SmallGovt

Many farmers and ranchers in New Zealand are using carbon credits to appease the Kyoto crowd.  The government is trying to seize the carbon credits.  Read the article at..

http://times-age.co.nz/storyprint.cfm?storyID=3724142 

Now what if New Zealand had a volcano the spewed out more CO2 in one day than decades of forestry, ranching and farming?

Irony…

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSWEL207620070319

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand scientists kept watch on a volcanic crater on Monday after a natural dam burst, sending a torrent of muddy water and debris down the side of a peak used as a backdrop in the "The Lord of the Rings" films.

Up to 1.3 million cubic meters (46 million cu ft) of water and volcanic mud — known as a lahar — swept trees and boulders down the side of the 2,797-meter (9,177 feet) Mount Ruapehu in the country's north on Sunday.

Kinda makes carbon credits sound silly. 

The President has put through an emergency spending bill to fund the War in Iraq.  The request was for $105 billion.  This is enough money to give a million dollars to every person living in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Congress has decided that the spending bill wasn't large enough.  They've loaded it with an additional $20 billion.

Read about it at http://www.examiner.com/a-619204~Congress_loads_up__20_billion_in_pork.html

What emergency war spending does the additional $20 billion cover?

From the article…

"We have provided all of the money the president requested- and more," boasted House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer.

That includes $74 million for peanut storage, $25 million for spinach growers and $100 million for citrus growers.

It also includes $16 million to convert the old Food and Drug Administration building in southwest D.C. into more office space for the Capitol. That "emergency" expenditure comes at a time when taxpayers already shell out $600 million "more than double the original estimate" for a mammoth expansion of the Capitol, which includes 160,000 feet of new office space.

Get out your checkbook.  Washington wants your help (or at least your money).

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.

Attributed to Senator Everett Dirksen
US politician (1896 – 1969)
(Quote info)

Halliburton is planning to move it's corporate headquarters to Dubai.  As expected the Libs are livid.  Check out the article here… http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070312/bs_afp/usuaecompany_070312213245

Hillary said…

"Does this mean they are going to quit paying taxes in America?" asked Clinton, a US presidential candidate.

"They get a lot of government contracts, is this going to affect the investigations that are going on? Because we have a lot of evidence of misuse of government contracts and how they have cheated the American soldier and cheated the American taxpayer," Clinton, speaking in New York, said of Halliburton.

Patrick Leahy said…

"It's an example of corporate greed at its worst," said Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"At the same time they'll be avoiding US taxes, I'm sure they won't stop insisting on taking their profits in cold hard US cash," Leahy charged.

Let's look at Halliburton for a minute.  Aren't they a "Big Oil" company? 

There are huge oil deposits in the United States.  Oil was first drilled in Pennsylvania.  It is found in large quantities in Texas and Alaska.  There have been huge strikes in the Gulf of Mexico.  New technologies can allow us to process vast quantities of shale oil from Colorado.  We can produce fuel from coal.  One of the largest coal deposits on the planet is in Ohio.  We have resources here in the good ole USA.  However, environmentalist won't let oil companies drill for oil here.  Drilling for oil will destroy the planet. 

Oil drilling can only occur on the other side of the planet.  I find it ironic that we all live on the same planet.  As long as it is the desert in the Middle East, enviro-weenies are OK with it.  It is important that our security with oil be influenced by people who generally wish us dead (but enjoy our money).

If companies must drill for oil in the Middle East, why shouldn't they be managed from the middle east?  Have you seen Dubai lately?  It is turning into a Las Vegas style resort.   Have you seen the Palm Jumeirah Island?

As for taxes, maybe they will get a break (but I doubt it).  They are still incorporated in the US.  They will still pay US taxes. 

Halliburton has been the focus of a lot of anti-business venom over the last few years.  Maybe they are shifting toward a US exit strategy.   If you don't understand why a US company would look to shift overseas, you should read a "Clear Explanation of Tax Cuts" at…

Socialist politicians hate private business, but they love the tax revenues.  It funds the expansion of government…

"The other day the oil companies recorded the highest profits in the history of the world. I want to take those profits. And I want to put them into a strategic energy fund that will begin to fund alternative smart energy, alternatives and technologies that will actually begin to move us in the direction of independence."

Hillary Clinton
2/2/2007

Watch it at…   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1PfE9K8j0g

Hillary said,"I want to take those profits."  The truth slips out?

When was the last time the US Government produced anything?  The private sector is where innovation occurs.  Clean energy independence will occur when government gets out of the way of private industry.  Vilification and punishing taxes don't help.

Al Gore's global warming supporters are apparently ready to tell him to "chill out" on the rhetoric.  The "Goracle's" religion-like proselytizing is starting to wake up many scientist and skeptics.

