Monday, November 30, 2009

Blood And Gore

Yeah. I know you are not going to believe this, but David Blood and Al Gore have written a piece for the Financial Times. They ask why businesses don't focus more on the long term. News flash for Blood and Gore. If you are not in business next week it makes no difference at all what your plans for next year are. With that out of the way a look at some of the comments to this bit of Blood soaked Gore might be in order.

1. Metro586 | November 27 2:19am

Al Gore should give his Nobel Peace Prize back.

2. lily | November 27 2:20am

plaasjaapie I completely agree. I don't know why people continue to take this man seriously and even less why the MSM as well continue to treat him like a hero. Maybe it all fits into their own agenda somehow.

3. Dipperdap | November 27 2:20am

I'm ashamed that AlGore is from Tennessee. He and his pseudo-science are nothing but a fabrication and he is the liar an chief of all of it. Its going to be fun to watch this snake oil salesmen squirm when the fraud trials start. ITS ALL A LIE.

4. unwedmatter | November 27 2:23am

The predictions, the extrapolations, the very claims advanced by this warming movement, are now exposed as bogus....N.Z., NASA and CRU, can no longer be trusted. Fool us once.....

5. paultrommer | November 27 2:24am

How can the FT actually climb in bed with this con man? He is selling snake oil and you give him a forum? Pretty sad.

23. One_American | November 27 3:33am

Al Gore is in dire need of a thorough tar and feathering, followed by an uncomfortable ride on a rail where the general public throws rotten garbage in his face.

This "Global Warming" scam will go down as the biggest fraud in the history of mankind - and Al Gore and the rest of the O-Bow-Mao Marxist policy enablers and whining leftist money-grubbing thieves will be the ridicule of many generations to come - and America and the world will be much better off when it comes to pass.
The Financial Times leans left (why else would they publish Gore?) but it appears they are out of touch with their audience.

The topper in my mind (of the ones I have read so far) is this little Gem where Gore enters Palin Territory.
24. Adam Smith | November 27 3:41am |

Why would anybody listen to the insane rantings of such an incredibly stupid person?
In my short perusal of the comments I didn't find any Gore supporters. But there are about 180 comments total.

After looking further I did find one. #57. The commenter comes up with a most excellent argument. It is all Bush's fault. Lulz. Luzer.

What To Do?

I was reading the other day an article about the Angry Middle.

Here is something I found in the article that rings true:

It's not a resurgent right wing that should trouble Obama's party. Indeed, the stronger the right's role in shaping the Republican message, the harder it will be for middle-of-the-road voters to use the Republicans to express their discontent.
He goes on to lament socialism's prospects. Tough year for him. Tough decade in fact.

Here is what I see happening from watching the ebb and flow of politics from the last 20 or 30 years. The socialists get in and wreck the economy. Rs fix it. Then they think because they got in they have a mandate for moral crusades. The Terry Schiavo case was particularly egregious. The Rs get sloppy with their financials. Out they go. The Ds get in wreck the economy. Then the Rs come back.

Except we have a bunch of new anti-economic laws that NEVER get repealed. Sarbanes-Oxley is killing venture capital. So we get a ratchet effect.

Let me just outline a few of the ongoing effects (as evidenced by past and current moral crusades) of the Moral Socialism that periodically puts us in the hands of the socialists.

The Stalinist public school system (and mandatory attendance) was championed by Protestants as indoctrination centers for Catholics and Jews.

Alcohol prohibition was another moral crusade. Billy Sunday ring a bell? Fortunately that didn't last long.

Drug prohibition is on going. But that is failing too - politically. Medical marijuana got 58% of the vote in Maine vs 53% for traditional marriage.

Sooner or later moral socialism fails just as economic socialism does. For the same reason. Government can no more make us moral than it can make us prosperous.

I have nothing against moral crusades. Done in the private sector. It is when the moralists get the bright idea that with he help of government guns they can FORCE people to do the right thing.

Not in America. We are a nation full of people willing to break laws we don't agree with. Which is why drug prohibition with 95% compliance is such a failure.

So let me tell you what I see coming. Abortion. Not just restrictions which seem reasonable. But a total ban. Are there enough people who don't agree with this to form an abortion underground? No doubt. And then policing gets hard.

Access to women contemplating abortion is no longer frequent - because no woman wanting an abortion even if only fleetingly is going to want the fact known. Who wants to be investigated by the police?

Doctors may fall out of the practice but today we have drugs. RU-486 can be imported from France (drug dealers will handle it) or birth control pills could be used. So of course tighter restrictions on birth control pills will be required (and that will give us an increase in undesired pregnancies and thus increase the demand for illegal abortions - yipeee - we can then demand harsher laws and more of them to fix the problem).

Moral socialists suffer from the same defect that economic socialists have. They think: "once I have a law the law will be obeyed in the way I contemplate and voila a better world."

But it never works that way.

So what do I think should be done about abortion:

1. Kick the fn socialists out of government and get the economy moving again. Many abortions are for economic reasons. And stop staying home on election day because the fn R Party has served up some RINO. We at least have the ear of the RINO (Harriet Meyers?). The Communists are not going to listen.

2. End the drug war asap. Why are there so many abortions in the black community? Because we have a significant part of that community (about a third of all males) in jail or in the criminal justice system for prohibition violations. And we keep them there long enough to be sure to destroy any family they may have once had.

Demographics explains how it works.

It also explains "Girls gone wild". And where to go to find the wild women. Hint: look for places where the ratio of women to men is above 1.05 or more. Above 1.5 and you are in (you will pardon the expression) slut city. We are not being afflicted in this nation by declining morals and a culture of evil. We are afflicted by bad demographics. So how do you fix that? Beats me. Maybe we just have to learn to live with it unless we encourage differential abortion of females. No. I don't think so. Absolutely not.

3. More intensive teaching of birth control. The Baptists COULD do this. They just don't have the nerve. But if they were really sharp they could slip in a morals lesson or three while showing how to put a condom on a banana with your mouth.

4. Information - how well do crisis pregnancy centers work? Is there a better way? In fact more information on all programs that reduce abortion. Then the private funders can get the most bang for their buck.

There are probably more things to be done. Those come to my mind.

But for God's sake. Keep it out of the hands of government. That includes government funding.

I'd love to hear some major Moral Socialist come to his senses and say: "You know, what I want is of such intrinsic goodness that I don't need any government help to promote these ideas. And not only do I not need any help - I don't want any. There doesn't have to be a law. Social pressure can do the job. After all look at what changes to cultural attitudes have done for tobacco consumption. The only people who still smoke that stuff are hard core schizophrenics."

The only way government can accomplish anything is with sticks and stolen carrots.

Who do you want to steal from to accomplish your goal? Who do you want beaten with sticks?

Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods. - H. L. Mencken

Government functions by committing what in other contexts would be called crimes. It has a certain utility. But is a danger and ought to be strictly limited. Government can make you a slave - through taxation or though imprisonment. And slavery is against the law. Except for government.

In short: Government is a Criminal Enterprise.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." Geo. Washington

Is it worth increasing the number of criminals in our society (nearly permanently) in exchange for being able to say: "It is against the law." Of course followed by (from a different sort of person): "I know a guy who knows a guy......."

I guess it all depends on what kind of world you want to live in.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

ClimateGate Charges Investigated



Lord Monckton, Viscount of Brechley, and Prof. Fred Singer are requesting that charges be filed against scientists and others involved in possible violations of Britain's Freedom Of Information Laws.

