Archives for 2008
Happy New Year!
“progress”
“The average man of the present age [1948] has a metaphysic in the form of a conception known as “progress.” It is certainly to his credit that he does not wish to be a sentimentalist in his endeavors; he wants some measure for purposeful activity; he wants to feel that through the world some increasing purpose runs. And nothing is more common than to hear him discriminate people according to this metaphysic, his term for less worthy being “unprogressive.” Richard M. Weaver
The operative metaphysic for many became the environment, which ought to be objectively measurable, but defies agreement. Moreover, many of its’ adherents believe humanity and the environment are antithetical, that our existence necessarily harms the environment.
When God was the operative metaphysic, the majority of people incorporating God’s metaphysic would generally follow a benign course toward other people. This was because people were made in God’s image. Political decisions tended to favor the demographic majority.
Now that the majority accepts a metaphysic they believe to be opposed to mankind, and that same majority believes in growing and using the power of government, it follows that we should expect more political decisions to go against the interests of people. On a fundamental level, this may help explain why we already have so many regulations and so much government action that is hostile to our well being.
In terms of stewardship, preservation, efficacy, sound economics, husbandry, accountability, oversight, and pretty much every other concept that engenders wisdom, government runs a distant second to all other forms of organized human action. Who will protect the environment from the institutionalized, heavy handed, non-adaptive, one-size-fits-all, modus operandi of government?
Creative men and women will synthesize the protection of themselves with the protection of the environment, and they’ll have to overcome the negative effects of government and the ministrations of progressives to do it.
“That government is best which governs least.” Thomas Paine
Merry Christmas
Lifeline for Renewable Power
Without a radically expanded and smarter electrical grid, wind and solar will remain niche power sources.
By David Talbot
The Unsentimental Sentiment
“Every man participating in a culture has three levels of conscious reflection: his specific ideas about things, his general beliefs or convictions, and his metaphysical dream of the world.
“The first of these are the thoughts he employs in the activity of daily living; they direct his disposition of immediate matters and, so, constitute his wordliness. One can exist on this level alone for limited periods, though pure worldliness must eventually bring disharmony and conflict.
“Above this lies his body of beliefs, some of which may be heritages simply, but others of which he will have acquired in the ordinary course of his reflection. Even the simplest souls define a few rudimentary conceptions about the world, which they repeatedly apply as choices present themselves. These, too, however, rest on something more general.
“Surmounting all is an intuitive feeling about the immanent nature of reality, and this is the sanction to which both ideas and beliefs are ultimately referred for verification. Without the metaphysical dream it is impossible to think of men living together harmoniously over an extant of time. The dream carries with it an evaluation, which is the bond of spiritual community.”
Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, 1948.
Merry Christmas
SS Global Warming ship sinking in non-rising ocean, rats jump
U. S. Senate Minority Report:
More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims
Scientists Continue to Debunk “Consensus” in 2008
INTRODUCTION:
Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report report — updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” — features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated report includes an additional 250 (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the initial release in December 2007. The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grow.
2009 County Budget approved
Note: The above panels are excerpts from a larger package that also contains details for a number of smaller funds.
Mr. Happel objected to the form of the meeting.
Donofrio v. Wells
The procedural history of this case is a fascinating expose of political maneuvering by vested interests in many tiers of the justice system. In the end, it seems more than serendipitous that Donofrio succeeded in getting his case into an initial review today by the Supreme Court. Hopefully, the Constitution will be justly served by the Court.
Donofrio v. Wells, Application to the Supreme Court for Emergency Stay
See a copy of Donofrio’s blog text at: Natural Born Citizen Blog text for his thorough description of the procedural history.
Oceans warm land
Oceanic influences on recent continental warming
Gilbert P. Compo Æ Prashant D. Sardeshmukh
Received: 22 August 2007 / Accepted: 14 July 2008 Springer-Verlag 2008
Abstract
Evidence is presented that the recent worldwide
land warming has occurred largely in response to a
worldwide warming of the oceans rather than as a direct
response to increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) over land.
Atmospheric model simulations of the last half-century
with prescribed observed ocean temperature changes, but
without prescribed GHG changes, account for most of the
land warming. The oceanic influence has occurred through
hydrodynamic-radiative teleconnections, primarily by
moistening and warming the air over land and increasing
the downward longwave radiation at the surface. The
oceans may themselves have warmed from a combination
of natural and anthropogenic influences.
kudos to pseudos
- The pseudo science of the climate change cartel.
- The pseudo statesmanship of the leftist democrats.
- The pseudo conservatism of republicans.
