BAMMO!
     
    You've got the 2008 A&E remake of the 1971 movie classic "The Andromeda Strain".  (Both movies based on the 1969 novel by Michael Crichton.)  If you watched the first part of this mish-mash of bad remade goop that's two hours of your life you'll never get back again.  Yes, it was that bad.
     
     
    I really enjoyed the 1971 movie.  It was a bit slow, but the minutia of the original is what made it interesting.  All the detail in entering the Wildfire Lab.  The extended scenes of decontamination.  The agonizing slowness with which the doctors and scientists had to react to an extra-terrestrial contagion with the technology of the time.  Everything about the original movie was done well. 
     
    This remake is so full of politically correct crap and forumulaic Hollywood garbage the bloody alien contagion takes a back seat in the story!  I kid you not.  The reason for the movie takes a back seat to some kind of convoluted government conspiracy theory. 
     
    We have the intrepid reporter who is out to expose the fraud.  We have the evil US government trying desperately to cover up something, though your not quite sure what really.  You assume we (the US) wants to keep Andromeda for nefarious purposes.  This is hinted at in the original movie, but it takes center stage in this incarnation.
     
    Moral relativism abounds as well.  The doctors wax philosophic about how Saddam Hussein didn't have WMD's unitl WE (the US) gave them to him.  Also, another subplot which goes nowhere mentions how China had a biological weapons incident which killed several score of innocent Chinese civilians.  But this is excused by the Chinese protagonist since WE (the US) was developing them too.  The fact that WE weren't experimenting on our own citizens must have been left out of the script but I digress.
     
    We have a PC and diverse cast - two females, one who is black.  An Asian.  A hispanic.  A black four star general.  We've got it all.  All of the white males in the movie are portrayed as evil of course (or at the very least, callous) from the President of the US all the way down to the white doctor on the scientific team who, though he is supposed to be a doctor and research scientist, can't wait to nuke everything.  I can just guess what his doctoral thesis was - "Nuke It!"  That's pretty much all he says for the first hour and a half.
     
    The "Odd-Man Hypothesis", a fictional edict where a unmarried male is the go to guy for making command decisions concerning the detonation of the labs nuclear safeguard is apparently forgotten, as a female AF pilot is chosen to drop a tactical nuke an an American town -  a situation where an unmarried male would most certainly be chosen by the military if the "Odd-man" was indeed taken seriously in this movie.  Not to mention the crappy salute the female pilot gives her commander just prior to her mission.  Why is it most actors can't render an even halfway decent salute?  Why is it also that any actor portraying a military member who wears a beret wears that same beret like they were in Paris eating crepes under the Eiffel Tower?
     
    Andre Braugher as General George Mancheck in A&E's original mini-series “The Andromeda Strain.”A&E/Diyah Pera - Tuesday, May, 20, 2008, 9:20 PM
    It's a beret!  Not a Chef's Hat!  mon Dieu!
     
    This movie is so full of it's own crap it defies common sense.  A scene where an Army soldier becomes infected, goes on a rampage shooting several soldiers with an M-16.  All of these soldiers are wearing full body armor and are mowed down while another soldier tries shooting the crazed soldier several times to no effect for several moments - his bullets not penetrating that same body armor.  Another scene has a soldier driving a humvee through a military compound - his humvees coming under immediate fire by a dozen soldiers firing rifles, machine guns, etc. including an M2 .50 cal all to little effect on a not up-armored vehicle before some rounds finally penetrate the window glass.  Yeah, the production values in this one are pretty lame.
     
    And we have the "Star Trek" rip-offs as well.  The doctors at the lab wearing "cards" which mimic the "communicators" of ST: TNG style.  And there is an over reliance on "Computer."  The doctors spend more time pontificating about politics and WMD than doing any actual work fighting "Amdromeda" with the "Computer" doing a majority of the research.
     
    I hate remakes.  They are almost universally bad.  This one is no different.  Hollywood just can't keep from injecting political correctness into everything, now including TV mini-series.  My wife enjoyed the show and my daughters liked it too.  My son, God bless him saw the same stuff I did and helped me enjoy the time making fun of all the plot holes and crap we saw.  I'm surprised Ridley and Tony Scott allowed this to wear their names as producers.
     
