MaxRedline

American Indians

FORT MOUNTAIN STATE PARK, Ga. --

The remains of the 855-foot stone wall that gives Fort Mountain its name wind like a snake around the northeast Georgia park, and its very presence begs a question: Who put them there?

A Cherokee legend attributes the wall to a mysterious band of "moon-eyed people" led by a Welsh prince named Madoc who appeared in the area more than 300 years before Columbus sailed to America.

There is also evidence of a major battle between 1450 and 1660 at the Falls of the Ohio, which Olson said was the scene of the "big battle began between the red Indians and the white Indians" - the Welsh.

And the mysteries continue.  We can be fairly confident of one thing:  everybody who lives in the Americas came from someplace else.  There is no such entity as a "Native American".

Everyone's an immigrant.  So, what does that mean?

Do you build things up by "celebrating diversity"?  That's just shorthand for inculcating racisim.

That whole "melting pot" idea was pretty successful.

No wonder the Left hates it so much.

Big Trouble For New Religion

When you see headlines like this, you know the Priesthood's in deep doo-doo:

2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved

Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.

2008 was the year when any pretence that there was a "scientific consensus" in favour of man-made global warming collapsed. At long last, as in the Manhattan Declaration last March, hundreds of proper scientists, including many of the world's most eminent climate experts, have been rallying to pour scorn on that "consensus" which was only a politically engineered artefact, based on ever more blatantly manipulated data and computer models programmed to produce no more than convenient fictions.

It's hard to say, at this point, exactly where the Priesthood's going to go or what they're going to do, but their bread-and-butter isn't going to be hanging much longer on the "Global Worming" or "Climate Change" fear-mongering.  They may have to find actual jobs.

Man, we screwed up.

This is why Willamette Week keeps going, while mainstream media like The Zero keep dying.  You'd never, ever see the Zero admit to a huge mistake, much less address it.  WW gets points for cred; the Zero just keeps losing ground.

Israel's About Had Enough

Those Hamas idiots out around Gaza are getting a first-hand lesson in butt-kicking.  They chose to end a cease-fire, and they chose to send rockets and mortars into Israel.  Every freakin' day.

And they expect - what?  Nothing?  Are the idiots incapable of learning?

Now, let's see:  Hamas ends an agreement and starts flinging weapons into Israel.  After a week or so of this, Israel pulls out a silver platter, places Hamas's butt onto it, and hands it back to Gaza.  And?

Hamas vowed revenge including suicide bomb attacks in the "cafes and streets" of Israel, as Israeli air strikes continued late into the night.

The dumbasses over in Gaza vow "revenge"?  They start an issue, then vow "revenge" because of the result of what they started?

These are not people.  People have brains.  Hamas clearly does not.  If this is all they can manage, then it is time to remove them from the gene pool.

It may seem mean and vicious and cruel - and it is - but there is really no alternative.  It's become abundantly clear that the only way to achieve peace in the area involves turning Gaza into glass.

Yes, that means that innocent people will die.  Just as they always do in war.  Innocent people died in Hawaii, in London, in Dresden, in Hiroshima.  Innocent people died on 9/11.  And Gaza needs to be wiped clean.  They clearly have no desire for peaceful coexistence, and they therefore need removal.  The time has come to just get on with it.

They deserve no sympathy.

Shave The Planet!

Oregon's got a new law going into effect in the next few days, and you're going to have to recycle your computers and televisions.  Not to worry, though - it's free.

The state-run program, which will cost about $1.5 million this first year, collects money from manufacturers based on how many of their products are being recycled.

Retailers will be required to sell only those brands registered through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality — manufacturers also pay a registration fee.

You don't imagine that this free program will raise the costs you pay to buy replacements, do you?  Will it be illegal to buy a product in another state and transport it to Oregon?

Also in the news: Oregon's gearing up to start recharging aquifers in the Umatilla basin.  Irrigation has depleted supplies in the ancient underground storage areas, and so the plan is to replenish that water with water from the Columbia River during the winter and spring months, when the river runs high.  Basically, they'd divert the high water onto alluvial plains overlying the basalt aquifers and let the water percolate down into them.  It seems like a reasonable plan.

