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Archive → October, 2011

Freak snow. Does it mean global climate change?

Global climate change, caused exclusively by humans and especially Western democracies, has been a cornerstone article of faith among the most outspoken environmental advocates.

No matter what the weather is, it’s always too extreme, too variable, too much of an outlier for the activists. Wild and even moderate swings in weather are proof of global warming, they constantly say.

If it’s unusually hot for a day, a week, a year, why that is obvious proof of global warming, they say.

If the weather turns prematurely cold or snowy, then that unusual deviation becomes yet another proof of global warming. After all, goes the thinking of the advocates, all unusual weather is evidence. Their first baseline is the past 100 years since weather data has been collected. Their second baseline is the past few hundred years of relatively stable weather patterns around the planet. The past couple of thousand years have seen several long periods of drought and wet, long before human populations either grew significantly or developed modern technology and industrial processes.

Their third baseline is the past ten thousand years, a period of relative calm when compared to the hundred-foot-thick glaciers that covered huge portions of Earth for thousands of years.

Yesterday we had an unusual October snow storm that left an inch or two of wet, heavy snow clinging to trees, buildings, light poles, and lawns. Could this be more evidence of global warming?

Let’s compare this snow to a mid-April snow storm I experienced on the first day of trout season in 1986, in central Pennsylvania. That day I was casting flies on Big Fishing Creek to hungry trout while enveloped in a white-out fog of swirling, blowing snow flakes. At that time, experts claimed the freak snowstorm was evidence of the mini ice age the planet was entering. Not global warming, but global cooling.

Twenty-five years later the global climate change claim is the opposite.

The problem with all this talk of global warming and cooling is that no matter what the weather is, unusually hot or unusually cold, certain advocates claim it is more proof for their current pet end-of-the-world issue. With all weather types and the full spectrum of weather now used to bolster the claim of global warming or climate change, it becomes an un-disprovable claim. All weather is “evidence.”. There is no weather that can be used to prove the opposite claim.

The biggest problem with “global climate change/warming/cooling” is that its advocates steer limited resources away from solving real environmental issues, like water pollution and profligate land development patterns.

I’m going to enjoy this unusual, pretty snow laying out on my lawn, because although it felt like the sky was falling, I rest happily knowing that it really isn’t.

Does incoherence sell a message? Does it have a message?

Across the Internet are scores of POV (point-of-view, from the view of the recording person) interviews of Occupy __________________ protesters.

Having watched quite a few over the past four weeks, I am still waiting for not only a basic message to emerge but also a coherent message from any of the protestors.

Time after time, people of all ages passing out communist “Workers of the World Unite” pamphlets and holding signs promoting socialism and Che Guevera (a mass murderer) are asked the most elementary questions about their beliefs.

Not one of these interviews that I have witnessed has had a protestor express anything coherent. They struggle for words, and eventually fall back on the simplest of statements (“repeal the Bush tax cuts!”). But they sure are angry. They aren’t sure what it is that they are angry about, but by God, don’t ask them hard questions. They get angry at the questioners.

At least the rioting Greeks are angry about something concrete — losing their taxpayer-funded hand-outs. While we can debate whether the Greeks deserved such a lifestyle to begin with, they at least know what they are angry about.

If you want to enjoy some of the lazy, angry, yelling people, follow these links: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/10/26/peter_schiff_takes_on_occupy_wall_street_protesters.html

Fall weather has its benefits

Cool fall weather has benefits: We sleep more comfortably at night, fewer bugs pester us, the lawn grows more slowly and requires less frequent visits with the mower.

Another benefit is that food left for several days inside a vehicle doesn’t go bad. For example, the half-gnawed apple that my son left in the back seat of the truck during a recent fishing trip wasn’t in too bad shape. After slicing off the gnarly chewed sides, I was able to have a healthy midnight snack of about 0.65% of a whole apple.

Thanks, Mother Nature!
Josh

Libya: Land of Savages

Anyone with even just a passing interest in how Moamar Gaddafi died last week can easily watch his entire murder take place on YouTube and other websites with cellphone videos taken at the same time and place by Libyan rebels.

It’s true that Gaddafi himself was a murderer and torturer, and by any legal standard he would have eventually been convicted and sentenced to die for his crimes. But a country run by the rule of law requires due process, and Gaddafi did not get that.

What he got was sodomy with a knife, according to this CBS report that includes a video (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20124758-503543/globalpost-qaddafi-apparently-sodomized-after-capture/) where the attacker’s actions are clear.  That would explain Gaddafi’s last words, which were to the effect of “Guys, don’t do that.  Islam forbids it.”

If I ever hear another “Allahu Akbar,” after watching the various videos of his death where it was screamed over and over while Gaddafi was beaten, sodomized, and shot to death, I’ll get sick.

Under the guiding hand of the rebels, Libya was supposed to change from a cruel dictatorship to some version of modern representative democracy. Pretty much anything should be an improvement in governance of Libyan citizens, whose individual liberties were crushed by Gaddafi.

