…is coffee which will be decimated by climate change, but, that’s OK, because alcohol will be decimated as well, meaning fewer hangovers and more time to spread awareness, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Dr. Roy Spencer, with a post on the top 10 climate discoveries of 2014.
Read: If All You See… »
There’s an old saying about America being a Nation of Law, not of Men, which derives from John Adams’ 7th Letter To Novanglus, which came further from the ancient Greeks, in which he mentioned a “government of law, and not of men”. He goes on to mention that a Republic should be “bound by fixed laws which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend.” Of course, in Liberal World, laws are flexible, and the written text should be ignored if it doesn’t help the narrative
Health Plan Enrollment Numbers Show Importance of Coming Supreme Court Case
A new report from the Obama administration highlights the very high stakes for a challenge to the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court. The subsidies that the court may eradicate are helping a large majority of HealthCare.gov customers pay for their health insurance.
The report is the first time that the Department of Health and Human Services has delivered some numbers on exactly who is signing up for health insurance for 2015, since the open enrollment period began in mid-November. (snip)
Over all, it found, customers who were using HealthCare.gov to pick insurance plans — some new customers, and some renewing customers — were overwhelmingly likely to qualify for federal subsidies to help them pay their premiums. On average, the report found that 87 percent of these customers were eligible for subsidies, with higher percentages in some states — up to a high of 95 percent in Mississippi.
But, see, there’s a sticky wicket, the actual text of Obamacare, namely that citizens are only eligible for subsidies in Exchanges run by states, not the federal government.
The plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, called King v. Burwell, argue that the law does not allow the subsidies to help insurance customers in the states letting the federal government run individual insurance marketplaces. And if the court agrees, all those people would lose their subsidies, and many would be priced out of the market.
We’ve written before about the disruptions such a ruling would cause. But as more people sign up for health insurance — and more of them are relying on federal subsidies — the potential impact of the decision grows.
The situation is one made entirely by Democrats, who wrote the law and voted for the law without any regards to Republicans, none of whom voted for the bill, passed in the dead of night using parliamentary shenanigans. It was massive and few who voted in the affirmative for it actually read it or knew what was in it. And the intention of the phrasing was to entice States to run their own health insurance exchanges. If the plaintiffs win the case, the subsidies go away. Would that cause disruption? Yes. But the law must be obeyed. Words have meaning. Laws must be fixed, not flexible, otherwise they are no longer laws, but whims. Democrats could have changed it. They chose not to. Even after the loss of the House, Senate Democrats could have passed legislation changing the wording. They did not even attempt this.
Read: NY Times: To Heck With What The Law Says About Subsidies »
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Happy New Year’s! Welcome to 2015, and the 5th year of my prediction challenge, which virtually no Warmists will take. And one year closer to End Of Life As We Know it. 2150 and 2200 are fast approaching, the primary dates that the climate alarmists always want to use to denote when Earth is going to burn, baby, burn in fire, dan dan daaaan, fire, dan dan daaaaan.
2014 saw historically low numbers for wildfires and tornadoes, just like 2013. There was just one landfalling U.S. hurricane, Arthur. There have still been no major hurricanes making landfall since 2005, the longest stretch since the Civil War era. There were only8 named Atlantic storms, with only six hurricanes (the average since 1980 is 12.1 storms and 6.4 hurricanes, with 2.7 major hurricanes). Arthur was the only storm to make landfall on the U.S. Thousands of cold temperature high temp records were set. There was barely a spring across the US and much of the northern hemisphere. In other words, the weather just didn’t cooperate with Warmist predictions. Hence, they have made a big effort, building on 2013, to change their predictions and fold all weather, including cold and snow, as being caused by “climate change”.
No child born over the last 18 years has seen statistically significant warming, and no child born this century has seen any warming.
