Political Angst In America

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Location: Pantego, Texas, United States

Thursday, September 27, 2007

I found some more information on George Soros 's organization for funding political activity. Apparently he has spent hundreds of millions of dollars through his Open Society Institute (OSI). The OSI gave James Hansen $720,000 to support his good work in stirring up the "climate chamge" scare.

I watched some reports on the demonstrations in Burma on TV. Once again, I noticed that the protesters signs were in English. That seems to be a world-wide phenomena. Perhaps the demonstrators realize that the English speaking world is the only group that have any interest in helping them achieve democracy.

This morning on Fox news a lady named Showalter who works for IBD said that George Soros contributes a lot of money to liberal causes and "whistle blowers." One "whistle blower" recipient was James Hansen. She didn't say how much the contribution was; but Hansen got $250,000 from John Kerry's wife's foundation. It seems odd that Hansen is referred to as a "whistle blower,"since the government hasn't stopped him from doing the work he does, or to stop him from speaking out. Hansen seems to have collected more money than any of the so-called climate change deniers. It is doubtful that oil companies have contributed so much to anyone.

Monday, September 24, 2007

For anyone who thinks temperature is warmer now than in the recent past, take a look at this site:

http://www.climate-skeptic.com/2007/09/is-james-hansen.html

If this example is typical of how NASA is massaging temperature data, then there should be serious doubts about global warming happening at all. I assume the UN Secretary General is not smart enough to understand this. BUt for snarter people I suspect that most did not appreciate the extent to which NASA massages the temperature data. The signal/noise ratio on temperature data is unfavorable, so it is extremely difficult to tease the true signal out of it.

The Secetary General of the UN says that the time for doubt about global warming is past. I can't help but wonder if you have to be really dumb to get elected Secretary General. To me it appears that the doubts about catastrophic global warming grow stronger every day. The GCMs are looking less reliable every year as, contrary to projections, the earth is not getting warmer on average, and the Antarctic keeps getting colder.

This week the AP put out a hysterical article that appeared in the Fort Worth Star Telegram that predicted that sea level is about to go up so much that Manhattan Island, Jamestown, Cape Canaveral, Galveston, and even Silicon Valley are soon going to be inundated. This is so ridiculous that it is mind boggling. Even the IPCC doesn't make such a projection. The sad fact is that much of the public probably believes these ridiculous projections because they don't have access to more corr3ct information.

From the blog "Flopping Aces" here are some comments from people who actually know something about science, as opposed to scientificall ignorant newspaper reporters, politicians, and movie stars.

Scientists Ridicule AP's Global Warming Article

Posted by Curt on September 24, 2007 at 9:58 AM

digg_url = 'http://www.floppingaces.net/2007/09/24/scientists-ridicule-aps-global/';

The AP printed a typical scaremongering article last week on global warming that is creating some backlash from climate scientists. A sampling from their trashy article:

Ultimately, rising seas will likely swamp the first American settlement in Jamestown, Va., as well as the Florida launch pad that sent the first American into orbit, many climate scientists are predicting. In about a century, some of the places that make America what it is may be slowly erased.

~~~Rising waters will lap at the foundations of old money Wall Street and the new money towers of Silicon Valley. They will swamp the locations of big city airports and major interstate highways.

