All I really need to know about Global Warming I learned in Bali

(originally posted December 13,2007

I learned Bali is a south sea island where the number of jets delegates to the IPCC's 31st meeting flew in on exceeded the capacity of the airport forcing empty airplanes to fly to other facilities (on other islands and Australia) and return empty to pick up thier passengers.

Which of course leads to my next lesson, that the delegates so concerned about the climate never heard of car pooling. Strange, because car pooling has been a topic real environmentalists care about for decades.

And that segues into my next lesson, that global warming cultists are f*cking nuts. In order to discuss carbon emissions - which is what the global alarmists have changed the debate to, it is not about the climate, it is about carbon credits - they choose an out of the way, remote Island that EVERY freakin' delegate from every other country HAS to fly to. (Global alarmists have already identified air travel as being the second biggest emitter of carbon dioxide next to coal burning plants.)

I also learn what a hypocritical lying sack that Al Gore is. Like the rest of the global alarmists he is not concerned with the environment, he is all about carbon credits. When Al Gore was vice president he did nothing to get the US to ratify Kyoto... but now that he has a foundation and a corporation to take your carbon offset money he is all about Kyoto.

But all you need to know about the IPCC global alarming scheme can be summed up by one of the participants:

The environmental group Friends of the Earth, in attendance in Bali, also
advocated the transfer of money from rich to poor nations on Wednesday.

“A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of
wealth and resources,” said Emma Brindal, a climate justice campaigner
coordinator for Friends of the Earth.

It is not about the environment as they prove by their fetish about carbon credits, it is all about money.

Iran, the poor little rich country

The politics of the Middle East is very complicated and centers on three different components, religion, ethnicity and oil.

The religious angle is always played up because it is the easiest (for Westerners) to understand but usually detracts from the real issues involved. Ethnicity is very important, as the tribal bonds are tighter than the religious bonds, although most tribes are united by a common religious belief. What is easily attributed as sectarian violence often stems from the tribal instinct to keep the other tribes off your property, so you can secure natural resources for your own tribe. This ethnic fighting has occurred since before history in Africa and the Middle East. In Africa we say it is “tribal” in nature, in the Middle East we call it sectarian in nature, but it really is the same.

That leaves oil. Oil and natural gas is the lifeblood of that region. Saudi Arabia has sunk the most money into their infrastructure and relied on private companies to keep costs down, it costs SA just over $3 for every barrel they produce, the rest is profit. It costs Iran about $25 a barrel to produce oil. Iran has been using their more meager profits to modernize their military and infrastructure while trying to build nuclear power plants. Iran has not be investing in it’s petroleum industry and has such draconian profit sharing plans for companies that drill in Iran that they are having trouble getting anyone to help modernize their drilling equipment. Italy is in and India just announced they will be operating platforms, but Total (France) and Shell (Netherlands) have been holdouts for better development contracts (more money). Iran needs nukes in a big way, but not necessarily for weapons, they have the second largest oil reserves and the largest natural gas reserves and they have to import both in order to meet their own domestic needs.

The real reason Iran wants OPEC to lower production quotas has less to do with them wanting the price to go up… which they do desperately… it is because their drilling and petroleum infrastructure has been neglected which has led to the high cost of production as well as reduced production. Iran is unable to meet its production quota. By reducing the quota to below their current level they will be able to take some of the profits from the higher priced oil to modernize or offer incentives to their drilling partners.

The main stumbling blocks in Iran’s desire to control OPEC has been SA, Kuwait and UAE, with SA acting as the ringleader. Iran has attempted to sow the seeds of dissent in SA and SA’s defense forces are occupied infiltrating and eliminating home grown terror cells. They have successfully recruited people to act outside SA, such as the 9/11 hijackers and the fighters in Iraq. The SA terrorists won’t do much except voice opposition to the Royal Family, and not just because SA takes a hard line in dealing with dissenters, but because the tribal bonds that are there.