I can't wait for the investigations to start in the USA.

And don't forget to order copies of this book:

Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming

Soon to be a collectors item.

H/T Libertarian Republican

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Government Is A Criminal Enterprise

The government is in essence a criminal organization.

It can murder - through wars and punishment for crime.
It can print money.
It can make you a slave through taxes. (taxation is theft)
It can make you a slave through imprisonment.
It can kidnap you. (politely called arrest)
It can demand ransoms. (fines)
It can steal your property. (confiscations)

Now don't get me wrong. Government has a certain utility. And we have laws and limits (in so far as possible). But ask yourself. Who do you trust with that kind of power? Who do you trust not to get corrupted by that kind of power?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Proper Way To Argue With Heretics

Climate scientist Judith Curry has a few words to say about scientific integrity as it relates to climate science given the recent revelations of Climategate.

At the heart of this issue is how climate researchers deal with skeptics. I have served my time in the “trenches of the climate war” in the context of the debate on hurricanes and global warming. There is no question that there is a political noise machine in existence that feeds on research and statements from climate change skeptics. In grappling with this issue, I would argue that there are three strategies for dealing with skeptics:
And of course there really is only one way forward: open data, open methods.

Despite having doing the right thing as one of strategies, I find her attitude disturbing.

When you start a “reasoned debate” with “You are a bunch of a$%#*!&$ skeptics who will have to be dealt with.” You have poisoned the well. Add that as one more indictment. Along with corrupted data. Bad programming practices. Unwarranted adjustments. And hiding the decline.

And just to continue in the current vein – any one still pounding the AGW drum with Bad Methods and Bad Data unresolved is complicit in fraud.

An honest scientist would say: “we have nothing and until we have sorted this all out I have nothing further to say. And let me add that I may have nothing to say for years or decades.”

It will take a long time to sort this out. First release all the data and methods. Then we go over the papers of those involved in Climategate. If there are serious errors hash that out. Then go after every paper that cited the papers found to be in error. The other alternative is to start from scratch.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

There Is A Consensus



The proper justification of any theory is its predictive power.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Appetizers At The Irish Rose

Eric, my mate, myself, and a friend of Eric's from Michigan had evening snacks at the Irish Rose in Rockford. We enjoyed swordfish and grilled zucchini. We enjoyed it very much.

And instead of the usual blogger met up crap (which I enjoy) we talked about our lives. A most enjoyable evening.

Did I overuse JOY? No.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tom Ligon On Space Show

Tom Ligon is going to be on the Space Show this Sunday from 12 to 1:30 PDT. You can call in or listen. Information at the link.

You can also watch this interview with Tom.

And for those of you even less familiar with Tom. He worked with Dr. Robert Bussard on Polywell Fusion Reactor experiments. The experiments seem to be coming along nicely based on what little news has been released. In any case We Will Know In Two Years.

Update: 29 Nov 2009 2020z

I had my dates mixed up. Tom will be on the Space Show for Tuesday evening, December 22, 7-8:30 PM California time. There is a good chance I will be on the show as well.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, November 27, 2009

We Have A Serious Problem On Our Hands


This video is from 30 September 2009. Well before the official start of Climate Gate (the the afternoon and evening of 19 Sept USA time - about 0000 GMT 20 Nov). And he says the CRU is probably cooking the books.

H/T Stephen Shorland in the comments at Watts Up With That

Brutal Territory

Karl Rove is getting the message (from polls) that American voters are upset about reckless government spending. I guess he has never heard of Tea Parties. Better late than never.

What seems to concern the president is not the problem runaway spending poses for taxpayers and the economy. Rather, what bothers him is the political problem it poses for Democrats.

Last year, Mr. Obama made fiscal restraint a constant theme of his presidential campaign. "Washington will have to tighten its belt and put off spending," he said back then, while pledging to "go through the federal budget, line by line, ending programs that we don't need." Voters found this fiscal conservatism reassuring.

However, since taking office Mr. Obama pushed through a $787 billion stimulus, a $33 billion expansion of the child health program known as S-chip, a $410 billion omnibus appropriations spending bill, and an $80 billion car company bailout. He also pushed a $821 billion cap-and-trade bill through the House and is now urging Congress to pass a nearly $1 trillion health-care bill.
Obama promised to end programs we didn't need. What are we getting instead? Programs we don't want.

How bad is it according to Rove?
Ominously for Democrats, concerns over spending have recently helped to flip the Gallup generic ballot to now favor Republicans by four points (48% to 44%). Last year, Democrats held a 12-point generic ballot advantage. The change has been driven by independents, who now favor Republicans by 22 points. By comparison, in the run-up to the 1994 congressional elections, Republicans first eclipsed Democrats in March of that year, when they gained a one-point advantage, before falling behind Democrats until the fall.

Mr. Obama's spending choices are dragging congressional Democrats into ugly electoral territory where many are likely to meet a brutal fate next fall.
And if their Republican replacements don't do the right thing they will get replaced.

"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." - Ronald Reagan

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Kiwi Scientists Cooking The Books?

The Briefing Room which helped break the CRU data dump story (Climategate): Verifying The CRU Files, has a new blockbuster out about climate "science" in New Zealand. NZ’s NIWA accused of CRU-style temperature faking.

UPDATE 15:49 NZDT - NIWA's news release in response to this story appears to have been delayed, and according to a radio news report a few minutes ago Rodney Hide, leader of the minority Act Party and a minister in the National Government, is now calling on his Cabinet colleague, Climate Change Minister Nick Smith, to "please explain" [normal transmission now resumes]

The New Zealand Government's chief climate advisory unit NIWA is under fire for allegedly massaging raw climate data to show a global warming trend that wasn't there.

The scandal breaks as fears grow worldwide that corruption of climate science is not confined to just Britain's CRU climate research centre.
Well yeah. The IPCC is a UN job. Why wouldn't it be a world wide conspiracy? I mean. You know. If it really is a conspiracy.

Any way. The Briefing Room (TBR) has details graphs and data. And from what I can tell some one leaked the data to TBR. You know climate science could get so leaky that it no longer holds water.

The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” — John W. Gardner, Saturday Evening Post, December 1, 1962

Everything You Know Is Wrong

Well not everything. But more than quite a lot. Eric at Classical Values was discussing that with respect to advertising and fads. Including medical and scientific fads. You know the deal. Trust but verify.

Before seeing Eric's post I came across Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.

Summary

There is increasing concern that most current published research findings are false. The probability that a research claim is true may depend on study power and bias, the number of other studies on the same question, and, importantly, the ratio of true to no relationships among the relationships probed in each scientific field. In this framework, a research finding is less likely to be true when the studies conducted in a field are smaller; when effect sizes are smaller; when there is a greater number and lesser preselection of tested relationships; where there is greater flexibility in designs, definitions, outcomes, and analytical modes; when there is greater financial and other interest and prejudice; and when more teams are involved in a scientific field in chase of statistical significance. Simulations show that for most study designs and settings, it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true. Moreover, for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias. In this essay, I discuss the implications of these problems for the conduct and interpretation of research.
He does discuss it. Several pages worth - with foot notes that include external links.

One point that should be made is that biases are hard to maintain indefinitely. One day you will meet Heidi Cline and it will all be over.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Giving Thanks

We have so much to be thankful for. Not the least of which is abundant energy which makes our lives so comfortable. At ECN Magazine I have reposted an idea I had from November of 2006. The idea is to develop a neighborhood energy source and storage unit along with communications facilities that could be dropped into a neighborhood to start improving life. Also included would be water pumping and storage modules.

