Tag: government

A journalist takes objective look at global warming

10:13 am

For the past week there has been a new spat of articles written about human caused global warming, instigated by an op-ed (subscription required) written by scientist Richard Muller in the New York Times, where he wrote:

Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

Not surprisingly, the mainstream press has jumped on this op-ed and the public release of new data by Muller’s team as further proof that the debate over global warming is settled and we should all bow to our governmental overlords and agree to any regulations they propose to save the planet.

Not so fast.
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After using his truck without his permission in a botched sting operation, the U.S. government is now refusing to compensate the owner for the truck’s destruction.

8:38 am

We’re here to help you: After using his truck without his permission in a botched sting operation, the U.S. government is now refusing to compensate the owner for the damages.

Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty’s knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers. … Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers – all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot. In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff’s deputy.

But eight months later, Patty still can’t get recompense from the U.S. government’s decision to use his truck and employee without his permission.

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Doing everything but the job of President.

7:12 am

Doing everything but the job of President.

Though this data might illustrate how disinterested Obama is in actually doing the kind of job that recent Presidents have done, it also shows how truly irrelevant the Presidency really is. A President can make a positive difference, but in truth, society functions with or without him. It is just a shame that this President sees the job as merely a platform for campaigning.

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The Marines have put in an order for 12,000 M1911 pistols, the iconic 45 caliber pistol designed by John Browning more than a 100 years ago and used by the American military for most of the first half of the 20th century.

1:17 pm

Comeback: The Marines have put in an order for 12,000 M1911 pistols, the iconic 45 caliber pistol designed by John Browning more than a 100 years ago and used by the American military for most of the first half of the 20th century.

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The Democrats in the Senate have passed their tax plan.

4:16 pm

The Democrats in the Senate have passed their tax plan, extending the Bush tax rates for families making under $250,000 for one year while allowing the rates for families earning above $250,000 to expire.

The big Democratic claim has been that in order to balance the budget richer people have to pay more of their fair share. Okay, so now they’ve made their point by law. If I were the Republicans I’d accept it, since we all know that this tax increase on higher income taxpayers will do nothing to lower the deficit. We could raise the tax rate for anyone earning more than $250K to 100 percent and we would still have a gigantic yearly deficit.

What will the Democrats next claim when this tax increase fails? It won’t matter. The problem is spending, and the failure of this tax plan will further demonstrate that point. The federal government has to learn to live within its means.

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Because of a new federal regulation, passengers who use US Airways for only part of their flight will have to check their bags and go through security again when they switch airlines.

10:27 am

Thank you DOT and US Airways: Because of a new federal regulation, passengers who use US Airways for only part of their flight will have to check their bags and go through security again when they switch airlines.

It appears that US Airways is at much at fault here as the DOT. Read the article.

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“The suspicions that the system is rigged in favor of the largest banks and their elites, so they play by their own set of rules to the disfavor of the taxpayers who funded their bailout, are true.”

9:27 pm

From the man whose job it was to police the $700 billion TARP bailout:

The suspicions that the system is rigged in favor of the largest banks and their elites, so they play by their own set of rules to the disfavor of the taxpayers who funded their bailout, are true.

The regulatory culture of the banking industry that this book describes possibiy explains why Jon Corzine has not yet been prosecuted. Regulators and prosecutors are afraid to proceed out of fear of hurting their careers.

Worse, Barofsky describes a banking regulatory system that is still in place, and is therefore ripe for another collapse. No wonder the tea party movement was born out of outrage over TARP and the bank bailout, and is still growing.

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If you own that art, it’s not yours. The IRS owns it instead.

1:07 pm

If you own that art, it’s not yours. The IRS owns it instead.

The object under discussion is “Canyon,” a masterwork of 20th-century art created by Robert Rauschenberg that Mrs. Sonnabend’s children inherited when she died in 2007. Because the work, a sculptural combine, includes a stuffed bald eagle, a bird under federal protection, the heirs would be committing a felony if they ever tried to sell it. So their appraisers have valued the work at zero.

But the Internal Revenue Service takes a different view. It has appraised “Canyon” at $65 million and is demanding that the owners pay $29.2 million in taxes.

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“You didn’t build that.”

9:31 pm

“You didn’t build that: Readings from the Book of Barack.”

1 In the beginning Govt created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the economy was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the ATMs, and the Spirit of Govt was hovering over the land.

3 And Govt said, “Let there be spending,” and there was spending. 4 Govt saw that the spending was good, and that it separated the light from the darkness. 5 Govt called the spending Investments, and this he did in the first day.

6 Then Govt said, “Let there be roads and bridges across the waters, and let dams divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus Govt made the infrastructure and the patronage jobs for eternity under the firmament from the Potomac which was above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And Govt called the firmament Washington. This Govt did on the second day.

9 Then Govt said, “Let the regulations and the guidlines under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the Bureaus appear”; and it was so. 10 And Govt called the Bureaus demigovts, and the gathering together of them He called AFSCME. And Govt saw that it was good.

Read the whole thing.

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The IRS and Labor Department have started investigations into the finances of a Romney campaign contributor who was also named number one on Obama’s enemies list.

10:31 am

Leftwing tolerance: The IRS and Labor Department have started investigations into the finances of a Romney campaign contributor who was also one of the first listed on Obama’s enemies list.

