Dire indeed

So I am spending the Christmas holidays (as in "holy" not "holly") in Pittsburgh and in somewhere in the process, I decided that I needed to rent a car. Budget provided me with a suitable vehicle -- but then "tempted" me with an "upgrade" to a premium vehicle. Now get this, the car in question is a Ford Crown Victoria, the car of choice for State Police and old farts heading to Florida.

I accepted the upgrade thinking that the trunk (boot) would be larger and accomodate the extra luggage of the season. Wrong. Instead, there is an oddly-shaped well which drops down over the bumper and a shelf from which protrudes the spare (smaller) tire. In short, practically useless for serious luggage. A Honda Accord fits more.

And THEN ... I pulled out of the airport garage. What a woeful piece of poop. A boat of the old school: you navigate this thing, never knowing where the corners of the car are , or headed. Jeezuzz ... this is '70s technology! No, worse. '50s. And the plastics inside are of the cheapest -- Korea stopped making crap like this about 10 years ago. You cannot -- I repeat -- cannot get a good driver's position in this thing. It also won't drive straight. I used to swear at drivers of these arks, wondering why they can't keep to their lanes. Now I know. I can only wonder that someone could be STUPID enough to spend their own money on one. Or anyone else's.

FORD: shame on you for building a car this dire in this day and age. YOU DESERVE TO GO BROKE. And the worst part is that there are MANY fine Ford vehicles built around the world to compete with European-grade sports sedans, but does any of this technology make it into the American version? No. In fact, the European focus is a DAMN fine car -- but does it get imported into the States? No. Why is that? Huh? Are the profit margins on the US versions that much higher that it makes up for the fact that you can't compete trying to sell these P(ieces) Of S?????

Are all you people in the corporate offices in Detroit smoking drugs? What the HELL is wrong with you? Use the resources that you have WITHIN your company and start producing value and quality -- or else post the obituary for your miserable company and selves.

Duke Dooval

Royalty has re-emerged after some 230 years in Boston: all hail King Dooval, Duke of Hurl, Overlord of Cambridge. Here the King imagines grasping all your tax dollars. He seems to be enjoying the sensation.

Duke Doovie is up to his eyebrows in corporate money. $50,000 a pop for his coronation. His speech is set to take place on the State House steps -- traditionally, where the exiting Governor has his last photo op as he and spouse descend the steps for the last time. But the Duke (smells like left-over Dukakis, but more royal), wants to hold his speech for the people there. Trouble is that the people are not really invited, the corporate donors are.

Key players in the shake-down of corporations seeking to do business with the Commonwealth are: (1) Jack Connors, Chairman of the Board of Partners Health ... also paid $500,000 to lobbyists to make sure that King Duke says OK to the healthcare reform bill which is to grant $200 million of Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals; (2) Cheryl Cronin, a powerful Democrat lawyer representing Tom Finneran, and BECHTEL; (3) Bob Crow, the lawyer at the Boston rep office of Wolf, Block (a Philly firm) and a "good friend of John Kerry"; (4) Robert Beal, a real estate developer removed from the board of MassDevelopment by Romney and said to be seeking re-admission to the board; and (5) Nick Littlefield, a lawyer friend of Senator Blowbag and a lobbyist seeking to streamline zoning and regulations for biotech firms. Nobody, then, with an agenda....

Cyndi Roy, a member of the King's transition team, refused to release the names of and amounts donated by contributors on the transition website, but pledged absolute transparency ... but not when. How about in 100 years, or as a result of the next indictment?

Putain!

Nancy Pelosi is turning out to have the political grace and dexterity of Gerald Ford descending a stairway ....

The new Democrat head of the Intelligence Committee, Silvestre Reyes, apparently does not know that Al Qaeda is Sunni inspired and insisted that they were Shia. Similarly, he was unable to identify the allegiance of Hezbollah. Now, my Liberal friends, do you feel better about taking the reigns of power? Do you feel goooooddd about your brave, newly elected staff? It starts to look as if we replaced the merely indolent with the grossly ignorant -- as in cannot-find-one's-arse-in-daylight- with-both-hands ignorant. The reported asking the questions no doubt felt that he should have given the Honorable Reyes some time to come up with prepared answers....