Warmists attempted to say that 2014 was the hottest year evah!!!!!!! Alas, not really. And still wouldn’t prove anthropogenic causation
New Year’s is usually a time when we make resolutions which we abandon when we realize that chocolate, bacon, and beer are great (and bacon cooked in beer and covered with chocolate!) In the blogosphere, we often make predictions for the New Year. Instead, how about a challenge?
For a long time, the alarmists have been making predictions as to what the climate will do. They say in 10 years, 50, 100. Instead, why not, say, make predictions for……2015! What I want for them to do, from the biggest of big climahypocrites, such as Al Gore, James Hansen, Barack Obama, and Leonardo DiCaprio, to the smallest climate dupes, is tell us exactly what the climate will do this year. For some of these questions, I’m using the USA, but, alarmists from around the world can use their own country/region, if they like:
There are many, many, many more questions that can be asked, but, I know what the alarmists are thinking: “Teach, that is weather, not climate! I refuse to participate!†Ah, but, what, exactly, is climate? Let’s pull a couple good definitions
Notice, “long term predictable.†Weather and other natural forces create climate. And right now the alarmists are saying “but, Teach, one year is not considered to be a “long period of time!â€â€ Well, you have plenty of data available for the long term, and, with all your vast knowledge of what the climate is doing, due to man’s release of greenhouse gases, surely you alarmists can make predictions for 2015 based on that long term data, and be mostly correct, right? Surely, you aren’t afraid to make predictions for this year, and tell us what the climate during 2015 will do, right? But, you have to make your predictions, and can’t go back and change them up as the year goes on, the way many organizations, like NOAA, the Met Office, and the IPCC do. And at the end of the year, we will see how well you have done.
And since you are now claiming that every weather event is a result of Hotcoldwetdry, er, climate change/climate disruption, you should be able to give us a few predictions. You’re somehow able to make those predictions for the long term, why not the short term?
Of course, if you use any of the models from Warmist groups, you’ll be bound to fail
There’s your real “97% consensusâ€, though we can substitute the squishy feelings based word “consensus†with that sciencey word “dataâ€.
Any alarmist up for the challenge? And no cheating be reading the Farmer’s Almanac, which tends to be right way more than the Met, NASA, UN IPCC, and other alarmist groups are. Forget about your PR blitzes, “spreading awareness†campaigns, your advocacy, your stunts, and tell us what will happen. If you’re correct, for a change, maybe people will start to believe you again.
Oh, and a second challenge: live your life in 2015 in the manner you tell everyone else to live. Go “carbon neutralâ€. Give up your fossil fueled vehicles. No washing machines. No dryers. No refrigerator ice makers. No A/C. No gas heating and cooking. No pets. No kids. No hairspray. No new clothes. Turn all power off at home when not at home. Flip those circuit breakers. 2 minute showers. Move into a tiny home.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Read: 2015: Annual New Year’s Prediction Challenge For Climate Alarmists »
…is champagne that will be decimated because Someone Else drove to a New Year’s Eve party, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is The Lonely Conservative, with a post on New Yorkers fleeing high taxes and regulation.
Also, since I fell back to sleep with this flu (mostly gone now) and forgot to hit the button to publish yesterday’s IAYS, let’s add Nice Deb, who fact checks the fact checkers, and A View From The Beach, with a post on success through gridlock. And two more photos below the fold
Read: If All You See… »
I’ll blow by the lead in and go right to the 10 New Year’s resolutions for a guilt-free 2015 (note: bold and italic is from Grist)
The whole thing seems a little tongue in cheek, a bit overboard, but, really, this is the way Warmists think.
Read: Grist Offers 10 New Year’s Resolutions Every Warmist Should (Mostly) Follow »
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So, I’ve had the same TV for around 6 years now, and Olevia (yup, off brand) 37″ HDTV, which still works, but I am getting some dark spots on the screen and when I turn it on, the speakers often go nuts with static for a couple minutes. It still works well, but it was time to upgrade. The parents hooked my up with $500 bucks towards a new set, and, after doing a lot of research, I decided on the Vizio M422i-b1, and purchased it at Best Buy. The “b” designation is important, since that makes it a 2014 model.
