I made up for my previous inability to get things done by going to town on the errands yesterday – a dump run, dropping off recyclables at the transfer station as well as hauling a load of cut brush to the same location. I even managed to mow a portion of the lawn yesterday and will finish that later today.
I can once again be a participant rather than just a spectator.
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It was while I was out during one of my many errands yesterday that I struck up a conversation with an acquaintance about the whole Anthropogenic Climate Change thing, she being a lukewarm supporter of the concept while I certainly am not. While we didn't get into the nuts and bolts of the debate, I did talk to her about how the whole thing has been blown out of proportion by people who have no background or understanding about science and how it is supposed to work. They take the word of 'experts' who are no more versed in science than they, using it as a justification for their position. Even she admitted that the whole AGW “Do Something!” crowd seem to be motivated more by emotion rather than facts.I quoted Glenn Reynolds to her, stating “I'll start believing it's a crisis when the people telling me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis.”
Her response: “Good point.”
There's hope yet.
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Then there's the psychological problems climate scientists are having to deal with.What do you expect when so many of them are forecasting nothing but doom even in the face of more disclosures that their conclusions are based upon 'cooked' data and heavily influenced by politics by way of government grants to 'prove' we're all gonna die?
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On the other side, there are reports by researchers that warn the sun is entering an extended solar minimum that will likely lead to another “little ice age”, much like those seen during the Maunder and Dalton Minimums back in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.***************
If all of the indicators are right, we may be seeing a new era of civil disobedience come into being.Outrageous court rulings and legislation that force people into performing deeds or actions that are in direct conflict with their fundamental beliefs, be they be about their natural rights or their religious faith, are driving the people to say “Enough! You've gone too far and we're not going to obey! You can't force us to go against our beliefs and we won't! Now bugger off!”
The touchie-feelie crap has gone too far and in an effort not to 'offend' a tiny minority, the courts and the legislatures have offended the majority, in some cases crossing constitutional lines and the people won't stand for it any more.
I expect the frequency of civil disobedience to increase as the Progressive-driven mandates further twist the constitution and our laws into unrecognizable shapes.
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The kerfuffle over the NFL's Washington Redskins name continues.As I wrote in the comments, “The name “Washington Redskins” is quite offensive and we should drop the name “Washington” from the team name, considering what Washington has done to our Native American brothers and sisters over the years….”
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Skip shows that there is no curing stupid, illustrated by the story of this Darwin Award nominee who used a fireworks mortar to remove himself from the gene pool.No the poor dead stupid dear's mommy wants to require training in the proper use of fireworks. However she has overlooked that no amount of training can instill common sense. (I have also found that common sense isn't all that common these days...if it ever was.)
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The more I hear from Carly Fiorina, the more I like her.One of my favorite quotes from her quoting the Iron Lady, Maggie Thatcher: “I will not manage the decline of a great nation!”
Indeed.
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The MSM finds itself with egg on its face...again.This time they went after actor Tom Selleck for 'stealing' water from a neighboring town through the use of a tanker truck . It turns out the water was actually purchased and the tanker truck was owned by the company authorized to pull water from that town's water system. That the company sold the water to Selleck is something the MSM failed to discover which shows you just how lazy they've become.
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Is science ever really settled?The short answer: No.
The We're-All-Gonna-Die Warmistas beclown themselves whenever they say “The science is settled.” It proves to the rest of us that they haven't a clue and should be ridiculed and scorned for their willful ignorance.
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First, the Progressives want to tell us how we must live. Now they want to tell us where we can live.I have three words in response to that: “Sod off, swampy!”
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It appears the New York Post is seriously angry at Mayor Bill de Blasio and his efforts to return New York to the bad old days of the 70's and 80's. As its headline blared “20 years of cleaning up New York City PISSED AWAY”.Indeed.
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For a change of pace there's this:Iowa's DOT has come to the conclusion that their road system is going to shrink in number because they're going to need fewer roads.
Per capita driving has peaked in America, and with that new normal comes the question of whether or not we should be spending limited transportation funding on building new roads. If nothing else the driving trends support the wisdom of a “fix-it-first” policy that focuses on highway maintenance over expansion.That certainly may be true in some areas like Iowa, and maybe here in New Hampshire. We don't really need new roads so much as we need to maintain the ones we have and maybe widen one or two of the major highways in the southern tier. Of course more highway funds would be available to maintain the existing roads if so much wasn't being wasted on mass transit and commuter rail projects that never pay for themselves or being diverted to other uses rather than actually paying for the upkeep of our highway infrastructure. There are thousands of bridges needing major maintenance or replacement as they've exceeded their design lifetimes.