Most pointedly, the Democrats have yet to come up with a single solution to Iraq. Do you remember how they loudly proclaimed that a vote for them was a vote for new ideas? Well, where are the ideas? We are all waiting.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has some ideas .... He apparently carved Dick Cheney a new asshole when they met last month (that would be a third, since he shits out of one, talks out of the other ... and). You see King Abbie is worried that the Shia in his country (who live on top of the oil) may get ideas. He is also worried that if the US pulls out, they will have to step in, not that they do not already provide the Sunnis with much of their funding and support ... which in turn kills American soldiers. Syria is happy to allow Iran to support the Hezballoonies in Lebanon as it furthers goals against Israel, but Syria is not so happy about the prospect of actually having Iran as a border neighbor -- which a Shia victory in the Iraqi civil war would essentially cause. Jordan is Sunni -- and does not want a bunch of crazies on its border, so they too, would have to step in for the Sunnis.

Curious, though, that the Saudis would be upset that we may actually be ready to pick up our marbles and leave when they have done so much to cause that result in the first place. Or could they too have mistaken the lengths to which Iran might go to further its aims? The nuclear agenda was back burner when we stormed through Iraq, so was A-jad's rhetoric with respect to eliminating Israel. But now, it seems that the Iraqi oil fields are just within the Ayatollah's grasp and that must be unsettling. Remember also that Iran has just tested new and improved anti-shipping missiles, just in time for Christmas and shutting the straights of Hormuz. And above all, they do not want the US to enter into talks with the Iranians ... that would be about a price for the Saudis, in their eyes.

Iran, for its part, is silent about Iraq and "concentrating" on the holocaust. Friends, the point of this is to establish another justification for the eradication of Israel. If the holocaust is a myth or close to it, the moral basis for the creation of the state of Israel in Muslim land is also baseless -- giving rise to the moral authority (at least in their twisted thought) to clean up. And consider who showed up from the US of A ... David Duke!! Was he wearing a hood? Or is the Ayatollah's turban just as good as one?

But A-jad uses the conference to sum up Iran's viwe of the matter: "just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out." Now what does he mean by "soon?" Does he KNOW something that we don't? The reason the holocaust denial conference was held there, was that "Iran is your home and is the home of all freedom seekers of the world," Ahmadinejad said. "Here you can express your views and exchange opinions in a friendly, brotherly and free atmosphere." And if that view happened to be that Iran was full homicidal maniacs, I wonder how brotherly the atmosphere might be.... Freedom of speech and Iran are not exactly thought of in the same sentence. Or paragraph, except to note that it does not exist but plenty of good old-fashioned torture for thought violations does.

But Pelosi and the Democrats are sure to show us the way here. Yep. Any day now.

Have no shame

Instead, be a democrat!

Dooval Patrick tops off the day with his inaugural balls in planning. Yes, that is a plural. So Dooval has co-opted his various corporate targets to fund a series of inaugural events across Massachusetts (why should the people in Springfield or Pittsfield have to drive hours to attend the coronation of their Liberal King)? Hmmm. To the tune of $1.6 million (estimated so far), Dooval is throwing parties for the liberal faithful. And why shouldn't he? Well ... because he swore in his election that he would never be the stooge of corporate interests. So now he is taking money from them for his coronation, but that is OK because he cannot be corrupted? Because he is immune from the almight dollar? Did we forget that he took millions from Coca-Cola to defend them against human rights violations? The man of the people?

Clintonista hypocrite!!!!! Running dog Liberal liar!!!! Two faced apparatchik!!! And the people of Cambridge suddenly cannot see that the NEW emperor is suddenly naked. They won't see. They refuse to see. When Dooval sent his Lieutenant Governor to meet with lobbyists at a closed door meeting last week (to do what exactly, Mr. "I cannot be bought") his plan was busted (to its credit by the Boston Globe) and the meeting suddenly cancelled.