    I know I'm asking for trouble, but I will watch the next part tonight.  Another review will follow tomorrow.
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    A Memorial Day Tribute

    Posted by Catmman on Sunday, May 25, 2008 11:54:45 AM
    Please watch.  Be thankful.  Remember.  Honor.








     I dedicate this post to all my Comrades in Arms currently serving, those who have fallen in that service - past, present and future,  as well as the following members of my family, for their service and sacrifice:

    Master Sergeant F. R. Steely - USA/USAF: 1942-1973 (WWII, Korea, Vietnam) (My Dad)
    Technical Sergeant D. K. Steely -  USAF:  1972-1992  (Vietnam) (My brother)
    Sergeant. R. A. Steely - USA: 1976-1981 (My oldest brother)
    Corporal. R. Steely - USMC:  1992-1996  (Haiti, Somalia) (My cousin)
    Chief Warrant Officer 2 W. J. Carter -  USN:  1965-1992  (Vietnam) (My father-in-Law)
    CTM2 L. Carter:  USN:  1982-1990 (My mother-in-law)
    Colonel R. J. Carter  - USAAC/USAF:  1941-1966  (Deceased)  (WWII, Korea, Vietnam) (My wifes' Grandfather)
    CBM F. B. Coy - USN:  1939-1946 (Deceased)  (WWII, Pearl Harbor survivor, USS Nevada) (Wifes' other Grandfather
    Sergeant D. Harry - USMC:  KIA Luzon, Phillipines 1945 (Silver Star Recipient) (Wifes' great uncle)
    Master Sergeant R. B. Steely - USAF:  1987-Present (Just Cause, Fiery Vigil, Nortern/Southern Watch) (Me)
    Major J. Rich - USA:  2000-Present (OEF/OIF) (Brother -in-law)
    Master Sergeant T. Beasley - USAF:  1995-Present (OIF/OEF) (Brother-in-law)
    Master Sergeant J. Beasley - USAF:  1993-Present  (OIF/OEF) (Brother-in-law)

    My family has fought in almost every conflict and been involved in almost every military deployment (combat and otherwise) since World War Two.  The above names represent just my and my wifes immediate family - not our extended family going back to before the civil war. 
    My father, MSgt F. R. Steely and my wifes grandfather, Colonel R. J. Carter - fought in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.  Both of them were in all three wars!

    There are hundreds, probably thousands, of families just like mine.

    Honor the fallen and those who have passed on this Memorial Day.

    God Bless America!
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    McCain - Still Flunking on "Immigration"

    Posted by Catmman on Friday, May 23, 2008 10:15:59 AM
    Do you still believe McCain "got the message" on illegal immigration?
     
    Do you still think McCain's position on this issue has evolved to encompass the conservative viewpoint?
     
    Well, you would be wrong.  Here's the latest:
     
    Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is backing the renewal of a $250 million-a-year program that will pay illegal immigrants’ hospital bills.
     
    The very idea that McCain is again supporting a program that some view as rewarding illegal immigrants is certain to attract attention from the same conservatives he’s trying to win over for the White House.
     
    More here and here on this latest slap in the face to the conservative base.
     
    And McCain is back to spouting his advocacy to "comprehensive immigration reform."
     
    It's funny how we must secure the borders, but enacting said "immigration reform" is the part of the immigration equation which must be a top agenda item with his new administration.
     
    So illegals getting more free health care and enacting reform is a top priority.
     
    Securing the nations borders isn't.
     
    Even more detail here from Right Wing News.
     
    Just why am I supposed to feel good about voting for this guy again?
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    Nine Little Molecules...

    Posted by Catmman on Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:44:55 PM
    For nine molecules of CO2 added to 100,000 molecules over the past 158 years we must do what exactly?
     
    Let the government force us to "cap" our CO2 emissions?
     
    Let people like Obamamessiah tell you you can no longer eat what you want, when you want or how much you want?  Wait, he's already "told" us as much - how far a throw would it be to compelling us?
     
    Let people like McCain tell us we can be reasonable in reducing those same nine molecules of CO2 and do it with "market forces."  But we must let an expensive, expansive, intrusive government bureaucracy interfere with that same "market" to make it happen?
     
    We must listen to this list of noted climate "scholars" tell us how to live our lives, all the while running up carbon footprints the size of the Sun?  And disreagarding this list of actual scholars?
     
