Bill McKibben: Fossil Fuel Industry Public Enemy #1

By William Teach July 19, 2012 – 5:36 pm

Good thing Bill’s focused on the science of anthropogenic warming

(Latest issue of Rolling Stone) But what all these climate numbers make painfully, usefully clear is that the planet does indeed have an enemy – one far more committed to action than governments or individuals. Given this hard math, we need to view the fossil-fuel industry in a new light. It has become a rogue industry, reckless like no other force on Earth. It is Public Enemy Number One to the survival of our planetary civilization. “Lots of companies do rotten things in the course of their business – pay terrible wages, make people work in sweatshops – and we pressure them to change those practices,” says veteran anti-corporate leader Naomi Klein, who is at work on a book about the climate crisis. “But these numbers make clear that with the fossil-fuel industry, wrecking the planet is their business model. It’s what they do.”

Gee, I wonder how much fossil fuel will be used to distribute copies of Rolling Stone around the globe? Well, fortunately, Bill refuses to take fossil fueled travel, especially not to places like Arizona, California, Vancouver, Utah, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, and, thankfully, not all the way from Vermont to Rio!

BTW, just to be clear, I’m not a big fan of fossil fuels, as they are dirty and pollutants (not referring to CO2). But, hey, let’s face it, the use of fossil fuels really allowed mankind to develop our modern civilization in a very short period of time. In less than 200 years we went from horse and buggy to traveling to the moon. Bill would apparently prefer that we all…well, for his purposes, everyone else, cause he has lectures and protests to attend…give up fossil fuels and live likes it’s 1499.

Read: Bill McKibben: Fossil Fuel Industry Public Enemy #1 »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 31 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 19, 2012 – 1:00 pm

…are bathing suits women wore before someone drove an SUV because the temps were cold back then, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The H2.

Read: If All You See… »

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HuffPo: “This Is What The End Of The Planet Looks Like”

By William Teach July 19, 2012 – 11:06 am

You really do have to admire the tenacity of Warmists who, in the face of failure after failure, people tuning out to their ever growing litany of unhinged pronouncements, and even other Warmists saying that the rhetoric needs to be toned down, just keep providing absurd and even more barking moonbat articles. Witness Dion Rabouin at the Huffington Post

This is What the Beginning of the End of the Planet Feels Like

Because weather never happened before, and it was surely colder during the last 4.5 billion years, science be damned!

This summer 34,500 people were forced to evacuate their homes in my home state of Colorado. I watched as a dozen wildfires raged through the state with some contained in days or weeks, while others are still not extinguished.

The extremely hot weather, dry climate and dramatically reduced water supply that all led to the wildfires are part of a pattern that has been unfolding for more than a decade. In fact, the past 10 years have been unequivocally the hottest on record in the history of weather record keeping. But even that heat is dwarfed by what we’ve seen this year. According to the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the first six months of 2012 have been the hottest January-through-June period on record for the contiguous United States.

The national temperatures averaged “4.5 degrees above the long-term average,” the NOAA said in a statement last week.

None of this is a coincidence. It is the result of a manmade pandemic that could very well destroy the planet. It’s called climate change and it is very real and it is happening right now.

Amazingly, it goes even further downhill after that. It’s a “Black issue.” People will die, possibly from spontaneous combustion. Blah blah blah. Except for that pesky problem that the US accounts for only 1.5% of the global landmass, and the rest of the world is seeing cooling. And that the world has been cooling slightly over the past 4,000 years. And

Most of the history of the Earth is hot, regardless of CO2 concentrations. It’s almost like there are other forces at play. The worldwide temps have been dead flat for the past 15 years. It was much hotter when CO2 was below 350ppm. And Warmists have to “adjust” the data to hide the warmth back in the 1930’s and during the previous warm periods.

Read: HuffPo: “This Is What The End Of The Planet Looks Like” »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Collapsing Science, Global Warming, Unhinged Tools | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Obama’s Got A Lot On His Plate, Too Much To Meet With Jobs Council

By William Teach July 19, 2012 – 9:17 am

Laughtastic copy from Wonderkid Jay Carney

(RCP) REPORTER: On the Jobs Council, obviously they’ve reported to haven’t met formally or publicly for six months. Why is exactly is that?