I only mentioned wind power in the article, however any energy source that makes sense in a particular location could be added or interchanged.

The changes from 2006 are adding an off the shelf battery with included motor generator set and substituting WiFi and laptops for a TV station and television receivers. Read the article. There are links.

So what about giving thanks? One way would be to do what you can to make something like this happen.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Heidi Cline

Heidi Cline in case you need a girl's name.

What am I talking about? Here is a clue.

Hide The Decline



And wouldn't you know it. There is a book due out on 1 December called:

The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is the Obsession with "Climate Change" Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History?

I think "blunder" is too nice a word. It is looking more and more like fraud.

You can have a look at the "hide the decline" e-mail at Climate Files Hacked. You can also search the e-mail files at CRU e-mail Search Online

Tommy James Draggin' The Line.

H/T Watts Up With That

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Climategate Strategy

I came across this interesting comment at Climate Audit Mirror.

Dale Wyckoff

Oh, and while I’m at it. I’m wondering if this hacker is following the BigGovernment/ACRON model where releases are concerned. I note the message notifying about the first release said it was a “random sample”.

Perhaps whoever did this is waiting for The Team to make firm statements.

Dale
Here is exactly what it said (Dale is not far off) from the place that got the message and first responded to it. The Air Vent.
FOIA said
November 17, 2009 at 9:57 pm

We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps.

We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents.
Hopefully it will give some insight into the science and the people behind it.

This is a limited time offer, download now: http://ftp.tomcity.ru/incoming/free/FOI2009.zip
The link is dead so don't waste your time.

So do I think that there may be a lot more of this waiting in the wings? Could be. Or it could be misdirection to try and keep the guilty parties at least somewhat honest. What is called in the business - a bluff.

Check It Out

George Monbiot, one of the staunched supporters of the CO2 causes global warming belief, says that based on the ClimateGate revelations the science needs to be re-evaluated.

It’s no use pretending that this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.

Yes, the messages were obtained illegally. Yes, all of us say things in emails that would be excruciating if made public. Yes, some of the comments have been taken out of context. But there are some messages that require no spin to make them look bad. There appears to be evidence here of attempts to prevent scientific data from being released, and even to destroy material that was subject to a freedom of information request.

Worse still, some of the emails suggest efforts to prevent the publication of work by climate sceptics, or to keep it out of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I believe that the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign. Some of the data discussed in the emails should be re-analysed.
Monbiot also had this to say:
I apologise. I was too trusting of some of those who provided the evidence I championed. I would have been a better journalist if I had investigated their claims more closely.
There is no certainty that the e-mails were illegally obtained. But that is a a minor quibble.

The point is that the release of this information has rightly or wrongly cast the whole enterprise into a disreputable light. The only way to fix the situation is to:

Do A Climate Audit


Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tree Ring Circus™

For those of you laymen following the CRU document dump I'd like to make a few points about one of the central issues: Using tree ring width as a thermometer in order to have a record of temperature from the era before thermometers were invented. Tree rings were the genesis of the famous hockey stick "proving" that temperatures had been flat for a thousand years or more and suddenly with CO2 rising Earth's temperature system was rising out of control. Doom was coming if things continued this way and electricity production and automobiles powered by carbon and hydrocarbon fuels were the cause of the coming catastrophe.

But the boys reading the rings found something interesting. The ring "temperature" in the modern era was going down while the "real" temperature was going up. This is called the "great divergence" (really it is just called "divergence" but I like my phrase better). So what did they do to make the rings agree with the measured temperatures? They grafted on "real" temperatures. This is not exactly kosher if you don't know what caused the great divergence.

What the divergence tells us is that tree rings are not a good way to measure temperature because we lack all the relevant confounding variables. Like rainfall. Air quality (volcanic eruption?). CO2 content of the atmosphere. Nearby forest fires. Cloud cover. etc.

To say something caused the divergence is true. But if you discard the later data you also have to discard the prior data until you know the cause.

And it is dishonest in the extreme to append “real” values on a chart of calculated values without making that explicit each an every time the chart is presented and the data used. Especially in a public policy context. Like the hockey stick.

The idea of deriving temperatures to an accuracy of .1 deg C or even .5 deg C from tree rings is a triumph of self delusion over error bars.

If you want to dig into this some good search terms are: dendrochronology, Yamal, hockey stick, tree ring, Real Climate, Watts, McIntyre, Climate Audit, temperature.

Her is a link rich site. A search for "Watts" on the page will get you started on a deeper look.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Here Is A Good Idea

For all those who believe the health care bill should neither fund abortion nor prohibit it I came up with a great idea. If you don't like the bill as passed don't pay taxes. If 10 million people did this it would clog the system.

Of course if this tactic was repeated in the future with respect to other ideas it might have unfortunate repercussions.

So maybe there ought to be another way first. Like vote the bastiches out.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

It Is All Al Gore's Fault

By now you have all heard that a bunch of formerly secret e-mails and data relating to climate science have been revealed. It is casting serious doubt on the integrity of a number of the big names in the field and also adding to doubt about the size of the role of CO2 in climate change.

My solution to the current situation? Audit all the material.

But that is not my main point here. I want to give credit where credit is due. If Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet none of this would have been possible.

If you want to read about my meager contribution to the development of the Internet you can look here. I guess that means I had something to do with the revelations as well. Heh.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Blue And The Red


I found a really interesting article on how thermodynamics affects political persuasion. Conservatives and Liberals.

The Theory of Island Biogeography is a theory of species population distribution. There are major evolutionary implications in the ability of a species to distribute itself across space and time, not to mention the curious thermodynamics associated with this distribution. That is, species that can modulate their thermodynamic properties in response to environmental changes dramatically increase their probability of survival. In humans, there is no better example of thermodynamic modulation than conservatism and liberalism.

One of the more prominent biogeographic variations between conservatives and liberals is population density. The conservative-liberal asymmetries in population density are easily seen in the voting patterns of urban, suburban, and rural environments. As a general rule, the greater the population density, the more liberal the population. In the 2004 US Presidential Election, the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, won every city with a population over 500,000. This same pattern was repeated in 2008 with Barack Obama.

The mystical and long-standing relationship between liberalism and urbanism is common across all cultures, and raises several interesting questions: is this a self-selection process, whereby the conservatives flee to the suburbs leaving the big cities to the liberals; or, does urban life liberalize people? There is certainly much evidence for the self-selection effect, but we also believe that high-density living tends to liberalize people, although the evidence is less clear.
I had an interesting discussion with the author. I said that it was interesting that reproduction is lower in cities than in lower density areas. He said that was true of animal studies and seemed to be true for humans but it was not well researched in humans.

Here is an interesting bit:
In their groundbreaking study of island biogeography, M&W noted some interesting trends that apply directly to the study of political-religious disposition. First, a species that is able to establish populations on more than one island in an archipelago greatly reduces the risk of extinction. At first blush, this seems to be irrelevant to the study of conservatives and liberals. However, it is founded upon two behaviors that improve species viability: the ability to increase habitat range; and the ability to create genetic diversity. In other words, increase the habitat and genetic ranges, and increase the survival probability of a species, not to mention the acceleration in the rate of evolutionary change. From our information gathered so far, we believe that conservatives increase habitat range to a greater extent than liberals, and liberals increase genetic diversity to a greater extent than conservatives. Interestingly, conservatives and liberals, at opposite ends of the political spectrum, seem to be at the center of the survivability of the human species.
There is much more and it is one of the most interesting things I have read in a long time. Need I say that you ought to read it too?

