Did You Know Kay Hagen Lost Due To Gerrymandering?

By William Teach November 12, 2014 – 5:40 pm

This ranks right up there with the dumbest excuses for Dems getting shellacked. Someone else tried this one,  I think it had to do with Wendy Davis losing the Texas gov race. Here’s the Raleigh News and Observer’s Rob Christensen

Christensen: Gerrymandered districts denied NC voters a real choice

Last week, North Carolina voters booted out Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in large part because she was tied to her party’s unpopular president.

That’s the first paragraph of the opinion piece. Much of it is whiny in regards to gerrymandering. Because Democrats never ever in their history did that. Especially when they where in primary control of the NC general assembly during the last 100 years, particularly during census years.

Anyhow,  perhaps Christensen didn’t mean anything by it,  however,  when your first paragraph is about a federally elected senator losing because of gerrymandering, well, that is just bat guano stupid.

He does actually have a few good points about gerrymandering,  and how it protects incumbents and the party in power. If you want a hoot, go look up what Dems did for Cynthia McKinney in Georgia. But,  let’s also remember that Dems do not complain when they are the recipients of gerrymandering.

Oh,  and Hagen did not lose because of it. Nowhere in the article did he say anything to make that clear.

Read: Did You Know Kay Hagen Lost Due To Gerrymandering? »

Posted in Barking Moonbats, Democrats, Politics | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Say, About Those Ocare Death Panels…

By William Teach November 12, 2014 – 2:55 pm

What are “death panels”? It boils down to government bureaucrats making choices on health care, particularly for the elderly and infirm. These are the kinds of things we see in England, where these panels decide that a walking cane is a better use of funds than medication and/or joint replacement surgery. Rather than leaving the decisions in the hands of the patients and medical professionals (something Leftists yammer on about when it comes to leaving the decision for an abortion to a woman and the doctor she had previously never met at the abortion clinic, and government getting out of the way) , “death panels” make the decisions, usually just to save lots of money. Which is strange, because in most other cases Liberals have no problem spending oodles of taxpayer money

(Breitbart) But Obamacare’s shoddy implementation doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of its great evil. Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber quite correctly attributed the passage of Obamcare to “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” – because it turns out that Obamacare will ration care, and that the most well-respected bodies in terms of health rationing have already recommended cutting off services.

The US Preventive Services Task Force is an independent body authorized by Congress to make “evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services, or preventive medications.” And since the onset of Obamacare discussions, the Task Force recommendations for treatment and screening have become less and less generous. In November 2009, the Task Force recommended that mammography for women every other year between the ages of 50 and 74. They admit that they have insufficient information to suggest that it would be fruitless to screen after 74, and they say that case-by-case screenings should take place before 50.

The Mayo Clinic, by contrast, recommends annual mammograms for women above age 40; so too does the American Cancer Society. As Dr. Sandhya Pruthi of the Mayo Clinic writes, “Findings from a large study in Sweden of women in their 40s who underwent screening mammograms showed a decrease in breast cancer deaths by 29 percent.”

Then there are colonoscopies: the Task Force recommends against routine colonoscopies for adults 76 to 85 years of age, and recommends against screening at all beyond age 85. The American Cancer Society and American College of Gastroenterology, by contrast, do not give an age limit for colonoscopies. Medicare, coincidentally, happens not to cover CT colonography but fully covers colonoscopies. A great way to cut costs: tell doctors not to give colonoscopies.

Sure seems like government is attempting to make the decisions that affect our health, does it not?

Read: Say, About Those Ocare Death Panels… »

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If All You See…

By William Teach November 12, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is snow and cold that suddenly appears because of carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Rhymes With Right, with a post featuring interesting numbers on super PAC spending.

