MaxRedline

Those Ignorant Deniers

For a long time, now, skeptics of the Religion of Man-Made Global Warming have been derided by the acolytes as scientifically illiterate. However, it turns out that according to a new study, if anybody needs to bone up on science, it's the alarmists.

A study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change finds that people who are not that worried about the effects of global warming tend to have a slightly higher level of scientific knowledge than those who are worried. 

Where is your Gore now?

Hypocrisy Illustrated

Over in the little Michigan town of Walker, 65 high school seniors organized a mass bike-ride to school on the last day of their high school experience. And it was well-organized:

The senior students took part in the morning ride, which began at the Walker Fitness and Ice Center and ended at the high school. The students had police escorts and enjoyed donuts provided by Walker Mayor Rob VerHeulen, who rode in a police cruiser leading the group.

Parents lined the 3-mile route, taking pictures and cheering for their sons and daughters.

But upon arrival, the reception was beyond frosty: the Principal assembled them in the school auditorium, chewed them out, and suspended them all.

At a school board meeting that evening, a local DJ showed up with a brand new bicycle, donated by a local shop, which he presented to the board to give to the Principal, who was, oddly enough, absent from the festivities. With luck, one day she may learn how to safely ride.

Closer to home, the stink of hypocrisy emanating from Metro Oregon Zoo just reached overwhelming proportions. We mentioned previously that the place is grossly over-managed, by Oregon state standards. It's been a while since we looked over that way, but as far as we know, the trained professionals have yet to figure out how to get their new giraffe - which arrived about a month ago - to enter the barn. They may not know much about working with, and effectively managing, captive wild animals - but by golly, they're big on telling you all about saving the polar bears from "man-made global warming", the importance of recycling, and so much more. 

Forget the animals - it's all about image (and money).

Now the Oregonian's Joseph Rose (thankfully! Katy Muldoon seems incapble of writing anything more than regurgitated press releases and other fluff, which is why she's usually assigned there) writes that the Zoo's vaunted expert middle managers have concerns about repairing the Sunset Highway at a time when one of their elephants is "with calf". Oh, how very touching! Obviously, they Really Care™!

Repaving on highway 26 must be done with caution, if at all: 

When Oregon Zoo elephant curator Bob Lee heard of the Department of Transportation's plan to rev up the project in June, he raised a caution flag on Rose-Tu's behalf.

Elephants, Lee said, "are so tuned into the environment that they'll feel the vibrations in their feet and they have great hearing. We need to be careful."

The hypocrisy level is unbelievable, yet people buy into it.

Do you believe for one second that they'll halt the Zoo's summer concerts - held right on the elephants' doorstep - based upon some concern over loud drums and amplified bass and other vibrations? Of course not!

To paraphrase Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention: They're Only In It For The Money.

Indians Hit The Brakes On Obama's "Green" Schemes

The hypocrisy of the Left in pushing "green" energy has been extensively documented, both on this site and on countless others. Many discussions have been fielded regarding the Cuisinarts of the Air and their deadly effects on everything from endangered species of birds to pollinating bats, while others have centered upon the impacts of vast solar arrays upon habitat and ecological balance. None of which is of any importance in the Barky administration; they're even fighting green groups here in Oregon in an effort to build a Cuisinart farm on Steens Mountain so that all the power thus generated can be shipped off to California.

But now, they've encountered an obstacle that they can't dance around: they've done gone and ticked off the Indians.

The Feb. 27 letter from the chairman of the Colorado River Indian Tribes was pleading and tough. It asked President Obama to slow the federal government's "frantic pursuit" of massive solar energy projects in the Mojave Desert because of possible damage to Native American cultural resources.

The Obama administration didn't respond.

Well, you know what? These aren't any Elizabeth Warren Indians; these are the real deal. And for starters, they've put a halt to the $1 billion Genesis solar array under construction in the Mojave desert because it's tearing up sacred land. And how ticked off are they? Enough to bring all of Barky's fast-tracked subsidized "renewable" stuff to a screeching halt.

Now the tribes, joined by others in the desert, are not merely asking the Obama administration to go slow because of potential harm. They are demanding it. Backed by the legally powerful Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Indians say Genesis and the transmission line corridor are proof of damage to sacred lands. They are readying court challenges that could alter solar and wind energy projects across the desert.