What is my conclusion relative to politics? Both political parties are right about the proper way to live. In their ecological niches. If we wanted to help people prosper where ever they live we would have to change the geographical distribution of borders. But that might require a change to a City State model. Tough when things are already intermixed. How to square that circle? A libertarian model of politics would work. That is to say the government imposes the very minimum of social rules so that people can best live according to their particular geographical niche.

A book that covers the idea that political and technical change is geography specific from a somewhat different perspective is Geography and Revolution.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, November 20, 2009

My Body, My Money, My Country

We constantly hear that only moderate centrist Republicans can win in some places. And that is true. But what kind of moderate? What kind of centrist? I think that it has to be a moderate with strong principles. A strange beast to be sure. At least in this day and age.

The last time the Republican Party was truly centrist and wildly attractive was when it was a libertarian Party under Ronald Reagan. Socially moderate, fiscally conservative, strong on national defense. Does that mean that social conservatives were unwelcome? Of course not. It just means that moral socialism was not the political center of the party. It means that government stays out of your business and you are free to live your life as you chose.

What too many of our elite mean by centrist is socially moderate, not too fiscally conservative, and don't scare people with heavy weapons. i.e. RINO. I prefer a little absolutism.

My body, my money, my country.


Now moderation may be a good thing. But you have to have principles so at least you will know when you are deviating from them. So you don't go too far. RINOs have no discernible principles. And thus they can never tell when they have gone too far. The evidence of that was the drubbing the Republicans took in 2006 and 2008 when the Party stood only for a strong national defense. Everything else was negotiable.

Are the kind of Republicans I'm describing going to be popular every where? Not at this time. Social conservatives are going to dominate in some areas of the country. But what about other places like Wisconsin, California, and Illinois? In places like that social conservatives do not do well, at least State wide and in many districts. In those places it is good to have a more socially liberal candidate. But not a RINO. Because without principles you are just drifting with the wind.

I'd like to close with one of my favorite and often repeated Reagan quotes:

"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism." - Ronald Reagan

and how about another that describes the improper relation of government to the people:

"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." - Ronald Reagan

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Some Verification Of Hadley CRU Files Hacked

I have posted Climate Files Hacked about the release by anonymous ftp of the contents of hundreds of files and thousands of e-mails. Some have questioned their authenticity. I have partial verification from Real or Fake.

Steve McIntyre (Comment#23773) November 19th, 2009 at 6:08 pm

I’m having trouble getting into CA right now.

I made up a pdf of the emails to help browse through them and it’s over 2000 pages. Every email that I’ve examined so far looks genuine. There are a few emails of mine that are 100% genuine.

It is really quite breathtaking.
Yes. It is breathtaking.

Update: 20 November 2009 1009z

TBR.cc reports that the Hadley Center admits that the files are real.
The director of Britain's leading Climate Research Unit, Phil Jones, has told Investigate magazine's TGIF Edition tonight that his organization has been hacked, and the data flying all over the internet appears to be genuine.

In an exclusive interview, Jones told TGIF, "It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails."

"Have you alerted police"

"Not yet. We were not aware of what had been taken."

Jones says he was first tipped off to the security breach by colleagues at the website RealClimate.
WOW It is real. This is going to do a LOT of damage to the AGW Community. Big damage.

TBR.cc recommends Air Con: The Seriously Inconvenient Truth About Global Warming.

You might want to give it a look.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Climate Files Hacked

I just got a tip from Jccarlton at Talk Polywell that some one has hacked a lot of Hadley CRU files on Climate Science. You can get what details that are currently available at Watts Up With That. What has been released so far is full of bombshells. Like this e-mail.

From: Phil Jones
To: ray bradley ,mann@xxxxx.xxx, mhughes@xxxx.xxx
Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000
Cc: k.briffa@xxx.xx.xx,t.osborn@xxxx.xxx



Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,
Once Tim’s got a diagram here we’ll send that either later today or first thing tomorrow.
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline. Mike’s series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998. Thanks for the comments, Ray.

Cheers
Phil

Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) xxxxx
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) xxxx
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@xxxx.xxx
NR4 7TJ
UK
It looks like the scam may be coming to an end. Take that Al Gore. Because it looks like you may no longer be able to take it to the bank.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Overheard On the 'Net

In the comments at Uppity Woman

The core problem with government-run health care is that it doesn’t make decisions in the best interests of patients, but in the best interests of government.”
Yup.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

HillBuzz Is On A Mission

The Boyz and Girlz at HillBuzz are on a mission.

Please offer your thoughts here, because our mission going forward includes but is not limited to:

(1) Dismantling and destroying ACORN, the SEIU, and all of their affiliates

(2) Taking down the Al Sharpton/Henry Gates/Jesse Jackson/Eric Holder Race Industry

(3) Reforming the nominating contests to make the primaries fraud-proof…while eliminating caucuses completely (as they are the easiest to game)

(4) Making sure Democrats do not pick the Republican candidate they want to run against in 2012

(5) Doing whatever we can to put the MSM out of business as payback for their rampant sexism and misogyny

2012 will be here before any of us know it. There is an awful lot of work to do. All of the above is so important to us personally that we’re willing to skip days off, willing to postpone vacations, willing to literally give all of our free time to this.
Please visit their site. Read the rest of their post. Offer what help or ideas you can.

As the Buzzers might say: We must take back the country from Dr. Utopia and his minions. Starting the job in 2010 and completing the work in 2012.

And do read the comment section. Lots of good ideas so far. Maybe it will trigger off more ideas.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Evidence Based



The above video is to introduce you to Joss Stone who is creating quite a furor in the UK by saying the same thing this book says:

Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?

Joss says marijuana is safer than alcohol.

Singer Joss Stone has been condemned for glamourising drugs after an astonishing diatribe in which she claimed cannabis is less harmful than alcohol.

She also trivialised the dangers of harder 'more horrible' drugs, which she described as 'fun'.

The 22-year-old has enraged anti-drug campaigners after it was suggested she made the comments in a desperate attempt to drum up publicity for her new album.
Well it is working if that was her purpose. She got a lot of publicity for her remarks.

Some people are not happy though.
Her comments, which come just weeks after she released the album, brought a furious response from David Raynes, head of the National Drugs Prevention Alliance.

He said: 'She should consider the effects that her comments have on other people, especially young fans who look up to her.

'People like Joss Stone should keep their mouths shut about things like this.

It is terribly damaging and she clearly hasn't considered the wider effects of the drug, although she clearly didn't get to become a pop star because she is a student of social sciences.

'We already have a drug culture in the UK and she is simply adding to that.'
Ah. A Culture War. Interesting that they have them in the UK too. And of course science is enlisted in the fight. But science seems to be defecting.
Her comments also come weeks after Professor David Nutt was sacked as the government's drugs advisor for controversially claiming that cannabis, Ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol or cigarettes.
It appears that the Nutt sacking was not popular with other UK scientists.
The Government is facing mass resignations from the official advisory body on drugs after the sacking of its chairman, The Times has learnt.

Two members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs quit yesterday in protest at Alan Johnson’s dismissal of David Nutt in a row over the relative harm caused by drugs and alcohol.