But hold on; environmeddlists are bound to weigh in, and they have:

Oregon appears to be embarking on a strategy of storing high winter river flows without considering the implications, said John DeVoe, executive director of Portland-based WaterWatch. The flows scour gravel in the river bed, push back vegetation crowding the channel, flush migrating fish to the ocean and lure adult fish back to spawn in the spring, he said.

Never mind that most of the water would flow as it historically has - any change could be fraught with potentially disastrous implications.  This is why we need groups like WaterWatch, because they're chock-full of folks who are much smarter than the rest of us.

Fortunately, they say that "if it can be done without interfering with the health of the Columbia, we're not going to stand in its way."

Who decides whether the health of the Columbia is being interfered with or not remains unclear.

And then there's Boardman - the coal-fired megaplant that powers 280,000 homes.  That's a huge problem right there.  In early December, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued draft rules that would force PGE to spend $472 million over the next decade to reduce haze-causing emissions from the plant -- an investment that would raise rates by 3 percent.

Boardman's power is so cheap today that it can probably absorb those costs and remain financially viable. But the equipment would do nothing to reduce Boardman's enormous output of carbon dioxide, the main man-made culprit in global warming.

Obviously, the responsible thing to do is just to shut 'er down.  The darn thing messes up the view, and then there's that whole durn Global Worming thing.  Can't have none o'that.  Nossir.

'Course, on the other hand, if it waren't fer Global Worming, this last couple of weeks might've been a whole lot worse than it was.

Someone should talk to AlGore, and get back to us with the skinny on that.

Oh, nevermind.

Portland's Mayor-elect and high-school graduate Sam Adams seems to have jumped ahead on that one.  Adams told reporters that some climate-change forecasts predict that the region might experience these types of winter storms more often. If that happens, the city would have little choice except to buy more equipment.

“If these kinds of storms begin happening more often, we’ll have to act,” he said.

Global Worming, you see, will produce more harsh winter storms as a result of the enormous amounts of carbon dioxide that politicians and "science journalists" expel during the course of discussing the enormous "sacrifices" that must be made in order to shave the planet (of excess cash).

Time To Dump Biofool

If politicians want their proclaimed desire to "jump-start the economy" to be taken seriously, the first place to start would involve rescinding the requirement that the fuels pumped into our vehicles contain a minimum of 10% ethanol.

The biofool "revolution" is not only over; it never existed in the first place - not in the real world.  It's always been nothing more than a "vision" - and an expensive one, at that.

What kind of idiot puts food into a gas tank and labels it "progress"?  "Renewable energy"?  Get real.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Renewable fuel officials say more ethanol plants in Iowa could close as the industry deals with falling prices.

What, exactly, is "renewable" about the stuff?  Its use is mandated by governmental dictate and supported by a 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit, massive subsidies for corn farming corporations, and over $25 billion in additional federal support.

Iowa alone has 32 ethanol plants, of which five are now in bankruptcy despite the heavy and ongoing subsidies.

Ethanol blends, however, result in a roughly 30% reduction in energy per gallon of fuel.  This means that consumers must buy more fuel to travel a given distance, and they get to pay more for food once they get to the grocery.  That affects not only your wallet, but the entire global economy.  There's a reason why unrest is growing in places such as Mexico, where corn tortilla and other corn flour products are dietary staples.

Oddly, after 20 years of pushing hard for biofool, even environmeddlists are having second thoughts: citing unintended, yet potentially catastrophic, environmental consequences, with little or no return to taxpayers in energy security (or) protection from global warming, a full half-dozen environmeddlist groups have recently taken a stand against further support for the former apple of their collective eye.

What might those consequences involve?  Unlike that nasty petroleum stuff, ethanol is produced from corn - and each corn plant transpires roughly two gallons of water in a day.  It's one reason why the humidity level's so high in Illinois and Iowa in the summer.  And the companies that are growing corn for fuel don't stint on the pesticides, the phosphorous-based fertilizers, and other materials used to speed their product to the refineries.

Expanded acreage means more fertilizer and pesticide use, more water use - and with unknown environmental consequences.