FOLKS, IT IS BUSINESS AS USUAL DOWN AT THE STATE HOUSE. Dukakis would recognize this. I wonder if the windfarms for Nantucket Sound are suddenly on precarious environmental grounds.

What else? Oh, yes, William Jefferson (the Congressman that was caught with $90,000 in greenbacks in his freezer -- no corruption there) was re-elected in a run-off ... in Louisiana. And this is during a federal probe into bribe taking by the Congressman -- no it is not a crime to stash your own money in your freezer.... Karen Carter, his opponent is also black, so don't think that I am going down the race path. I am going down the path of "business as usual" in Louisiana. Louisiana and Massachusetts (Boston) show many similarities. Bald-faced liars can get elected by large majorities in Democrat controlled states. Equal opportunity ignorance, though Louisiana holds the distinction of electing someone under a current federal probe for graft ... that is somewhat breathtaking.

In a little note to self: Jefferson was a Friend of Bill, and had a seat on the House Ways and Means committee. To me, this makes it worse that such a weasel can be on such a powerful committee, scam us, and get away with it. That he is a friend of the Clintons ... well, that is just par for that particular course.

I'd like to think that Dooval would be too smart to do that, though the sudden volte-face of taking corporate cash is a tad too cynical even for an armchair liberal. Getting outed by the Globe already ... this is a Nero-esque turn of events: the Globe really wanted to love him, but if you are already on their poop list, Dooval, and you are a DEMOCRAT ... this does not speak well for you. Not that it ever should have.

Ok - some global warming stuff

So we are all going to die soon because: (1) we are going to boil in a hothouse created of excess water vapor; (2) we are going to burn because there is no more rain; (3) all the plants are going to die because of too much CO2 (talk about BS on its face); (4) our crops are going to fail because of no rain as a result of global warming; (5) the seas are going to boil; (6) the hurricanes caused by too much sea warmth will obliterate us; (7) too much heat will create a global desert; ... are you starting to see some contradictions? Climate change? Probably ... or maybe. All of the above, maybe in some places and not others. Did you know that the magentic pole swaps ends ever once in a while -- very quickly and without warning ... what would that do? What would happen if the magnetosphere disappears during the swap .. allowing all those deadly solar rays in? Mass mutations? Baked earth?

Lets focus on what we know is NOT true -- but panic merchants would have you believe IS true.

The latest comprehensive panic report was the Stern report on climatic change, a Brit report with collusion of UN "scientists" and other eco-warriors, worldwide. Let me be clear: I advocate lower emissions of pollutants, more reforestation, less pollution of our oceans, etc. All to provide a place on Earth for my heirs that is more like what I have seen or known. BUT, the drivel that passes for science to support the URGENT NEED OR ELSE mentality is really annoying.

People have been claiming that the sky is falling down -- the climate is warming drastically, since we really took notice of climate in the first place. And in the early 1700's, it WAS warming at an alarming rate ... far faster than it is now, notwithstanding the almost complete inability of mankind to impact the climate at that time.

In the 1980's Jim Hansen, a climatologist told Congress that world temperatures would increase by 0.3C by the end of the century and the seas rise several feet. Uh, the number came out to be 0.1C and less than 1 inch. So much for that dose of wisdom. The UN then set up (another wasteful and unaccountable) bureaucracy, the IPCC, to produce a report (the third in a line of fibs) which turned out predicting biblical-level catastrophes due to climate change. Surprised? Like paying a management consulting firm to find a problem ... they will, and it will be exactly what you that it was and paid dearly to confirm.

The UN asserts that it was increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide that triggered the ends of the last four ice ages and to prove this, they showed two graphs, one plotting CO2 and the other temperature ... but they do not superimpose them over each other on the time line. If they had, it would show CLEARLY that in fact first temperature went up, then CO2 ... which makes sense! More plants, more decay, more CO2. When it is icy, nothing much is happening!

