Climate Change Caused A Massive Ocean Extinction Which Could Happen Again Or Something

By William Teach December 7, 2018 – 5:46 pm

We can fix this with a tax, you know

How climate change choked ancient life to death — and why it could happen again

Scientists say rapidly warming oceans played a key role in the world’s biggest mass extinction, 252 million years ago, and could point to the risks that lie ahead in an era of similarly rapid climate change.

The latest analysis, published in this week’s issue of the journal Science, puts together computer modeling of ancient ocean conditions and a close look at species characteristics to fit new pieces into a longstanding puzzle: What were the factors behind the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, also known as the Great Dying?

The Permian-Triassic die-off dwarfed the extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs almost 190 million years later. About 70 percent of land-based species became extinct, but the toll was even greater in Earth’s seas. An estimated 96 percent of marine species were snuffed out.

Grain of salt?

The computer modeling showed that the warmer oceans lost about 80 percent of their oxygen. About half of the ocean seafloor, mostly at deeper depths, became completely oxygen-free.

So, no direct observations?

Penn noted that the computer models could be applied to future ocean conditions as well as past conditions, with worrisome results.

“Under a business-as-usual emissions scenario, by 2100, warming in the upper ocean will have approached 20 percent of warming in the late Permian. And by the year 2300, it will reach between 35 and 50 percent,” he said. “This study highlights the potential for a mass extinction arising from a similar mechanism under anthropogenic climate change.”

Read: Climate Change Caused A Massive Ocean Extinction Which Could Happen Again Or Something »

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 7, 2018 – 1:00 pm

…are mountains losing their glaciers from too much heat that also causes extreme snow, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Daley Gator, with a post on more attempts to outlaw self defense.

Read: If All You See… »

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Who’s Up For The Reindeer Monologues?

By William Teach December 7, 2018 – 10:25 am

If you saw the last two words and thought “Vagina Monologues”, you’d be pretty close. I’d ask them to do the Mohammed Monologues, but, even these religion haters know better than to say something which will get them credible death threats

Review: ‘Reindeer Monologues’ uses Christmas to create provocative critique

“The Eight: Reindeer Monologues,” which opened at M&D Playhouse at 1857 White Mountain Highway in North Conway on Thursday, Dec. 6, is a truly unique holiday show. It is a challenging, thought-provoking look at sexual assault and abuse of power that is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking.

Written by Jeff Goode in 1994, “The Eight” feels more relevant than ever in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which has thrust issues of sexual harassment unavoidably into the public eye.

Vixen (Sam Kilbride) has accused Santa Claus of molesting her, which brings a media storm to the North Pole. The play is structured as a series of monologues, with each reindeer offering their views on Santa and the accusations.

Unlike the similarly formatted “Vagina Monologues,” which is a collection of unrelated monologues about womanhood, the monologues in “The Eight” tell a complete narrative with each successive account giving a more clear picture of what Santa and life at the North Pole is really like. Needless to say, this show is not for children.

Director Ken Martin, who also plays Cupid, the only openly gay reindeer on Santa’s team, has guided his actors to a place that feels grounded and sincere. Even the more humorous monologues are based in real emotion, whether that is anger, hurt, confusion or righteousness.

The review doesn’t get any better. And includes

Finally, there’s Vixen, which the whole play builds toward. Kilbride doesn’t hold back. It is a raw, exposed performance full of pain, rage and frustration, not just at Santa, but at a society that blames the victim and gives the benefit of the doubt to the accused. It is a heart-wrenching performance that you sit rapt watching in silence.

Certainly, victims shouldn’t be shamed, but, the accused are just that: the accused. Who enjoy the protection of innocent till proven guilty.

Read: Who’s Up For The Reindeer Monologues? »

Posted in Christmas, Holidays, Unhinged Tools | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Warmists Expose That Carbon Taxes Are Bad For Non-Rich, But Still Want Carbon Taxes

By William Teach December 7, 2018 – 7:17 am

The NY Times notes the problem with carbon taxes, but just cannot give up on them

‘Yellow Vest’ Protests Shake France. Here’s the Lesson for Climate Change.