~~~Storm surges worsened by sea level rise will flood the waterfront getaways of rich politicians-the Bushes' Kennebunkport and John Edwards' place on the Outer Banks. And gone will be many of the beaches in Texas and Florida favored by budget-conscious students on Spring Break.

~~~This past summer's flooding of subways in New York could become far more regular, even an everyday occurrence, with the projected sea rise, other scientists said. And New Orleans' Katrina experience and the daily loss of Louisiana wetlands-which serve as a barrier that weakens hurricanes-are previews of what's to come there. Florida faces a serious public health risk from rising salt water tainting drinking water wells, said Joel Scheraga, the EPA's director of global change research. And the farm-rich San Joaquin Delta in California faces serious salt water flooding problems, other experts said. And now a bit of backlash:

Dr. Richard S. Courtney, a climate and atmospheric science consultant and a UN IPCC expert reviewer ridiculed the AP article.

“Rarely have I read such a collection of unsubstantiated and scare-mongering twaddle. [Curt - my favorite line in the whole article] Not only do real studies show no increase to rate of sea level change, the [AP] article gives reasons for concern that are nonsense,”

UN IPCC reviewer and climate researcher Dr Vincent Gray, of New Zealand slammed the article as well:

“This [AP article] is a typical scare story based on no evidence or facts, but only on the ‘opinions’ and ‘beliefs’ of ‘experts’, all of whom have a financial interest in the promotion of their computer models,” Alabama State Climatologist Dr. John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, stated that the AP mischaracterized his views on sea level in the article promoting climate fears a hundred years from now.

“[My] discussion [with the AP reporter Seth Borenstein] was primarily about the storm surges which come from hurricanes - that's the real vulnerability. The sea level is rising around 1 inch per decade, but sea level is like any other climate parameter - its either rising or falling all the time. To me, 16 inches per century is not a significant problem to deal with. But since storm surges of 15 to 30 feet occur in 6 hours, any preventive strategy, like an extra 3 feet of elevation, would be helpful,”“Thinking that legislation can change sea level is hubris. I did a calculation on what 1000 new nuclear power plants operating by 2020 would do for the IPCC best guess in the year 2100. The answer is 1.4 cm – about half an inch (if you accept the IPCC projection A1B for the base case.) Also, there doesn't seem to be any acceleration of the slow trend,”

State of Florida Climatologist Dr. Jim O'Brien of Florida State University countered the AP article.

“The best measurements of sea level rise are from satellite instrument called altimeters. Currently they measure 14 inches in 100 years. Everyone agrees that there is no acceleration. Even the UN IPCC quotes this,” “If you increase the rate of rise by four times, it will take 146 years to rise to five feet. Sea level rise is the ‘scare tactic’ for these guys,” Climate researcher Dr Vincent Gray, of New Zealand, an expert reviewer on every single draft of the IPCC reports going back to 1990:

The IPCC never makes ‘predictions’, only ‘projections’; what might happen, or be 'likely" if you believe the assumptions in the model. No computer model has ever been shown to be capable of successful prediction,” “Actual data on sea levels are unreliable. Long term figures are based on tide-gauge measurements near port cities prone to subsidence and damage of equipment from severe weather. Many recent and more reliable measurements show little recent change. Satellite measurements have shown a recent rise which may be temporary,”

Dr. Boris Winterhalter, a retired Senior Research Scientist and Coordinator for national international marine geological research at the Geological Survey of Finland:

“Even the worst case scenario is half of that quoted by Associated Press. This is a hype of the worst order. This whole scare builds on GCM's which we know mimic Earth processes very simplistically and are thus most unreliable,” “I, as a marine geologist, am abhorred. I just looked at the USGS (US Geological Survey) site and am astonished that none of the references or fact sheets seem to refer to IPCC Fourth Assessment Report released this spring,”

Dr. Richard S. Courtney, a climate and atmospheric science consultant and a UN IPCC expert reviewer:

“Global sea level has been rising for the 10,000 years since the last ice age, and no significant change to the rate of sea level rise has been observed recently,” "A continuing rise of ~2 mm/year for the next 100 years would raise sea level by ~0.2 m as it did during the twentieth century. And it is hard to see any justification for Andrew Weaver's claim (as quoted by AP) that ‘We're going to get a meter and there's nothing we can do about it, unless Weaver is talking about the next 500 years,” “Simply, there is no reason to suppose that sea level rise will be more of a problem in this century than it was in the last century or each of the previous ten centuries,”

Sunday, September 23, 2007

There are a lot of articles now about how James Hansen was predicting a new ice age back in 1971. That was the consensus opinion back then. Belief in cataclysmic climate change seems to be more a matter of a person's psychological makeup than science. Of course the current global warming hysteria doesn't qualify as science in any matter. My guess is that, for the most part, the climatologists who believed in the imminent emergence of a new ice age back then are the ones who believe in the global warming hypothesis now, and the skeptics then are skeptics now. It's pretty much a matter of the difference in the mindsets of conservatives and liberals. Liberals see the global warming predictions as an opportunity to impose central planning on global scale; something they wanted long before the emergence of the catastophic global warmng theory.

There is a lot of speculation about an attack by Israel on a Syrian facility on 6 September. President Bush has made a point of refusing to comment on the attack, which is alleged to have had his approval. Syria hasn'rt said much about the attack either, raising the suspicion that they don't want to reveal what was at the site attacked. Many think that nuclear material from North Korea was involved. Here is a piece from the blog dissecfting leftism:

Israel collects samples of Nork nuke material during raid: "Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem. The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say. They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons."

Thursday, September 20, 2007

The US dollar has declined recently to the point that a Canadian dollar is now worth more than the US dollar. The US dollar is at an all time low. I don't know what this means, but suspect we should expect inflation. No doubt the decline of the dollar has something to do with the increase in the price of oil and gold to all time highs.