- The pseudo philosophy of moderates.
- The pseudo intellectualism of the modern university.
- The pseudo religion of fundamentalism — pick your brand.
- The pseudo market of the nationalized no-fault economy.
- The pseudo news from the main stream media.
- The pseudo democracy of the nanny state.
- The pseudo security of the welfare state.
- The pseudo healthcare of socialized medicine.
- The pseudo stewardship of government planners.
- The pseudo sanity of mental health.
- And the pseudo natural born citizen who became president.
People talk about tipping points. I think Americans have reached a tipping point — one where the pretense of knowledge is piling up faster than factual and reasonable knowledge. To be sure, the accretion of factual and reasonable knowledge has greatly accelerated with improvements in technology, but it just looks like the poseurs are winning the day in America. If you read the Victor Davis Hanson piece in the previous entry, as Americans lose their understanding of the liberal arts, they lose their capacity to advance Western civilization. The barbarians in Mumbai last week and the imams who filled their heads with jihadi mush, acted on this weakness as Americans celebrated Thanksgiving with one eye on the TV. The slippery slope of cultural coarsening accelerated (again) as terrorists (again) reduced Western civilization to bloody chunks of body parts and (again) shifted our concept of normalcy toward a state of random violence. The causal thread running through and linking all of this — terrorism, the abrogation of history, the politicizing of all human endeavors — is enabled by disconnection and the interruption of reality feedback. These conditions are necessary precedents if you want people to stop thinking and acting in the interest of their own survival, and they work especially well for the growing segment of the population unburdened by a conscience. All that’s required of us is tolerance, and acceptance that the bounds of what must be tolerated continually expand toward the unthinkable, the horrible, the terrible, and whatever new fad the polity wants to try on for size. Ideals, outcomes, objective measures, standards, fixed points for evaluation, better and worse, good and evil, laws, constitutions, all of these concepts must give way to tolerance. God forbid we become narrow minded.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” H.L. Mencken [Read more…]
Victor Davis Hanson
As the classical university unravels, students seek knowledge and know-how elsewhere.
US & Iraq agree to withdraw troops
Agreement For Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq
Signed November 17, 2008 in Baghdad. Main stream media — Hello? Anyone there?
bailout dreams
For a long time the primary focus of American car makers has been financial services. Cars have been a vehicle (sorry) to get people into a payment schedule or a lease stream. Lease or purchase financing has been the main focus, not cars. They make their money primarily in finance charges, not in automobile gross margins over costs of production.
The market for alternative energy autos driven (sorry) by price, performance, quality, reliability, etc. — all the factors that people consider in acquiring a car — will determine the economic incentives for manufactures to build those vehicles. A bailout will not, cannot, provide those incentives.
There may be a good case to bail out American car makers, but the reasonable expectation that such a bailout will produce a positive evolution in American automobile products is not part of it. [Read more…]
orthodoxy starts young
the CRA did it
Insubordination
In Colorado, employees who refuse to adhere to policies announced by senior management get shown the door.
The Elbert County Planning Commission, however, made up of people appointed by the BOCC and who serve at the pleasure of the BOCC are hell bent to regulate land owners in Elbert County using the Master Plan, contrary to the expressed intent of the BOCC and contrary to the expression of the voters on November 4th who chose against pro-regulatory Democrats.
Planning Commission members Grant Thayer, Richard Carlson, Paul Crisan, David Hoos, Mike Kelley, Anthony Osborn, and Lisa Shipman and their complicit facilitator Richard L. Miller, Director – Community & Development Services, should all be shown the door. These planning commission members should NOT be re-appointed to the planning commission by the new BOCC in January. And in so far as Mr. Miller has facilitated their insubordination, he should also be excused from the county payroll.
The majority of Elbert County citizens who do not favor regulatory planning deserve a planning commission and a planning department that respects their majority view. This insidious and incessant leftist push back against the majority of Elbert County voters through regulatory planning should be unequivocally shut down.
The voters at large gave their consent to be governed in county matters by electing commissioners to the BOCC. Those elected commissioners are expected to represent the majority of voters who elected them. A minority of voters, however, have taken over the planning commission and imposed their minority view that the master plan is regulatory in Elbert County. This is the same minority who lost at the polls last November 4th. Planning commissioners and the planning department have aided and abetted this minority in the takeover. This minority of voters and their enablers do not represent anything close to a majority view on regulatory planning, yet, they parse every bit of official language from every related subject into the assumption that regulatory planning already exists, in order to create the false impression that the majority desires it when it fact the majority does not. And after doing so, they applaud themselves.