The UN report simply chose to ignore the warm period in the early Middle Ages (from 800 through 1400's). During this period, people moved to and sort of prospered farming on GREENLAND. Not exactly what one would try and do on the permafrost present during today's balmy period of catastrophic warming. A Chinese Squadron sailed entirely around the Arctic Ocean in 1421 -- (our Western-oriented history conveniently fails to note voyages of exploration -- Columbus was late and ignorant), the high Andean glaciers of today were absent, and there was little polar sea ice. Al Gore will have you believe that the snows of Kilimanjaro are receding due to increased temperatures. Folks were are certain that temps are NOT rising there, but the deforestation of the slopes and surrounding land IS eliminating what paltry snow there was in the first place. Antarctic ice mass in INCREASING, not decreasing as is supported by borehole data. Roman and other earlier times associated with zeniths of civilization were also warmer than the present day. Togas, anyone? It was the SUN that created climate change, not man.

But mankind HAS deforested much of what was tall and leafy that was present some 2000 years ago and as little as 100 years ago.

Interestingly, the UN's Second Assessment, published in 1996, DID show a graph charting temperatures over the past 1000 years which clearly showed that the medieval warm period was warmer than today ... but they completely ignored that data in the Third Assessment.... Why? The data was too unreliable -- those tree rings were lying back then but are accruate now. You see, the rings are wider in warm areas, but also when there is more CO2 ... so how does invalidate them? It doesn't seem that the UN can explain that either, although they claim that greater atmospheric CO2 skewed the growth. But more CO2 came from where? Mars?

The truth of the matter was exposed by David Demming, a scientist at the Univ. of Oaklahoma ... who was doing a reconstruction of the last 150 years of U.S. temps from boreholes. He published and the eco-warrior "scientists" came to think that Demming was one of them and would push a political agenda ahead of rational scientific thought. They were wrong, but Demming received an email from one of the leading investigating "scientists" involved in global warming stating that "we have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period." Thus, it was done away with. A certain technique for estimation of pre-thermometer temp values was given 390 times more weight than any other. If that is that good, why keep records today?

The Third Assessment shows a hockey stick graph showing almost no warming for the last 1000 years then a sudden sharp uptick. It also happens that when random data was fed to the model that the UN used, it also created a hockey stick. That graph was used 6 times in the report and given to every household in Canada by the Canadian government. Be scared. Be very scared. After 4 years, a major academic journal finally debunked the hockey stick graph, but the UN continues to use it and the Canadian government has never acknowledged the patent falsity of it, or apologized for its use. Needless to say, neither has the UN.

So what other tricks are used by "eco-scientists?" I particularly like "forcing." That is where you look at an effect on temperature by use a baseline of data covering one period then apply it to another, excluding the data on which the baseline was created. So when we look for solar data which extends back to 1750, we see it applied to a start date of 1900 -- which was colder than it is now. Back in 1750, at the end of that mini-global warming spurt taking us out of the mini-iceage of the 1600's, it was as warm as it is now. Net result is a far greater impact of global warming influences than could be ascribed to the sun alone ... man must have done something ... (yes, jiggered the numbers). If we look to the forcing of solar radiation on temperature taking 1750 to now as a base, it has been calculated that virtually all of the temperature increase since 1900 can be attributable to solar warming alone.

Without going into an area where the math and methods are too complex for this writer, the greenhouse gas effect has similarly been played-around with. The idea is to show that the warming since 1900 was the result of CO2 and the other greenhouse gases. Stern adn the UN estimate that CO2 levels will increase at a rate of 1.0 pct per annum. The rate observed since 1958 is but 0.38 pct. The effect of this multiplying over a century is large. Stern estimates that temperatures will increase up to 10c over that period of time, the UN more conservative with 6c and the figure suggested by clean data? 0.6c or lower.

Recent papers from the "eco-scientists" have tried to explain why they have been wrong so far: the oceans act as a giant heat sink and the deep ocean temps have been essentially unmoved, as well as over-modelling of the surface layers. One little publicized note: NOAA has found that the oceans (taken as a whole) have COOLED in the last two years. Uh, oh ... thats got to be a result of the melting glaciers and polar caps.... Compared to the ocean's bulk, that amount is piddle in a thunderstorm, so get over it.