The weak dollar is supposed to help manufacturing in the US. It is probably a good idea to invest in companies that do a lot of business overseas. The Fed cutting the interest rate to help the real estate industry probably causes some distortions in the financial sphere that will not be good in the long run.

A forecasting expert has looked at the IPCC's report on climate change released this year. The forecasting expert, Professor Scott Armstrong, has a low regard for the IPCC work. Based on his review, he says that a prediction of no change in temperature would be better than what the IPCC has done. Here is the site with the video of the presentation:

http://ff.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=375&Itemid=92

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The global warming/climate change scare contiues to amaze me. The "dumb and the devious" are pushing it. The devious want to use it as an excuse to raise taxes. John Podesta, Bill Clinton's spinner, is the latest to suggest that taxes must be raised to save the world. In the meantime, take a look at the recent temperature history of the antarctic:

http://www.climate-skeptic.com/

The greenhose gas Global Warming hypothesis says that temperature increases will be amplified at the pole. The South Pole is not getting warmer; thus the theory looks doubtful. Particularly when considered with the errors that are being found in the GCM's and in the worldwide temperature history.

On CNBC today there was discussion of Barrack Obama's proposed tax plan. He talked about simplifing the tax code, but his proposals seemed likely to further complicate it. No one proposes it, but the best approach would be to just start over. Obama says that there are trillions of dollars of loopholes in the Corporate tax code. That seems unlikely. He wants to increase corporate taxes while the rst of the world is reducing them. He also wants to increase the capital gains and dividend tax rates, again going the opposite direction from the rest of the world. He wants to increase the refund to people who do not owe any taxes (one of Nixon's bad liberal ideas). It was said that the plan would take another 10% of the people off of the income tax roles. That would mean that over 50% of the people would not be paying any income tax. What happens when a majority of the people start voting to raise taxes on the minority? Would the productive people start leaving, voting with their feet? Remember that early in Bill Clinton's presidency there was a proposal to prevent the exit of capital from the US. Expect similar legislation to be proposed when Democrats regain the Presidency.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Hollwood people are hard to understand. They revere cold-blooded killers like Che Guevera Lynch and Fidel Castro and they hate loyal Americans. I saw clips on TV of a Sally Field speech in which she says if mothers ruled the world there would be no wars. This is ridiculous. She doesn't seem to know that many Muslim mothers raise their children to be suicide bombers. I see that Patricia Heaton (I don't know what she does, but is a beauty and apparently is a movie star ) doesn't agree with Sally, so maybe not all in Hollywood are simple minded.

There is more interesting news from the TV show "The View." Barry Manilow is afraid to be on the stage with Elizabeth Hasselbeck. I've only seen Elizabeth in clips of her dispute with Rosie O'Donnell. She seemed smarter than Rosie, which is not hard for anyone, but she didn't seem dangerous to me. I gather Elizabeth is married to an NFL quarterback. Maybe Barry is afraid of her husband.

There is a lot of misundestanding of what happened during the Vietnam war, mostly due to biased reporting. Here is a good discussion of what actually happened, and how Democrats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, just as they want to do in Iraq.

http://www.nysun.com/article/62852

Hillary Clinton basically told General Petraeus that he was a liar because of his optimism. I wonder , if she was President, if she would put a general in charge who told her we were bound to lose. It seems to me that she is a hypocrite because surely she would want a commander who thought he could win. During the civil war McClellen didn't think he could beat Lee (and he couldn't), so Lincoln found Grant who knew how to beat Lee.

Here is a quiz to see which residential candidate you most agree with.

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

My closest match was Tom Tancredo. That was a surprise to me.

Many people in America are unaware of the Muslim Brotherhood and their long range plan to take over the Europe and the US . Here is an article from the Dallas Morning News about the Muslim Brotherhod in America.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/091707dnmetbrotherhood.35ce2b6.html#

The Muslim Brotherhood is the founder of the terrorist group HAMAS, but they claim to have chosen the ballot box over violence for establishing Shariah Law in the US. Many "experts" claim that Muslims are not a threat to the US. That seems to be the position of the Democratic party. I like the last paragraph in the Dallas Morning News article. It says the Europeans understand the nuances of the Muslim Brotherhood better than Americans. Given that the Muslims are making more headway in taking over Europe than here, perhaps it is good that we don't grasp the subtleties. I don't find the Koran to be subtle. It proclaims that it is acceptable for Muslims to lie to, cheat, and steal from non-believers, and that they have an obligation to convert, subjugate, or kill non-believers.

Monday, September 17, 2007

The Al Hamad, the ship that delivered the suspicious cargo to Syria has disappeared. The US would like to find it to inspect it and try to determine what the cargo delivered to Syria was. The Israeli's may have already found the ship, which would probably mean it won't ever be found again.

Greenspan has made a lot of news today because in his book he says that the war in Iraq was all about oil. In interviews he corrects to say that for the White House there were other reasons, but in his opinion it was all about oil. Not stealing oil as many liberals like to say, but rather keeping the supply of oil open. The strategy of the US has been to keep the oil flowing for many decades, so that is nothing new.

My opinion of why the war in Iraq is different than anything I have seen written by US politicians. Both political parties actually have supported the overall strategy in the past. I think President Bush had an overall strategy of getting Muslims to stop supporting the radical element that wants a conflict of civilizations with the west. He could not get that result from operations in Afghanistan, but thought he could in Iraq. I had personal doubts that the Bush plan would succeed, but thought the US had a moral obligation to attempt it because the alternative is an eventually worlwide conflict between Islam and the rest of the world.

The outcome of the war in Iraq is still uncertain. What has happened is that Europe is now at least aware of the threat to their civilization posed by Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood's plan for infiltration of Europe and the US, and eventual overthrow of the government and establishment of shariah law. And in Iraq it appears that the natives are beginning to resist and act against al Queda. It has not been stated until recently, but it seemed obvious to me that the US would maintain a military presence in Iraq for some time; at least until the oil runs out. As usual, the US is doing the heavy lifting for the rest of the world.