But if Gaddafi’s torture and summary execution by an armed civilian is any indication of what is to be expected, Libya is going to lose the stability that Gaddafi provided, without any of the benefits that his death should have given birth to. From what we saw, Libya is full of people for whom the descent into savagery is only a step away.

Egypt: Land of Savages

Egypt is supposed to be the cream of Arab culture. Watch this forced, abusive propaganda TV interview of just-released POW Gil Shalit.

The Egyptian journalist is a national hero, believe it or not.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4136728,00.html

It’s official: I am a Herman Cain man

With nothing against any of the other Republican presidential candidates, all of whom bring tremendous SKA’s to the contest, I am now officially a Herman Cain for President supporter.

Watching Cain sing “Imagine There’s No Pizza” is what pulled me over the line.

Cain has a sense of humor.

On top of his sharp intellect, honest speaking, and leadership abilities, Cain is a real person.

Sign me up.
Josh

Well isn’t this reassuring?

The “Occupy ______________” folks have strong support from Iran’s government, the American Communist Party, and now the American Nazi Party.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/10/figures-nazi-party-throws-support-behind-occupy-wall-street-movement/

Curious why so many elected officials, including president Obama, are supportive of them. Not only is that support a policy non sequitor, but with friends like these, reputations usually begin to sour.

Yes, plenty of individual “protestors” have violently attacked police, Jews, and people dressed nicely (business?), but it’s the formal endorsements that say oh, so much.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148795

How reassuring it is to know that these “protesters” are as wacked out as they appear.

Interesting Detritus from the Flood of 2011

September’s historic flood waters brought interesting gifts from upstream, nonchalantly and gently leaving them stranded on my lawn and driveway.

How did the three-gallon gas can end up in the flower bed, upright, as though I had left it there myself while mowing the lawn?

Whose pack of 1992 Topps baseball cards had been burnt around the corners before mysteriously arriving? And why were they burnt? A frustrated mother or angry girlfriend?

The cigarette pack was the most incongruous of all, at least in our neighborhood. Lying there in its minty mentholy promise, it looked like a social land mine, or lawn cancer. My tired hands found it first of all the new things, and trashed it first. Mind you, I’m an occasional pipe smoker and hardly a tobacco Prohibitionist. But let’s face it, cigarettes are a dirty habit. The soggy pack reminded of that.

Various childrens’ things, like a slipper, a sneaker, some small plastic toys, all were straight forward examples of the shared family sameness from Scranton to Harrisburg. Those were easy to trash. Heck, I’m throwing away my own kids’ leftover artifacts every week, anyhow, so the newcomers were nothing new and in good company.

Someone is missing an important part of their split rail fence. Not to waste, it’s now part of my eight-cord wood pile and will heat my home for an hour on some upcoming winter day. Undoubtedly the least showy or remarkable, it is probably the most useful of all the flotsam. at least after I chainsawed it into 18-inch lengths.

Some buildings in my neighborhood had finning, flopping, fish in their basements. Now you know that if the fence rail felt out if place lying in my lawn, then those fish certainly felt like a fish out of water, so to say. They probably survived and are back in their river now, albeit a bit more migratory than their kind is accustomed to. Just this year, fellas, ok?

While the five feet of water in the basement upended our plans and schedules for the next six weeks, at least, we enjoyed the unusual fruits dropped off by Mother Nature on her way down to the Chesapeake Bay that September weekend.

I reported myself to attackwatch.com….plan fail!

Supporters of Barack Hussein Obama have an official “enemies of the state” website they can report bad people to: www.attackwatch.com

Feeling neglected and unimportant, I went to the site and reported myself. Plugging in this site, joshfirst.com, to that site was supposed to bring a torrent of postings and hate to this site by Obama supporters.

Ok, we netted a few, but nothing like I expected or wanted. I quickly disposed of the weird postings. I had hoped I’d get onto some big political machine radar screen. Alas, I’m still unimportant to Obama.

However, his campaign is getting even with me another way: They’re sending me two to three emails daily about Obama’s tax-payer funded (the Canadian-made bus and his speaking tour tailored to Republican campaign stops and swing states) campaign, his way out-of-mainstream policies, his union-only jobs plan, etc. I’ll have some sport with them, here, in a day or two. The messages from his campaign are so sadly lame that I’m actually feeling bad for him.

Hope and change pablum didn’t cut it. Americans want real, substantive, pro-America policies, and Obama hasn’t delivered.

Buh-bye!

Herman Cain is my kind of candidate

Herman Cain, an experienced businessman who does not run away from a tough debate, is looking more and more like my man to be my next American President.

Smart, articulate, quick-witted, creative, Cain brings the fight to the other corner of the boxing ring.

And he would be America’s first African-American president. Obama is America’s first African president. Cain is the real-deal, a real descendant of slaves brought from Africa to America 300 years ago. As an American, that means a lot to me. Cain demonstrates the possibility that awaits anyone who wants to take risks and succeed.

Cain inspires and motivates me, and I’m weighing my next steps with his campaign. Won’t you please join me?