Read: If All You See… »

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Study Finds “Peak Warmth” Of Medieval Warm Period Warmer Than Current

By William Teach November 12, 2014 – 11:33 am

This is what the UN IPCC and other Warmist scientists used to say, before that became inconvenient. Via The Hockey Schtick, which provides this excerpt from the beginning of the study

Between the 10th and 14th centuries AD, earth’s average global temperature may have been warmer than it is today, according to the analyses of Lamb (1977, 1984, 1988) and Grove (1988). The existence of this Medieval Warm Period was initially deduced from historical weather records and proxy climate data from England and Northern Europe. Interestingly, the warmer conditions associated with this interval of time are also known to have had a largely beneficial impact on earth’s plant and animal life. In fact, the environmental conditions of this time period have been determined to have been so favorable that it was often referred to as the Little Climatic Optimum (Imbrie and Imbrie, 1979; Dean, 1994; Petersen, 1994; Serre-Bachet, 1994; Villalba, 1994)

At the end of the day, then, it would indeed appear that the peak warmth of the global Medieval Warm Period clearly exceeded that of the global Current Warm Period.

There is lots of information, bring lots and lots of studies together. We find out things like China being around 1.0C higher in temperature, the tree lines where higher and tree rings bigger in North America, suggesting higher temps. “Other data document vast glacial retreats during the MWP in parts of South America, Scandinavia, New Zealand and Alaska (Grove and Switsur, 1994; Villalba, 1994); and ocean-bed cores suggest that global sea surface temperatures were warmer then as well (Keigwin, 1996a, 1996b).” I hate pulling quotes from PDF’s, since they require massive reformatting, so I suggest you read it all. Just 23 pages long. I will pull two more, though.

In the area of human enterprise, the climatic conditions of the MWP proved providential. The Arctic ice pack, for example, substantially retreated, allowing the settlement of both Iceland and Greenland; while alpine passes normally blocked with snow and ice became traversable, opening trade routes between Italy and Germany (Crowley and North, 1991). Contemporaneously, on the northern Colorado Plate au in America, the Anasazi Indian civilization reached its climax, as warmer temperatures and better soil moisture conditions allowed them to farm a region twice as large as is presently possible (MacCracken et al ., 1990).

Huh.

In further discussing their findings, Perry and Hsu commented that “current global warming commonly is attributed to increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.” However, as they continued, “geophysical, archaeological, and historical evidence is consistent with warming and cooling periods during the Holocene as indicated by the solar-output model.” And they thus concluded that the idea of “the modern temperature increase being caused solely by an increase in CO2 concentrations appears questionable.”

Of course, nothing will dissuade our Warmist brethren from their Beliefs, because this is a political issue for them, not a scientific one.

Read: Study Finds “Peak Warmth” Of Medieval Warm Period Warmer Than Current »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Jonathan Gruber Totally Regrets Saying Americans Are Stupid …. In First Video

By William Teach November 12, 2014 – 8:25 am

That’s right, there are two videos

(Mediaite) Jonathan Gruber, MIT professor and so-called architect of Obamacare, is walking back year-old remarks that the health care system overhaul passed only because of a “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter.”

On MSNBC Tuesday, Gruber told Ronan Farrowthat he “spoke inappropriately” when he made the comments, which surfaced this week in an online video.

“The comments in the video were made at an academic conference,” Gruber said. “I was speaking off the cuff and I basically spoke inappropriately and I regret having made those comments.”

He never actually apologizes nor says he’s sorry, he just regrets the comments. And was inappropriate. Probably because he got caught. Well, not probably. You know he meant it when he said it.

And then this happened

(Daily Caller) Fox News’ Megyn Kelly was the first to air the video on her program, “The Kelly File.” Kelly played the video of Gruber appearing on MSNBC’s “Ronan Farrow Daily” apologizing for his earlier remarks. “I was speaking off the cuff and I spoke inappropriately, and I regret making those comments,” he said.

“But now tonight,” Kelly reported, ” more video has surfaced showing this was not the first time Mr. Gruber called the American people stupid in an ‘off-the-cuff’ remark. In this next clip from also last year, Mr. Gruber explains how Democrats played with the language of the Obamacare law so that it achieved their goals, by again, fooling the stupid public.”

She then played a short 5-second clip of Gruber, saying the following, that a part of the Obamacare passed because “the American people are too stupid to understand the difference.”

Kelly didn’t say much about the background of the clip, but the video appears to be from a lecture Gruber gave at Washington University in St. Louis in October of last year, entitled “Cost of Health Care.” Indeed, Gruber’s remarks can be heard around the 31-minute mark of the University’s video of the event.