What is sad to me is that Democrats and so-called liberals in the US have actually worked against the US policy. They are willing to risk a lot regarding the safety of the US to prevent a victory by President Bush. It will be interesting to see what happens if a Democrat is elected President next year. Will they give up to the Islamists as they seem to be saying they will now, or will they advance the interests of the US by continuing activities to thwart the ambitions of the Islamists? I hope they choose the latter course, but the Democratic Party includes a lot of people who wanted to surrenderr to the communists, and seem unwilling to resist Islam.

Israel recently conducted a bombing raid into Syria. Some news analysts think Israel attacked a nuclear storage site. It is hard to tell about that, but there must have been something provacative going on there since the Syrians have not invited the UN inspectors to come and survey the damage. THe North Koreans had recently delivered a shipment of something. What does North Korea produce for export besides military equipment? I wonder how much the US intelligence agencies knew about it. Previously the US has intercepted military shipments from North Korea to the Middle East. Did the CIA miss this one?

There is a lot of news today about Hillary Clinton's call for health insurance for the 47 million uninsured Americans. According to what I've read, the 47 million number includes the 10 to 20 million illegal aliens. To Democrats they are Americans, and should be allowed to vote, and should have health care paid for by Americans. I wonder how she intends to make people who are here illegally and operate in a shadow economy purchase health insurance? Those 47 million people, including the illegals, may not have health insurance, but they do have access to medical care. They simply have to wait in line longer than the rest of us. Like a few hours until they get proper care. People in socialist countries like Canada and England have to wait many weeks before that get the care they need. I recently saw a study that said health care in the US was terrible; no universal health care and lot of other subjective things were judged as bad in the US. The US was number one in only one area; getting "right" care. In other words in the US there is a better chance that you get the health care you need in a timely fashion. That's all that matters. The rest of that stuff is eyewash that only bureaucrats from collectivist nations would care about.

I read that Microsoft has lost the suit in Europe over including Media Player in their Operating System without charging for it. It is amazing that the Europeans would find it illegal to include free stuff. I assume Microsoft will appeal.

The Europeans don't like competition or upstart companies like Microsoft. That is why the top corporations in Germany and France are the same now as 50 years ago, while in the US there are a lot of new companies at the top. Creative destruction is necessary to keep the evils of bureaucracy at bay. The Europeans have lagging economic growth because they prevent competition. They celebrate mind-numbing bureaucracy.

Sadly we have no way to defeat bureaucracy in government in the United States, so, as government grows we are being dragged down. We have politicians that sometimes mention reducing the size of government, but in fact government grows larger under both Democrats and Republicans. We need to get a new party that will actually disrupt the government bureaucracy. Our educational system is failing because the system has lost sight of the goal, which is to educate the students.

This is the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." She argues for "enlightened self-interest," and predicted the decline of America under the weight of socialism. Her prophesies are coming true. I had a bit of trouble reading "Atlas Shrugged." It is hard going sometimes, with the tedious monologues of John Galt, the main character. Rand was a Russian, and understood the corrosive effects of socialism.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

A Canadian Liberal leader wants to ban handguns because a student at a school was stabbed to death.

Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday that he does not want to see the provinces' schools resort to installing metal detectors and having uniformed security officers patrol the halls in the wake of Tuesday's fatal stabbing at a Toronto high school.

Such a move, he said, would amount to the Americanization of schools in Ontario. . . .

Instead, he said, Ontario needs to distinguish itself from the United States by imposing an outright ban on hand guns.

"Let's ban handguns in Ontario," he said. "Let's ban handguns across the country. Let's declare war against handguns."

A 16-year-old Scarborough youth was stabbed to death on Tuesday on a walkway leading from Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute.

It is not clear to me how banning handguns would prevent stabbing deaths. I have trouble understanding the liberal mind.

I recently saw a city councilman from South Los Angeles talking about plans to prevent the establishment of any more fast food restaurants. It seems that there are a lot of obese people in South Los Angeles, and the city government feels compelled to save the people from themselves. When it was pointed out to the councilman that fast food restaurants have low calorie items on there menu that people could choose, he mumbled that the lure of big Macs is too great, so they bypass the lower calorie food. I'm pretty sure the city government is controlled by Democrats. Democrats know what is best for the people, and wants to take care of them. They typically regard the people as too stupid to make rational decisions for themselves. If the city government gets their way, that should increase the value of the existing fast food restaurants. The government must not realize that if there was a market for more upscale restaurants in South Los Angeles capitalists would build them.

The Democrats worry about the poor people in the US, which is probably the first country in the history of the world in which the problem for the poor is not hunger, but rather is obesity. So, instead of figuring out how to get more calories to the poor, they need to figure out how to get the poor to eat less.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Here is another paper about challenges to the Global Warming theory. Many of the scientists who think mankind is having some effect on climate do not think there is an imminent climate catastrophe coming, as is predicted by Al Gore, the IPCC, and James Hansen. Many of the points outlined in this paper have been made before.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,176495.shtml

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

