Wind Turbine Collapses In 15 MPH Wind

https://twitter.com/leondowney/status/551700204924465153

The Belfast Telegraph reports it’s worth more, in the range of £2 million.

(Via Twitchy)

Read: Wind Turbine Collapses In 15 MPH Wind »

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another wonderful day in America. The sun is shining, the temps are warm, football! This pinup is by Al Buell, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Old Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Scared Monkeys discusses Mike Huckabee’s potential 2016 run
  2. Powerline has Sarah Palin’s response to PETA
  3. Legal Insurrection notes Dems now telling the GOP not to politicize the CBO
  4. Pamella Geller notes the increase in jihadi suicide bombings
  5. Moonbattery features DWS speaking in tongues
  6. Jihad Watch covers another peaceful member of the RoP in France
  7. Fire Andrea Mitchell features another peaceful member of the Democrat Party in Missouri
  8. Capitalism Is Freedom has the top 10 craziest things scientists thought to be true
  9. American Power notes Obama’s regulatory nation holding back the economy
  10. Allen West notes the media suppressing the truth
  11. A View From The Beach has botched environmental predictions
  12. 90Ninety Miles From Tyranny covers gun confiscation in NY
  13. Western Hero has 2015 prediction
  14. Weasel Zippers notes more violence targeting the police
  15. And last, but not least, The Daley Gator is happy about his Gators beating my Pirates

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page. While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. (BTW, since someone asked, the reason I leave links for the previous week up (or you might see a *) is because they are place holders for later in the day or for next weeks. Easier than rewriting all the time. Also, the listing order has to do with how they are added over time, not how good a post is. I just copy and paste from the previous week, then edit. If you see one of the *’s, go ahead and check out the blog anyhow, see if there is an update. I cannot update with my Android during the day.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

The Great Pause Is Now At 18 Years, 3 Months

Despite all the yammering from Warmists about 2014 being the “warmest year ever!!!!!!!!”, a dubious allegation, based on estimates, and, really, even if their estimates are correct, can you tell the difference between 58.46 and 58.46? Anyhow, the satellites disagree. Anyhow, here’s Christopher Monckton of Benchley, with his monthly highlight (Warmists will surely attack him personally, because they have no way to counter the actual data, and, hey, personal attacks are what Lefties do)

Since October 1996 there has been no global warming at all (Fig. 1). This month’s RSS [1] temperature plot pushes up the period without any global warming from 18 years 2 months to 18 years 3 months.

(WT note: if you hit the link you can click the photo and see it full size)

Figure 1. The least-squares linear-regression trend on the RSS satellite monthly global mean surface temperature anomaly dataset shows no global warming for 18 years 3 months since October 1996.

The hiatus period of 18 years 3 months, or 219 months, is the farthest back one can go in the RSS satellite temperature record and still show a sub-zero trend.

Of course, Warmists will call this “cherry picking”, since they completely misunderstand, possibly on purpose, that the time period is simply working back from current time. If you said that you’ve been at a company for the last 18 years and 3 months, that would not be cherry picking. Cherry picking is using a specific time frame, such as how many Warmists use 1960-1990 to establish a baseline, even though 20 of those years were seeing a reduction in temperatures, leading to news organizations and climate scientists to wonder if the Earth was heading into an ice age.

The Great Pause is a growing embarrassment to those who had told us with “substantial confidence” that the science was settled and the debate over. Nature had other ideas. Though approaching 70 mutually incompatible and more or less implausible excuses for the Pause are appearing in nervous reviewed journals and among proselytizing scientists, the possibility that the Pause is occurring because the computer models are simply wrong about the sensitivity of temperature to manmade greenhouse gases can no longer be dismissed, and is demonstrated in a major peer-reviewed paper published this month in the Orient’s leading science journal.

It’s only an embarrassment to the honest climatologists. The rest of the cult has all sorts of excuses, talking points, and distractions.

The basic point here, and I would highly recommend reading the entire article, including the “key points” near the end, is not that there hasn’t been any warming since 1850, because there certainly was. Nor that there were spikes, such as during the time period of 1979-1996 (1997-1998 are ignored, being part of a massive El Nino). The debate is not over warming, but causation. Warmists say it is mostly/solely the fault of Mankind. Skeptics say it is mostly/solely caused by nature. The primary culprit for Warmists is CO2, what they refer to as “carbon pollution”, despite being a trace gas necessary for life on Earth, and what you are expelling from your nose and mouth every couple of seconds or so. Yet, despite rising CO2 levels, we have an 18 year and 3 month pause.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: The Great Pause Is Now At 18 Years, 3 Months »

Bummer: Urban Dwellers Power Supplies At Risk From “Climate Change”

Of, course, not because the urban residents, who tend to be much more Left leaning and believe in Hotcoldwetdry, push policies which reduce the available power from old school, and reliable, methods like coal and natural gas, and tend to be anti-nuclear power, in favor of unreliable and low throughput types like wind and power, which are not ready for primetime yet. Plus, there’s not a lot of land to build wind and solar farms in urbanized areas. And cities tend to use huge gobs of power. Nope. It’s something else

Study: Climate change raises risks of power outages

With flooding already on the rise along the East Coast, a new study led by the Johns Hopkins University suggests that urban dwellers may have more to worry about from climate change than just getting their feet wet if they live near the water. People in some inland cities who think they’re safe from tropical storms could find themselves in the dark longer or more often.

