My pet peeve issue should be a dead issue...

Many of the most noted scientists in the world are coming forward and calling man-made global warming a bunch of B.S, and now the majority of ALL climatologists believe the same thing...so why is congress trying to cap and trade anyway??? Not to be a conspiracy nut, but you have to admit something stinks in suburbia....
Below is an article from yet ANOTHER world respected scientist, in fact, he is the most respected scientist on the continent of Australia, one of the places Mr. Gore claims is being hurt by "us"...Again, I must say clearly, that there is nothing wrong with wanting to protect the environment.I AM a nature-lover,hell I'm even a vegetarian, and I recycle whenever possible and take bags to the natural foods store to re-use. NOTHING WRONG with being a naturalist.. But there IS something wrong with pushing a false agenda to combat something which is nothing more than a myth, and limiting our personal and economic freedom in the process...


Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites

Geologist Ian Plimer takes a contrary view, arguing that man-made climate change is a con trick perpetuated by environmentalists

By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver SunJuly 28, 2009



Ian Plimer has outraged the ayatollahs of purist environmentalism, the Torquemadas of the doctrine of global warming, and he seems to relish the damnation they heap on him.

Plimer is a geologist, professor of mining geology at Adelaide University, and he may well be Australia's best-known and most notorious academic.

Plimer, you see, is an unremitting critic of "anthropogenic global warming" -- man-made climate change to you and me -- and the current environmental orthodoxy that if we change our polluting ways, global warming can be reversed.

It is, of course, not new to have a highly qualified scientist saying that global warming is an entirely natural phenomenon with many precedents in history. Many have made the argument, too, that it is rubbish to contend human behaviour is causing the current climate change. And it has often been well argued that it is totally ridiculous to suppose that changes in human behaviour -- cleaning up our act through expensive slight-of-hand taxation tricks -- can reverse the trend.

But most of these scientific and academic voices have fallen silent in the face of environmental Jacobinism. Purging humankind of its supposed sins of environmental degradation has become a religion with a fanatical and often intolerant priesthood, especially among the First World urban elites.

But Plimer shows no sign of giving way to this orthodoxy and has just published the latest of his six books and 60 academic papers on the subject of global warming. This book, Heaven and Earth -- Global Warming: The Missing Science, draws together much of his previous work. It springs especially from A Short History of Plant Earth, which was based on a decade of radio broadcasts in Australia.

That book, published in 2001, was a best-seller and won several prizes. But Plimer found it hard to find anyone willing to publish this latest book, so intimidating has the environmental lobby become.

But he did eventually find a small publishing house willing to take the gamble and the book has already sold about 30,000 copies in Australia. It seems also to be doing well in Britain and the United States in the first days of publication.

Plimer presents the proposition that anthropogenic global warming is little more than a con trick on the public perpetrated by fundamentalist environmentalists and callously adopted by politicians and government officials who love nothing more than an issue that causes public anxiety.

While environmentalists for the most part draw their conclusions based on climate information gathered in the last few hundred years, geologists, Plimer says, have a time frame stretching back many thousands of millions of years.

The dynamic and changing character of the Earth's climate has always been known by geologists. These changes are cyclical and random, he says. They are not caused or significantly affected by human behaviour.

Polar ice, for example, has been present on the Earth for less than 20 per cent of geological time, Plimer writes. Plus, animal extinctions are an entirely normal part of the Earth's evolution.

(Plimer, by the way, is also a vehement anti-creationist and has been hauled into court for disrupting meetings by religious leaders and evangelists who claim the Bible is literal truth.)

Plimer gets especially upset about carbon dioxide, its role in Earth's daily life and the supposed effects on climate of human manufacture of the gas. He says atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at the lowest levels it has been for 500 million years, and that atmospheric carbon dioxide is only 0.001 per cent of the total amount of the chemical held in the oceans, surface rocks, soils and various life forms. Indeed, Plimer says carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, but a plant food. Plants eat carbon dioxide and excrete oxygen. Human activity, he says, contributes only the tiniest fraction to even the atmospheric presence of carbon dioxide.

There is no problem with global warming, Plimer says repeatedly. He points out that for humans periods of global warming have been times of abundance when civilization made leaps forward. Ice ages, in contrast, have been times when human development slowed or even declined.

So global warming, says Plimer, is something humans should welcome and embrace as a harbinger of good times to come.

jmanthorpe@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

A mid-summer night's dream 2009 by Scotty-D

We had our night of drunken revelry, We won! We won! We won! Now it is the morning after and the bleary eyed liberals are waking up to find they have married the village idiot, and he ain't looking so good.

On the nightstand is our empty wallet. The house is a mess and a lot of stuff seems to be missing. The phone rings, it is our bank manager, someone has mortgaged our home for the next 50 years and our credit cards are maxed out. Looking outside we see the repo man leaving with our car. When we call our business a stranger informs us that all our interests have been sold to China for Monopoly money. Not only are we not the owner any more but a guy from the DMV is running things.