Since the US provides security for SA, they are free to do other things with their vast oil petroleum wealth. As long as the US is there they don’t fear a direct assault from the Iranian army and the US already disarmed the Iraqi army, so they face no threats. But in order to pay back the US SA keeps oil production up to keep the prices low enough to keep Iran on the ropes. The countries aligned with SA are keeping oil prices low so Iran cannot wage war. Their funding for Hezbollah has decreased, they are barely able to pump enough petroleum to keep themselves solvent, their military is large but under funded and under equipped. They can do just so much with the limited income they have.

So they kick out the UN inspectors hoping that will force an embargo or other sanctions so they can garner sympathy from their remaining allies. The US is not pressing for sanctions knowing that will be the result, but the US has been keeping pressure up along the Iran/Iraq border depriving Iraqi insurgents with much needed equipment and money.

Bush (with the help of the Arab members of OPEC) is essentially doing the same to Iran as Reagan did to the USSR, without the Cold War. Iran is less able to fund Hezbollah because they are funding the Iraqi terror cells. Iran cannot develop it’s petroleum or energy infrastructures because they are funding a nuclear weapons program. In the meantime the Iranian citizens are angry about lack of services and oil profit sharing like their Arab neighbors. Now the Iranian clerics are seeing the light and are beginning to remind Ahmadinejan he is not the supreme ruler of the country and are tempering his anti-American rhetoric.

For all the rest of his faults Ahmadinejan is smart enough to know that to deal with a determined opponent such as Bush Jr. you have to maintain your course and not deviate or capitulate. But he should remember the revolution that saw him rise to power was not based on politics, but was lead by the hard line clerics. Crossing Bush is one thing, but he should ask the Shah about the undoing of the monarchy, the clerics run Iran, not the politicians.

(And for those who missed it, I maintain that the Saudis and the rest of the Arab petroleum producers have united with the US against Iran from before the beginning of the liberation of Iraq, not on the battlefield, but on the economic front lines.)

We don't need facts, we're more smarter than you

The Public Health Council of New Jersey decided that they know better than anyone else and despite public outcry against it "recommended" mandated flu vaccines for preschool children who attend day care or preschool.

A cynical person would say that perhaps New Jersey being home to every major pharmaceutical company (the few that aren't headquartered here still have a significant presence) factored into their decision.

And while this intrudes into the state mandating vaccines for non-public health reasons, clearly entering the realm of a nanny government (the Council praised this initiative as it will reduce the number of children hospitalized - but declined to give any statistics) it may in fact be increasing the threat to the public health. I am of course refering to the casual relationship between the increase in mandated vaccines and autism.

For decades groups have tried to make their case that the chemical thimerosal, used as a presevative in vaccines, was a cause for the marked increases in autism and behavior disorders. And during that time the CDC, NIH, and pharmaceutical companies all dismissed that contention, saying that the low amounts of merury in thimerosal would not cause those diseases. As more and more people began to support the anti-thimerosal campaign the rhetoric changed and the CDC started saying that the limited amount of mercury alone would not contribute to autism.

In the mid- to late- 90's, quietly, and with little fanfare, the CDC had manufacturers of childhood vaccines limit the amount of thimerosal to "trace amounts", meaning 1 microgram. They also began to describe mercury, a powerful nuerotoxin, as an organic compound... as if being organic made it safer... arsenic and bella donna are also organic.

The issue specifically with flu vaccines, besides that influenza is typically not a public health issue, is that it is exempt from the trace amount rules for childhood vaccines and that while very small quantities of the vaccine are available with low or no levels of thimerosal they are reserved for states like California where they ban mercury containing vaccines for use on children.

While the CDC and other scientists have searched for links between specific vaccines, such as MMR or Hib and autism, there have been no published studies looking at the possible effects of multiple vaccines and the cummulative effects of exposure to mercury and the other metals, such as aluminum that is used as a preservative in vacccines. They have not studied a link between exposure to the toxic thimerosal and the high fevers that often accompany a vaccination.

With the new flu vaccine being given annually, between 6 months and 6 years children in NJ will be subject to 11 vaccines, often they are given multiple shots at the same time making any reaction virtually impossible to trace and increasing the amount of exposure to thimerosal.

And what makes this totally unbelievable was it was done on the heels of Merck, HQ'd in NJ, recalling 1 million doses of the childhood Hib vaccine.