This is one of the big problems that Barky and his boys have: they don't understand "renewable energy" and they don't care; all they're interested in doing is handing millions to cronies - the environment be damned, endangered species be damned...but now the damned Indians are stepping in, and there's not a damned thing he can do about it. If they actually understood the concepts, they wouldn't be tearing up our public lands to build gigantic farms far removed from the actual points of distribution.

If they did anything more than pay lip service to "green and sustainable", like perhaps some research, they'd realize a couple of things: (1) solar and wind will never, ever, under any circumstances, account for more than 3 to 5% of electrical energy sources. (2) Generating sites should be as close to distribution points as possible. This means that you mount your Cuisinarts and solar arrays on top of buildings in downtown Portland, The Dalles, Burns, or wherever. You don't stick them on Steens Mountain or in the Mojave. Barky, do you even have a clue as to how many people live in Harney County? No? Then STFU.

Anybody with half a brain would stop subsidizing the Cuisinart and solar developers, and look into in-line hydro generation. That, friends, is actually "green" - and proven technology. Unfortunately, you can't point to it like you can a wind or solar farm and get your picture taken of yourself wearing a hard-hat and pointing at something.

No, in-line just ain't sexy. So they don't care. Look: pretty much every town has a water system. In a place like Portland, it's mostly gravity-fed. So since water's going to be flowing through the pipes anyway, doesn't it make sense to install small turbines in those pipes to generate electricity? There's the problem: it makes too much sense.

Genocidal Eco-Fascism

As has been mentioned before, the "green" religion is all about control - and eventually, population reduction. All the bad people will die, and the green shall inherit the earth.

This is Finnish writer Pentti Linkola — a man who demands that the human population reduce its size to around 500 million and abandon modern technology and the pursuit of economic growth — in his own words.

He likens Earth today to an overflowing lifeboat:

What to do, when a ship carrying a hundred passengers suddenly capsizes and there is only one lifeboat? When the lifeboat is full, those who hate life will try to load it with more people and sink the lot. Those who love and respect life will take the ship’s axe and sever the extra hands that cling to the sides.

He sees America as the root of the problem:

The United States symbolises the worst ideologies in the world: growth and freedom.

Unlike most greenies, he's honest about it. He believes that an entity such as the UN should undertake population reduction by means of nuclear, chemical, and/or biological weapons. It's necessary to Save The Planet™. Naturally, he's been unwilling to go first. That's for the little people to do; it's necessary for them to die. Much like Paul Ehrlich, who cautioned in the 1960's that the human "Population Bomb" was about to detonate, greenies to this day preach doom and gloom.

The latest entry comes from (of course) a "study" by World Wildlife Fund:

Humans will need two Earths to support our lifestyles by 2030 because we are draining the world’s resources so quickly, a new report has warned.

Produced by the World Wildlife Fund, the Zoological Society of London, the Global Footprint Network and the European Space Agency, the 2012 Living Planet Report measures humans’ ecological footprint on the planet.

At the moment, the picture is bleak, according to Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International, with resources being drained 50 per cent faster than they can be replenished.

He said: “We’re all familiar with the stories of what we’re doing to Planet Earth, the ways in which we’re changing the climate, depleting the world’s fisheries, destroying the world’s forests. …

“The report tells us that we’re already using the earth’s resources 50 per cent faster than it can be replenished, and that, if we don’t change our ways, by 2030 we will need two planets to support us.”

It's interesting how they keep moving the goal-posts: in 1970, we were told that by the year 2000, our planet would be encased in glacial ice, clear to the equator. By the mid-1980's it was clear that that wasn't going to happen, so they switched to a new fear: global warming. Since the early 1990's, we've been inundated with "studies" and other propaganda warning of famine, flood, rising sea levels (as much as 20 feet by 2020), loss of polar ice-caps, polar bears drowned to extinction, and more.

Now, the ice-caps are still there. There are more polar bears than at any time in history. So it was time to change the narrative again: now, the bogeyman is "climate change".

But throughout all of these iterations, one thing has remained constant:

It's All Your Fault.

You must be stopped, for the good of all. That whole "Life, liberty, and the pusuit of happiness" thing? Forget about it - it's just a piece of paper scribbled on by a bunch of unenlightened slave-holders.