CARNEY: Look, the president solicits and receives input and advice from members of his Jobs Council and others about economic initiatives all the time. And I would point you to the numerous initiatives put forward by the Jobs Council that this administration under the president’s direction has taken action, presidential memorandum of August of last year that selected 14 job creating high-priority infrastructure projects for expedited review. Four of those are already under construction.

Initiatives Obama has mostly ignored. At the most, he managed to put them on a sticky note for others to do the actual work.

REPORTER: So there’s no reason they haven’t met publicly?

CARNEY: No, there’s no specific reason except that the president’s obviously got a lot on his plate. But he continues to solicit and receive advice from numerous folks outside the administration about the economy, about ideas he can act on with Congress or administratively to help the economy grow and help it create jobs.

A lot on his plate. Like fundraisers, golf outings, vacations, demonizing political opponents, accusing people of crimes with no evidence, more fundraising…..someone should put that in a video. Oh, look, someone did!

As for “soliciting and receiving advice”, reading letters from his supporters who want free stuff paid for by others doesn’t count. Nor does listening to union big wigs who want kickbacks. Obama has not met with the Jobs Council since January. Romney stated on Wednesday

“In the last six months, he has held 100 fundraisers,” Romney said. “And guess how many meetings he’s had with his jobs council? None. Zero. Zero, in the last six months. So it makes it very clear where his priorities are. His priority is not creating jobs for you, his priority is trying to keep his own job and that’s why he’s going to lose it.”

Romney also released a video slamming Obama on the failed Stimulus, wondering where all the money went.

Read: Obama’s Got A Lot On His Plate, Too Much To Meet With Jobs Council »

Posted in Barry Obama, Economy | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Another Victim Of Lawfare: Senator Kelly Ayotte

By William Teach July 19, 2012 – 8:59 am

We know all about what hard core lefties like Neal Rauhauser, Brett Kimberlin, and their associates have done in order to shut down free speech and intimidate (to put it mildly) people with other political points of view. Folks like R.S. McCain and Bob Belvedere have done great work to expose the use of lawfare as intimidate (Bob’s latest here), and many others have been the recipients and have had to spend lots of money and time as lawfare is used against them. Well, the latest is Senator Kelly Ayotte. Politico goes for the headline Kelly Ayotte’s $120k legal headache

A bizarre but little-known lawsuit has caused headaches for freshman Sen. Kelly Ayotte and cost her at least $120,000 in legal fees just as her political stock rises and she’s being mentioned as a potential running mate for Mitt Romney.

Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican, has dismissed the suit as “frivolous,” and a federal judge largely agreed when he tossed it out in May. But Boston blogger Chris King said he would appeal to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals and threatened to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Interesting how Politico writers Scott Wong and Manu Raju make it sound like Ayotte did something wrong, even though the suit was tossed.

King, a self-described “liberal,” also has continued to target Ayotte on his seven-year-old civil rights blog, KingCast.net, posting YouTube videos, audio recordings and written messages railing against the senator and her allies.

The case shows how anyone with a legal background, a handheld video camera and a website can wage a one-man campaign against a U.S. senator, in this case, one who’s emerging as one of the Republican Party’s brightest stars.

The case shows how anyone can use the law to intimidate and harass another citizen for holding a different political point of view. Funny how it always seems to be “liberals” who are doing this.

The issue at hand is King claiming he was removed from Ayotte events, violating his 1st Amendment rights and, of course, discrimination, ie, raaaaacism. The judge in the case didn’t agree

U.S. District Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island wrote in his ruling that King had failed to prove he had been discriminated against and that the events were private and held on private property and therefore not subject to the First Amendment. Last month, McConnell also rejected King’s motion to reconsider the decision.

Much of this seems to be a vendetta against Ayotte, as she indicted him while New Hampshire AG for practicing law without a license. And

King, 47, was prevented from attending the events because he had a history of causing problems at Ayotte and other GOP functions, said a Republican source familiar with the issue. He also has a checkered past — he once was indicted for misrepresenting himself in his legal career and was previously suspended from practicing law in Ohio, according to public records and media reports.