As I read the newspapers and watch news shows on TV it appears that the catastrophic Global Warming Theory supporters have won the political battle. Many rent-seeking Corporations are behind the effort; there is a lot of profit to be made by insiders with little investment and no risk. Even President Bush is talking about reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and there may be some success in setting up some sort of world wide governance as envisioned by Al Gore. It is ironic that this is happening as the wheels begin to fall off of the catastrophic Global Warming Theory itself. The release of the algorithms used by Hansen are being examined by skeptics and it appears that the surface air temperature (whatever that is) reconstructions are unreliable at best. The record for the US, which is clearly the most complete and best for any part of Earth shows little or no warming over the last century, after errors were recently corrected. (And this doesn't even consider the problems with the reliability of measuring stations in the US, and problems with the heat island effect correction based on Asian data used by Jones that is totally unreliable since many of the measurement sites were continually moved to the edge of the urban area. Jones won't release his data because he says people would just use it to prove him wrong. That seems to indicate a lack of confidence.) I have always thought that the effect of an increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere on temperature would be minimal. The reason is that if an IR detector is designed for a heat seeking missile, the three wavelengths at which carbon dioxide absorbs IR energy (about 2.7, 4.3, and 15 microns) would be avoided because the enegy absorbtion is about 10dB per kilometer. So 90% is absorbed in one kilometer, 99% is absorbed in two kilometers, and 99.9% is absorbed in three kilometers. So, with the atmosphere more than 10 kilometers thick, not much energy in the carbon dioxide wavelengths was escaping anyway. Thus increasing the carbon dioxide concentration would have little impact. (It is true that increasing the concentration widens the wavelength band over which energy is absorbed, and this could be important like on Venus where the density of carbon dioxide in the atmsophere is thousands of times what it is on Earth.) So, I tend to think that air temperature could increase slightly due to a doubling of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, but it would probably be largely masked by natural variations.
(This is not to say that we don't need other and better energy sources, but we don't need them as urgently as Al Gore claims. It would be good to generate electricity with nuclear power as advocated by President Bush, and to develop fusion power. I always think of people living in New York in 1900, and imagine the pollution caused by all of the horses, and try to imagine how people would live there now if we still relied on horses for transportation.)

Here is a good site for information about global warming.

http://www.climate-skeptic.com/

One Democrat "talking point" that I hear a lot on TV is that there is a civil war in Iraq, and that there can be no military solution to a civil war. I wonder why they didn't pay attention in history class because there was a civil war in the United States once, and it was resolved militarily. The "civil war" in Iraq, if that is what it is, could be readily resolved militarily by wiping out the Sunni's. But, we don't want to do that, and we don't want the Shia to wipe out the Sunni's. The Iraq war is more complicated than just a civil war. There are at least five groups involved; Sunni, Shia, Kurds, al-Queda, and the United States. Add to that some interference from Iran and Syria. The US is fighting al-Queda and at the same time is trying to stop the Shia and Sunni's from killing each other. The situation is too complicated for our politicians to deal with it with their posturing and sound bites.

Another complaint from the Democrats is that we have been fighting al-Queda for six years now, longer than WWII lasted. This is also a simplistic sound bite observation. Using the US civil war as an example, the fighting lasted for only four years, but the Reconstruction activity for pacifying the South lasted 12 years, from 1865 to 1877. Even after that, there was still animosity toward the North from elderly people that I knew in Texas when I was a boy.

Monday, September 10, 2007

I watched the House hearing with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker today. My conclusion is that the Republicans should encourage the Democrats to have more such hearings broadcast in primetime.

This reminds me of the time I was watching a Senate hearing on the NASA budget with my son when he was a teenager. After a while he was incredulous, and asked, "Are these actually the people who govern America?" I said that they were acting but are not very good at it, and that the best we could hope for is that the staff sitting behind them feeding them their lines were smart.

Two years ago while traveling by car with my wife I listened to the Senate hearing on the Roberts nomination to the Supreme Court. After listening to Senator Joe Biden ramble on for 30 minutes without asking a question my wife asked me if that fool was someone important. I said if anyone ever asks for a definition of "Pompous Ass" just say Joe Biden.

The left has resorted to calling General Petraeus a traitor, and now even President Bush. As far as I am concerned that is proof that the left are traitors.

Here is a global warming test. I made a perfect score on the test. There is a lot of good information in the discussion of the questions.

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/GlobWarmTest/Q1.html

The Democrats Presidential Candidates are having a debate in Spanish. They aren't speaking Spanish, but they are having answers translated. This is another reason to not vote for Democrats. I thought a person was supposed to be able to speak English to gain citizenship, but I'm probably wrong about that. Of course, the Democrats count a lot on the illlegal alien vote. Our nation's political leaders, both Democrat and Republican, have failed us. They think that every person in the world has American Constitutional rights, and has the right to come to America. I think that if I moved to Mexico, I wouldn't be able to become a citizen without learning to speak Spanish, and I wouldn't be able to run for public office at all. I'm not certain that I would even be able to vote.

The last time I was on jury duty, the judge said that people who couldn't speak English couldn't serve on a jury. Then the clerk administered the oath first in Spanish and then in English. That is when I knew we have a serious problem. When I was a boy there were about 100,000 Hispanics in Texas. (In 1836 when Texas broke off from Mexico there were about 3000 Hispanics in Texas, most of whom didn't like the corrupt government of Mexico.) Now there are 8 million. Hispanics may have a lot of children, but not that many. Obviously most of the 8 million came from Mexico, or at least their parents did.

Once again, the Democrats appear to be getting money from their old friends, the Chineses communists. That is just a guess, since we don't know where Mr. Hsu gets his money, and probably will never find out. Here is how it went in the past.

