Category Archives: Environmentalism & Animal Rights

Updated: Another Icy Winter Proves Global Warming. What Else?

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Healthcare, Propaganda

Heavy snow storms are expected, from the Southern Rockies to Arizona.

The Pacific North West is very cold and covered in fresh, fluffy snow. So long as we don’t have power outages, there’s food in the refrigerator, and the snow is soft and can be jogged on, I’m happy.

So far so good. After the devastating snow storm of 2006, in which we had no power for 4 days, the officials have done a good job preparing for all eventualities. Kudos.

Twice we have gone running in 12 centimeters of snow, in temperatures of 9 degrees Celsius below zero. For 4 miles. It’s outstanding. Now the snow is at least 45 centimeters deep.

The forecast is for “additional snow in Seattle and Portland Christmas Eve day. This could be the first White Christmas in Portland on record.”

Ignored have been the reports about the expected decrease in sunspot activity, indicating global cooling. But of course, the theory of global warming is immune to refutation.

“Thus evidence that contradicts the global warming theory, climate Chicken Littles enlist as evidence for the correctness of their theory; every permutation in weather patterns—warm or cold—is said to be a consequence of that warming or proof of it.”

As Karl Popper reminded us, “A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is,” of course, “non-scientific.”

Update (Dec. 24): Have you tried running in knee-deep snow? It’s lovely. And quite a workout. I call myself Heidi of the Pacific Northwest. I really enjoy the weather here. Nobody else was out, and one sympathetic motorist, thinking we were in distress, stopped to ask us whether we wanted a ride up the mountain. Nope, we were running and walking. It’s impossible to run uphill continuously in such deep snow, so it was stop-and-start. I’ll try and provide a snapshot of the bundle in motion: me. With his eagle eyes, Sean spotted a red-tailed hawk. A real treat.

I fail to get the fetish with heat—my home is never warmer than 69 degrees Fahrenheit. Maybe 70. The brain works optimally at 65 degrees. I cook and sleep with the window open. I cannot breathe in most homes I enter. Incidentally, for health fetishists, it might be worth noting that the air in American homes is filthier that the air outside. Fresh air is part of the health equation. Since I’m not anaerobic yet, I need fresh air to feel well.

Updated: Pawlenty Or Ponnuru; It’s All The Same

Conservatism, Economy, Elections 2008, Energy, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Republicans

The Republican Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, has declared:

“‘Drill baby, drill’ by itself is not an energy policy. It’s not enough. We’re going to need wind and solar and bio mass.”

What Pawlenty is saying is that arguing with global warming politics is not viable. Therefore, the logic of drilling must be substituted with the illogic of expensive, and hence dirtier, sources of energy. As I wrote in “The Goods on Gas“:

“The more efficient the source of energy, the less waste and pollution are involved in its conversion into energy. Think of the totality of the production process! The fewer resources expended in bringing a fuel to market, the cleaner and cheaper is the process.”

So, Mr. Pawlenty, drilling is so an energy policy—especially if one hasn’t drilled in decades, and if oil is one of most viable sources of energy. Most Republicans have simply lost the ability to make a case, any case.

Update (Nov. 20): It’s my theory that the quest for power, among the punditocracy and the pols alike, creates a convergence toward opinions most acceptable to power brokers and voters.

To wit, in “Rebooting the Right,” Ramesh Ponnuru, editor of National Review, ladles out the same lukewarm, happy, middle-grounds we’ve heard from most GOPers–and I surveyed in “GOP, RIP?“:

“At the GOP governors’ meeting this month, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota argued that Republicans need to stay conservative but also modernize. A revitalized conservatism would push for tax reform with an eye on middle-class families, not hedge-fund operators. It would seek solutions to global warming rather than deny that it exists. It would place a higher priority on making health care affordable than on slashing pork programs. It would promote the assimilation of Hispanics rather than regard them as a menace or a source of cheap labor.”

Updated: Pawlenty Or Ponnuru; It's All The Same

Conservatism, Elections 2008, Energy, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Republicans

The Republican Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, has declared:

“‘Drill baby, drill’ by itself is not an energy policy. It’s not enough. We’re going to need wind and solar and bio mass.”

What Pawlenty is saying is that arguing with global warming politics is not viable. Therefore, the logic of drilling must be substituted with the illogic of expensive, and hence dirtier, sources of energy. As I wrote in “The Goods on Gas“:

“The more efficient the source of energy, the less waste and pollution are involved in its conversion into energy. Think of the totality of the production process! The fewer resources expended in bringing a fuel to market, the cleaner and cheaper is the process.”

So, Mr. Pawlenty, drilling is so an energy policy—especially if one hasn’t drilled in decades, and if oil is one of most viable sources of energy. Most Republicans have simply lost the ability to make a case, any case.

Update (Nov. 20): It’s my theory that the quest for power, among the punditocracy and the pols alike, creates a convergence toward opinions most acceptable to power brokers and voters.

To wit, in “Rebooting the Right,” Ramesh Ponnuru, editor of National Review, ladles out the same lukewarm, happy, middle-grounds we’ve heard from most GOPers–and I surveyed in “GOP, RIP?“:

“At the GOP governors’ meeting this month, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota argued that Republicans need to stay conservative but also modernize. A revitalized conservatism would push for tax reform with an eye on middle-class families, not hedge-fund operators. It would seek solutions to global warming rather than deny that it exists. It would place a higher priority on making health care affordable than on slashing pork programs. It would promote the assimilation of Hispanics rather than regard them as a menace or a source of cheap labor.”

Obama On the “World’s” Resources

Barack Obama, Elections 2008, Energy, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Socialism

I grow weary listening to the idiots Hussein and McCain. So, last night, I switched off the debate (the last one, thank God).

I did catch the ass Obama claim that the US uses the greatest share of the world’s apparently collectively owned oil and gas resources.

Two things:

1) The idea of private property is anathema to this man. (Let’s not kid ourselves: McCain is none the wiser.) Oil and gas are not communally owned; entrepreneurs use their privately owned property to extract these resources from the ground. The same, or other, people then use their private property to turn the useless smelly compounds they’ve extracted into stuff that powers the economy—and life itself.

2) Resources are not finite. So long as man is allowed to innovate, and is free to think and act, he will find ways to turn compounds that lie inert and useless in nature into vim for the economy.