Vincent Picard describes himself as a “militant ecologist.” But when protesters took to the streets to express their rage over a planned increase in France’s fuel tax, Mr. Picard joined their ranks.

He acknowledges that the tax might encourage the conservation considered critical for a healthy planet. But with the nearest train station 35 minutes away, he has to drive to work every day.

“I am conscious that we have reached the end of fossil fuels and that we have to modify our habits,” said Mr. Picard, a 32-year-old pastry maker from northern France. But, he added, “You have to continue to live.”

The gas tax is part of an effort started by France in 2014 to regularly raise the tax on fossil fuels to fight global climate change.

The so-called Yellow Vest (not sure why this is “so-called”, as they are using the French phrase for this themselves, and wearing yellow vests) protests against the tax increase have become the biggest obstacle yet to such attempts to encourage conservation and alternative energy use. The protests point to the difficulties facing nearly all industrialized countries committed to pulling the world back from the cliff’s edge of catastrophic climate change.

Darned citizens! How dare these middle and lower class citizens, many who became lower class because of the carbon taxes and other Statist policies, fight back against Big Government!

There is little doubt among scientists and economists — many of whom are in Poland for the current round of climate negotiations — that putting a price on carbon is essential in the effort to reduce fossil fuel dependence. The question is how to design a carbon tax, and how to cushion the blow for the most vulnerable.

See? That’s an acknowledgment that carbon taxes hurt people. Not the rich who push them, mind you.

But successfully passing carbon taxes is an increasingly delicate balancing act, with the biggest single obstacle still the pushback from the fossil fuel industry and its supporters.

Well, of course the fossil fuels industry would push back. And, pretty much everyone who uses fossil fuels in one fashion or another is a supporter. All those 10K+ who are attending the UN global warming conference in Poland? Most are fossil fuels fans, having traveled there in some type of fossil fueled conveyance. And, we see that the people who get nailed with the taxes are now obstacles, as we see from above, where the Yellow Vest protesters are being blamed.

Canada, for example, recently offered rebates to offset a planned carbon tax, helping people adjust to the change. But conservatives have pledged to undo Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan, saying it could cause economic damage, and only six of 10 provinces are going along with it.

Because people realized these taxes would hit them right in the wallet and they wouldn’t see that money back.

If nothing else, the maelstrom in France showed that the political challenge of how to create incentives for people to move away from fossil fuels requires much more than raising a tax on gas at the pump or subsidizing solar panels.

You understand what this is, right? A belief that our political “masters” should tell us how to live our lives.

Of the 34 billion euros, or $39 billion, that the French government is expected to raise this year from the fuel tax, less than a fourth is earmarked for measures that could help people of modest means transition to less-polluting transportation, said Daniel M. Kammen, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in energy policy.

Surprise?

Much more of the fuel tax proceeds, Mr. Kammen said, could be used to lower the prices of electric vehicles, including taxis, to help make them more affordable for commuters in areas without public transportation. Or they could be used to develop more charging stations or subsidize big batteries to enable taxis to do long trips.

Among the forms of help that economists point to are offering subsidies to encourage people to use less-polluting forms of energy, and expanding transit networks rather than closing them.

Got that? While the big shots who pass these policies will continue to move around in their own personal fossil fueled vehicles, or super expensive electric vehicles, the mids and lowers will get to ride in taxis if there are no buses and such! No personal vehicle for you!

What France’s experience has made clear, analysts say, is that fuel taxes work best as part of a more comprehensive plan that tries to offset the disproportionate pain felt by lower-income workers who can least afford the changes.

In other words, the taxes hurt the mids and lowers. But the elites won’t give up on them, just look for other ways to nail people.