Live in New Jersey? Call Governor Jon Corzine (609-292-6000) and tell him to reject the Public Health Council's suggestion or mandate that all vaccines be mercury-free.

Global warming anyone?

Much to the chagrin of global warming cultists the Antarctic ice sheets are growing, both in size and thickness. Of course the southern hemisphere is entering its summer phase so ice bergs will be calved, giving global warming alarmists more to be, well, alarmed about. However, this a natural process. And along with the ice bergs will be millions of tons of water... none of which will affect the depth of the world's oceans.
And in three months the ice sheets will start growing again, as they have been since the 1980s, however it is their rapid growth over the last 5 years that has gotten the attention of scientists.

Now lets go north... way, way north, to the Arctic ice cap. The summer of 2007 saw unprecedented melting of the ice cap. All media outlets showed pictures of polar bears on ice flows that were slowly melting and told of the way that man has doomed the arctic ice cap and all creatures living on it.

What the media has inconveniently not told the truth about is the equally unprecedented freezing of the ice cap to cover almost all of the surface of the cap lost to melting. The freeze occurred so quickly that on December 1st the ice cap was the size it normally does not attain until February 15. You see, what the alarmists in the cult of global warming do not want you to know, and their accomplices in the media won't tell you, is that the ice caps normally melt and refreeze every year. Certainly not the whole cap, and it is only fair to mention that a thaw on the magnitude of 2007 has never been recorded before, taking a fair amount of "old" ice with it. But the fact remains that the ice refroze at a record pace as well.
And now lets look at the other major northern ice cap, the Greenland ice cap. Like Antarctica this cap has several distinct ice fields or flows. In 1991 a flow of fresh glacier water began pouring out of the north east ice field where it had never been detected before. But it took until 2007 to identify the cause for the rapid decline on the size of this ice field... the earth! The crust is fairly thin in that area and the earth's magma is melting the glacier.

Now if there is a natural (not man made) explanation for Greenland, could there be a similar reason for the quick melt, followed by an even quicker freeze, such as a vent that belched out warm gasses for a few months, increased wind patterns, or maybe a slow moving lava flow such as seen in the Hawaiian islands? Chances are we'll never know because "the debate is over" and the facts are not important to the global warming cult!

The Hero of Chappaquidick

(originally posted December 11, 2007)

When I heard Teddy Kennedy stirred out of his booze induced coma to speak I was shocked.
But what he had to say was alarming. Not so much what he said but why in the name of all that is good could he at all think it is appropriate.

Not wanting to let a good thing pass by him Teddy Kennedy decided to jump on the anti-torture bandwagon and exercise (no pun intended) his Bush Derangement skills.
So Teddy Kennedy, the hero of Chappaquidick, denounced water boarding, apparently he is against an interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

FACT: More people have drowned in Teddy Kennedy's Oldsmobile than being water boarded.

Which of course brings us back to why Mr Compassion claims to be for amnesty... because as he said:

"I just couldn't bear someone dying in a river while trying to make a better life for themselves."

Tell that to the Kopechne's Ted. But really... enough with the water references you idiot!

I'll take myths for $800 Alex

Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, needed to demonstrate a quick break with his predecessor and wanted to make one that also would show he is not going to blindly follow the US, as he often accused his long time political opponent John Howard of doing. So as soon as he won he said he will sign the Kyoto Protocol, and on December 3rd he officially signed onto the document. At first I had said "he officially signed onto the agreement," but that is not entirely true. Rudd, does not agree with the Kyoto Protocol and said he will not accede to any limits beyond what he proposed, not will Australia pay any proposed fines for non-compliance with the accord.

Since Rudd won and said he will be signing the protocol Australia has been applying diplomatic pressure on the US to sign on as well. Fortunately George Bush has shown some restraint and not buckled under pressure... yet. OK, so at this point I could take the low road and declare Rudd a typical, hypocritical politician and declare that the debate is over.