King himself has a rather checkered past, and, as one person, The Truth About KingCast, wrote back in 2010

He was employed by the NH NAACP who terminated his employment, after they discovered he had misrepresented himself to them.

Mr. King was employed by the American Tower Corp in MA who teminated his employment. They also filed a case in US District Court in Boston and were granted a gag order aganst Mr. King.

Mr. King was employed by Touch 106.1 in Boston, they too severed their relationship with Mr. King and he subsequently set up another blog for the sole purpose of harassing and defaming the owner of the radio station.

Mr. King has threatened to sexually assault several forum members wives in the Franconia topix forums, and has threatened several forum members with physical violence as well

Mr. King has been stalking and harassing private citizens online for the last 4 years. One person is currently obtaining a restraining order in US District Court. The person is also seeking to have criminal charges brought against Mr. King aka KingCast for stalking and harassment via a telecommunication device.

Ayotte is not at fault, but the recipient of an intimidation tactic by a far left progressive with an axe to grind, using the law to harass, and causing her to have to spend lots of money to defend herself. Fortunately, as a sitting US Senator, she’s likely not going to be a recipient of a SWATing.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Another Victim Of Lawfare: Senator Kelly Ayotte »

Posted in GOP, Liberal World | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

$500,000 In DOE Stimulus Money Missing

By William Teach July 18, 2012 – 3:39 pm

Awesome, simply awesome

(National Review) A report published by the DOE Office of Inspector General says the agency has been unable to locate $500,000 worth of equipment purchased with stimulus money. The $500,000 was part of a $2 billion Recovery Act dispersment given to the Advanced Batteries and Hybrid Components Program to “support the construction of U.S. based battery and electric drive component manufacturing plants.”

As Coyote Blog points out, this is the best part

But the report won’t say where the equipment was lost, or who lost it: “It would not be appropriate to release the name of stimulus-money recipient where the $500,000 worth of equipment could not be located.”

So, the Most Transparent Administration Evah!, the same one which wants Mitt Romney’s tax returns, refuses to say which company is involved.

Read: $500,000 In DOE Stimulus Money Missing »

Posted in Barry Obama, Energy | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 18, 2012 – 1:00 pm

…is an ocean that will rise up and cause the island to tip over, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is American Power.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Queen Nancy: Hey, Perhaps Democrats Should Avoid The Convention

By William Teach July 18, 2012 – 11:47 am

Obviously this couldn’t have anything to do with wanting vulnerable Dems to avoid bring seen with Obama

(Politico) House minority leader Nancy Pelosi says that Democratic members should stay home and campaign in their districts rather than go to the party’s national convention in North Carolina.

“I’m not encouraging anyone to go to the convention, having nothing to do with anything except I think they should stay home, campaign in their districts, use their financial and political resources to help them win their election,” Pelosi said in an exclusive interview for POLITICO Live’s On Congress, a new weekly show to be streamed live on POLITICO’s website and broadcast on NewsChannel 8 on Wednesdays.

The convention is a whopping 3 days, and she’s not encouraging Dems to go?

Read: Queen Nancy: Hey, Perhaps Democrats Should Avoid The Convention »

Posted in Democrats, Queen Nancy | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

D.C. Cabbies Upset Over New Regulations Which Raise Costs

By William Teach July 18, 2012 – 8:29 am

Who would have thought that increased regulations and business burdens could cause costs to rise? Weird, huh?

(Washington Post) Some D.C. taxis, passengers complain, are old, rickety, hot and smelly; the cabbies don’t take credit cards; they’re illegally choosy about whom they pick up, and they pay more attention to their phone calls than to their driving.

But D.C. cabs are also cheaper and more plentiful than those in many other big cities — 8,000 taxis for 600,000 people, compared with 13,000 for New York’s 8.2 million residents. Unlike in most cities, Washington’s cabbies are nearly all owner-operators; the big fleets that dominate taxi service elsewhere do not exist here. Yet.

Now, that may all be on the cusp of dramatic change as a wave of additional regulations and a burst of new competition combine to alter the city’s taxi landscape. D.C. cabbies, always a cranky bunch, now waver between outrage and despair. Their incomes, they say, have plummeted, and the new rules could force them to leave the business.