In his book “The China Threat,” Washington Times correspondent Bill Gertz describes how the system worked.
Defense contractors eager to sell technology to China poured millions of dollars into Clinton’s campaign. In return, Clinton called off the dogs. Janet Reno and other counterintelligence officials stood down while Lockheed Martin, Hughes Electronics, Loral Space & Communications and other U.S. companies helped China modernize its nuclear strike force.
“We like your president. We want to see him re-elected,” former Chinese intelligence chief Gen. Ji Shengde told Chinagate bagman Johnny Chung.
Indeed, Chinese intelligence organized a massive covert operation aimed at tilting the 1996 election Clinton’s way.


Clinton’s top campaign contributors for 1992 were Chinese agents; his top donors in 1996 were U.S. defense contractors selling missile technology to China.

Clinton recieved funding directly from known or suspected Chinese intelligence agents, among them James and Mochtar Riady, who own the Indonesian Lippo Group; John Huang; Charlie Trie; Ted Sioeng; Maria Hsia; Wang Jun and others.

Commerce Secretary Ron Brown served as Clinton’s front man in many Chinagate deals. When investigators began probing Brown’s Lippo Group and Chinagate connections, Brown died suddenly in a suspicious April 1996 plane crash.”

The implication regarding Ron Brown's death is perhaps a stretch. That may just be a coincidence. But, a lot of people who could provide testimony damaging to the Clinton's have died suddenly, like Jim McDougal and Vince Foster. If I were Norman Hsu I would be concerned. Hillary is going to return $850,000 to Hsu. Maybe he can use the money to hire a good lawyer.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

It turns out that some of those released from Gitmo would rather go back. It is interesting that Human Rights Watch thinks that the US is not doing enough to ensure that those released back to their home countries are treated well there. It seems odd to me that HRW is only concerned about whatthe US does; they pay no attention to what other countries do to prisoners. I never hear of thme complaining about al-queda chopping off prisoner's heads, or the Taliban executing civilians. Here is the story on the guys from released from Gitmo:

'I'd Rather Return to Guantanamo'
When two Tunisian men were sent home after five years in Guantanamo, they thought they would be free. Instead, they faced imprisonment, abuse, threats and solitary confinement. Now they say things were better back in the US prison camp.


AP
Release from Guantanamo Bay may not be the end of the prisoner's ordeal. Many of the detainees sitting in Guantanamo Bay hail from countries with a terrible record of torturing and abusing prisoners. While they may want to see an end to their ordeal in the US prison camp, they also have reason to dread the treatment they could face back home.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the US government is not doing enough to ensure that prisoners sent back home are not subjected to ill treatment, despite diplomatic assurances from their home countries. The US is continuing to repatriate prisoners, sending home 16 Saudis on Thursday. But in their haste to reduce the numbers at Guantanamo, it seems they are being less than thorough in ensuring that the former prisoners are not mistreated.
In its "Ill-fated Homecomings" report released on Wednesday, HRW focuses on two Tunisian men, Abdullah al-Hajji Ben Amor and Lofti Lagha, who were released from Guantanamo six weeks ago and are now sitting in jail in Tunisia. The researchers did not have access to the prisoners but spoke to their families and their lawyer, Samir Ben Amor.
The two Tunisians were sent home on June 18 and, according to HRW, they had no idea that they would be facing further imprisonment. They now say that if they had known, they would have fought the transfer.
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From the Archive: United Nations Report: 'Shut Down Guantanamo' (02/16/2006)The two men were held at the military camp in Cuba for five years, without being charged with any crimes, and Lagha was never represented by a lawyer during that time. Rather than facing freedom when they finally got home, the two men were taken directly into custody and say they were threatened, abused and put in solitary confinement. They now claim things are so bad that they would rather be back in Guantanamo -- despite Tunisia's pledge to the US that they would be treated humanely.
Abdullah al-Hajji left Tunisia in 1990 and had no idea that he had been convicted in absentia in 1995 of being a member of a foreign terrorist organization. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
According to HRW, when he landed back in Tunisia in June he was held at the Ministry of the Interior for two days, where he was slapped and told his wife and daughters would be raped. He was shaken repeatedly to keep from sleeping and told to sign a paper he couldn't read because he needs new glasses. He was then sent to the same military court that had convicted him in absentia, told he would face a new trial on Sept. 26, and then thrown into solitary confinement for six weeks. He told his lawyer that, if he had been told of the conviction, he would have objected to returning to Tunisia.
Lofti Lagha, who hails from a small village in southern Tunisia, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and held in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantanamo. He was never represented by a lawyer at the US base, and only saw his Tunisian lawyer Ben Amor in August. He said he was threatened with torture when he first got back to Tunisia but was never physically abused. He was then put in solitary confinement for more than six weeks and a judge recommended that he be charged with membership in a terrorist organization.
'Diplomatic Assurances'
Human Rights Watch has urged the US government to give detainees advance notice of their transfer and allow them the opportunity to contest it in a federal court if they fear torture or abuse upon their return. The US, as a party to the UN Convention Against Torture, has committed to not permitting prisoners to a country in which there are "substantial grounds for believing he would be in danger of being subjected to torture." But, as Washington reduces the number of people detained at Guantanamo, it seems content to accept "diplomatic assurances" from countries with less than glowing human rights records.
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"Closing Guantanamo provides the United States one of the best opportunities to help rebuild its moral authority and international good will," Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel for HRW said, referring to the increased pressure to close the base. "Washington should not squander that chance by forcibly repatriating detainees to countries with known records of torture and abuse."
HRW has already reported on violence suffered by former Guantanamo prisoners who were sent back to Russia in 2004. According to its research, they experienced torture and abuse, despite Moscow's pledge to US authorities that they would be treated humanely.