This news makes us violently ill, no car so we have to walk the 23 blocks to the hospital. After waiting in line for over 2 hours we are admitted to the waiting room. We recognize the administrator, he used to work a desk at the DMV. Another 3 hour wait and then we are informed that the union doctor is not expected back until next week and that until then we need to fill out forms, and of course, pay the waiting room tax.

We contact some old friends and are greeted with explicit language telling us how our new spouse has been very busy insulting them, we get no help there. The dog doesn't even want to associate with us. Then our new spouse shows up with some gang members from across town, it seems they will be living with us and be our new best friends.

Bad dream? You ain't seen nothing yet!

this is what happens when congress doesn't read their own 1000 page creation...you should be outraged America

SPENDING SCARED: WHITE HOUSE PUTS OFF RELEASE OF BUDGET UPDATE...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $2,531,600 FOR 'HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,191,200 FOR '2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $351,807 FOR 'REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,562,568 FOR 'MOZZARELLA CHEESE'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $5,708,260 FOR 'PROCESS CHEESE'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $16,784,272 FOR 'CANNED PORK'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,444,100 FOR 'REPAIR DOOR BLDG 5112'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $541,119 FOR 'INSTALL TRAFFIC SIGNAL'...

Agriculture Sec. Vilsack: 'Purchased 760,000 Lbs of ham at cost of approximately $1.50 per pound'...
FOOD LION: $.79 Lb...

an Interesting commentary on the Middle-east from Reason magazine, the Libertarian version of the New Republic...

Their Audacity to Hope
Brave Individuals who challenge the status quo in authoritarian societies—and expect our support

Michael Young | July 15, 2009

To judge by the gush of many commentators, President Barack Obama can do no wrong in the Middle East—in contrast, it is said, to George W. Bush, who supposedly could do little that was right. But when it comes to advancing political liberty in the region, the current president has been more ambiguous than his predecessor.

Take Mr. Obama's recent speech in Cairo, hailed as a foundational moment for a new American approach toward Arabs and Muslims. Mr. Obama uttered generalities about democracy and political liberty. Some of it was confusing. He admitted that Iraqis were "ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein," but he added that the Iraq war had shown why diplomacy and international consensus were preferable. Yet since neither diplomacy nor consensus would have ever rid the world of savage Baathist rule—which war did—what lesson did Iraq hold for American policy? Mr. Obama could not explain.

Such confusion is not new. Indeed, the Cairo speech inadvertently captured a long-standing problem of U.S. policy in the Middle East: America's allies and interlocutors in the region are often autocrats sitting atop decaying, illegitimate regimes. Mr. Bush, to his credit, removed a mass murderer from power in Baghdad and helped end 29 years of Syrian hegemony over Lebanon. Mr. Obama has shied away from endorsing any such action: "America does not presume to know what is best for everyone," he insists.

Joshua Muravchik has no qualms about presuming that liberalism and democracy are best for everyone. In The Next Founders he offers admiring profiles of seven individuals who have thought and behaved as liberals in Middle Eastern societies where that kind of thing can be dangerous. The result is a engaging work of group portraiture that is especially welcome at a time when there is otherwise so little interest in making democracy an American priority overseas.

Mr. Muravchik believes that "there is no reason why the democratic idea cannot have a rebirth in the Middle East," where democracy has been "upstaged by the false promises of utopian ideologies." A democratic rebirth, he says, will depend on courageous individuals, and America's role must be to "encourage and assist them and to protect them from persecution to the extent that we can." With help, he believes, democracy can come to the Middle East within a generation. If it does, the democrats he writes about may be among the region's "founders."

Such a scenario may seem simplistic in its optimism, but Mr. Muravchik has caught just how simple the essence of the democracy debate really is. When all it said and done, it is really about individuals who have the audacity to hope that they can break free from the oppressive institutions governing them and who expect that they can count on assistance from like-minded comrades in democratic countries.

Mr. Muravchik introduces us to Wajeha Al-Huwaider, a female Saudi activist who has fought for women's rights in the kingdom against hopeless odds; and Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human-rights activist and journalist who has investigated Israeli human-rights abuses over the years but also the abuses of the Palestinian Authority. There is also Rola Dashti, who played a key role in helping Kuwaiti women earn the right to vote in 2005; and Mohsen Sazegara, an Iranian once close to Ayatollah Khomeini. He turned against the post-Revolution system when he headed a state-owned conglomerate, where he saw the inefficiencies of a command economy. He came to reject Iran's statist economic principles and then moved to a deeper embrace of liberal thought in general. All the democrats in Mr. Muravchik's narrative have been harassed or threatened by the governments they live under, or indeed pressured by members of their own families.

