What a hoot! The Mexican government's all upset because US fence contractors appear to have stepped ten yards into Mexico. It's not a problem, though, if Mexicans step ten thousand yards - or even more - into the USA. The hypocrisy is absolutely stunning.
Many Mexicans see the fence as offensive and say it will be ineffective and potentially cause more deaths in border crossings.
An estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants were arrested in 2005 trying to cross into the US via the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Darn. If the see the fence as "offensive", then maybe they shouldn't go anywhere near it. All that most of us see as "offensive" is the continued disrespect by Mexican nationals and their government for the laws of their neighbor to the north.
Homosexual movement wins a minor victim victory in the USA as another looney federal judge in Boston decides that school kids should be taught all about "gay marriage". Look for this one to be reversed on appeal.
Slim Pickin's? Not really. Although as Jack Bogdanski notes, it's apparently illegal to blow your nose in Portland, others note no restrictions are presently in place regarding booger-mining. Eat hearty, friends!
And what's being referred to as an American Armada has sort of shown up out there in that peaceable set of kingdoms that we call the "Middle East". Yup, the USS Eisenhowerseems to be doing a little sight-seeing cruise in the area, along with some friends. Unbelievably, our good buddies in Iran aren't leaping at the opportunity to sell brightly colored ribbons, camel dung, or enriched uranium to the visiting Americans. How weird is that? You'd think they'd want our business. Oh well, perhaps they have more pressing matters.
Finally, it seems worth noting that in the runup to the next presidential election, Rasmussen pulled a poll out of its back pocket - along with some toilet paper, a quarter, and a toothbrush. But this poll claims that in the "race" between Rudy and Hillary, Clinton loses big. I know, I know...she doesn't really like to be referred to as "Clinton", and so she's building her whole run around the concept of being known as just "Hillary". "Let's chat." Ummm - it isn't going to work. But hey. Hill's got a huge problem. Her expected moneybags are going for Hussein Barak, and now a freakin' actual New Yorker is beating her in the polls. Oh, pounding pulse! Whom to strike out at, and when? Hillary deserves to be President. And you either agree or end up on her "list". Gosh, you could end up "committing suicide" in a park somewhere. It's been known to happen.
So successful has the media been at scaring you to death that a new report fresh over the transom indicates that little children are now losing sleep as they worry obsessively over the "issue". Way to go, gang. "While many adults may look the other way, this study should show that global warming is not only hurting the children of the future, it's affecting the welfare of kids now.
"By raising awareness amongst today's young, hopefully we are improving our chances of reaching a solution.''
What idiocy! When you're scaring kids to death with your stupid scenarios, you're simply paralyzing them. And to what end? "Reaching a solution" to a nonexistent boogeyman?
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please." —Mark Twain
So, given all the hysteria over Global Warming, what do you or AlGore really know about it? Not a lot, really. Ever noticed that your local weather forecaster never goes much more than a week out (and even then is often wrong)? There's good reason for that:
Why do meteorologists give weather forecasts for one week and not for 30 days? The sun rotates around its axis in 27-day cycles. During this time, the earth experiences the influence of four sectors of solar plasma of different magnetic polarity. 1 Each of the sectors influence the atmosphere for six to eight days, creating natural weather periods, making an accurate forecast possible. In transitional periods, however, the atmosphere's dynamics change and, as a result, the accuracy of a weather forecast decreases. In addition, the earth is influenced by solar and lunar tidal forces, which every seven days either accelerate or decelerate the speed of its rotation, 2 thus influencing the circulation of the atmosphere, oceans, and the earth's subterraneous viscous and liquid layers.
These natural cycles limit weather forecasts from five to seven days.
So you'll believe respected climatologists such as AlGore when they solemnly intone that we're all gonna die and it's all your fault because you're "causing" global warming? Lately, you hear that the polar bears are all gonna die, and that's all your fault. And in the Pacific Northwest, we're going to suffer terribly - and probably die - because of insufficient snow in the mountains. And that's all your fault.
You might think it's a simple matter to tell if global warming is shrinking mountain snowpacks.
But scientists are clashing over that point, with some saying others have exaggerated the decline of snow cover in the Cascades.
The disagreement led the atmospheric sciences department at the University of Washington this week to issue an unusual statement saying snow has not vanished as fast as some politicians and reports have suggested.
In fact, the statement said, heavier precipitation has offset the effect of rising temperatures by piling more snow on the ground.
Darn. Don't you just hate to see that? Another perfectly valid example of how humans are killing the planet has just been tossed under the bus.
Well, but what about the poor polar bears? They're drowning because of global warming, and it's All Your Fault!
"The polar bear drowning myth is typical of the deceit practiced by many global warming alarmists," he said. "Polar bears are very strong swimmers and have been documented swimming more than 60 miles without interruption."
Golly. Everybody's supposed to be running around and waving their hands in fear and panic by now, but these darn pesky scientists keep cropping up (and apparently in ever-increasing numbers) to undermine the whole doomsday scenario. Don't you just hate when that happens?
You didn't really think that you owned the property that you thought you'd purchased, now did you? Mike Quinn did, and now he gets to pay the price. He had the temerity to cut down three trees on property that he "owned". But in Oregon, just because you buy property doesn't really mean that you actually own it. The city can tell you whether or not you can cut down a tree on "your" property. Quinn found this out the hard way: summoned to court and convicted of the crime of unauthorized tree removal. You may pay for the property, and you may pay taxes for the privilege of "owning" property - but you can't cut down a tree unless the government says you can. So who really owns the property?
