The “We gotta get this done for the trade show!” pressure at work is now gone. Deb's radiation treatments have ended and she's feeling much better. Our local elections/town meeting will be taking place in a little over a week. (I am running for one of our local offices.)
Everything is settling down which means I'll actually have time to sit down and start writing again...assuming we don't get hit with a monstrous late-winter/early spring blizzard of epic proportions or an alien invasion.
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It's official. This February was the coldest on record here in New Hampshire.As I have written before, this is probably one of the more brutal winters I can remember. There have been some winters with more snow. There have been some with colder temperatures. But this one had the combination of high snowfall totals over a short period of time (a bit less than three weeks) and well below normal temperatures for even longer. It isn't often we'll see below zero temps all through February.
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In relation to yesterday's post, here's another story about just how the eco-nuts false ideology has infected the general populace.Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute tells a story about Julian Simon, the late and great economist.He was at some environmental forum, and he said, “How many people here believe that the earth is increasingly polluted and that our natural resources are being exhausted?” Naturally, every hand shot up. He said, “Is there any evidence that could dissuade you?” Nothing. Again: “Is there any evidence I could give you — anything at all — that would lead you to reconsider these assumptions?” Not a stir. Simon then said, “Well, excuse me, I’m not dressed for church.”It has become, for all intents and purposes, a religion and a close-minded and hateful one at that.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Poor Nancy Pelosi, being forced to live paycheck to paycheck. Apparently this is a problem with Congress in general, at least according to Pelosi.Hell, Pelosi is so down on her luck these days, she had to burn the Constitution just to keep warm. Also, because she hates it.Frankly she'll get no sympathy from me as too many of the rest of America has had to do that since Obama took office and stifled any economic recovery.
(H/T Instapundit)
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The latest attempt by the Democrat operatives with bylines to smear Governor Scott Walker has failed again.As more than one person commented, 20 seconds on Google would have helped Jezebel writer Natasha Vargas-Cooper to get her facts straight and not make the false accusation that Walker wanted colleges to stop reporting sexual assaults on campus.
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The totalitarians-in-training at Clemson University are calling for stripping everyone on campus of their First Amendment rights, making sure no one can voice opposing viewpoints they may find offensive, or worse, true.What shocked the Clemson community was the professors’ support of the students’ first demand, which called on the university “to prosecute criminally predatory behaviors and defamatory speech committed by members of the Clemson University community (including, but not limited to, those facilitated by usage of social media).”Unfortunately this idea is not restricted to Clemson alone. There are plenty of colleges and universities where the same push to censor free speech reside. I remember having a conversation with a college student on the campus of the University of New Hampshire a few of years ago. He was protesting the freedom of people to voice opinions that he found to be “hate speech” and “contrary to progressive beliefs” and a bunch of other such drivel.
At one point after he had ranted about all of the offensive speech he thought should be banned, I gave him a reality check when I told him that if he succeeded in destroying the First Amendment that I would exercise my Second Amendment rights and kill him, much as members of the Greatest Generation did to the Nazis who believed many of the same things as he did. Obviously he didn't like the idea, but as I reminded him, the only reason he could even speak the way he did was because of people who killed our enemies who would be more than willing to silence those who disagreed with their totalitarian ideology. That I would be willing to kill him for the same reason shut him up.
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Tractor p*rn, indeed!***************
You can't tell me with a straight face that the reason there are so many 'scientists' claiming that AGW is real is because it's true. The real reason there are so many is because that's where the money is.99+% of all climate funding goes to alarmists rather than skeptics. Greenpeace laments donations of funds to skeptics by Exxon of a million dollars or so and wants to drive out all such funding when Greenpeace and Tides and the US Government are giving literally billions to alarmists. Despite this staggering imbalance, the only stories you ever see are about the dangers and bias introduced by that measly 1% skeptics get. I guess that 1% is spent pretty well because it sure seems to have people running in circles declaring the sky is falling.It appears that in regards to climate alarmism, the only way you'll get funding for research is if you're willing to provide 'evidence' that proves the predetermined results rather than using the evidence to generate unbiased results and prove or disprove the AGW hypothesis.
One would think that at some point the world would wake up and realize that criticizing the funding sources behind an individual does not actually rebut that individual's arguments.
Beyond the strange implicit assumption that fossil fuel funding would automatically "disprove" a research paper, there is also an assumption that oil company funding is "unclean" while government or non-profit environmental group funding is "clean". Remember the last time you saw a news story about a climate alarmist's funding? Yeah, neither do I.
That isn't science. That's propaganda.
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As a follow on to the above, ut appears one Congressman – Raul Grijalva (D - AZ) – has decided it's time for a 'climate inquisition'.Grijalva has sent seven letters to seven universities about researchers who, in Grijalva's eyes, have been having “impure thoughts about climate change.”
Science as an enterprise usually doesn’t need political enforcers. But proponents of a climate alarmism that demands immediate action to avert worldwide catastrophe won’t and can’t simply let the science speak for itself.The climate change debate ended long ago and has devolved into nothing more than an inquisition. Science has been set aside for politics and ideology. When that happens one of the first casualties is truth followed by the destroyed reputations of those who dare question ' the one true faith'.
In fact, for people who claim to champion science, they have the least scientific temperament imaginable. Their attitude owes more to Trofim Lysenko, the high priest of the Soviet Union’s politicized science, than, say, to Gregor Mendel, the founder of modern genetics, whose work was shunned by Lysenko for ideological reasons.
With apologies to Monty Python, “No one expects the Climate Inquisition!”
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Now that the FCC has voted 3-2 along party lines to bring the Internet under Title II regulation, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai destroys the net neutrality claims with three easy points.1. The Internet has grown rapidly, creating untold economic benefits, largely because the government.Since when has government regulation ever helped any business do things better/faster/cheaper? Never.
2. Title II regulations attempt to solve problems that don't exist with enough consistency to address.
3. Title II regulations will lead to new taxes and slower broadband speeds for consumers.
This regulatory grab by the FCC will have just the opposite effect and will give the government too much control over the 'Net which has done just fine without government control It is nothing more than a naked power grab at the behest of the White House.
I have a feeling we'll see this change overturned by the courts once all of the players, big and small, file their lawsuits against the FCC on this matter, or by Congress once their donors start screaming at them to undo this bit of regulatory idiocy.
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This example proves the much-praised (at least in the US) Canadian health care system isn't nearly as wonderful as many here in the US believe it is.***************
In regards to Obama, Flopping Aces reminds liberals that they voted for this.“What we’ve done is we’ve expanded my authorities under executive action and prosecutorial discretion…”In other words, Obama now rules by fiat and the rule of law and the Constitution be damned. Let's see how that works for you guys when he decides you are now a threat.