The majority of voters are unaware of the charade of the planning commission and don’t even know their rights are being swept out from underneath them by a minority of pro-regulation leftists. Meanwhile these leftist experts at judicial and bureaucratic manipulation, who can’t win at the ballot box, work tirelessly to control your private property in Elbert County. They think that because they care so much about what you do with your property, that their caring confers upon them the right to order you to dispose of your property in the manner they dictate.
Go to any planning commission meeting. Watch these usurpers toy with your rights. Watch them laugh out loud and congratulate themselves after a particularly onerous session. Watch them wield the power of dictatorship.
If our next BOCC does not put a stop to this farce in January and appoint planning commissioners who respect the historical advisory nature of the master plan, and who respect the wishes of the majority of Elbert County voters for a non-regulatory master plan, then the majority of voters should vote them out of office at the first opportunity to do so.
Listen to the applause in the link above. Listen to this dictatorial bunch ride roughshod over the 5th Amendment and your property rights. Listen to them take your rights with impunity. Listen to them publicly insult the BOCC members who appointed them to the planning commission. Then do something about it dammit. This is an important battle folks. Don’t let them steal our rights.
climate change for non Kool-aid drinkers
Lord Monckton Thrashes DeSmog Blog Editor in High-Profile Global Warming Debate
The Not So Clear Consensus on Climate Change
Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
CONCLUSIONS
There are no experimental data to support the hypothesis that in –
creases in human hydrocarbon use or in atmospheric carbon dioxide
and other green house gases are causing or can be expected to cause
unfavorable changes in global temperatures, weather, or landscape.
There is no reason to limit human production of CO2, CH4, and other
minor green house gases as has been proposed (82,83,97,123).
We also need not worry about environmental calamities even if
the current natural warming trend continues. The Earth has been
much warmer during the past 3,000 years without catastrophic ef –
fects. Warmer weather extends growing seasons and generally improves
the habitability of colder regions.
As coal, oil, and natural gas are used to feed and lift from poverty
vast numbers of people across the globe, more CO2 will be released
into the atmosphere. This will help to maintain and improve the
health, longevity, prosperity, and productivity of all people.
The United States and other countries need to produce more en –
ergy, not less. The most practical, economical, and environmentally
sound methods available are hydrocarbon and nuclear technologies.
Human use of coal, oil, and natural gas has not harmfully warmed
the Earth, and the extrapolation of current trends shows that it will
not do so in the foreseeable future. The CO2 pro duced does, how –
ever, accelerate the growth rates of plants and also permits plants to
grow in drier regions. Animal life, which depends upon plants, also
flourishes, and the diversity of plant and an imal life is increased.
Human activities are producing part of the rise in CO2 in the at –
mosphere. Mankind is moving the carbon in coal, oil, and natural gas
from below ground to the atmosphere, where it is available for con –
version into living things. We are living in an increasingly lush environment
of plants and animals as a result of this CO2 increase. Our
children will therefore enjoy an Earth with far more plant and animal
life than that with which we now are blessed.
More Dusseldorf pics
Amsterdam
If you want more of something…
… subsidize it. [Read more…]
VI-Day
http://www.zombietime.com/vi_day/
– o –
“Global warming is still largely a vessel into which it adherents’ pour their own virtue and, even more frequently, for demonizing opponents.” Christopher C. Horner, Red Hot Lies.
Dusseldorf Hafen
Love in the Time of Darwinism
A report from the chaotic postfeminist dating scene, where only the strong survive
The Manhattan Declaration
Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change
“Global warming” is not a global crisis
We, the scientists and researchers in climate and related fields, economists, policymakers, and business leaders, assembled at Times Square, New York City, participating in the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change,
Resolving that scientific questions should be evaluated solely by the scientific method;
Affirming that global climate has always changed and always will, independent of the actions of humans, and that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant but rather a necessity for all life;
Recognising that the causes and extent of recently observed climatic change are the subject of intense debates in the climate science community and that oft-repeated assertions of a supposed ‘consensus’ among climate experts are false;
Affirming that attempts by governments to legislate costly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 emission reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change. Such policies will markedly diminish future prosperity and so reduce the ability of societies to adapt to inevitable climate change, thereby increasing, not decreasing, human suffering;
Noting that warmer weather is generally less harmful to life on Earth than colder:
Hereby declare:
That current plans to restrict anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a dangerous misallocation of intellectual capital and resources that should be dedicated to solving humanity’s real and serious problems.
That there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.
That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate.
That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples.
That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis.
Now, therefore, we recommend —
That world leaders reject the views expressed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as popular, but misguided works such as “An Inconvenient Truth.”