You know last thing the global warming true believers want is scientific scrutiny.

Read the article in the New York Post at…

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/science/13gore.html?ei=5090&en=2df9d6e7a5aa6ed6&ex=1331438400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Yahoo News is running an AP story about a polar expedition to draw attention to the dangers of global warming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070312/ap_on_sc/polar_trek_1

From the article…

A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite. The explorers, Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, on Saturday called off what was intended to be a 530-mile trek across the Arctic Ocean after Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment.

"Ann said losing toes and going forward at all costs was never part of the journey," said Ann Atwood, who helped organize the expedition.

Wait a minute!  You can hike over the Arctic OCEAN.  Must be cold up there!  Apparently we need more global warming. 

You have got to see this….

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9005566792811497638&q=the+great+swindle

Unbelievable! ABC News is running an opinion piece from Philip Stott the declares "Global Warming is not a Crisis." From the article…

From the Babylon of Gilgamesh to the post-Eden of Noah, every age has viewed climate change cataclysmically, as retribution for human greed and sinfulness.

In the 1970s, the fear was "global cooling." The Christian Science Monitor then declaimed, "Warning: Earth’s climate is changing faster than even experts expect," while The New York Times announced, "A major cooling of the climate is widely considered inevitable." Sound familiar? Global warming represents the latest doom-laden "crisis," one demanding sacrifice to Gaia for our wicked fossil-fuel-driven ways.

But neither history nor science bolsters such an apocalyptic faith.

His conclusion hits the nail on the head…

Our so-called "crisis" is thus neither a product of current observations nor of projections.

But does it matter if global warming is a "crisis" or not? Aren’t we threatened by a serious temperature rise? Shouldn’t we act anyway, because we are stewards of the environment?

Herein lies the moral danger behind global warming hysteria. Each day, 20,000 people in the world die of waterborne diseases. Half a billion people go hungry. A child is orphaned by AIDS every seven seconds. This does not have to happen. We allow it while fretting about "saving the planet." What is wrong with us that we downplay this human misery before our eyes and focus on events that will probably not happen even a hundred years hence? We know that the greatest cause of environmental degradation is poverty; on this, we can and must act.

The global warming "crisis" is misguided. In hubristically seeking to "control" climate, we foolishly abandon age-old adaptations to inexorable change. There is no way we can predictably manage this most complex of coupled, nonlinear chaotic systems. The inconvenient truth is that "doing something" (emitting gases) at the margins and "not doing something" (not emitting gases) are equally unpredictable.

Climate change is a norm, not an exception. It is both an opportunity and a challenge. The real crises for 4 billion people in the world remain poverty, dirty water and the lack of a modern energy supply. By contrast, global warming represents an ecochondria of the pampered rich.

Is this guy an uneducated slack jawed conservative? I don’t know. But he has credentials…

Philip Stott is an Emeritus Professor from the University of London, UK. For the last 18 years he was the editor of the Journal of Biogeography. For more information about the debate series, go to www.iq2us.org

Read the whole article (and support ABC News for running such a great opinion piece) at…

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2938762

What is the true cost of governemt? Take the cost of government and divide it by the population. How much do you owe? Find out here…

 http://www.smallgovt.org/1/govtspending/cost-calculator.html

Here is an education story from Indianapolis. The most shocking item in the story is that a middle school still offers shop class. Oh yeah, and there were some sixth graders that had sex during class with the teacher present…

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=6180780&nav=9Tai

Excerpt from the story…

School district: Sixth graders had sex in class

Sandra Chapman/13 Investigates

Indianapolis – For months it’s been a well-kept secret. But now Warren Township Schools confirm a disturbing case of sex in the classroom. The illicit activity has parents concerned and a district at a loss for words.

Shop class gives students a chance to learn outside of the book. But at Warren Township’s Raymond Park Middle School, two students engaged in illicit acts in view of goggled eyes.

13 Investigates was tipped off by a disturbed resident who writes:

“…during school hours in a classroom with an experienced teacher present, two sixth graders completed the act of intercourse…at least ten students were witnesses. No disciplinary actions were taken against the teacher… All teachers were told to keep quiet.”

Isn’t public education great?

The world is flat. The Earth is the center of the universe. Human flight is impossible. Global warming is a man made problem. Global warming is proven science

The rush to implement socialist programs under the guise of global warming seems inevitable. After all, the entire scientific community is supports the theory of man made global warming. Not quite!