So, if the first was just an off-the-cuff remark, what is the second?

Protein Wisdom makes an interesting point

Each time the repeal bill is passed and Obama vetoes it, the leadership from both Houses should call press conferences highlighting Obama’s obstructionism in service to a law one of its architects boasted only passed thanks to the stupidity of American voters and a concerted effort by those who drafted it to keep it confusing and to make its redistributive attributes as non-transparent as they could. They should note that sweeping GOP gains in the House and a comfortable control of the Senate — along with changes in governorships and state asssemblies favoring the GOP — represents a mandate to repeal the unpopular and financially devastating law, with many of those who unseated Democrats having run on the repeal of ObamaCare. They should refer time and time again to the denigration of the American electorate by one of the law’s main architects (who also was an architect of RomneyCare, for those of you who are interested in such things), and reprising the key phrases Gruber used, first, about the “stupidity of the American voter” and second, how a “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage” when trying to fool the electorate.

Liberals really do think the rest of the American public is stupid, and that they Know What’s Best For Everyone Else. I suggest that the GOP call the repeal bills Democrats Think Americans Are Stupid Obamacare Repeal Act.

Read: Jonathan Gruber Totally Regrets Saying Americans Are Stupid …. In First Video »

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John Kerry: Obama’s Climate Agreement With China Is Like Totally Historic!

By William Teach November 12, 2014 – 8:01 am

Secretary Of State John Kerry is totally psyched over the so-called carbon reduction agreement between his boss and China. Because they totally want other people to be forced to reduce their carbon footprints. Not themselves, though. Obama has a carbon footprint somewhere around 41,000 metric tons, while the average American comes in around 19 metric tons. No one has estimated Kerry’s actual yearly footprint, but, considering he’s flying all over the world all the time, he’s probably in the hundreds, if not thousands. Anyway

China, America and Our Warming Planet
John Kerry: Our Historic Agreement With China on Climate Change

Has anyone showed Kerry this yet?

This is confirmed by HADCRUT.

The United States and China are the world’s two largest economies, two largest consumers of energy, and two largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Together we account for about 40 percent of the world’s emissions.

We need to solve this problem together because neither one of us can solve it alone. Even if the United States somehow eliminated all of our domestic greenhouse gas emissions, it still wouldn’t be enough to counteract the carbon pollution coming from China and the rest of the world. Likewise, even if China went down to zero emissions, it wouldn’t make enough of a difference if the United States and the rest of the world didn’t change direction.

Today, President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are jointly announcing targets to reduce carbon emissions in the post-2020 period. By doing this – together, and well before the deadline established by the international community – we are encouraging other countries to put forward their own ambitious emissions reduction targets soon and to overcome traditional divisions so we can conclude a strong global climate agreement in 2015.

Ah, so after Obama is long gone. Of course, it’s not one of those real treaty thingies, because that would require Senate approval. Hence, it really has no force of law.

Our announcement can inject momentum into the global climate negotiations, which resume in less than three weeks in Lima, Peru, and culminate next year in Paris. The commitment of both presidents to take ambitious action in our own countries, and work closely to remove obstacles on the road to Paris, sends an important signal that we must get this agreement done, that we can get it done, and that we will get it done.

This is also a milestone in the United States-China relationship, the outcome of a concerted effort that began last year in Beijing, when State Councilor Yang Jiechi and I started the United States-China Climate Change Working Group. It was an effort inspired not just by our shared concern about the impact of climate change, but by our belief that the world’s largest economies, energy consumers and carbon emitters have a responsibility to lead.

Such pretty words! Will Obama start with his own footprint? The carbon footprint for him to travel with a large convoy to and from the golf course alone is rather big. And all those cross-country flights for campaign speeches, which we can bet do not stop despite the midterms being over and him not eligible for re-election, are pretty darn big, too.

But, what are the details of this super-historic, milestone agreement?