However, his hypocrisy goes deeper than simply signing the Kyoto protocol and pressuring the US to do the same, while saying he will not be held to the carbon dioxide limits imposed. Rudd has also gone on record for saying he supports a massive pulp mill project. Proving that he is either a moron or really thinks carbon dioxide is the only pollutant in the world... which would make him a moron... especially since part of his pledged support was to not protect old growth trees from being harvested to support the mill. He also must be willing to commit additional water resources to the project in a country battling with a decade long drought.

So we have him agreeing that global warming exists, but indicating that only carbon dioxide causes it. Deforestation must not be a possible cause in his mind, he also conveniently ignores the massive amounts of water vapor emitted by paper mills. Plus the other sources of pollution, not the least significant is the truck traffic in and out of the plant. Add to that the water runoff caused by deforestation means rain will runoff instead of being absorbed into the aquifer can ruin the land despite the best land management intentions, once the trees are gone the land is vulnerable.

The problem, and my eventual point, is that people are so caught up on the myth of global warming that they are forgetting that there are other forms of pollution that pose serious threats to the planet.

Not that I mean to pick on my Aussie friends... but more insanity from down under regarding mythical global warming and farsical carbon offsets...

Baby tax needed to save planet, claims expert

Global warming is devloping a cult-like following where people feel obligated to link everything that is happening to global warming... amazingly without proof. Because the global warming cult is faith based, they believe in it therefore it must be so, to the great relief of those perpetrating the fraud who are relieved of the burder of having to provide any proof to support their incredible claims.

When good libs go bad

I had some things going on this morning so as I drove around I listened to the resurrected Imus in the Morning show. My a.m. drive used to consist of Air America until they just turned so vehemently anti-American it can no longer be listened to by any sane person, or I listened to Curtis and Kuby who occupied the spot now filled by Imus.

Imus had a woman from a Bronx organization looking to get donations for a health clinic her group was building and he started the segment by handing her a large check. Imus' wife Deidre was also there as she is helping to rebuild the building occupied by the group as a green building. Deidre Imus runs a non-profit, the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, that, among other things, consults on, and advocates for, green buildings.
During the segment Dierdre and the representative for the community group were talking about how hard it can be to get donations for the non-profits when Imus asked why the government is not doing anything to help them.

Which brings me to the point of today's rant... why do people think the government has an obligation to dump tax dollars into problems that are better addressed at the local level by community groups?

Leftist and socialist programs have bloated the federal government to the point it is not able to even perform its essential tasks as set forth by the constitution. Private non-profits and faith based groups have always been far more successful at raising funds and helping people that the government. Private groups focus on helping individuals out of their dilemmas while providing them with the necessary skills for self reliance. Government programs foster laziness and penalize success encouraging people to stay un- or under- employed, affecting self confidence, self respect and making slaves out of the recipients.

Last week I spent a few days with Catholic Charities gutting a house in New Orleans. Catholic Charities is one of the faith based/community groups charged with gutting houses so building permits can be issued to reconstruct and reoccupy the houses affected by Katrina. This is the third time I've been down there working with Catholic Charities.

When I was talking with them they mentioned the number of houses they had left to do, and I noted that the number had increased from the last time, the rep reported that NOLA based groups were pulling out of their responsibilities because the city has reduced their funding and those groups don't want to spend "their" money helping to repair the city, even though they solicit and continue to receive donations from around the country specifically for that purpose.

I donate to private charities, I volunteer my time with several non-profits, including my local rescue squad, I also provide free training in various subjects to local emergency squads. I am not saying this to blow my own horn, I am mentioning it solely because volunteering and donating to help one's neighbor is what made, and makes, this a great country. When the government tries to do things more money goes to administering the program than benefiting the program, it creates another bureaucracy that needs never ending supplies of tax dollars, and most importantly... when the government decides who and how to help it forces you to pay (in the form of taxes) even though it may be a cause you personally disagree with.

So while Imus should be applauded for his donation to the charity, his work on behave of autism awareness, and of course his own charity, the Don Imus ranch, he, and all liberals, need to break out of the leftardian "why isn't the government doing more?" mentality. The government is not supposed to be our nanny, nor is it supposed to take care of us like we are their children. It was said best by the last competent Democrat POTUS:

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."