On Thursday, US military authorities released 16 Saudi prisoners. There has been widespread public anger in the country about the treatment of Saudi prisoners at the camp, particularly after two Saudis killed themselves at the base in June. It is not clear if the 16 former detainees face any charges in the Muslim kingdom.
Washington is currently negotiating the repatriation of prisoners to Algeria and Libya. Both countries have records of torture and abuse.

Friday, September 07, 2007

There is another odd twist to the Senator Craig case. It appears that he was traveling on business when arrested. It is illegal to arrest a congress person while they are traveling on business. There is a very good reason for this. An unscrupulous political party could simply have opponenets arrested for frivilous reasons just before a critical vote. (I can easily imagine the current Democratic leadership doing that. ) Apparently Craig didn't think of that when he was arrested. The young Congressman Kennedy recently remembered it, even though he was so drunk he had driven into a traffic barricade. He immediately told police officers that he was on the way to a vote, even though it was about 3 AM. The police simply drove him home instead of arresting him. I think he plead guilty to DUI, and checked into a rehab facility. I now see Dems saying that anyone in Congress who pleads guilty should resign. Has Kennedy resigned yet? I wouldn't hold my breath until he does.

Global Warming is fickle. Last year two women were going to trek to the North Pole to illustrate how global warming was having an adverse effect. But cold weather forced them to turn back. Now a guy who heard that the artic ice had melted tried to sail across the artic. Now he is ice locked, and those vanishing polar bears are threatening him.

British Yachtsman Who Counted On Global Warming to Cross Arctic Now Trapped by Ice: "In one of the most hilarious cases of being tripped up by dubious scientific hype, British yachtsman Adrian Flanagan attempted to be the first to sail across the arctic north of Russia. He based his hope on the fact that he believed in the Global Warming propaganda that the arctic is rapidly losing its ice thus making his trip possible. One little problem. Cold cruel reality has crushed the Global Warming hype and now Flanagan's boat is trapped by ice in the arctic. Besides the arctic ice, Wrong Way Flanagan now appears to have another problem. Remember those polar bears that Global Warming activists were warning us were endangered? Well, it now seems that the tables have been turned and those endangered polar bears are now endangering Flanagan"

Global warming is responsible for everything that happens with the weather. Recently there were the two recent studies, one of which reported the decrease in salt content in the North Atlantic while the other reported an increase. Both attributed the change in salt content to global warming. Just this week I heard on the news that Global Warming is causing more hurricanes, such as the two that recently hit Central America and Mexico. Today in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram there is an article that says La Nina appears to be forming in the Pacific, and is going to increase the number of hurricanes in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. La Nina is a phenomena in which the water temperature in the Pacific suddenly declines. So, if the ocean water gets hotter, there are more hurricanes, and if the ocean water gets colder there are more hurricanes. Apparently we are living in the perfect environment, but it is unstable. Any change leads to disaster. But, climate has always changed. So, the situation is hopeless.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

There must be more to the Senator Craig story than we have heard, despite all of the news coverage. From the descriptions I have heard it appears that the Senator plead guilty to actions that may not have actually been a crime. His behavior, while bizarre, was not lewd. The arresting officer simply assumed (perhaps correctly) that the Senator was contemplating committing a crime. This is esentially a "thought crime." That is similar to the "hate crime" philosophy that liberals usually favor. I can't help but wonder if the police "sting" operation was specifically intended to entrap the Senator. It would be interesting to know how many people besides Senator Craig were arrested in the sting operation. It seems to me that if the Minneapolis police wanted to stop lewd acts in the airport restrooms it would have been more effective to simply have uniformed police patrol the area. It seems to me that uniformed police would be better at preventing illegal activity than the vice squad. I'm libertarian enough to be suspicious of the vice squad.

It is also odd to me that the gay community is not complaining about the possibly unconstitutional activities of the Minneapolis police. As far as I know it is not illegal for gays to "hook up" in restrooms or anywhere else. It would be illegal for them to perform sex acts in the restroom, but not to meet there, no matter what bizarre rituals they use to make contact. If it is illegal in Minneapolis, what about heterosexuals "hooking up" in bars? Shouldn't that also be illegal? Wouldn't the line Michael Douglas used to pick up Catherine Zeta-Jones ("I want you to be the mother of my children") also be illegal? (I can't believe Douglas's line worked, but apparently it did.)

After my heart attack I started working out at the hospital for an hour or more for five or six days a week. Exercize is also important for those who haven't had a heart attack since the extra blood vessels are beneficial in case a major artery is blocked. Having good collateral flow helped me when I had the heart attack.

Exercise May Generate New Blood Vessels

Having a bad heart doesn't mean you can skip exercise, doctors said Wednesday. In fact, it may even help your heart to repair itself. Research presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting showed that exercise sparks the creation of new heart vessels.

In a small study of 37 people at Leipzig University in Germany, Dr. Robert Hollriegel found that people with serious heart failure who rode a bike for up to 30 minutes a day for four months produced new stem cells in their bones.

They also had more small blood vessels in their muscles. Those who didn't exercise had no change in their vessels or muscles.

Most patients with heart failure are over 70 years old, and some can barely walk a few steps without stopping for rest. Doctors think that even these patients would benefit from light exercise such as walking or cycling. To ensure that patients will be able to handle a certain level of physical activity, doctors conduct a test first to determine their maximum limits and to ensure they would not be exceeded. Some exercise regimens also are supervised by health professionals.

"We're not talking about patients with acute heart problems," said Dr. John Cleland, a heart failure specialist at the University of Hull in Britain who is spokesman for the European Society of Cardiology. Cleland was not involved in Hollriegel's research.

"This is to prevent people from getting into a cycle of deterioration where they're afraid to exercise and they just avoid any activity that leaves them out of breath," he said.