What The Next Founders says, without saying it, is that at the heart of Middle Eastern despotisms are stunted societies that never create a sense of shared purpose for their citizens. Considerable attention has been paid to how such societies breed Islamists, sometimes dangerous ones. Mr. Muravchik prefers to highlight the liberal rejoinder—the citizens who reject the status quo on behalf of freedom and human rights.

Mr. Muravchik's group portrait helps to counter an idea that is gaining ground—that Western governments must engage Islamists to better advance Western aims. He asks that we spare a thought for the fragile liberals who would pay a high price if international legitimacy were to shift decisively to autocratic religious parties.

Mr. Muravchik might have said more about why Western states should support liberals, in all their vulnerability. Take the Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid. Audacious and articulate, Mr. Abdulhamid abandoned a life of privilege in Syria (he is the son of a famous actress) and chose exile in the U.S. so that he could give full force to his criticism of the Assad regime. Yet like many of those described by Mr. Muravchik, he has committed himself to a liberal ideal, and sacrificed a great deal, in return for very little so far. When Western governments revert to so-called reasons of state—where "realism" and supposed self-interest often triumphs—Middle Eastern liberals become a vanguard easily discarded.

The Middle East does not need generations of democratic practice to absorb democracy. That argument, beloved of political realists, is a convenient device for allowing the U.S. to spurn a pro-democracy agenda, which is often seen as undermining national interests. It is an argument that Mr. Muravchik convincingly dismisses. But The Next Founders might have itself argued more strongly that, by ignoring what liberalism there is in the region, the U.S. not only abandons a part of itself; it also makes more likely the proliferation of violent Islamists pining to take revenge against America, the too-frequent defender of their despotic tormentors.

Michael Young is opinion editor at the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut and a contributing editor at Reason magazine. This article originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

this is how Universal Healthcare works in a country with 1/10th of our population- this is the side that Michael Moore DOESN'T show you in "Sicko"....

Even the Canadian Healthcare system's CREATOR considers it "in crisis" and is recommending a move toward American-style Healthcare. SO, while the REST of the Western world (including much of Europe) is moving towards OUR system....our esteemed leaders are taking us the OTHER way, into a FAILED system...hmmmm.

wit and wisdom from the folks at the Onion...wish the movie was as funny as these short pieces...

New BabySafe Ball Makes Shaking Your Infant Guilt And Injury Free

As disgusting as it may be....I can't wait for this album, or the tour to follow....STEEL PANTHER!!!!

and the band member's resume...in their own words....





MICHAEL STARR: I Started singing in kindergarten doing school plays. I also sang to my baby sitter so she would hug me and I could be next to her boobs. As a freshman I moved to L.A. with my mom cause she met this guy who sold drugs and produced a TV show in Hollywood. I Started my first band called "Free Beer"I had to change the name cause people always wanted to drink our beer that we had and that sucked. So I changed the name to "Black Panther," cause chicks dig cats and black cars. We played keg parties and school talent shows. We came in 10th place in the talent show and that's when the chicks started coming. Anyway, the keg parties were way cooler cause we got free beer all the time and we could get high on stage, plus we could steal food from the house we played and sleep there too. ( with chicks of course)

SATCHEL: I was raised in the entertainment business. My mom was a waitress at one of the first Chuck E. Cheese's to be built in Fresno, Ca., and my Dad auditioned for the Gong Show twice. Also, my Grandma is from Switzerland, and apparently there is quite a long line of yodelers on her side of the family. I think yodeling is for dicks, but with all the talent in my family, it's really not surprising that I'm a shredding guitarist.

LEXXI FOXXX: I'm Lexxi Foxxx. The extra "X" is for extra SEX! I like my name because Lexxi rhymes with sexy. And Foxxx rhymes with box, which is another name for a Vagina. Vaginas are cool becaue me and the guys stick our penises in them all the time. Michael says that if you put your penis in a dirty vagina, you can catch an SUV like herpes or The Clap. That one makes it burn when you pee. That can also happen if you masturbate with soap and it gets in your penis hole.

STIX ZADINIA: Some drummers hit. Some drummers tap. When it comes to drums and hash pipes, nobody hits that shit harder than me. The only tapping I'm doing is when I'm tapping some dirty bitch's ass in the dressing room. I was raised in Jersey by my grandmother. She lived through the great depression. It must've really left an impression on her, cause growing up she never let me leave the dinner table without finishing every scrap of food on my plate. It was always high carb stuff, too. This led to me being morbidly obese by the third grade. I once missed the opportunity to audition for Bon Jovi by being over the weight limit by 230 plus lbs.

A question for Obama supporters..what is noble about forced service to others..isn't that called slavery?

Collectivists see "self-interest" and falsely call it "greed". It is not greedy or morally wrong to expect to keep the fruits of one's labor and use it as he or she desires. What IS greedy is expecting someone else to pay for your own needs, whether they want to or not. When collectivists claim everything is a right, they force accountability for the provision of those "rights" onto others against their will. What's moral about that?