We'll run out of oil any second now, as the "Peak Oil" crowds have been telling us for the past half-century.

Now the brain-trust at WWF assures us that a mere eighteen years from now, we'll require two earths. Carrying capacity, and all you see. You don't? Well then you'll just have to trust them on it. You'll have to change your ways, or else! Or else what? Face it, greenies - your track record sucks, and a lot of folks have had about enough of your blathering.

 

 

Janice Robertson Hates Circuses; Neighbors Suggest She STFU

Clatsop County resident Janice Robertson may well be a very nice - if ignorant - person, and doubtless had nothing but good intentions when she petitioned the Clatsop County commissioners to ban "elephants and other exotic animals in circuses and similar events". The commissioners decided to refer it to a public vote, and the idea was crushed by a 60% to 40% margin yesterday.

Robertson said, “I did everything I could to tell people of the cruelty to animals in circuses, which is horrific. That’s all I can say.”

Well-intentioned or not, her ignorance and arrogance are breath-taking. In all probability, she's part of a loose aggregation of coastal nuts who call themselves "elephant watchers" that extends at least as far south as Lincoln City. Having spoken extensively with a couple of them, they parrot back the same line about horrific cruelty, and seem to derive all of their "information" from such upstanding folks as PeTA and HSUS - organizations whose sole reason for existence is to rake in donations from the gullible.

If you take the time to talk with trainers and vets in organizations such as RBB&B, however, and actually observe what goes on, an entirely different picture emerges: one of people who care deeply for the animals and go to great lengths to ensure their well-being. Why would they do otherwise?

If you drive a car to work, do you water down the fuel you place in its tank? If you depend upon your animals for your livelihood, would you place sub-standard "fuel" in their "tanks"? Would you spend tens of thousands of dollars to purchase a car, then fail to maintain it?

People like Janice want you to believe - as they do - that that's exactly what people who live and work among elephants and other animals do every day. The people of Clatsop County rightly told her to take a hike.

Light Rail, Garbage Mandates - The Overlords

Light rail has come to Seattle, and with it, the ever-present "unintended consequences":

A new study finds light rail is driving up rent prices and driving out working class residents who are the lifeblood of the community.

Rainier Valley thrives on its diversity. But this colorful community now finds itself in a gray area because of light rail.

Obviously, the only answer they'll find will involve taxpayer subsidies to fund  "Equity or affordable housing". Imagine that!

Here in Portland, the Overlords mandate that, effective last Halloween, garbage pickup would go from weekly to every other week (but compost and recycling get picked up weekly). Natch, there've been a few problems: not only did garbage rates not get cut - they're going to be increased. And the predicted problems have arisen: two weeks of stinky dirty diapers create quite the stench, and the hot weather's not even yet underway. The Overlords at the City of Portland recommend placing your garbage can in a cool, shady location. Isn't that just special?

Of course, that doesn't solve the problem of cans stuffed to the gills - it's just another example of the Overlords deciding that families are bad and single hipsters are good, so that's what they cater to. Some folks have opted to stuff their garbage excess into City receptacles at parks and elsewhere, and the Overlords have responded by threatening to remove trash cans from parks.

Other folks have got more creative: they conceal the dirty diapers and other stuff in recycling bins. We warned them these problems would arise, but as always, They Know Best.

Wisconsin Dems Furious - With Other Dems

Tea Party Protest, Washington D.C. September 12, 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They're trying to recall governor Scott Walker - whose tough measures took the state from deficit to surplus - and they're outraged that they aren't getting big-money support from the DNC. Actually, the Dems are falling apart in Wisconsin; there's a lot of infighting and back-stabbing going on among members of their own party. It's especially irksome because the governor's polling about 9 points ahead. Clearly, it's time for the Dems to bring out their foam-and-spittle cannons, so they're going all-in; claiming now that the grass-roots TEA Party movement that they'd long ago written off as irrelevant has somehow morphed into a "corporate" entity in support of Walker. It's typical for them: they're terrified, so they start making things up.

According to the Wisconsin Dem, the party has asked the DNC for $500,000 to help with its massive field operation. While the DNC has made generally supportive noises, the money has not been forthcoming, the official says — with less than a month until the June 5th recall election. The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Obama’s political operation is providing volunteers with info on how to get involved in the recall battle and how to register to vote, but isn’t investing any money in the race, according to officials. Labor unions are expected to invest sizable sums in the ground game, but the top Wisconsin Dem Party official says it won’t be enough.