Les King, an expert chemist, was the first to resign. He said that the Home Secretary had denied Professor Nutt his right to free speech and called for the council to become truly independent of politicians. He was swiftly followed by Marion Walker, a pharmacist and clinical director with the substance misuse service at the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The affair has led scientists to question the Government’s wider commitment to the independence of external scientific advisers, and raised fears that experts will become reluctant to sit on advisory panels.

Scientists on the council are preparing a letter to ministers seeking assurances that they will remain free to set their agenda and to speak freely about their research and findings. It is possible the 28 remaining members will quit if their concerns are not addressed before a council meeting next week.

One of the country’s leading experts on drug dependence said that, without such assurances, it would be difficult for any scientist to succeed Professor Nutt as council chairman while retaining the respect of their peers.
What got the Brit drug warriors so upset was this statement by Professor Nutt.
Professor Nutt was sacked after criticisms he had made of the Government’s drugs policy were published in a paper by the Centre for Crime and Justice at King’s College London. The comments were made in a lecture he delivered in July, in which he said that Ecstasy and LSD were less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes. He also criticised the decision to upgrade cannabis to class B.

Mr Johnson insisted that he was right to force Professor Nutt to stand down months after he took over as council chairman. “You cannot have a chief adviser at the same time stepping into the public field and campaigning against government decisions,” he said.
Well of course you can't. If the government is lying and the scientists are basing their views on actual facts it makes the government look bad. We can't have that now can we? People might lose faith in their betters. Making them no better (and probably worse) than the rest of us.

The clashes of science with political science are nothing new. It has been going on at least since the dust up between Galileo and the Catholic Church. In the end it always makes the political scientist look stupid and reduces their credibility.

If the Earth rotates around the sun and other planets besides Earth have moons you can only accept that fact. If marijuana is safer than alcohol there is nothing you can do but accept the fact. Political science always loses to facts. In the long run.

In theory we are smarter than the the Catholic Church was in the 1600s. In fact we have not come so far baby.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Business Idea

A Palin detractor in the comments at Althouse has this to say:

But I don't know how a book can be the number one best seller before a single reader has his hands on one.
To which I responded:

The left will NEVER understand business.

They will always be failures in America. Which is why they need government.

I wonder why more businesses don't cater to that market though. There is obviously a need for TP with instructions written on every sheet. Perhaps Sheryl Crow could be induced to write them. For a fee.

It could be a best seller.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Getting Into Position


Getting Into Position


Inspired by Lois Koenig on Facebook who did not ask for a caption. I offered one anyway.

Murder Suicide

The head of the Chicago Board Of Education, Michael Scott, is dead.

Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that Scott had a gunshot wound to his left temple and police discovered a .380-caliber gun underneath his body, which was found 30 feet from his blue Cadillac.
Terrible. But there are suspicious circumstances.
Scott reportedly disappeared from his Chicago home Sunday.

Emergency responders pulled the body out of the river at 4:30 a.m. local time Monday, after receiving a tip, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Joe Roccasalva told MyFoxChicago.com.
So was it murder or suicide? Or murder followed by suicide. Or suicide followed by murder?

Why was Scott "despondent"?
Scott had been Mayor Daley's go-to guy for a long time. Over the summer he told the Chicago Sun-Times that he had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating how students were selected for the system's elite selective-enrollment high schools, MyFoxChicago.com reported.

Scott said he had done nothing wrong, the Web site reported.

Chicago residents grew angry when Daley appointed Scott to serve a second stint as school board president. Scott had recommended that sports agent Rufus Williams succeed him, but Williams resigned under pressure and Daley re-appointed Scott to head the school board and oversee the city's public schools — a top Daley priority, MyFoxChicago.com reported.

"My wife and I would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family of Michael Scott," Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger said in an e-mail statement released Monday.
Chicago is famous for mob bosses sending condolences to the family of some one they have ordered killed. However, one should beware of guilt by association. Just because Mr. Stroger is from Chicago, as is our President, there is no reason for guilt by association with a city known for its gangster past.

As far as I know Mr. Stroger is nothing like Alexi Giannoulias who is running for Obama's old Senate seat if he can win the Democrat nomination.
Before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution.

Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links that several top Illinois Dems, including the state's speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama's help.
Thank the Maker that an honest politician from Chicago has become President. The country would be in really bad hands if we had gotten the other kind.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Mark Kirk Rumors

Hill Buzz has an interesting rumor about personal information that could be used against Mark Kirk in his run for Obama's old Senate seat.

Since Burris is not seeking election, we hope Republicans win Dr. Utopia’s old seat, because that would sure be a wonderful victory for Michael Steele and the RNC’s Senate team. And it would infuriate the White House. The trouble is, Republicans are running a fatally flawed candidate in Mark Kirk, who will be outed spectacularly by Democrats during the general election — using ammunition Kirk’s estranged wife has been feeding Dem operatives during their messy divorce. It’s deja vu to the Jack Ryan for Senate campaign all over again (remember, that’s how Dr. Utopia won his Senate seat…by releasing the pervy sex details actress Jeri Ryan used against Kirk in their divorce). Kirk does not respond well on his feet: instead, he starts telling military stories from his time in Afghanistan and seems to think you won’t notice that he’s not addressing whatever it is you want to talk about. A lot of politicians do this, but Kirk’s not good at it. Too clumsy and obvious. When he’s outed next year, he will probably do more of this, and fumble and bumble his way to a Jack Ryan-Alan Keyes debacle.
I lived and voted through the Keyes-Ryan-Obama debacle.

Keyes was so bad (he disowned his own daughter when she came out as a lesbian) that I had to vote for the Communist over the Theocon. As did a lot of others who voted in that race. I would hate to see a repeat of that debacle.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Human Development

I was looking at some different stuff by following a wiki trail and came across something called the Human Development Index. It is used to rate countries. It has the usual expected countries in the top. The USA comes in at #13 with a .956 score for instance.

What surprised me were the following countries that rated above .900.
#31 Kuwait 0.916
#33 Qatar 0.910
#35 United Arab Emirates 0.903

Compare them to Israel which ranks #27 with a 0.935 score.

So what got me started looking into this? I wanted to know how Iraq was doing. Iraq did not give sufficient information to be HDI rated. But there are some clues. Per capita income on a Purchasing Power Parity scale is $3,655. Not bad. On a strict dollar basis the number is $2,195.

We do know that a GDP per capita of around $3K to $5K a year is the region of transition. The environment becomes a priority. Self government becomes a priority. On a PPP scale Iraq is in the zone. What do they need to get on a solid footing (rather than a shaky footing that being in the transition zone implies)? About 10 years of 10% a year growth. Can it be done? Yes. Will it be done? It all depends on the resoluteness of their American ally. Can America be counted on? South Vietnam still casts a long shadow on that question.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Health Care Nazis

I have found an incipient Health Care Nazi.

"Well, for one, I know nobody wants to pay taxes for anybody else to go to the doctor — I don't," said Kate Kuhn, 20, of Acworth, Ga. "I don't want to pay for somebody to use my money that I could be using for myself."
You see this in play with the abortion question as it relates to health care. If government gets the strangle hold on health care the bill envisions then how you live becomes a political question. Drink too much wine (or maybe not enough) and the government will be watching. Too many cigarettes? You will only be alloted grade B or C care you wrecker of the public finances. We can have wars on meat eaters. We can have wars on vegetarians. And with a little luck we can bring a few to a premature demise.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Abortion Is Back

Senior Adviser To The President David Axelrod says he wants to bring abortion back into the health care bill. Well it is already in the bill. The Stupack Amendment forbidding the government from funding abortions.