The targets themselves are also important. Ambitious action by our countries together is the foundation to build the low-carbon global economy needed to combat climate change. The United States intends to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 – a target that is both ambitious and feasible. It roughly doubles the pace of carbon reductions in the period from 2020 to 2025 as compared to the period from 2005 to 2020. It puts us on a path to transform our economy, with emissions reductions on the order of 80 percent by 2050. It is grounded in an extensive analysis of the potential to reduce emissions in all sectors of our economy, with significant added benefits for health, clean air, and energy security.

And China?

The Chinese targets also represent a major advance. For the first time China is announcing a peak year for its carbon emissions – around 2030 – along with a commitment to try to reach the peak earlier.

So, essentially, China did not pledge anything but a nebulous thought to have a peak year in 2030, and maybe do it earlier. The steps they will take will mostly have to do with using alternative methods to coal and other actual pollutants in order to increase their air quality, which is pretty darned bad. That smog you see in pictures of China? That’s not carbon dioxide, or, as Warmists like to call it, “carbon pollution”. China has not had the safeguards for air quality that the United States has, so using more nuclear and other alternatives (meaning, they will be slapping up lots of nuclear plants, mostly), along with decreasing the factories, automobiles, and such which contribute to actual air pollution will make it appear as if they are Doing Something about their carbon footprint.

At the end of the day, though, this agreement has no force of law unless ratified by the US Senate. An Executive Agreement can be politically binding, but not legally binding. And, since this is an Executive Agreement, it cannot take precedence over domestic law. So, it’s a feel good agreement for lame-duck Obama and his Warmist base, with no actual hard targets for China.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: John Kerry: Obama’s Climate Agreement With China Is Like Totally Historic! »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Barry Obama, Climahypocrites, Global Warming, Kerry | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Hotcoldwetdry Is Like Totally Making Human Rights Abuses Worse Or Something

By William Teach November 11, 2014 – 6:37 pm

It’s always something with this crowd

(Daily Princetonian) Climate change is having an intensifying impact on human rights in developing countries, former President of the Republic of Ireland Mary Robinson said in a lecture on Tuesday.

Noting the rapid deterioration of natural environments in Africa and numerous multinational conferences on combating climate change in the past two decades, Robinson said the audience, especially University students, should take immediate and personal responsibility for protecting the environment.

I agree. All the believers, such as…..Mary Robinson, who jets all around the world on fossil fueled vehicles….should immediately give up their…..well, you know what I’m thinking.

“There are extraordinary years of human history, and 2014 and 2015 are two years with the same magnitude in changing our lives as 1914 and 1945,” she said. “Currently the world is not on course to safety but two degrees Celsius strayed. We need to change course. There’s no plan B for the world.”

Holy Shit! I’m generally not one for cursing within a blog post, but, did she really compare Hotcoldwetdry with the ending of WWI and WWII?

“The link between human rights and climate change is gaining recognition,” Robinson said. “To achieve climate justice, we must first acknowledge human engendered climate injustice. Second, we must mitigate the climate by helping the poorer countries. We need to endow a voice for the marginalized and vulnerable people.”

In other words, this is about Leftist politics. Taxation and redistribution.

“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called upon to reach a higher consciousness, a higher moral ground,” Robinson said. “That moment has come.”

If so, why don’t Warmists give up their own big carbon footprints?

Read: Hotcoldwetdry Is Like Totally Making Human Rights Abuses Worse Or Something »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 11, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is an evil war machine that causes climate change and also uses lots of fossil fuels, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is House Of Eratosthenes, with a post on Veteran’s Day 2014.

Also mentioning (at time of putting this post together in the early am) Veteran’s Day are: Maggie’s Farm, Patriot’s Corner, Political Clown Parade, Proof Positive, Raised On Hoecakes, Reaganite Republican, The Last Refuge, This Ain’t Hell…, Weasel Zippers, Yid With Lid, 90Ninety Miles From Tyranny (and here), Ace Of Spades HQ, Adrienne’s Corner, Allen B. West, Average Bubba.