The National Post of Canada has run a thirteen part series about “The Deniers.” I hate that term. But, hey! At least somebody is writing about it! Here are the links…

Statistics needed — The Deniers Part I
Warming is real — and has benefits — The Deniers Part II
The hurricane expert who stood up to UN junk science — The Deniers Part III
Polar scientists on thin ice — The Deniers Part IV
The original denier: into the cold — The Deniers Part V
The sun moves climate change — The Deniers Part VI
Will the sun cool us? — The Deniers Part VII
The limits of predictability — The Deniers Part VIII
Look to Mars for the truth on global warming — The Deniers Part IX
Limited role for C02 — the Deniers Part X
End the chill — The Deniers Part XI
Clouded research — The Deniers Part XII
Allegre’s second thoughts — The Deniers XIII

The following is one of the best explanations of tax cuts that I have ever seen. It is usually attributed to Professor David R. Kamersche, of the University of Georgia’s Economics Department. However, On his personal website, he denies writing it.

CLEAR EXPLANATION OF TAX CUTS

Author: Unknown

Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; “It’s just a tax cut for the rich!” and it is just accepted to be fact, without questioning it But what does that really mean?

Just in case you are not completely clear and/or do not understand this issue, the following should help, if you are a reasonable person

Let’s put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1…
The sixth would pay $3…
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.”Drinks for the ten of you now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,” but he got $10!” ; “Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!”

“That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking somewhere else where the atmosphere is friendlier.

I’m starting to get tired of the new media term, “global warming denier.” If you stand in the way of the global warming agenda, you are equated with holocaust deniers.

I don’t deny global warming. The science is very interesting. However, I do take issue with computer models and incomplete data being used to pressure people into radical solutions. It seems that if we don’t automatically accept the global warming agenda, the world is doomed. Let me grab my sandwich board and head out into the streets. The end is near!?!

If you haven’t read it, I recommend A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. This is not exclusively a global warming book. It does give you a good scientific overview of the world (and universe) that we live in. It is not skewed to the left or the right. The book has no agenda, it is just the science. I recommend the abridged audio version from audible.com. It is about six hours long.

I am currently listening to LS 70B – Spring 2007_ Physical Science 1. This is an introduction to global warming from UC Berkley. They are Podcasting the entire course through iTunes. Best of all, it’s free. Keep in mind that this is a Berkley course. The leftward leanings are prevalent throughout the entire course. Despite the politics, the facts and opinions are very interesting.

The main problem with global warming is the lack of reasonable solutions. Here are some of the current solutions…

• CO2 is the enemy. We should create world wide carbon taxes. Capitalism, technology, and industry are the main contributors of CO2. They must be punished! These funds would be presumably collected by the UN. For most global warming activists, the UN and government can do no wrong. Environmentalism is the new cloak of communism/socialism. Can you name one actual accomplishment of the UN? How is that Darfur thing working out?

• Fossil fuel is the enemy. It is the main contributor of CO2. Stop using your car. Turn off everything that has an electrical plug. Don’t use heat or air conditioning. Stop eating meat. Lower your “carbon footprint.” It’s like being Amish without the agricultural chores. If the solution to the energy “problem” is to stop using energy, we are already doomed.

• We should use government to immediately mandate the use of new “green” technology. We can envision this new technology. However, it doesn’t actually exist now. But that’s OK. You won’t mind walking 20 miles to work and living in the dark until we can figure it out. But wait! Solar and wind power are available right now (if you are willing to pay 5 to 10 times the current cost of energy).

• Above all, crush any dissenting opinions. Anyone that questions or disagrees with the current solutions to global warming is an uneducated right-wing moron that supports “Big Oil” and shops at Wal-Mart. These people must be marginalized (and taxed).

There is no room for discussion. There are no other explanations. Some Environmentalist have called for Nuremburg style trials of scientists and leaders that don’t agree with man being the cause of global warming. The Weather Channel’s climate expert, Heidi Cullen has called for revoking the AMS certification of any meteorologist that believes that global warming is not a man-made problem.

The causes of global warming that are not entirely man made should be ridiculed. This couldn’t be a naturally occurring phenomenon.

—————————–

Check out this article about the possibility of global warming due to solar cycles…

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

Today there are couple of news stories about educators in trouble.

Allenna Ward, a 23 year old female middle school teacher from Clinton, South Carolina, has been arrested for having sex with five 14 and 15 year old boys. I will refrain from joking about the irony of a town named Clinton. The encounters took place at school, a motel, behind a restaurant, and in a park. This is obviously a very progressive health education program. http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=47442

John Acerra, a middle school principal from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has been arrested for selling crystal methamphetamine to an undercover DEA agent. He was selling the drugs from his office at school. So much for a drug free school zone. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2912316

Conventional wisdom (from Hollywood and standup comedians), says that priests are all lecherous pedophiles. I didn’t see any articles today about priests in handcuffs. When was the last time that you thought about your child’s safety in public schools?