The amendment, authored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., went beyond preventing the proposed government-run plan from covering abortion to restrict federal subsidies from going toward private plans that offer abortion coverage. David Axelrod says the amendment changes the 'status quo,' something the president cannot abide.

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod suggested Sunday that President Obama will intervene to make sure a controversial amendment restricting federal funding for abortion coverage is stripped from final health care reform legislation.

In doing so, the president would be heeding the call of abortion rights supporters like Planned Parenthood that have called the White House their "strongest weapon" in keeping such restrictions out of the bill.

The abortion amendment was tacked on to the House health care bill and was a key factor in securing the votes of moderate Democrats before the bill was approved by a narrow margin last weekend.
It is interesting that the Republicans could have killed the bill by not passing the Stupak Amendment.

Aside from wanting to keep their NRLC 100% ratings why would they do such a thing? My guess is that it is theater. This is all a show. What comes out of it? The Health Destruction Bill gets killed at the last minute by abortion foes. Politically sound. The Lefties in Congress can tell their supporters they tried really hard to pass the bill but those nasty fundie abortion foes (some of whom are Democrats) blocked it because they are against a Woman's Right To Choose. If it wasn't for them it would have passed.

Obama can stand by his promise that no one's health care plan is going to change (immediately). And the Congress critters get all kinds of cover. From, "I voted against it", to "I had to vote against it because of...". Everybody wins and the bill no one wants gets flushed.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Coffee With Palin


Says Palin in her new book:

"Should Secretary Clinton and I ever sit down over a cup of coffee, I know that we would fundamentally disagree on many issues. But my hat is off to her hard work on the 2008 campaign trail."
In the video it looks like she is accepting the offer.

Hill Buzz likes the idea.
We’ve had coffee with Hillary Clinton before — in a room with few people in it, no media, where she can be herself and say whatever she wants to say. The woman is funny, sharp, self-depreciating, REAL, honest, charming, and astute. Some of you out there wonder why we’ll support her to our dying days without question. You ask why we’re so loyal to her. You wonder why we’re so determined to make sure what was done to her is NEVER done to another woman again…and that Dr. Utopia does not do again in the Caucuses and Primaries next year what he did in 2008.

It’s because, first and foremost, Hillary Clinton is a proud and committed AMERICAN. That’s above everything else. The woman loves this country more than anything and wakes up every morning to do whatever she can to help keep it safe, strong, and prosperous.

We’ve seen her up close. We’ve seen her with no makeup, no artiface, no camera crews. We’ve seen the real deal…and the real deal is that she’s one in a million.

And, she really is hilarious when she wants to be. Her humor is dry, sharp, and biting. She’s sarcastic and to the point.

Just imagine how much fun she and Sarah Palin would have together when they do sit down and have coffee.

And we are sure they honestly will do this at some point…and it will probably be under the radar and we won’t hear about it until long after it’s happened, but it will happen.

Clinton people support the Palins. Palin people support the Clintons. Both sides do not agree on everything, but we all clearly have common experiences sustaining attack after attack from the Left in the name of Dr. Utopia.

Can you not understand how a bond would naturally develop there?
I would love to see the after action reports.

Talking To A Lefty

I was talking with a green lefty with the typical punish business mentality and was commiserating with him about his recent job loss.

Sorry about your job loss. Maybe you will get on the lower taxes and less regulation bandwagon to give American companies a better environment to compete. And dude - be careful about that union thing. Think about Government Motors and Crisis Motors.

Or you could figure out more ways to raise company expenses and drive more jobs offshore. I'm aways amused at folks who work hard to cut their own throats and then complain that getting your personal throat cut hurts. It was supposed to be the other guy who got his throat cut. The fat cats.

But think of it positively. You did your part for the Greening of America.

Reminds me of a Russian Joke.

Genie: I will give you one request; anything you want. I will give your neighbor twice what I give you.
Peasant: Poke one of my eyes out.

Me? I would ask for a pile of gold and enjoy my neighbors good fortune.

So what would be the equivalent for you? Do everything in your power to increase corporate profit. Including stumping for lower corporate taxes. Less regulation. Simpler rules for hiring and firing.

Your punish business attitude is only punishing yourself.
It is surprising how common this attitude is in the the land of business. Greed drives the desire for profit and envy works to diminish it. I can see where greed limited by honest methods is a good thing. Envy that strives for punishment winds up poking your own eye out.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Rockets



Rocket science is easy. Rocket engineering is... not.



H/T taniwha at Talk Polywell who coined the phrase.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Future Of Warfare



Thomas Barnett gave this talk in 2005 when Iraq was falling apart. If you listen closely he discusses the mistake President Present is about to make in Afghanistan.

The video is quite funny and full of salty language. It is also about a half hour and worth every minute.

The bottom line: we need a procedure for fixing failed states. So far the effort has been ad hoc. It needs to be formalized.

You can get more Thomas Barnett at Thomas Barnett.

H/T glemieux at Talk Polywell

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, November 14, 2009

It Is Worse Than We Thought

I'm interested in climate science. Who wouldn't be given the political ramifications? Well I have come across some Russian scientists [pdf] who have scared the heck out of me.

The changes will have very serious consequences, and it is necessary to begin preparations even now, since there is practically no time in reserve.
Yep. No time to waste. It is worse than we thought. Is he worried about warming? No.
For several years until the beginning in 2013 of a steady temperature drop, in a phase of instability, temperature will oscillate around the maximum that has been reached, without further substantial rise. Changes in climatic conditions will occur unevenly, depending on latitude. A temperature decrease in the smallest degree would affect the equatorial regions and strongly influence the temperate climate zones. The changes will have very serious consequences, and it is necessary to begin preparations even now, since there is practically no time in reserve. The global temperature of the Earth has begun its decrease without limitations on the volume of greenhouse gas emissions by industrially developed countries; therefore the implementation of the Kyoto protocol aimed to rescue the planet from the greenhouse effect should be put off at least 150 years.
The paper was translated from Russian which explains the inartful wording. From the graphs in the paper I infer it was written around December of 2008. We should know by 2015 or so if the predictions are correct. In the mean time it wouldn't hurt to plan ahead for global cooling. Just in case.

Cheaper And Easier To Find

The Charlotte Observer has a story about a new way to herd junkies. Interesting in and of itself. But this bit really caught my eye:

When officers knocked on Ross' door Thursday afternoon, dogs started barking before the door opened.

"Are you a heroin user, sir?" an officer asked.

"I used to be," said Ross.

Ross, 30, who didn't want his last name published to protect his identity, said a girlfriend introduced him to the drug. He was already on painkillers, but heroin was cheaper and easier to find.
Some one care to tell me again how well drug prohibition is doing in keeping drugs away from people who want them?

Pot is easier for kids to get than beer. How is that possible? In theory pot is impossible to get and beer is only restricted.

America is a nation of law breakers. It puts limits on what government can actually accomplish. I like that. Politicians and crusaders need to keep in mind that without 99%+ voluntary compliance laws are in effect unenforceable. And in some cases not even 99%+ is enough.