That all taxes, regulations, and other interventions intended to reduce emissions of CO2 be abandoned forthwith.
Agreed at New York, 4 March 2008
Global Warming Crisis: Cancelled
From: Frostdoc
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 7:51 PM
To: brooks@…
Subject: Icecap
We have not had regular emails because we update the site on a daily basis usually with multiple stories or posts. The site now has 2198 weblog entries and 85 Climate Library papers. You can search for any topic using the search on the left. You can use the author name or topic and the relevant stories will appear in reverse chronological order.
http://icecap.us is the home page if you have forgotten. 17 Stories will appear on the home page at all times, rotating back into the archives (COLD STORAGE or later FROZEN IN TIME) as new stories are added. If the story was on the home page very recently and you know what section, you may get at it quickly by clicking on COLD STORAGE. Story titles hyperlink to the source where possible (when underlined). We also provide a link to the source post or a PDF at the end of the summary for each story. Photos and graphs used usually have a choice to enlarge them enabling you to save images.
Current topics include stories on the latest GISS/NOAA data blunder, Gore’s decision not to accept a Climate Czar posiiton in the Obama administration, an Energy Strategy for America, Global Warming a Political Context, A study of long term trends from the Monthly Weather Review in 1933 that sounds eerily like the recent debate, and challenges to the claims that rising sea levels threaten coastal military facilities, and that accelerated melting of Greenland ice was taking place.
The most important reason I am writing you today is to alert you the Second Annual International Conference on Climate Change in New York City on March 8-10, 2009. The theme of the conference is “Global Warming Crisis: Cancelled. Was it ever really a crisis?” The title reflects (a) the shift in scientific understanding toward the skeptics’ perspective, (b) the defeat of the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill in the U.S. Senate in July, (c) rising public opinion opposing global warming alarmism, and (d) rising energy and food prices around the world.
There will be over 70 speakers including Dr William Gray, Dr. Richard Lindzen, Dr. Roy Spencer, Dr. Willie Soon, Dr. Bob Carter, Dr. Fred Singer, Anthony Watts, Steve McIntyre, Dr. Ross McKitrick. Lord Christopher Monckton, Craig Idso, Dr. Benny Peiser, John Coleman, Chris Horner, Dr. Tim Patterson, Dr. Paul Reiter, and many, many more. I also will be speaking. Details and links are provided in the bottom right section on Icecap.
ICECAP is one of the co-sponsors. If we are able to gather enough in donations in the next few months, we may also a booth. We as a co-sponsor, have tickets available that will save on the registration fee which will be $720 at the door. You would have to arrange and pay for your own travel and lodging. If you make a donation to Icecap, and notify me at this email address that you plan to attend, you name will be put in a hat and I will draw a dozen winners. If you win, you can pick up your ticket at the registration desk. Please inform us if you decide you can’t make it, so we can make the ticket available to others who can.
This is a real opportunity to meet and talk to some of the giants in the field. I attended and spoke at last years’ conference which I wrote about here: http://energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=880.
Thank you for your interest in and support of Icecap over the last 1 1/2 years. We have had over 5.1 million people hits on our home page over that time. 80% since last November. We receive most all of our operating expenses from donations from people like you and we are thankful for your support. Like most of the other skeptic bloggers, we are not driven by profit but by the need to provide to you information that is not getting out through to you in the mainstream media. This has never been more important than it is today when our governments have taken or are contemplating unnecessary and unwise steps that will do further harm to an already collapsing global economy.
Happy thanksgiving.
Joseph D’Aleo
Executive Director
ICECAP
Also see: http://www.heartland.org/events/NewYork09/newyork09.html
Should I cool it or should I blow?*
“There are so many unbelievably inane thngs that go on in Elbert County. . . .out here in the boondocks where thinking is considered an unnatural act. So, selecting a single candidate from the dimmest and dumbest was a daunting task.”
– o –
“Whatever form it takes, there is a recognition of community, like a genuine smile or a ‘howdy neighbor.’ The wave is like rural shorthand for ‘life is tough but we are all in this together – glad you’re onboard.'”
– o –
With friends like this, who needs enemies?
————————————————————————————
“If each one of us should seize upon the property of his neighbours and take from each whatever he could appropriate to his own use, the bonds of human society must inevitably be annihilated.” Cicero, On Duties.