    Celebrities

    Al Gore, B.A. Government (no science degree)
    Alanis Morissette, High School Diploma
    Bill Maher, B.A. English (no science degree)
    Bono (Paul Hewson), High School Diploma
    Daryl Hanna, B.F.A. Theater (no science degree)
    Ed Begley Jr., High School Diploma
    Jackson Browne, High School Diploma
    Jon Bon Jovi (John Bongiovi), High School Diploma
    Oprah Winfrey, B.A. Speech and Drama (no science degree)
    Prince Charles of Whales, B.A. (no science degree)
    Sheryl Crow, B.A. Music Education (no science degree)
    Sienna Miller, High School Diploma

    ABC - Sam Champion, B.A. Broadcast News (no science degree, not a meteorologist)
    CBS - Harry Smith, B.A. Communications and Theater (no science degree)
    CBS - Katie Couric, B.A. English (no science degree)
    CBS - Scott Pelley, College Dropout
    NBC - Ann Curry, B.A. Journalism (no science degree)
    NBC - Anne Thompson, B.A. American studies (no science degree)
    NBC - Matt Lauer. B.A. Communications (no science degree)
    NBC - Meredith Vieira, B.A. English (no science degree)

    Al Sharpton, College Dropout
    Alicia Keys, College Dropout
    Alicia Silverstone, High School Dropout
    Art Bell, College Dropout
    Ben Affleck, College Dropout
    Ben Stiller, College Dropout
    Billy Jean King, College Dropout
    Brad Pitt, College Dropout
    Britney Spears, High School Dropout
    Bruce Springsteen, College Dropout
    Cameron Diaz, High School Dropout
    Cindy Crawford, College Dropout
    Diane Keaton, College Dropout
    Drew Barrymore, High School Dropout
    George Clooney, College Dropout
    Gwyneth Paltrow, College Dropout
    Jason Biggs, College Dropout
    Jennifer Connelly, College Dropout
    Jessica Simpson, High School Dropout
    John Travolta, High School Dropout
    Joshua Jackson, High School Dropout
    Julia Louis-Dreyfus, College Dropout
    Julia Roberts, College Dropout
    Kanye West, College Dropout
    Keanu Reeves, High School Dropout
    Kevin Bacon, High School Dropout
    Kiefer Sutherland, High School Dropout
    Leonardo DiCaprio, High School Dropout
    Lindsay Lohan, High School Dropout
    Ludacris (Christopher Bridges), College Dropout
    Madonna (Madonna Ciccone), College Dropout
    Matt Damon, College Dropout
    Matthew Modine, College Dropout
    Michael Moore, College Dropout
    Nicole Richie, College Dropout
    Neve Campbell, High School Dropout
    Olivia Newton-John, High School Dropout
    Orlando Bloom, High School Dropout
    Paris Hilton, High School Dropout
    Pierce Brosnan. High School Dropout
    Queen Latifah (Dana Elaine Owens), College Dropout
    Richard Branson, High School Dropout
    Robert Redford, College Dropout
    Rosie O'Donnell, College Dropout
    Sarah Silverman, College Dropout
    Sean Penn, College Dropout
    Ted Turner, College Dropout
    Tommy Lee (Thomas Lee Bass), High School Dropout
    Uma Thurman, High School Dropout
    Willie Nelson, High School Dropout

    Politicians:

    John McCain, B.S. (Graduated 894th out of 899 in his class)
    Newt Gingrich, Ph.D. Modern European History (no science degree) (Hypocrite)
    Pat Robertson, B.A., J.D., M.A. Divinity (no science degree)
    Robert F. Kennedy Jr, B.A. Government, J.D. Law (no science degree, 'recovered' Heroin addict)

    Scientists:

    Bill Nye, B.S. Mechanical Engineering (Bill Nye the Science Guy)
    Gavin Schmidt, B.A. Ph.D. Applied Mathematics (RealClimate.org)
    James Hansen, B.A. Physics and Mathematics, M.S. Astronomy, Ph.D. Physics (NASA, Gavin Schmidt's Boss)
    James Lovelock, Ph.D. Medicine, D.Sc. Biophysics
    Lonnie Thompson, Ph.D. Geological Sciences
    Michael Mann, A.B. Applied Math, Physics, M.S. Physics, Ph.D. Geology & Geophysics (RealClimate.org)
    Michael Oppenheimer, S.B. Chemistry, Ph.D. Chemical Physics
    Richard C. J. Somerville, Ph.D. Meteorology
    Steven Schneider, Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering and Plasma Physics

    Social Scientists:

    Ronald Bailey, B.A. Philosophy and Economics (Science Correspondent, Reason Magazine)

    (Luboš Motl, The Reference Frame)

     
    "Even though there has never been a single scientific paper published that has ruled out natural variability for most of the warming we've seen since 1850, Big Science has managed to convince politicians and much of the public that the science is settled. Apparently, our addition of nine molecules of carbon dioxide to each 100,000 molecules of air over the last 150 years can now be blamed for anything and everything ... Hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, floods, glaciers flowing toward the sea ... these used to happen naturally, but no more".
     