Read: Warmists Expose That Carbon Taxes Are Bad For Non-Rich, But Still Want Carbon Taxes »

Posted in Carbon Credits, Global Warming, Taxation | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times: UN Vote That Failed To Condemn Hamas Is Blow To Nikki Haley Or Something

By William Teach December 7, 2018 – 6:47 am

Most news outlets who covered this vote are treating the failure of the United Nations to condemn the terrorist group Hamas rather neutrally, with a few taking Hamas’ side. The NY Times’ Michael Schwirtz and the person who wrote the headline decide to put it on Nikki Haley

In Blow to Haley, U.N. Rejects Measure Condemning Hamas

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday rejected a resolution proposed by the United States to condemn the Islamic militant group Hamas for violence against Israel. The rejection was a blow to the American ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, who had positioned the measure as a capstone of her tenure.

In remarks before the vote, Ms. Haley characterized the resolution as an opportunity for the 193 member states of the General Assembly to put themselves on the side of “truth and balance.”

Though the body has voted many times to condemn Israel, never once has it passed a resolution critical of Hamas, an organization Ms. Haley described as one of the “most obvious and grotesque cases of terrorism in the world.”

“Today could be a historic day at the United Nations or it could be just another ordinary day,” said Ms. Haley, who announced in October that she would be resigning, perhaps by year’s end.

Hamas militants have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, often hitting civilian areas. They also have employed a new kind of weapon: kites armed with incendiary devices, sometimes painted with Nazi symbols, that have burned Israeli farmland.

The vote was 87 in favor, 58 nations voted for Hamas, and 32 abstained. This required a 2/3rds majority. And this is being painted as a Bad Thing for Nikki Haley, rather than a bad thing for the United Nations, which just saw 58 nations stand up for a terrorist organization. And don’t forget the abstentions, because most of these same nation always vote to condemn Israel, the nation and people who are the recipients of terror attacks from groups just like Hamas.

In fact, this is a win for Haley, who just exposed the United Nations as basically a body that will support terrorist organizations. But, for the NY Times, Haley works for Trump, so, She Must Be Blamed.

Read: NY Times: UN Vote That Failed To Condemn Hamas Is Blow To Nikki Haley Or Something »

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Principal Suspended For Banning Most Things Christmas

By William Teach December 6, 2018 – 3:39 pm

The diversity, tolerance, inclusivity, and multiculturalism crowd sure isn’t very tolerant or inclusive when it comes to certain things

(KETV) The principal of Manchester Elementary in Elkhorn is on administrative leave after sending a directive to staff to ban certain religious Christmas decorations in the classrooms.

District spokesperson Kara Perchal said Jennifer Sinclair is a new principal and did not consult with administrators about school policy concerning the handling of religious holiday themes.

The organization, Liberty Counsel got wind of the principal’s memo and sent a demand letter to the superintendent of Elkhorn Public Schools asking the district to lift the Christmas ban.

Here’s what he banned

  • “Santas or Christmas items (clipart) on worksheets
  • Christmas trees in classrooms
  • Elf on the Shelf – that’s Christmas-related
  • Singing Christmas Carols
  • Playing Christmas music
  • Sending a Scholastic book that is a Christmas book – that’s Christmas-related
  • Making a Christmas ornament as a gift – This assumes that the family has a Christmas tree which assumes they celebrate Christmas. I challenge the thought of, ‘Well they can just hang it somewhere else.’
  • Candy Cane – that’s Christmas-related. Historically, the shape is a ‘J’ for Jesus. The red is for the blood of Christ, and the white is a symbol of his resurrection. This would also include different colored candy canes.
  • Red/Green items – traditional Christmas colors
  • Reindeer
  • Christmas videos/movies and/or characters from Christmas movies” (emphasis added)

And, a list of things acceptable

The principal’s “acceptable” list included: “gifts to students;” “Snowmen, snow women, snow people” and “snowflakes;” “Gingerbread people;” “Holidays Around the World;” “Sledding;” “Hot chocolate;” “Polar Bears;” “Penguins;” “Scarves, boots, earmuffs, and hats;” “Yetis;” and “Olaf” (the snowman from the movie Frozen.

But, isn’t Christmas celebrated around the world? Oh, right, right, every other holiday not associate with Jesus and Christianity.