“Apocalyptic stories about the irreparable, catastrophic damage that humans are doing to the natural environment have been around for a long time. These hysterics often have some basis in reality, but are blown up to illogical and ridiculous proportions. Part of the reason they’re so appealing is that they have the ring of plausibility along with the intrigue of a horror flick. In many cases, the alarmists identify a legitimate issue, take the possible consequences to an extreme, and advocate action on the basis of these extreme projections.” Kaleita and Forbes, Pacific Research Institute.
Standard operating procedure for most issues at Abe21.
*The Clash
Bill Whittle
“[A]ll isolated cultures suffer from a lack of perspective, from a lack of flexibility and from a self-reinforcing groupthink that protects the status quo at the expense of the pain of innovation.”
From an article at his blog www.ejectejecteject.com
Bush Discusses Financial Markets
President Bush Discusses Financial Markets and World Economy
Federal Hall National Memorial
New York, New York [Read more…]
Abe21 in denial
After losing his election bid for commissioner of district 3 in Elbert County, Mr. Thomasson persists in the delusion that he represents the voice of the people and that the people’s voice says, “regulatory planning.” That’s not the people’s voice Mr. Thomasson, that’s a little voice that only you and a few of your special friends can hear.
Mr. Thomasson is part of a special minority of Elbert County citizens who share a phone tree. They don’t need to persuade the voting public because their specialness is so special, they only need to convince themselves! When the call goes out to the phone tree, the minions come marching in to pretend that they represent you and me. Sorry, they don’t, and neither does Mr. Thomasson.
Abe21 is again in high dudgeon, rationalizing away the majority voice of the voting public. Their ad hominem machine has gone into overdrive to cover yours truly with as much mud as they can sling just shy of outright defamation. Oh dopey me, I thought the election was actually over! I thought there was a point to this voting thing! Apparently I am marooned with this whacky notion that our votes meant something.
Well, the Voters, the real ones who Mr. Thomasson’s phone tree friends do not represent, heard him loud and clear when he promised a regulatory master plan, and their vote went overwhelmingly against him.
One can only hope that this fact will eventually break through Mr. Thomasson’s denial, and that he will finally realize that the majority of Elbert County citizens said “no thanks” to his ideas. Yes, there’s always hope.
hijacking our local republic
Democrats Sward and Thomasson were told very explicitly last week by almost 3-1 majorities that the citizens of Elbert County DO NOT WANT THEM REPRESENTING US!!!
Hey Abe21, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE.
Who controls Abe21? The Democrats.
Who sued the BOCC over Spring Valley Vistas? John Dorman.
Who do not represent the citizens of Elbert County? The Democrats.
Who did not elect the current BOCC and in no way could be considered their “constituents?” The Democrats.
Who are not elected by the citizens of Elbert County to represent them in any matter? The Planning Commission.
Who are elected by the citizens of Elbert County to shield them from the government takings of arbitrary master planning? The BOCC.
Less than 1% of the citizens of Elbert County are behind the movement to make the Master Plan regulatory. They do not represent the “community’s voice” in this matter.
Deprogramming
Great article, great analysis, right on the money.To make a long story short, whether the context is local, statewide or national, regarding left/right issues and races, the left’s polemics have become surreal. They’ve lost track of their own hyperbole. They no longer distinguish between a hyperbolic rant and a reasonable argument incorporating factual cause and effect. They’ve been consumed by cult philosophies based in Marxism. I don’t think this is a close call. They’ve pretty much gone over the edge.
This is a deep problem manifesting itself in hundreds of ways. It developed over generations and spans many intertwined disciplines. From my observations of other cults, I don’t believe you can deprogram this degree of sophisticated brainwashing at the fully developed end of the spectrum. True indoctrinated believers have sophisticated defenses and devices to ward off challenges that could destabilize the world views they serve. For example, the fact that socialism has never worked is no reason to question its’ validity. They say it hasn’t been done right yet, many are versed in what went wrong in each case, and all are sure that next time they’ll get it right. Apparently, Robert Owens’ “united social” experiment of 1825 has proven a little more difficult to implement than originally thought.
Collectively, leftist true believers account for an incredible quantity of raw brain power and IQ. So long as they remain devoted to their cult, however, their ability to advance real human capacity and efficacy–the human condition–is handicapped. Meanwhile, the need for the balance of humanity to figure out our collective survival, prosperity and advancement, goes on.
Does this indicate a strategy? Maybe so. Maybe you have to engage the cult at a more fundamental level. In other words, don’t argue the broad thesis. Don’t argue conclusions that threaten them and raise their defenses. Argue the precepts and basics. Stay on the facts and perhaps let the conclusions take care of themselves. Let them find their own conclusions. You may as well since they won’t allow themselves to comprehend or accept any conclusions that originate outside of the cult anyway.