    Believe it or not, it's coming folks.
     
    Enjoy this Memorial Day and any upcoming summer holidays and picnics etc.  It may be the last summer to fire up the old grill.
     
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    10 Green Heresies

    Posted by Catmman on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 8:43:08 AM

    10 GREEN HERESIES

    Live in Cities:
    Urban Living Is Kinder to the Planet Than the Suburban Lifestyle

    A/C Is OK:
    Air-Conditioning Actually Emits Less C02 Than Heating

    Organics Are Not the Answer:
    Surprise! Conventional Agriculture Can Be Easier on the Planet

    Farm the Forests:
    Old-Growth Forests Can Actually Contribute to Global Warming

    China Is the Solution:
    The People's Republic Leads the Way in Alternative-Energy Hardware

    Accept Genetic Engineering:
    Superefficient Frankencrops Could Put a Real Dent in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

    Carbon Trading Doesn't Work:
    Carbon Credits Were a Great Idea, But the Benefits Are Illusory

    Embrace Nuclear Power:
    Face It. Nukes Are the Most Climate-Friendly Industrial-Scale Form of Energy

    Used Cars — Not Hybrids:
    Don't Buy That New Prius! Test-Drive a Used Car Instead

     
    The only one I really disagree with is living in cities but thats just me, a personal preference.  Either way, these items bring up some interesting points and show yet again that conventional wisdom ain't.
     
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    Political Slogan of The Day

    Posted by Catmman on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 9:52:18 AM
    Yeah it's cynical, but I'm in a surly mood...
     
    We're Screwed '08 Bumper Sticker
     
    I'm actually thinking of buying this on the T-Shirt.
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    I go away for a little while...

    Posted by Catmman on Friday, May 16, 2008 11:39:28 AM
    I go away for a little while...I take a little leave...I take a small vacation to take a break from everything...
     
    And the world seems to go straight to H E Double Hockey Sticks!
     
    Our "conservative" candidate McCain cowtowS to the enviro-wacko lobby.
     
    Tens of THOUSANDS of people die IN AN EARTH QUAKE in China.
     
    Tens of THOUSANDS more people die from a HURRICANE.
     
    ***No mention incidentally how, as tragic as the two above events are, a hurricane and an earth quake can kill so many people - yet liberals and bleeding hearts constantly harangue US about how our own responses to disasters as subpar.  Even counting Hurricane Katrina, less than two thousand, both direct and indirect fatalities attributed to the storm, the US response to disasters if probably the best in the world.***
     
    The media is all in a tizzy about the Obamamessiah calling a female reporter "sweety".  Yet that same media has no problem with ANY of the real problems with the Annointed One - Rev. Wright, Rezko, ties to 60's radical anti-government terrorists, etc.
     
    Polar bears, whose numbers have increased five fold in the last thirty years, are now "threatened"?
     
    Dogs and cats living together - MASS HYSTERIA!
     
    I mean come ON!
     
    I took off - I didn't watch any news; did zero blogging, listened to very little talk radio.  I didn't even go onto the internet for over a week!  I read no news either. 
     
    And all of this wackiness happens.
     
    That'll teach me to go away for a little while...
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    Minority Swimming Gap. Water Apparently Racist

    Posted by Catmman on Friday, May 02, 2008 1:02:06 PM
    The minority swimming gap has deep roots in America's racial history.
     
    That is a line from this article.  I didn't make it up and it isn't being facetious.
     
    How about this from the last part of the article: 
     
    For decades during the 20th century, many pools were segregated, and relatively few were built to serve black communities.
     
    John Cruzat, USA Swimming's diversity specialist, said these inequalities were compounded by the misperception that blacks' swimming ability was compromised by an innate deficit of buoyancy.
     