I don’t appreciate it when the right attacks George Soros for supporting the leftwing causes he believes in, and I certainly oppose it when the left does the same. Here, however, it appears the Obama administration is using the force of the law to attack a private citizen, merely because he supports Obama’s opponent in the election. Such behavior is immoral, wrong, and hostile to everything our free country is supposed to stand for.

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A Texas woman did not want a smart meter installed in her home, and when the power company employee would not take no for an answer she stopped him — by showing him her legal gun.

4:09 pm

A Texas woman did not want a smart meter installed in her home, and when the power company employee would not take no for an answer she stopped him — by showing him her legal gun.

She placed herself between the installer and her old meter but, “He just kept pushing me away.” That’s when she showed him her handgun. “He saw it, and went back the other way.”

The response of the power company is also interesting.

“We are deeply troubled by anyone who would pull a gun on another person performing their job,” reads a statement from the company. “CenterPoint will be taking additional steps – including court actions – because what happened is dangerous, illegal and unwarranted.”

First, the employee was on this woman’s property. Second, it appears the employee pushed the woman. Since when is it illegal to protect both your property and your person from assault?

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The TSA protester who stripped naked when TSA agents demanded he submit to a more detailed body search has won his case in court.

3:56 pm

The TSA protester who stripped naked when TSA agents demanded he submit to a more detailed body search has won his case in court.

The money quote from the article:

“I was aware of the irony of removing my clothes to protect my privacy,”

This illustrates better than anything the absurdity of the security arrangements of the TSA. What good is this fake security if it destroys our freedom?

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The lawsuits fighting the Obama administration mandate that religious organizations fund contraceptives against their religious beliefs has now risen to more than 20 separate cases and nearly 60 individual plaintiffs,

2:00 pm

We’ve only just begun: The lawsuits fighting the Obama administration requirement that religious organizations fund contraceptives against their religious beliefs has now risen to more than 20 separate cases and nearly 60 individual plaintiffs.

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Despite a court order one year ago requiring them to “promptly” hold public hearings on the use of x-ray scanners, the TSA still refuses to comply.

9:45 pm

The law is such an inconvenient thing: Despite a court order one year ago requiring them to “promptly” hold public hearings on the use of x-ray scanners, the TSA still refuses to comply.

And I agree with Ham: Everyone should opt out of being scanned by these porn machines, and make the TSA feel them up each time. If enough people do that, they will be forced to abandon these x-ray scanners, which don’t work, have health risks, and are fundamental invasion of our constitutional right against unreasonable search.

In a related story, watch the video below the fold, in which an American citizen successfully refuses to answer any questions at two Border Patrol checkpoints, because in truth, he has the right not to answer those questions. And not only does he not answer the questions, he refuses to participate in a vehicle search, and is eventually allowed to go on his way.
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In Columbia County, Georgia that means a law enforcement official can enter your home without permission, bang on your bedroom door, wake you up, and yell at you about it.

10:20 pm

Your grass is too long? In Columbia County, Georgia that means a law enforcement official can enter your home without permission, bang on your bedroom door, wake you up, and yell at you about it.

A woman got the shock of her life when she woke up to find a stranger in her bedroom, yelling at her to wake up because her grass was too long. Erica Masters was asleep when Columbia County Code Compliance Officer Jimmy Vowell entered her Martinez, Georgia, home without permission to serve a violation notice for her overgrown lawn. After knocking on the woman’s door a few times, Vowell let himself and made his way into her bedroom, which was captured on surveillance video.

Click on the link to watch the video. What’s worse is that the county says it needs to investigate this more. I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried, especially as they have it on tape. Any law enforcement official who thinks he has the right to do such a thing should fired.

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A review by the IPCC of its earlier reports has admitted to serious problems and fundamental biases.

9:51 am

A review by the IPCC of its earlier reports has admitted that the manner in which the reports were produced had serious problems and fundamental biases.

The IAC reported that IPCC lead authors fail to give “due consideration … to properly documented alternative views” (p. 20), fail to “provide detailed written responses to the most significant review issues identified by the Review Editors” (p. 21), and are not “consider[ing] review comments carefully and document[ing] their responses” (p. 22). In plain English: the IPCC reports are not peer-reviewed.

The IAC found that “the IPCC has no formal process or criteria for selecting authors” and “the selection criteria seemed arbitrary to many respondents” (p. 18). Government officials appoint scientists from their countries and “do not always nominate the best scientists from among those who volunteer, either because they do not know who these scientists are or because political considerations are given more weight than scientific qualifications” (p. 18). In other words: authors are selected from a “club” of scientists and nonscientists who agree with the alarmist perspective favored by politicians.

The rewriting of the Summary for Policy Makers by politicians and environmental activists — a problem called out by global warming realists for many years, but with little apparent notice by the media or policymakers — was plainly admitted, perhaps for the first time by an organization in the “mainstream” of alarmist climate change thinking. “[M]any were concerned that reinterpretations of the assessment’s findings, suggested in the final Plenary, might be politically motivated,” the IAC auditors wrote. The scientists they interviewed commonly found the Synthesis Report “too political” (p. 25). [emphasis mine]

The sad part is that almost none of these problems have been addressed by the IPCC in producing its next report, due out sometime in 2013 or 2014.

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