What I was looking for was a TV that was at least 40 inches, preferably bigger. The way the living room is laid out, the TV sits up over the fireplace, and you are about 12 feet away. I wanted at least a 120hz refresh rate. I preferred built in WiFi, though smart apps were not a big deal, as I have them on my Blue Ray player. Had to have at least 2 HDMI inputs. I also wanted great sound.
What I got with the Vizio was 240hz refresh rate, and, let me tell you, the screen is extremely clear. Perhaps too clear? Some people get upset over what is called the soap opera effect, but, so far, I mostly love it. I watch a lot of news, sports, and shows on stations like Food Channel, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, Smithsonian, Destination America, and similar channels. There are very few regular TV programs that I watch. I lost interest in Haven. I’ll watch the last (and shortened) season of Continuum when it comes back. Defiance when it returns. Suits. Graceland. That’s it. And the occasional special.
Now, with said soap opera effect, it really soups up movies and some shows, perhaps a bit too much at times. Watching Predator, it might have been smoothed a bit too much. It almost makes movies and some shows feel like they are 3D. Watching The Hobbit, with it’s higher frame rate, was intense. I finally got around to watching SyFy’s Ascension, and, if you saw it, the part near the end where the lady received a bullet through the eye? Holy cow, the resolution made it intense! I’ll play around with the video settings to reduce some of the motion smoothing, you can create several custom settings which are easily switched.
For sports, the 240hz is incredible. I’ve watched several hockey and football games, and have been totally impressed. This is great for me, because, with the TV so far away, it helps my eyes. As we get older, it gets more difficult to refocus, and being that I look at computers, my smartphone, my tablet, and read a lot on my Kindle, looking up and back can be a pain. At the end of the day my eyes would often get tired and make writing on the TV blurry. Not now.
The blacks are excellent, and it has 14 active LED zones, excellent for a 42″ size TV. There are 4 HDMI inputs, 2 more than I actually need, and one of them also allows audio out. Of course, there are few soundbars/speaker systems that use HDMI in. It also has an optical audio output, as well as a regular audio output.
Things that are not so great are the audio and the station switching. When changing channels, if the station is a different resolution (480, 720, 1080), there is a slight lag where the screen goes dark for a second or two, which did not happen on my Olevia, but I do remember that happening on my much older Samsung tube HD TV. And did happen on my Dad’s older TV.
The sound quality is my only real complaint. It’s not good, especially with the HDMI cables. Strangely, sound is slightly better and louder using component cables. Anyhow, the sound is rather thin and blunted, and sometimes music can overpower speech. I have a pair of computer speakers hooked up, hasn’t helped that much. I could use my stereo, but I do not want to use yet another remote, as well as leaving it on during the entire time the TV is on. One thing about the old Olevia, it had dual 20 watt speakers, and sound incredible. I rarely ever considered turning the stereo on for movies or anything else. I’ll probably invest in a soundbar or something. Reviews of other TV’s, including much more expensive ones, are not much better for sound quality. I suspect makers want people to spend more on audio systems.
I have till the 15th to make up my mind. I’ve looked at reviews of other TV’s that I’m will to spend the money on, and while some have better sound, their video is not that great. For LG’s, supposed to have great sound, but the screens are said to have issues with blacks and with reflections. There two Samsungs which would fit the bill, except they would be 60hz. I could live with that, but, boyo, I love the resolution and clarity.
A couple minor quibbles, there is only one button on the TV itself, the power on/off, and it is on the back left on the corner. Not a big deal, I was just used to walking up to the TV and pressing the power on button, which was on the front right, and the cable box button, with the box sitting immediately to the right of the TV.