I do find the faith in government guns as a viable solution to social problems interesting. It always starts out with turn the guns on the other guy and then goes bad from there. And always the refrain "This time it will be different." Yeah. Right.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, November 13, 2009

Dual Loyalties

Jews get accused a LOT of dual-loyalties. America AND Israel. Eric of Classical Values sent me a link to this url which shows it is Worse Than We Thought for some Christians.

Are you a Christian first and an American second?

Or an American first and a Christian second?

Do you take your marching orders from God or the constitution?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
I am a Christian American. I love my county but my God is more important. If the constitution contridits the Bible i guess i will have to break the law. please to not think that i hate my country...i am very patriotic! I JUST LOVE JESUS MORE. :]
Of course that is not the only dual loyalty around. Some people have a commitment to Theft by the State - commonly referred to as Socialism - over the Constitution. And a lot of those don't even claim to be patriotic, in fact just the opposite. They see patriotism as an impediment.

I'll take the patriots. Even if they have dual loyalties.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Treatment Denied

A why is treatment denied? Because it is unavailable. So reports the Army Times.

Treatment, not incarceration, should be the first option for veterans who commit nonviolent drug-related offenses, a group advocating alternatives to the nation’s “war on drugs” said Wednesday in a new report.

The Drug Policy Alliance report [pdf] also called on government agencies to adopt overdose prevention programs and policies for vets who misuse substances or take prescription medicines, and urged “significantly expanded” access to medication-assisted therapies, such as methadone and buprenorphine, for the treatment of dependence on opioid drugs used to treat pain and mood disorders.
Now that is a change. People use drugs to change their minds. Or at least how their minds make them feel. I wonder if they are suggesting that idea because it is now more acceptable? Addiction or self medication?
Those close to the issue point out that about 30 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war vets report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression or other mental illness or cognitive disability, and that 19 percent of veterans who have received care from the Veterans Affairs Department have been diagnosed with substance abuse or dependence.

Guy Gambill, an Army veteran and advocate for veterans’ rights who took part in the conference call, noted that one of the hallmarks of PTSD “is a tendency to self-medicate. People do that with drugs, people do that with alcohol.”
In my article originally published in 2002, Addiction or Self Medication?, I voted for self medication. I guess it is catching on. Took 'em long enough.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Long Lines

Technology Review reports on progress in Making Carbon Nanotubes into Long Fibers

A new method for assembling carbon nanotubes has been used to create fibers hundreds of meters long. Individual carbon nanotubes are strong, lightweight, and electrically conductive, and could be valuable as, among other things, electrical transmission wires. But aligning masses of the nanotubes into well-ordered materials such as fibers has proven challenging at a scale suitable for manufacturing. By processing carbon nanotubes in a solution called a superacid, researchers at Rice University have made long fibers that might be used as lightweight, efficient wires for the electrical grid or as the basis of structural materials and conductive textiles.
Yep. It could be a very good replacement for copper or aluminum wires. And the base material is rather abundant. Coal mines are full of it. On the other hand petroleum or natural gas might be easier to process.

But we are not quite there yet.
So far, the group has made fibers that are highly conductive but not as strong as other carbon materials. Pasquali says the strength of the fibers could probably be improved tenfold by using longer carbon nanotubes. "We're now working on a project for making electrical transmission lines," says Pasquali. "Metallic nanotubes conduct electricity better than copper, they're lighter, and they fail less often."

One important hurdle for large-scale manufacturing of carbon nanotubes remains: Today, there aren't any good methods for making the nanotubes themselves in large, pure batches. In order to make nanotube transmission lines, for example, the Rice group would need to start with a large batch of nanotubes containing all metallic nanotubes and no semiconducting ones. Last month, chemists at the Honda Research Institute published a paper in Science describing a method for making large amounts of metallic nanotubes that Pasquali says is promising. "For transmission lines you need to make tons, and there are no methods now to do that," he says. "We are one miracle away."
And that miracle may have already happened.

What remains to be done after the breakthrough: making enough Carbon Nanotube (CNT) wire to build a test section into the grid. Developing methods for joining the wire to other non CNT segments of the grid. Developing methods for joining CNT segments. Testing it against weather and lightning strikes. And at least 10,000 other details (hand tools among them) will need to be worked out including crew training. Miracles take time to unfold.

And power lines might not be the prime candidate. Lowering the weight of wiring harnesses in automobiles might be a more favorable initial application since weight reduction is worth real money.

H/T GPecchia at Talk Polywell

Thursday, November 12, 2009

All Abortion All The Time

The Health Care Bill is no longer about the socialization of medicine. It has now come down to the socialization of abortion. And it seems like a number of women don't like the restrictions added to the bill. And to use a typically misogynist phrase: they are not going to take it lying down.

House Democrats voted to expand the current ban on public financing for abortion and to effectively prohibit women who participate in the proposed health system from obtaining private insurance that covers the full range of reproductive health options. Political calculation aside, the House Democrats reinforced the principle that a minority view on the morality of abortion can determine reproductive health policy for American women.

Many House members who support abortion rights decided reluctantly to accept this ban, which is embodied in the Stupak-Pitts amendment. They say the tradeoff was necessary to advance the right to guaranteed health care. They say they will fight another day for a woman’s right to choose.

Perhaps. But they can’t ignore the underlying shift that has taken place in recent years. The Democratic majority has abandoned its platform and subordinated women’s health to short-term political success. In doing so, these so-called friends of women’s rights have arguably done more to undermine reproductive rights than some of abortion’s staunchest foes. That Senate Democrats are poised to allow similar anti-abortion language in their bill simply underscores the degree of the damage that has been done.
I was making a similar argument (with positions reversed) about Republicans who were more concerned with their NRLC Rating than with stopping the Health care Bill.

But maybe this is a teaching moment: Nationalized Health Care will force choices you may not want or prevent you from making choices you might want. Something I'm rather familiar with given my experience in the Marijuana Is Medicine movement. There are a lot of places that government just does not belong. Medicine is one of them.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Matters Of Faith

Wretchard at Belmont Club is having a discussion of the nature of faith prompted by an Obama speech Honoring the Fort Hood dead. Faith is an interesting thing. An engineer labors on because he has faith that questions will turn into answers. And not just any answers. Answers good enough to earn a profit. That severely limits the solution space. We see the same thing in farmers. They have to believe that they can steer around unpredictable obstacles well enough to harvest a crop and make a profit. Faith is an every day thing for that kind of business. But it is an uncertain faith. Sometimes faith is unwarranted. Difficult business that.

Well a few words on the subject:

I have always liked Hunter S. Thompson’s Commentary on Faith.

I wouldn’t recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they’ve always worked for me. Hunter S. Thompson

I will admit it is not a religion suitable for children.

God and I have a special relationship. I believe God exists and that c********* had better straighten up and fly right or I’m going to kick some serious arse when I get a holt of the summabitch.

Of course I really don’t need faith. God talks to me every day. Or it could just be my mild schizophrenia.

You want mild schizophrenia to help you? Lower the filters. You know, be born again. Stop making so much internal noise. Replace it with external noise. Because there is signal hidden in that noise. All true religion consists of teaching you how to be born again. Being the technical geniuses we are in the West some day we will invent a pill. Maybe we could call it TFW. Temporary Filter Wipe.
So what is the value of faith? It gets you to labor on, despite the fact that there is no objective way out of the current difficulties. Faith overcomes depression. And sometimes that extra effort is enough to get you out of the mess. Or it gives you something to do until the solution arrives. Survival advantages. And it doesn't need much advantage to make faith propagate - genetically if not by word of mouth.