In the December issue of Climatic Change, researchers suggest that increases in storm frequency, as predicted by some climate scientists, are likely to aggravate power outages in hurricane-prone areas like Miami or New Orleans. But if hurricanes become more intense, as many climate researchers expect, the study found severe outages could occur in areas that now suffer relatively few storm landfalls — such as New York, Philadelphia and Hartford, Conn.

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a wonderful Christmas. The entire article and study are an exercise in prognostication and might happens, based on computer models and wishful thinking. Wishful in order to push a political doctrine and keep the money train running. Do I need to rehash exactly how the predictions for hurricanes and tropical storms have failed? That there have been no major hurricanes since 2005, breaking a record previously set during the Civil War era? That there have only been two U.S. mainland landfalling hurricanes since 2008, and one could be argued as being only a strong tropical storm? That we were told that Superstorm Sandy would be The New Normal (Warmist love that phrase, and always in capitals), yet, nothing since (and Sandy was made worse by interaction with a cold front)?

Guikema and four colleagues attempted to evaluate how much more vulnerable East and Gulf coast communities might be if climate change alters hurricanes in any way — their frequency, intensity or landfall. The researchers worked with a computer model that Guikema had developed earlier for predicting the likelihood of power outages from tropical storms. For this study, they ran a series of simulated storms through the model to see how power grid vulnerability was affected by the range of possible climate-change impacts on storm behavior.

If anything, it would seem that “climate change” is doing a good job in reducing the power of Atlantic tropical systems, and keeping them out to sea. But, Warmists need to keep the hysteria and fear mongering at the forefront, so they rely more on computer models than real world data.

Read: Bummer: Urban Dwellers Power Supplies At Risk From “Climate Change” »

If All You See…

…is a horrible fossil fueled mower causing so much heat that it snows, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is the First Street Journal, with a post on Democrats lying.

Read: If All You See… »

Anti-Police “Protesters” Release A List Of Demands

It’s great that people who have been engaged in violence, arson, threats, blocking traffic (which caused problems with emergency responses), and calling for the “dead cops” have a list of demands

(Daily Caller) There have been marches in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere demanding “justice” of some sort — or else there would be no “peace.” They’ve been invited to meet with President Barack Obama in the White House, been praised by the Mayor of New York and countless other Democrats. But what do they want, aside from “justice”? And what exactly constitutes “justice” in the minds of those laying down in traffic and in malls has always remained nebulous, but no more – they’ve been kind enough to put their “demands” down on paper.

On fliers handed out at the New York City protest on New Year’s Eve, the “#BlackLivesMatter” movement spelled out what they “demand.”

One such demand is essentially an end to access to the court system for police officers charged with a crime:

We demand a total independent investigative body that has full and total investigative powers, and unhindered access to any scene and full access to all evidence,” they write. “This investigative body will have full prosecuting power, and the authority to mete out punishment. This agency will have the power to immediately sequester any and all officers that are involved and/or on the scene.

The full list is here. I particularly like the first demand,

1) We demand an independent all elected Civilian Complaint Review Board.

Of course they do. And who do you think will be on this board in deep Liberal areas?

4) We the people demand that any and every officer accused of misconduct, abuse of authority, or the use of excess force be suspended immediately without pay, pending the outcome of the independent investigation.

Interesting. I wonder how they would feel if we substituted “teacher” for “officer”? Anyhow, these folks seem unfamiliar with the tenants of neither the Constitution nor the criminal justice system.

13) We demand funding to establish independent community policing agencies.

Wait, what? Am I right in assuming that they want government funding to create their own community policing force, made up of the same people who rioted, looted, assaulted, arsoned, and threatened? The same people who end the “demands” with

FREEDOM JUSTICE AND EQUALITY OR DEATH

That sounds rather threatening. Based on their actions these past months, and how the flier reads, it sounds less like “give me liberty or give me death” and more like a threat to murder.

Read: Anti-Police “Protesters” Release A List Of Demands »

Washington Post Very Upset That GOP Controls So Much Of State Government

And that they might look to pass Republican/Conservative policy agendas!