The blatant manipulation of the models to "fit" the data and yet predict ever escalating consequences approaches more than the dishonest -- rather fraudulent. Google Christopher Monckton in the Daily Telegraph (whose articles I have shamelessly plagiarized for this blog entry -- he more articulate/entertaining than some of the other reliable SCIENTISTS). Monckton does get rather technical, but the take is unmistakable: we are being had for idiots by the SPs bent on a POLITICAL agenda for a way to lead life, and not for dire humanistic reasons.

So, drive a Prius. Scrap SUVs. Build wind farms. Build a few Nuc plants. By all means lets get the heck out of the sandbox (Middle East) -- these are ALL good things. But we should get the reasons straight.

Please, let's go home

Iraq ... a poophole from the darkest reaches of hell. The London Times reports that it has become dangerous to be Sunni and in a hospital anywhere near Baghdad or Shia Health Ministry officials: your life can be bought for $300.

Basically, what is happening is this: a doctor or porter or someone phones over to the Health Ministry, which is loyal to Muqtada al Sadr (the Shiite cleric responsible for some pretty extreme stuff), and tells someone that there is a Sunni patient in the hospital. Next thing you know, one of the following happens: (1) the patient is mysteriously found dead in his or her bed; (2) the patient has simply disappeared; (3) the patient has been transferred to another "hospital" although nobody quite knows where; or (4) the patient is found in the morgue.

Various doctors (both Shia and Sunni) have been approached to participate in the reporting scheme, as well as any number of hospital staff. A doctor reports that he was approached and shown vials of drugs used to stop the heart for open heart surgery, as well as potassium chloride, the killer of choice for the Texas Department of Corrections. Bands of Shia ministry officials scour the hospitals of Iraq (or at least where they feel safe that Sunni militia members won't just gun them down), looking for new clients. For $300 per candidate. Mass murder and the price is $300.

Why in the name of all the is holy and good are we protecting elements of a society in which this sort of slaughter becomes an item of trade? And it is not that one side is better than the other -- if we were to arm the Sunnis in a civil war, our payback would be Al Qaeda bases in Iraq. If we were to step back and let the Shia have their way, our payback would be Iran that much closer to Israel, Iran in control of the Gulf oil supplies, and Iran using Iraq as a training ground for more Hezbooloonie types to commit other atrocities elsewhere.

This situation is not going to be defused by a larger US presence there. There is FAR too much water under the bridge, both in Saddam's days and since. We have to let them kill each other (less staff for the victor of any US backed party to turn on us) until there are no blood-thirsty cretins left. Pull back and let the Saudis, and other Sunnis arm and finance the slaughter of the Shia and Iran train and finance the slaughter of the Sunnis until they are spent -- on both sides. Claim a U*N protectorate and defend the borders of Iraq, that way we can chop up as many Iranians and Syrians as we can as they head towards the front of the "civil war." For it is not really a civil war, but a proxy war with Iran and the Saudis/Egypt etc. on opposing sides.

Meanwhile our friend Putin looks more and more the culprit. Turns out his bodyguard was poisoned in 2004 by a substance that now looks startlingly similar to P210. And what a mess!!! Traces of the stuff have been found absolutely everywhere -- it looks like it is not quite as easy to use as the spy masters may have thought, or that the staff is far clumsier than they needed to be. If the late is the case, look for another few "suicides" in the near future. You know how careless those ex-KGB/FSB personnel are ... pretty depressed too.

Which brings me to something rather grisly: how long do you suppose before someone on one side of the Iraqi conflict decides that it might be a clever thing to put P210 or some such in the water supply for ... say Sadr City? Wouldn't take much, the effects would hit after substantially everyone was aware of the attack and the results would be both long term and devastating. Firstly, huge numbers of people would die nasty deaths, and you simply couldn't just change the water or let it run to clean out the pipes. Better than any form of bomb or bio-bug that prevents you from going in there ... you just can't drink the water, but in terms of population, it is just as effective as nerve gas, or a large neutron bomb. Better actually, beause you tie up so much of the resources of the target population while you are accomplishing your goals. Is it too horrible to contemplate? Clearly not, when we consider the notion of patients for sale for $300.

Sleep well.