Actually, from a total environmental perspective, so-called "renewable energy" sources account for far more damage than do their petro-based counterparts.

Want to jump-start the economy?

Dump biofool.

Postal Going

Well, it looks as though the brain-trust at CoPo is finally homing in on a deal to take over the US Postal Service property in downtown Portland.  This is a great move, because once the main post office is moved out (along with its 800 or so jobs), the property can be razed, then handed over to Homer Williams or some other developer for a handsome price (five dollars or less) and subsequently converted into high-value condos.  Of course, there will be retail at the ground-floor level; that's almost a requirement.  Soon, we'll have more fat and happy retirees moving into the area and complaining about the noise from the trains.

From the initial look, it's a great deal:  CoPo will pay market rate plus 50% for the property, because it's such an incredible opportunity.  As is always the case in Portland, the leaders in this move are assuming that increased density will follow.  And that's a sure bet.

If there's one thing you can take to the bank that's as good as gold, it is the density of most Portlanders.  And it'll only cost them another $75 million or so in paper they can't afford.

And where will the jobs go?  Not that they matter, because the baristas will sort of make up for that.

Kalama, anyone?

How're Those Solar Arrays Working Today, Michael?

Mike Powell, heir/owner of Powell's Books, showed his green cred a few months back by installing a set of solar arrays across the roof of his flagship bookstore.  How much "clean energy" do you suppose those things are generating?

"...as renewable energy becomes a bigger part of the nation's power mix, the seasonable variability could become more of a problem..."

And make no mistake, it's a dam big problem.   It's what makes hydro one of the most reliable sources of renewable energy on the planet.  Ever noticed that the folks who yammer about "green" energy - whether it be biofools, wind, or solar - are always at the forefront of calls to tear down our hydrosystems?

Reliable energy sources are the only kind worth having, yet these folks rail against hydro, nuclear, coal, and gas plants.  We're supposed to use wind and solar (and subsidize them heavily) - and do what, exactly, when snow covers the panels or the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing?

These are the same folks who don't want to use rock salt on icy roadways because it "may be" harmful to the environment.  They have no evidence of any harm; the American midwest in fact continues to produce bumper crops despite decades of frequent use on their roads.

But that's what these folks are all about: they're about limiting choices, limiting freedom, and maximizing disturbance.  They don't care about providing safe roads; your death or injury is less important than preventing possible harm to the environment.

They don't care about ensuring safe and reliable power sources either; doing so would just encourage you to use them.  And that may be harmful to the environment.

That you are part of the environment doesn't compute for these folks; they view you as something alien which must be tightly regulated in order to "Save The Planet".

Therein lies the problem with all of the emphasis upon "self esteem" that has been so much a part of the vegetational educational culture across much of the West.  We now have a generation of people who genuinely believe that they have all the answers, that they can do no wrong, and that every decision that they make will have a positive outcome.

Unfortunately, a lot of time and resources will be wasted before they figure out that what they knew ain't necessarily the case.

Who The Heck Commissions This Stuff?

When given the option of hearing "Merry Christmas" or a less religious greeting -- like "Happy Holidays" -- in stores and businesses, Americans choose Merry Christmas by a 60%-to-23% margin.

So, there you have it.  People occupy themselves with this kind of thing?  To what end?

There are more important things, as you'll likely agree upon reading this refugee's recollection.

Hippo Holidays!

Prosecutors Turn Up The Heat On "Cold Cash" Jefferson

Federal prosecutors are urging an appeals court to get on with Rep. William Jefferson's corruption trial, saying his appeal to the Supreme Court does not have enough chance of success to justify further delays.

The Louisiana Democrat claims that charges against him aren't valid, depending on what the meaning of the word "is" is.  His actions as a member of Congress are supposed to be shielded, and the cops had no business popping into his crib and taking $90 grand outta the freezer.  That just ain't right.

There's technicalities here, man, and the Supremes need to set the cops straight on all that.

Um, well (ahem), Mr. Jefferson, it appears that you are entitled to a speedy trial, whether or not you actually want one.  Your appeals are merely delaying tactics that should rightfully be ignored in the interest of swift justice.  If there's a problem after your trial, you can appeal at that time.