Now, it’s not all regulationatory burdens that causes the problems. Certainly, some of their own actions, like not accepting credit cards, adds to the misery, along with poor service. You know what should happen? Let the market forces come in to play. Those whose service stinks and do not accept credit cards should be allowed to go under (personally, when I’m in D.C. I take the subway system and, if moving around a lot, get a bus pass). But, adding lots of regulations costs actual money. Switching to the link in the 3rd excerpted paragraph

In the first major rewrite of taxi regulations in decades, the council gave final approval to legislation that will require credit card readers and Global Positioning System devices in all District cabs. The bill, which follows nearly two years of study and negotiation, also mandates that cabs gradually adopt the same color and that drivers replace older vehicles with newer ones.

That adds quite a bit of cost, especially replacing older vehicles. And since most of these taxis are owner-operators versus big fleets, those costs will have to be paid by the cabbies themselves.

“We are a world-class city, and the aim is to establish a world-class taxi industry,” said council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), chairman of the committee with oversight over transportation issues.

Then you know what you should do? Allow more competition. If a better service comes in, the cabbies will have to upgrade and offer better customer service and atmosphere or perish. And the taxi drivers were also upset about Uber, which is basically a ride sharing service. The D.C. Council wanted to place minimum fees on the service, but, there was so much outcry that the debate was put off till next year.

PS: If you read the first paragraph of the story link in the excerpt, you’ll notice that the city council for the capitol city of the United States has “eased enforcement of immigration laws.”

Read: D.C. Cabbies Upset Over New Regulations Which Raise Costs »

Posted in Economy | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Surprise! UNC Student Health Insurance Doubles In Two Years

By William Teach July 18, 2012 – 7:40 am

Can anyone guess why?

(WRAL) The University of North Carolina system requires all students to have health insurance coverage, but the cost of a plan the system offers has more than doubled in two years.

The insurance requirement started in 2010, and about one-third of students on the system’s 16 university campuses buy their policy through UNC’s provider, New York-based insurer Chartis. The rest of the students have other coverage, usually through their parents.

The average cost of the Chartis policy started at $695 a year, but it rose to $847 last year. Tuition bills that are now arriving in student mailboxes for the 2012-13 school year include a $1,418 health insurance premium.

Students with outside insurance can get a waiver to avoid the cost. And, here’s the kicker

Bruce Mallette, the UNC system’s vice president for academic and student affairs, blamed the increase on a high number of claims by students on the policy.

“It was a very affordable plan,” Mallette said. “If you look nationally, the pricing we had in the first two years was very, very competitive, and students utilized it and utilized it and utilized it.”

Boom! It was a very affordable plan and very generous with low to no copays (contraception was 100% free at campus health offices…do you think college students used the heck out of it?), and even those with a waiver stating they have other health insurance can take advantage of some the benefits of the Chartis insurance, such as….free contraception! And it is still a very affordable plan when comparing to the marketplace, but costs had to go up because it was being used way too much. Because it is generous in benefits, everyone has it, and it is easy to use. With such low copays (when there are copays) students will take advantage of it for every minor illness.

This highlights exactly what is wrong with Obamacare (well, one of the reasons): it causes people to have low responsibility since their costs, especially for health care, too low if not free, so it is used willy nilly, unlike a Health Savings Account, which makes people think about what they are spending. It’s been proven that people seek out care more often when the copays are low or free when they should simply go to the drug store and grab a bottle of cold or flu medicine. Seeing a doctor has real costs. People rush off to an emergency clinic or ER when they should go to the doctor, or simply the pharmacy. When people have to share the upfront costs more (in my old job, a single person had to pay $1,100 and family plan $2,400 out of pocket before copays for medical and prescription meds kicked in, but there was zero cost out of paycheck except what you might have wanted to put in the HSA) they tend to think about what they are doing. When it is cheap (or free) it will be used for every minor thing, which raises costs.

It’s not that everyone shouldn’t have health insurance: really, they should, so that everyone else doesn’t have to bear the burden. It’s that the costs have to managed in a judicious way so that the care is not abused, which drives up costs, along with what is covered.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Surprise! UNC Student Health Insurance Doubles In Two Years »

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