Read: Principal Suspended For Banning Most Things Christmas »

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 6, 2018 – 1:00 pm

…is early snow caused by Other People driving fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Raised On Hoecakes, with a post on Veggie Tales not being raaaaacist.

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Having Missed The Riots One Nation Over, Italy Considers Implementing High Taxes On Fossil Fueled Vehicles

By William Teach December 6, 2018 – 10:22 am

Warmists continuously come up with super great ideas that always seem to harm Other People (via Watts Up With That?)

Italy proposes measures to spur sales of low-emission cars

Italy plans to offer subsidies of up to 6,000 euros ($6,800) to buyers of new low emission vehicles and will increase taxes on new petrol and diesel cars, two government officials said on Wednesday.

Concerns over climate change are pushing European lawmakers to tighten emissions regulations, but the car industry says that would harm its competitiveness.

Italy’s Lower House Budget Committee approved an amendment to the 2019 budget introducing a bonus for people who buy a new electric, hybrid or methane gas-powered car from Jan. 1, 2019.

If approved, the incentives will run until 2021 and total up to 300 million euros a year.

Under the same measure, purchases of new cars running on traditional fuels would be subject to a surcharge of up to 3,000 euros based on the level of carbon emissions produced.

That’s $3,418 U.S. Think this would go over well with the average American? Even believers in anthropogenic climate change would have fits. Eric Worrall notes

Drastic action to reduce pollution might play well in the cities – large Italian cities like Rome sometimes suffer severe air pollution. But a lot of poor Italians likely won’t be able to afford a new electric vehicle, even with the subsidy. With the limited battery life of electric vehicles, there doesn’t seem much point buying a second hand electric vehicle.

Electric vehicles might also increase risk to life for Italian drivers during winter. Mountainous areas of Italy can experience harsh winters, with deep snowfall and life threatening cold. Batteries don’t work well in severe subzero conditions, and batteries are a bad option for drivers stuck in the snow, who need their vehicle’s heater to stay warm.

Hybrids are mostly affordable, but, you’ll pay a couple grand more for a base model than a comparable standard model. Such as a Prius vs a Corolla, or an Insight vs a Civic. They also tend not to lease that well, due to residual values, and their overall resale value dips tremendously at auction due to concerns with how long the batteries will last, plus, there not being as much interest in purchasing.

Italy should be paying attention to what’s going on in France before they go down this road, especially since it would raise the cost of living due to companies passing on their higher costs.

Read: Having Missed The Riots One Nation Over, Italy Considers Implementing High Taxes On Fossil Fueled Vehicles »

Posted in Economy, Global Warming | 22 Comments | Trackback URL

House Democrats Look To Pass Bill Requiring Background Check On All Private Firearm Transfers

By William Teach December 6, 2018 – 7:21 am

On one hand, would it be such a bad thing to have a background check before all purchases and transfers? I’ve stated that I would have no problem requiring a background check on a new gun purchase even though someone had one the previous month, because things can change. But, you know that Democrats will over-reach

House Democrats Plan Push to Criminalize Private Gun Sales

House Democrats plan to introduce legislation criminalizing private gun sales once the new Congress is in session.

Mother Jones reports that Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) met with gun control groups that included the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Everytown for Gun Safety, the Center for American Progress, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and Gabby Giffords’ group. He asked them what they wanted, and a bill to criminalize private gun sales was on their wish list.

So Thompson will sponsor legislation requiring a background check before someone may buy a gun from his neighbor, a co-worker to get a background check before buying a gun from a co-worker, and so forth. The bill will go so far as to require a son to get a background check before a father can give him a gun as a gift.

Private gun sales are legal and have been an American tradition since 1791, the year the Second Amendment was ratified.

Ironically, a ban on private sales would not have stopped a single mass shooting witnessed to this point in the 21st century because nearly every mass shooter acquires his guns at retail via a background check. The exceptions to the rule are the mass shooters who steal their guns.