Read: If All You See… »

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Another “What Are Republicans Thinking About Climate Change” Article

By William Teach November 11, 2014 – 12:33 pm

Warmists keep trying and trying and trying to come up with excuses for why Republicans aren’t buying into the left leaning cult of climatism, much like they keep coming up with excuses for The Pause. It would seem much easier, though, more painful, to just admit that Warmists are wrong. But, that won’t keep the gravy train going, nor the rational to implement heavy handed Government controls on Other People. And, most definitely, remember that “Other People”

Here’s What Republicans Are Thinking When They Deny Climate Change

Conservatives are more likely to report belief in climate science if they’re presented with solutions to climate change that emphasize technological innovation and free market principles rather than government regulation, according to a new study from Troy Campbell of Duke University’s Furqa School of Business.

Cambell calls this phenomenon solution aversion, and it affects liberals too.

“It’s about ideology not about party membership,” Campbell told VICE News. “It’s really specifically about your belief. It’s not about being a part of a group; it’s about this personal ideology.”

Here’s the thing: many of the solutions between Warmists and Skeptics, the end points, overlap. We’re for alternative energy. We’re for clean air, water, and land (Warmists roll real environmental issues under the banner of the Cult). But, we are not for draconian governmental controls and taxation based on what is essentially a lie, namely, anthropogenic climate change.

Campbell asked self-identified Republicans and Democrats to read a statement about global warming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and quotes that said climate change could be solved by either developing profitable green technologies or increasing government regulation, such as imposing a tax on carbon pollution.

Of course, the article doesn’t tell us what the questions are, nor the actual responses, and, unless you happen to have a subscription to the journal with the article, you cannot read it.

“The free market solution we gave them is still addressing an issue Democrats really care about, which is fixing the environment,” Campbell told VICE News. “It’s not an intensive free market solution that Democrats would normally be against. Most Democrats generally agree with some free market ideology.”

“Some”. Meaning, virtually none. Except for themselves.

Then we get some psychobabble about trying to get people to change, use more marketing, the norm, ending with the money quote

“It’s not enough just to be right,” Campbell told VICE News. “You have to find a way to convince other people that you are right and that they need to change their behavior.”

It’s always about Someone Else, Other People, to change their behavior. Never about changing it themselves.

Read: Another “What Are Republicans Thinking About Climate Change” Article »

Posted in Global Warming, New Climate Deniers | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

GOP Has An Immoral Agenda To Destroy The Climate Or Something

By William Teach November 11, 2014 – 9:05 am

Another day, another Warmist losing his mind. In this case, it is the Washington Post’s Tom Toles

Remember how the GOP swept into the Senate by promising to cripple the EPA and its ability to enforce its mandate to protect against pollution that will damage the climate? No, they really didn’t get a mandate for that, but details, details,they are planning to try it anyway.

Yes, they are. They plan on pushing the Keystone XL pipeline through, and limiting the EPA mission creep, which ranges anywhere from their absurd economy killing regulations on “climate change” to wetlands overreach to many other things of which there is massive mission creep/overreach (read here, here, here, and so many more).

Is anyone surprised? No, because this is how they operate. Get people mad about this thing over here, and then get elected and go to work on this other thing over there. The other thing in this instance is the EPA, and the work to be done is to get the EPA out of the way of the fossil fuel industry’s ability to offload carbon waste into the atmosphere. The industry’s profit model is profits for them and somebody else pays to deal with the climate consequences. What a deal!

Carbon waste! That’s a new one. I wonder if Tom has given up his own use of fossil fuels?

But doesn’t the GOP dispute the science on climate change? Well yes they do, of course, because there is no other way to execute this particular policy play if you have to face the data squarely. So they deny the facts, do a mumble-mumble campaign about feckless Obama something-something, get elected, and then go about their dirty business of facilitating climate disaster for the short-term profits of their core corporate constituency.

Climate disaster! Because that massive, whopping, gigantic 1.4F increase in global temperatures in 160 years is like the apocalypse, y’all! Especially with the 18+ years of no statistically significant warming. Here’s the money quote

But even if they HAD gotten a mandate to destroy the climate, it’s still an immoral agenda, and needs to be stopped

An immoral agenda! Interestingly, Democrats had two full years of controlling the House, Senate, and White House, and did not pass anything. And the GOP will destroy the climate! Someone has lost their mind.

Read: GOP Has An Immoral Agenda To Destroy The Climate Or Something »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 9 Comments | Trackback URL
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