(WP) Legislators in the 24 states where Republicans now hold total control plan to push a series of aggressive policy initiatives in the coming year aimed at limiting the power of the federal government and rekindling the culture wars.

The unprecedented breadth of the Republican majority — the party now controls 31 governorships and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers — all but guarantees a new tide of conservative laws. Republicans plan to launch a fresh assault on the Common Core education standards, press abortion regulations, cut personal and corporate income taxes and take up dozens of measures challenging the power of labor unions and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Before Election Day, the GOP controlled 59 partisan legislative chambers across the country. The increase to 68 gives Republicans six more chambers than their previous record in the modern era, set after special elections in 2011 and 2012.

How horrible for Democrats! The GOP might actually propagate a Conservative legislative agenda at the state level, just like they were elected to do. At the state level, it’s quite clear that the voters have tired of the hardcore leftism that is destroying our country and states. This is also quite apparent by the number of Liberals moving out of deep Democrat states and to Republican states, due to the actual horrible results of the Democratic policies in those Democrat states.

The GOP has plans to expand right to work laws within multiple states, to join the 24 that are already right to work. Dems do not like this, because being forced to join a union is totally like freedom or something. Nor is the Washington Post, along with other Dems, happy that GOP controlled states may require abortion providers to actually have proper medical standards. And restricting late term abortion? Oh, brother, that also drives liberals nuts.

Democrats and union officials warn Republicans against going too far, just a few years after bills targeting public-sector employee unions sparked protests in Wisconsin and Ohio. “These bills have proven time and time again to decrease wages and safety standards in all workplaces,” said Stephanie Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.

Huh. Interestingly, Scott Walker and virtually every targeted Wisconsin Republican survived all the challenges, sometimes multiple challenges.

Republicans also are likely to take up measures diluting the power of the EPA, which has proposed state-by-state targets for reducing carbon emissions. A dozen states have challenged proposed EPA regulations on power plants in federal court.

The EPA is, in my opinion, a good and necessary agency, however, they have severely lost their way, allowing mission creep to grow to amazing levels, along with allowing massive partisanship and activism to replace legislated duties and responsibilities. Democrats have no room to complain about properly elected State governments voting to restrict the EPA in their states, nor if a governor acts with “executive action”.

Certainly, many voters were voting against the Democratic Party, rather than for the GOP. Voters were tired of the hard-left fanaticism and agenda at the State level, and some votes were even against Obama. Now it’s time for the GOP to offer their vision.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Washington Post Very Upset That GOP Controls So Much Of State Government »

FDA Diet Guidelines Might Consider “Climate Change”

Why? Because *mumble mumble garble*, and if you’re asking, you must be one of those icky skeptics (sneer)

(AP)  For years, the government has been issuing guidelines about healthy eating choices. Now, a panel that advises the Agriculture Department is ready to recommend that you be told not only what foods are better for your own health, but for the environment as well.

That means that when the latest version of the government’s dietary guidelines comes out, it may push even harder than it has in recent years for people to choose more fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and other plant-based foods — at the expense of meat. (snip)

The study said that compared with other popular animal proteins, beef produces more heat-trapping gases per calorie, puts out more water-polluting nitrogen, takes more water for irrigation and uses more land.

Anyone think the people at the FDA are going to give up their own meat intake? Yeah, me neither.

Interestingly, the same people who want to control our meat and other foods intake are A-OK with legalizing marijuana. Speaking of marijuana, apparently many restaurants are having trouble with stoned people passing out from having too much THC beforehand, to the point of having to call medical professionals.

Read: FDA Diet Guidelines Might Consider “Climate Change” »

Hooray! Obamacare Employer Mandate Takes Effect

What will the effects be? Time will tell (via The Right Scoop)

(Washington Times) Starting in 2015, companies with 100 or more workers have to provide affordable insurance to at least 70 percent of their employees or pay heavy fines under the “employer mandate,” which was supposed to take effect at the start of this year, alongside the health care law’s other key provisions.

Employers with 50-100 workers will have to comply starting in 2016, at which point all affected employers must insure at least 95 percent of their employees.

Employers with fewer than 50 workers are exempt from the mandate.

Most big companies provide health insurance. Of course, what might Team Obama/HHS deem “affordable”? Anyhow

But human resources departments will grapple with IRS reporting requirements from day one to document their compliance and avoid tax penalties, a task that can get Byzantine and expensive for companies with lots of part-time workers and seasonal workers, who add up to full-time “equivalents.”

Really, most moves by companies have probably been made already. We will see if any drop coverage, increase the number of part timers, or something else.

Read: Hooray! Obamacare Employer Mandate Takes Effect »

If All You See…

…is snow created by too much warmth, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on liberals back to pushing gun control.

Read: If All You See… »

Pirate's Cove