Physical activity strains the heart's arteries and muscles by sending 10 times the normal amount of blood to the muscles being used. Stem cells then are dispatched to relieve this stress and may repair any damaged parts. If you continue to exercise, these stem cells help the body adapt to the stress, by building new blood vessels and strengthening muscles. But to maintain such benefits, you must exercise regularly.

Cleland said that people with heart failure should exercise to a state where they're breathless at least once a day. Pushing the limits of their heart's capabilities should help make it stronger.

"People think that if they have heart failure, then they're at the end of the road and they can't exercise," said Dr. Freek Verheugt, a cardiologist at the University of Nymegen in the Netherlands. "But this study shows that exercise can work to produce new blood vessels, even in patients with serious heart disease."

Because no drugs exist to produce new stem cells, exercise may be the only method for some patients to rebuild their hearts.

"We are not saying that patients should run marathons, but there is no other way to augment your arteries," said Dr. Francois Carre of Rennes University Hospital in France. "Patients have to exercise if they want that."
Previous studies have shown that people who do physical therapy after a heart attack live longer than those who don't. Experimental studies in rats have also suggested that exercise can even be more effective than statins, drugs that are commonly used to treat heart disease.


Though doctors routinely recommend that patients exercise, it is not an actual treatment. Carre thinks that should change. "We need to write patients prescriptions to exercise the same way we write prescriptions for drugs," he said.

"People have been trying for years to create a polypill to treat many different parts of heart disease," Carre said. "But that already exists. It's exercise."

I used to have a sign in my office that said “Bureaucracy is the Enemy.” Today I saw Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy for the first time, and I agree with it. The law says, “In any bureaucracy there are two types of people; those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. The second type will always gain control of the organization and write the rules under which the organization operates.”

I would cite NASA as an example. In the early days great things were accomplished. Now NASA is unable do accomplish anything despite still having a large budget. They are bound up in bureaucratic rules, and make disastrous decisions. Public education is another example: bureaucrats rise to the top and make rules that frustrate good teachers and cause them to leave.

I have seen the same thing at the project level in industry. Initially much progress is made, but soon the bureaucratic maze slows progress to a snail’s pace. Many functional leaders think that they can write procedures, which, if followed to the letter, will always achieve success. They don’t think they need creative people, and, in fact, don’t even want them.

I think this law of bureaucracy is why capitalism beats socialism. In capitalism, competition causes organizations to re-structure or be destroyed by more efficient new businesses. Socialism has no such mechanism.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Does anyone else find it odd that the story on Senator Craig came out just as the story on Hillary and the Democrats once again getting funding from the Chinese? Naturally the sex scandal pushed the illegal campaign contribution story off the front page. The reason this seems odd is that the Craig arrest was back in June. The Democrats often manage to hold stories like that until the appropriate time. The same thing happened last year with the Foley story. As far as I know, Foley, who was widely known to be a homosexual, has not been charged with anything. But then, Congressman Studds was never charged with anything, and he had sex with a 17-year old page. Studds was a Democrat so he couldn't be accused of hypocrisy. And, the folks in Massachusetts re-elected him several more times. Studds death was untimely as it happened just as Foley was being drummed out. Ted Kennedy highly praised Studds in a speech at the funeral. But, Republican Foley had to go.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

There is a lot of news today about the Chinese military hacking into Pentagon computers. That follows a recent similar event in Germany, which Merkel complained to the Chinese about. None of this is surprising since the Chinese military has long said theat they are conducting "unrestricted warfare" against the United States. As usual, we have ignored them. One reason given for ignoring them is that the Chinese military seems separate from the civil government. The Chinese military funds itself through its own manufacturing plants and other economic enterprises.

The President of Mexico says that Mexico is wherever Mexicans are. Based on that he must think that most of the United States is part of Mexico. And he makes pronouncements like he expects the United States to do his bidding with regards to granting citizenship to illegal aliens. I think that if we give in to the demands of citizenship for anyone who can sneak into the United States, then maybe he is correct; the United States is no longer a sovereign nation. Maybe Calderon thinks the "North American Union" already is in place. Maybe he knows something we haven't been told about yet. The US, Canada, and Mexico recently had a secret meeting in Canada that the leaders refused to talk about to reporters.

Next time you fly, check to make sure your airline has made the proper sacrifices to the sky gods. Then you don't have to worry about poor maintainance practices. At least that is what Hindu's do.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said on Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft on Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

A lot of religions involve sacrifices of virgins or oxen or goats to their respective god. I have never understood the rationale for why the sacrifice appeases the god.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Flopping Aces has two blogs that are of interest.

http://www.floppingaces.net/

First there is the Howard Dean "Take Back America" event sponsored by Muslims. Howard tells them they need to run for office. Apparently he favors sharia law. It's funny, but I don't recall Muslims ever having America, so how can they take it back? It seems that Howard and the Democrats are for anyone who doesn't like President Bush, regardless of their agenda.

Then there is a review of the Clinton's campaign funding history. The 1996 campaign is still of interest. Over 100 people left the country to avoid testifying in investiagtions of that one, and some of those who stayed were convicted. And then there was Jamie Gorelick's "wall" that seems to have been created to protect President Clinton. A lot of Chinese want to give money to Clinton. I guess they just like his style; they do seem to favor collectivists. It couldn't have anything to do with the military secrets they managed to acquire while Clinton was President, could it?