Interestingly, The Hill makes the same point

Some argue that universal background check legislation will close security gaps in gun purchases and help prevent mass shootings.

Others say that the background checks do not prevent shootings, pointing to the fact that several recent mass shooters, including the gunman who killed 17 people in Parkland Florida last February, passed background checks to obtain their firearms.

If Democrats were smart, they’d push to upgrade the background checks system and fix the existing issues, but, they’ll simply over-reach as they always do.

Meanwhile

Bruce McLaughlin Jr. and Timothy Dill put the jailbreak into motion sometime after 2 a.m. Tuesday. It was the graveyard shift at the jail in Pickens County, S.C., when their fellow prisoners were asleep and, if luck was on their side, the guards were less alert than usual. (they escaped)

But McLaughlin – a tattooed-neck felon who was jailed on charges of grand larceny and first-degree burglary, according to Newsweek – kicked in the kitchen door of a nearby house.

Inside, a woman lay in her bedroom, alone and asleep, authorities said.

McLaughlin picked up a footlong kitchen tool used to hone knives.

A few moments later, authorities received a 911 call.

It was the no-longer-sleeping woman. She had just shot a man, she told dispatchers, and he was dying on the floor outside her bedroom. She had no idea who he was, but he was wearing what looked like jail clothes.

Democrats want to make it much harder for women like the one above to obtain, keep, and carry a firearm. Many of their policies would have required that the gun be kept in a safe or with some sort of trigger lock, so, pretty much useless in the moment.

Read: House Democrats Look To Pass Bill Requiring Background Check On All Private Firearm Transfers »

Posted in 2nd Amendment, Democrats | 18 Comments | Trackback URL

French Government Surrenders On Fuel Tax Increase

By William Teach December 6, 2018 – 6:55 am

French President Macron went from saying he’d never give in to attempting to negotiate (but there was no actual leader to talk to) to putting a hold on the fuel tax increase for 6 months to surrender. But, don’t think it is a permanent surrender

Macron scraps fuel tax rise in face of gilets jaunes protests

The French government has bowed to gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protesters and abandoned the fuel tax rise that has sparked more than three weeks of violence and seen parts of central Paris in flames.

Just a day after announcing a six-month freeze on the eco-tax, the Elysée Palace declared it was dropping the measure from the 2019 budget.

Hours earlier, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, had said his government was prepared to reconsider the tax if other solutions could be found to make the transition to cleaner fuel without hitting people in their pockets, as he spoke to MPs during a debate on next year’s finance bill in the Assemblée Nationale.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, the Elysée said that Philippe and the president, Emmanuel Macron, “both wished the increase in the carbon tax be removed” from the budget for 2019.

“The citizen and parliamentary debate in the coming weeks and months will have to find solutions and funding that will meet the challenges of the ecological transition; solutions that will preserve the purchasing power of our citizens,” it added.

See? They won’t be giving up on Doing Something in regards to ‘climate change’, so, expect the taxes to be hidden somewhere.

The government is also looking to find ways to reduce the power bills of citizens after decades of the government being a big cause of rising energy prices

The government also said it would prevent state-controlled EDF from raising its regulated power prices this winter, but rivals said they would challenge that decision in court.

Earlier government attempts at freezing prices have been overruled.

Household power prices are set by independent energy regulator CRE using a formula that includes the price of power generation, transport and distribution. A third part of the retail price is made up of taxes.

“What is being discussed is that the share of taxes in the power price could be reduced in order to compensate for an increase in the generation cost, which on balance would keep prices stable,” said one of the two sources.

The government could lower the valued-added tax (VAT) or so-called CSPE tax, which stands at 22.5 euros per megawatt-hour and raised 3 billion euros ($3.40 billion) this year. Money from that tax also funds power subsidies for low-income families.

An energy ministry official told Reuters that the government was looking at ways to stabilize power bills but said that no final decision had been taken yet.

Government is good at messing things up and increasing your costs but not so good at being able to fix their mess.

Read: French Government Surrenders On Fuel Tax Increase »

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