Yup, the Oregon Department of Transportation has approved over $11 million in non-highway "improvements" - including a $460,000 grant to study and design a multi-use path between Albany and Corvallis.
Half a million dollars to "study and design" a bike path.
And then comes the cost of building it.
Gee. Don't you think that you could "study and design" a bike path during the course of a couple of weekends? It's really no wonder that Oregon's governments are constantly decrying their lack of money. Obviously, there is no lack of money. There is, however, an incredible lack of common sense when it comes to spending that money. Apparently, you can have any kind of sense you want around here - so long as it isn't "common".
Well darned if we haven't hit the wall. We fill our recycling bins and march them out to the street. Feel really "good" about ourselves because "we do our part".
But that's really what it's all about, isn't it? Feeling good about yourself?
"Oh, I recyle, and I promote recycling in my workplace, so I'm really wonderful". Uhhh - no, not really. Darn. It's a bummer to make you feel all bad and stuff, but the bottom line is that recycling just isn't cutting it, according to Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
"We've tried to recycle our way out of the environmental problem for the last 15 years. We've definitely increased recycling, but we're swimming against the tide," said DEQ waste prevention specialist David Allaway.
Golly. You can't just recyle your way out of the "problem". Who'd have thunkit? DEQ now recommends drastic measures, like paying a bit more for stuff that lasts a lot longer.
Wow. Heavy thinking coming out of DEQ. Your tax dollars pay these geniuses to come up with these impressive ideas - and not only do they get paid more than you likely do in any given year, you pay for benefits that exceed anything you can expect.
But the government's running a bit low on cash, so they really need to add a few minor taxes here and there. You won't mind, will ya?
Just kidding. Gramps flexes his linguini-like "muscle" by casting a tie-breaking vote and thus sending a proposed Northwest Portland parking garage back to the drawing board. Heady stuff. Portland at its floppy-ist. You go, Gramps!
That's what she wants to be known as. Sort of like "Oprah". She seems to want you to forget about the whole "Clinton" part; she just wants to be known as "Hillary". Can we chat?
Well, how Pretty In Pink can she get?
Bush. Clinton, Clinton. Bush, Bush. Clinton?
This country can and should do better than this. We need someone who can turn things around, and it certainly isn't going to happen by prolonging the "dynasty" syndrome.
Here in Oregon, it's common knowledge that Teddy the supergov wants to ditch climatologist George Taylor because George doesn't quite see eye-to-eye with Teddy on the whole global warming thing. Teddy hates that. And on the east coast, Teddy's counterpart in Delaware's having the same problem because of David R. Legates, a prominent skeptic of views that human activities are warming the planet and triggering climate shifts. And Legates is also a climatologist. If you're a Democrat governor, it's got to be annoying as heck to have these pesky scientists running around and refusing to allow their fields of expertise to be politicised. And it just keeps getting worse: now, one of the world's top scientists on the subject of hurricanes has weighed in.
Chris Landsea, science and operations director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said the notion that global warming is causing an increase in hurricanes gained widespread attention after the stormy seasons of 2004 and 2005.
But that perception is wrong and the statistics don't bear it out, Landsea told about 200 students and professors in the auditorium at USC's geography building.
Good grief! Where will it end? These folks just don't seem to understand the political upside to scaring people to death. Clearly, these are tough times for hysteria-peddlers.
February has been a tough month for Global Warming doomsayers. First, their cataclysmic worst-case scenarios were debunked by the IPCC, which cut its own 2001 projections for temperature increase by a third and sea level rise completely in half. Then, just five days later, they learned that the environmentally irresponsible U.S was actually doing a better job of cutting CO2 emissions than their Kyoto-signing European Union heroes. And to top it off, attendees of a February 16th DC meeting of GLOBE nations agreed to abandon their adored Kyoto's economy-killing, energy-rationing, short-range, mandatory CO2 targets in favor of more realistic long-term goals.
Seems like there's just no good news for the fear-mongers these days.
Pregnant at 14? It's fashionable. Not simply in the U.K.; there's an increasingly obvious trend among manufacturers and advertisers toward early sexualization of children. And even the American Psychological Association (APA) has figured out that it's damaging. Who'd have guessed?
Shopping for girls' clothes is simply nightmarish these days: most of the jeans are low cut, most of the tops are high cut (with scoop necks), and it's all about slut. It's all about dressing up like little Anna Nichole Smiths. Don't bother going to Penney's or Target; it's a waste of time. You can find more appropriate clothing for your preteen daughter at Value Village - and at less expense.
Of course, the APA, being the "progressive" group that they are, views the situation as a clear indication that there is a real need for increased feminism and liberalism. Say what? Hey, folks - that's what has brought so many of our children to this sorry state of degeneracy. Parenting is often difficult enough in and of itself; the influences surrounding our kids in the marketplace and at school are difficult to overcome - and becoming harder all the time.
I remember a time when life was so much easier - back before we had things like "land-use planners" and "urban growth boundaries". It was a time when owning a home was not a dream, but a real and affordable possibility - on a single income. A time when both parents didn't have to trudge off to day jobs while shunting their young children to daycare or giving their school-aged kids a key to the house because neither Mom nor Dad would be home from work when school let out.
When children are increasingly exposed to media, malls, and marketing (and decreasingly exposed to parental influence), the results are all too predictable. So why do so many folks seem so surprised? Today, your government will hire a few more "planners". Your tax dollars will supply their pay and benefits. And they will continue to "plan" ways to ensure the requirement for dual income streams or abandonment of the dream of home ownership. And paving not roads for commerce, but roads to hell for your children.