H/T RD in the comments at Find God Or Your Money Back

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Heard Around the 'Net

Major Nidal Malik Hasan suffers from pre Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

AMA Sees The Light At The End Of The Joint

I got a press release by e-mail this morning that is most interesting. It says marijuana is a drug. For real.

The American Medical Association (AMA) voted today to reverse its long-held position that marijuana be retained as a Schedule I substance with no medical value. The AMA adopted a report drafted by the AMA Council on Science and Public Health (CSAPH) entitled, "Use of Cannabis for Medicinal Purposes," which affirmed the therapeutic benefits of marijuana and called for further research. The CSAPH report concluded that, "short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis." Furthermore, the report urges that "the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods."

The change of position by the largest physician-based group in the country was precipitated in part by a resolution adopted in June of 2008 by the Medical Student Section (MSS) of the AMA in support of the reclassification of marijuana's status as a Schedule I substance.
See just like I said. Marijuana is a drug. Medically useful.

Safer than alcohol says this book: Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?

Safer than aspirin says this book: The Science of Marijuana

You can read the rest of the press release at Americans for Safe Access.

They also have some other reading material.

AMA Report Executive Summary [pdf]

AMA Report Recommendations [pdf]

The American College of Physicians - Supporting Research Into The Therapeutic Role Of Marijuana [pdf]

I think the rationales for the War On Pot Smokers are crumbling. The medical angle is just one front. And yes. Medical marijuana was always a stalking horse for legalization. The prohibitionists were right on that one. But they did get one thing wrong. It is not just Cheech and Chong Medicine. It is now AMA Medicine.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Stripped

It looks like the anti-abortion amendment that kept the Health Care Destruction bill moving in the House will be stripped out in conference.

The health bill approved by the House will likely see its abortion amendment stripped, the House's third-ranking Democrat stressed Tuesday.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said he believes that the amendment restricting federal funding for abortion will eventually be removed during conference with the Senate's bill.

"I think that's what's gonna happen," Clyburn said during an appearance on MSNBC when asked if Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Md.) amendment would be removed.

Clyburn said that he and many other House Democrats supported the amendment to pass the legislation in the House, with the expectation that it would eventually be removed.

"That's certainly why I voted for it," Clyburn explained. "I agree that the language approved by the House is unacceptable. We were doing what was necessary to do to put the bill on the floor in about 12 hours."
Well. Well. Well. So that is how they are going to get the bill passed. It will be fixed in conference. A vote nominally in favor of abortion would have killed the bill. But we had so many Rs who coveted a 100% NRLC score that they allowed it to pass.

It is hard to tell how all this is going to play out. Will the abortion foes stick to their guns and keep the bill from passing after reconciliation?
Clyburn said that the amendment had been necessary to win only a handful of votes, not the 40-some Democratic vote Stupak had expected to rally against the bill unless it included the abortion amendment.

"It was only 10 or 11 votes; that's the fact," Clyburn asserted. "This language took us across the threshold of 218."

Echoing other Democratic leaders, including President Barack Obama, the third-ranking Democrat in the House said that the bill needs to preserve the status quo on federal funding for abortions, which Clyburn said was represented in the Hyde Amendment.

"As long as this does not go beyond the Hyde Amendment, I think we'll be fine," Clyburn said.
Yes. But 220 minus 10 is 210. Not enough for passage. Which is why they needed the amendment in the first place.

It will be interesting to see how the Republicans get outmaneuvered this time.

Tales Of Government Run Health Care


This is anecdotal evidence. We don't know if Actual Government Run American Healthcare will work better or WORSE than these anecdotes.

I haven't read the book. So far all four reviews are five star. It could be the author's brother in law and his married cousin though. But this excerpt I got by e-mail was interesting.
Fourteen Hospitals Turn Away Critically-Injured Elderly Man

Rescue workers in Japan called fourteen hospitals before finding one that would take an elderly bicyclist who collided with a motorcycle.

The accident, which occurred at 10:15 pm in the Japanese city of Itami, left the 69-year-old bicyclist, who was not identified, in critical condition with back and head injuries. Paramedics arrived on the scene five minutes after the crash and administered first aid. Yet, for about an hour, they were unsuccessful at locating a hospital to treat the man.

Helpless, the elderly man waited in the ambulance at the accident scene as hospital after hospital rejected treating him, citing unavailable beds, staff shortages and a lack of equipment and specialists. All told, fourteen hospitals in the neighboring prefectures - i.e., governing districts - of Hyogo and Osaka refused his entry.

"There were four other emergency calls in the same time frame of that night," explained Mitsuhisa Ikemoto, the fire department spokesman. "[A]s a result, we were unable to find a hospital."

It took a second round of calls for rescue workers to find a hospital. Finally, at 11:30 that night - 75 minutes after the accident - they took him to a hospital in Itami, which had initially declined to accept him. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that the hospital's resources that night were unsatisfactory.
You can read the rest by buying the book. Just click on the book picture above. Or you can download the book.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Insurance Exchange

MoveOn.org (and no, I'm not going to link) says:

Victory!

The House just passed historic health care reform, moving us a big step closer to covering millions and ending Big Insurance's stranglehold on health care.
Good idea. Giving Big Government a stranglehold has got to be an improvement.

Nationalized Health Care. National Socialism.What could possibly go wrong?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

I Agree With MoveOn.org

MoveOn.org doesn't like Democrats voting against nationalized health care.

Last week the left-wing activist group MoveOn announced that it had raised $3.6 million to attack any Democratic senator who does not fully support "health care with a public option." Now, MoveOn is raising money to attack the House Democrats who voted against Obama-PelosiCare.

"We won a big victory on health care on Saturday when the House of Representatives passed a bill that includes a public health insurance option," writes MoveOn's political team. "But dozens of conservative Democrats sided with Big Insurance to vote against it."

MoveOn says it is essential to show those conservative Democrats that "voters will make them pay a political price for standing in the way of health care reform." Therefore, MoveOn is "rushing to launch a major new TV ad campaign in the home districts of Democrats who voted against the bill."
At this point I'm against Democrats. (well I don't like Republicans much either - but still) So my issues are a little broader. I think I have to say that I'm at least in full agreement with MoveOn.org on this narrow issue. At minimum these Democrats have to go. And a few replacement Republicans (Instapundit likes Arie Friedman, MD for the Illinois 10th) wouldn't hurt either.

Be Informed

I'm getting questions from here and there. It is my premise that the vote to strip abortion out of the Health Destruction bill allowed the bill to pass the House. Well a lot of Right thinking people have questioned that premise. They ask me, "how can you know for sure?" Well I can't. But the Philadelphia Enquirerer can.

The House restrictions, offered in an amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.) and Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), were the price that Speaker Nancy Pelosi - who supports abortion rights - paid to get a health-care bill passed, on a narrow 220-215 vote.
Eric at Classical Values who gave me the Enquirer link has more to say about what is going on in the Senate. Abortion. As far as I can tell at this point the bill couldn't have passed the House with abortion funding in it and it may be that it can't pass the Senate without abortion funding in it. Abortion!

You know it may just be that one million abortions a year saves us from this health care monstrosity. Cold. That. Yep. Or maybe the Republicans will figure a way to screw the pooch. It has happened before.

If you want to know how various critters in the House vote on abortion you can go here. Vote #4 on the chart was the most recent one in the House.

And you can look at previous Senate votes on abortion by going here.

Cross Posted at Classical Values