    "There are people who still give credence to these stereotypes, even in the black and Hispanic community," he said. "If you don't teach your children to swim, you're putting your grandchildren at risk."
     
    The minority swimming gap.
     
    Isn't it the media which is constantly railing about why we Americans can't get past our "racial" whatever's?
     
    Isn't it the media which keeps throwing it into our faces drivel like this?
     
    Un.  Frickin.  Believable.
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    The True Face of The IPCC

    Posted by Catmman on Friday, May 02, 2008 10:24:20 AM
    The United Nations Panel on Climate Change is a political organization.  It is NOT a scientific one.  And this organization is the one held out by alarmists, activists and others with an agenda as the sole arbiter of climate change information.  If the IPCC says it is so, it must be.  They (along with the Goracle) won the Nobel Prize after all.
     
    Take a look at this summary of how the IPCC works.  It's conclusions and summary's of reports are pretty much pre-ordained propaganda.  The worst part is that the summary of its climate reports, those summaries which are released months prior to the actual science, are biased.  And the scientific portions of the reports these summaries account for are worked in such a fashion as to agree with the pre-conceived politics of the information already released to the public.

    The IPCC is a political organization and yet it is the sole basis of the claim of a scientific consensus on climate
    change. Consensus is neither a scientific fact nor important in science, but it is very important in politics. There are 2500
    members in the IPCC divided between 600 in Working Group I (WGI), who examine the actual climate science, and 1900 in
    working Groups II and III (WG II and III), who study “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” and “Mitigation of Climate
    Change” respectively. Of the 600 in WGI, 308 were independent reviewers, but only 32 reviewers commented on more
    than three chapters and only five reviewers commented on all 11 chapters of the report. They accept without question the
    findings of WGI and assume warming due to humans is a certainty. In a circular argument typical of so much climate
    politics the work of the 1900 is listed as ‘proof’ of human caused global warming. Through this they established the IPCC
    as the only credible authority thus further isolating those who raised questions. The manipulation and politics didn’t stop
    there. The Technical Reports of the three Working Groups are set aside and another group prepares the SPM. A few
    scientists prepare a first draft, which is then reviewed by governments and a second draft is produced. Then a final report is
    hammered out as a compromise between the scientists and the individual government representatives. It is claimed the
    scientists set the final summary content, but in reality governments set the form. The SPM is then released at least three
    months before the science report. Most of the scientists involved in the technical or science report see the Summary for the
    first time when it is released to the public. The time between its release to the public and the release of the Technical
    Report is taken up with making sure it aligns with what the politicians/scientists have concluded. Here is the instruction in
    the IPCC procedures. “Changes (other than grammatical or minor editorial changes) made after acceptance by the
    Working Group or the Panel shall be those necessary to ensure consistency with the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) or
    the Overview Chapter.” Yes, you read that correctly. This is like an Executive writing a summary and then having
    employees write a report that agrees with the summary.     
     
    Read more here.
     
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    Show me the models on Global Warming again?

    Posted by Catmman on Thursday, May 01, 2008 2:03:41 PM
    A follow up to an earlier post.
     
     
    Is anyone else thinking this:  We have been brow  beat for over a decade about how global warming (climate change) models have been predicting out of control increases in global temperature.  These models (alarmists) have told us for years the temps are going up.  The models show it.  And if we don't act we are doomed.
     
    Now we are being told that "climate models" show global warming is taking a rest.  That for perhaps the next ten years we will be in a cooling trend.
     
    This begs the questions:  why didn't any of the previous climate models spelling impending doom for mankind warn us of this cooling trend?  Why haven't any of the climate models accounted for this new found, decadal trend of cooling temps?
     
    There can only be a few possibilities:  Either the models, therefore the alarmists, were all wrong to begin with.  Or this information was ignored if it were accounted for originally in any previous models.  Of the models predicting this cooling trend are wrong now.
     
    Yet no mention in the IPCC, Al Gore, James Hansen, NASA, et. al. have mentioned ANYTHING about a cooling trend, only "catostrophic" warming.
     
    Even if this guys assumprtions that "this cooling is only temporary" are correct, that global warming is still a problem, it does prove one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt:
     
    The alarmists have been dead wrong, all along.  Their models were flawed then and are flawed now.  And everything they have based upon those same models is equally as wrong. 
     
    And someone needs to be held accountable.
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