The remote is rather hard to see in low light conditions, being a black remote with black buttons with very light white letters/number/symbols. That said, there are several dedicated buttons on it, one being the input, making it easy to switch between blue ray and TV. Also, a button for the Smart Apps. It is easy to access the menu, and for those with Amazon and Netflix, dedicated buttons. Also, one for iHeart radio. Only downside is that you cannot login to iHeart like with smartphones and tablets. I won’t use it off the TV that much. The remote does have a full QWERTY keyboard on the backside, which does light up. Nice for entering search terms, user names, etc.
Many of the apps pop up in a small box on the left, so you can see them even while watching TV. For instance, there is a an AccuWeather app, I can easily launch it, see the current weather, forecast, and the radar. Though the radar is static, not active.
There is no screen mirroring nor DLNA, but there is the ability to send programming for Youtube and Netflix from a smartphone/tablet to the TV. But, really, I barely use the DLNA feature, available on my blue-ray player.
Anyhow, for a budget TV, it is an incredible value, hence being a big seller at WalMart and Best Buy. You can read a more technical review at CNET, as well as seeing more details at Amazon. Customer reviews are generally pretty darned good. The only really down side is the audio quality.
That’s what ultra-far left webzine Politcususa discusses. And hopes
2015 may quite possibly be the year that the world finally wakes up and responds to the challenge of climate change.
2014 provided a glimpse of what the new year may hold.
It seems the rhythm may have changed. Where before the challenge was to get people to understand and believe the reality of climate change, now the challenge is to get the people to act and to call on those in positions of power and influence to act.
Well, true, because, so far, Warmists have ultimately failed to put into practice their dogmatic “climate change” beliefs in their personal lives. In other words, hypocrisy. But, of course and as usual, writer John Lundin doesn’t mean Warmists should practice what they preach, but that everyone should be forced to bow down to Big Centralized Government
In 2015, the focus will be on Paris where world leaders will meet in November in an attempt to work out a major global warming deal. The populist activism that began this year can be expected to gain even more momentum as the climate talks approach.
Uh huh. Good luck with that. It’ll be yet another year of Warmists pushing junk science in order to institute far left Progressive political policies.
Meanwhile, the Montreal Gazette, which kills lots of trees and uses lots of fossil fuels to publish and distribute their newspaper, wants you to make a New Year’s pledge
But on the way to that objective of better health for ourselves, we should also spare a thought for the health of our planet, which many warn is in a fragile condition. While policy makers and political leaders bicker over emissions targets and who should take the initiative on curbing pollution, greenhouse gas levels continue to rise. This is a key contributor to global warming that could make Earth less habitable in coming generations, affecting the health of millions of citizens.
They feel that small individual actions, like using a reusable coffee cup instead of that disposable one, are super awesome, but….
Individual actions can be the starting point, but they can only go so far to preserving the health of our planet. Political leaders of all stripes also have a duty to enact policies and make decisions that protect the environment — and human health — rather than allow it to be harmed irreparably. Individuals can help make this happen by holding their elected officials to account.
Boom, more Big Government. Anyone else seeing a theme yet?
Over at the Huffington Post, they want you to have a safe New Year’s Eve by remembering the exploding population and how evil that is for “climate change”, so, use contraception!
Of course, Bill Nye has a big resolution for the New Year
One goal is to finish his next book.
“It’s about climate change and how we can become the Next Greatest Generation,” Nye said in the email. “We can get to work the way people did during World War II.”
How many trees are killed to publish a book, Bill? As for being the next greatest generation, what will be remembered 100 years down the road will be the lunacy of Climatism, with historians wondering exactly how so many could be duped and turned into raging wackjobs.
Read: Say, Will 2015 Be The Tipping Point For Action On Hotcoldwetdry? »
The situation where the NYPD loathes NYC mayor Bill de Blasio is wholly a creation of de Blasio. He ran on opposition to the NYPD and so many of their policies which were reducing crime, he’s intimated that the NYPD is racist, took the side of all the protesters, and just fails to show respect for the NYPD. And then we get this
(DNAinfo) While Mayor Bill de Blasio was personally coaxing the city’s police union presidents to meet with him, his top aides were on the phones with lawmakers urging them to blast PBA President Patrick Lynch and other officers for turning their backs on the mayor following the assassinations of two of New York’s Finest, DNAinfo New York has learned.