UPDATE: Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Mike Tate goes on record about the dispute in a statement:

“Having received absolute support from the Democratic Governors Association, we also are in conversation with the Democratic National Committee to help in this battle against Scott Walker, a right-wing diva who has the full backing of the national corporate Tea Party movement.”

 

 

Related articles

• Poll puts Walker up nine in recall fight; Update: WI Dems "furious" with DNC over lack of support (hotair.com)
• Walker Ahead in Wisconsin Recall (politicalwire.com)

Can't Claim That Our Government Overlords Weren't Warned

The norovirus mini-epidemic that was traced to a "green" reuseable bag is something that our overlords were warned about before they implemented their self-righteous, feel-good ban on plastic bags.

The industry has been fighting attempts to fight local and state bans on single-use plastic check-out bags, and one of their arguments has been that reusable bags are unsanitary.

"The public health issue is real and we raised it last session and it was ignored," said Anna Richter Taylor, a Portland-based spokeswoman for Hilex Poly, a major plastic bag manufacturer.

Unlike most "green" bags, the plastic bags aren't absorbent - and moreover, they're better for the environment, as they are produced from a waste product. As well, unlike the "green" reuseable bags, the plastic ones require less energy to produce, and are recyclable.

Related articles

• Strickland bill seeks health warning on reusable grocery bags (vcstar.com)

Regulations, Small Business, Your Life

As you may have noticed, the economy isn't really going anywhere - it doesn't matter what the government tells you, you see it all around you. It's dead, Jim. With all the blather about "job creation", constantly trumpeted by every candidate for every office, including dog-catcher, why isn't it happening?

One word:

Government.

As Ronald Reagan so succinctly put it, "Government is the problem." They set up agencies, staffed by lifetime bureaucrats, who then write rules with no Executive or Legislative oversight. At present, less than half-way through 2012, some four thousand new rules are already in the pipeline. And the net effect of all of this rule-making is economic strangulation.

The Environmental Protection Agency is among the most egregious, and numerous examples of their overreach can be found at a glance. From energy generation to construction to the local hardware store, their impedance touches nearly every aspect of American life today - and most is entirely unnecessary.

"I don't think that with all of the different regulations coming out of Washington, which are supposed to be for the general betterment, that they realize the adverse effects," Chapdelaine said. "Look at the shipping regulations they put on spray paint. It means we can't buy that product in bulk anymore because it's regulated as a hazardous material."

For example, the EPA is reviewing 330 regulations covering things such as farm and construction dust to carbon dioxide emissions, Patterson said.

"Our stance is, let's rein in some the regulations being created, and let small business owners get back to creating jobs," Patterson said. "If the government could foster an environment where business can grow and add jobs, our small businesses can hire people in their communities and put people back to work."

Unfortunately, our media and schools push the extremism promoted by groups such as Sierra Club and 350. With increasing frequency, we're seeing indoctrinated high-school students, prodded on by Leftist groups, bringing litigation against governments over global warming climate change.

Of course, it's not just federal agencies and rabid protectionists at work - state and local governments have gone deep into the regulatory environment as well, and even land-owners who do the "green" thing often attract their ire, as a resident of Longview, Wash. discovered when he erected a windmill on his acreage.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that in order to effect at least a degree of sanity in government, it's going to be necessary to elect individuals with the backbone to begin reducing the scope of many agencies at the local, state, and federal levels - and dismantling some entirely. The Left's always looking to yell and slobber, anyway. Let's give 'em something to scream about.

Then warm up their bottles and put them to bed.

Related articles

• Government Regulations Are Killing Middle Class Opportunity (usnews.com)
• Washington not a 'friendly' state for small business: Report (bizjournals.com)
• Texas No. 2 most business-friendly state (bizjournals.com)
• CEI's Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation (openmarket.org)

Bicycle Boulevards, Greenways, and More

Portland may be broke, but that's no reason to stop spending your money. Let's see...there's a freeway and a light rail line, on either side of which are neighborhoods with streets, bike lanes, and sidewalks. Nope! Not good enough. What the city really needs to do is to blow another few million on a paved bike trail next to the light rail line. Yeah - that's the ticket!