As late as Monday afternoon — the same time de Blasio was speaking with police union leaders to set up Tuesday’s détente to possibly mend their fractured relationship — the mayor’s government affairs honchos were privately cold-calling the city’s Democratic delegation of city and state elected officials, asking them to publicly criticize Lynch and those officers who dissed the mayor.
“City Hall wanted me to blast the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association for turning their backs on him,†a Big Apple legislator told “On The Inside.†“They called up Monday, said they were calling all of us, and that it was our obligation to stand up defending the mayor.”
One has to wonder of the mayor’s aides also contacted the NY Times and New Yorker, both of which have run nasty opinion pieces aimed at the NYPD, along with other NY newspapers.
In an update to the article, press secretary Phil Walzak emailed a response
Walzak confirmed that de Blasio aides cold called city Democrats but insisted they “did not ask elected officials to ‘attack’ anyone,” and only requested the politicians “support the families” of the slain NYPD officers.
Asked about Walzak’s claim, one of the lawmakers who received a call said it was “preposterous” and “not reality.”
One has to wonder, if Walzak is telling the truth, do Democrat politicians really need someone to tell them to support the NYPD?
Meanwhile, the hate police crowd is continuing its hate of police. In Upper Darby, a suburb of Philly, a man who had threatened to kill police and FBI agents attempted to run down police officers with his car, and earned himself an early grave by bullet. Cops in other cities have been attacked, including several in Durham, NC, which is the next town over, and we have to wonder how much has to do with the current anti-police attitude running through liberals around the country.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
More at Caveman Circus.
BTW, if you wondered why things have been slow in the afternoons the past week, that’s due to the parents being in town, and then catching a really bad case of the flu. By the afternoon, I’m either asleep or have little motivation.
By completely changing the financial systems of the world, of course!
(SMH) The purpose of the global financial system is to allocate the world’s savings to their most productive uses. When the system works properly, these savings are channeled into investments that raise living standards; when it malfunctions, as in recent years, savings are channeled into real-estate bubbles and environmentally harmful projects, including those that exacerbate human-induced climate change.
Notice how Warmist Jeffrey Sachs writes about the financial system as if it were meant to redistribute wealth.
The year 2015 will be a turning point in the effort to create a global financial system that contributes to climate safety rather than climate ruin. In July, the world’s governments will meet in Addis Ababa to hammer out a new framework for global finance.
The meeting’s goal will be to facilitate a financial system that supports sustainable development, meaning economic growth that is socially inclusive and environmentally sound. Five months later, in Paris, the world’s governments will sign a new global agreement to control human-induced climate change and channel funds toward climate-safe energy, building on the progress achieved earlier this month in negotiations in Lima, Peru. There, too, finance will loom large.
Let’s put that in plain language: Warmists, and governments, want to transform the world financial system away from capitalism (which, no, is not perfect) toward a Progressive/socialist type system, one which is controlled lock, stock, and barrel by Government. Which would mandate what economic sectors and activity Is Allowed. Along with lots of “carbon taxes”.
Both Big Oil and Big Finance have made major mistakes in recent years, channeling funds into socially destructive investments. In 2015, these two powerful industries, and the world as a whole, can start to put things right. We have within our reach the makings of a new global financial system that directs savings where they are urgently needed: sustainable development and climate safety, for ourselves and for future generations.
More and more Warmists are coming out of the closet in stating their actual goals, which is the destruction of capitalism. Despite the fact that far left economic policies have failed time and time again. But, they do not care. This is about control.
All posts here are my views. None represent my employer. If ye can prove me wrong, so be it. Ye can rant and rave at me, but be mostly polite to any other commentors. I will put up with quite a bit, but be mostly respectful to others.
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