16
Mar

Let them eat cake! No, wait …

   Posted by: Kate   in , ,

Let them eat the health care bill?

Tuesday, March 16, 2010:

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… what he said! …

I was reading an American Spectator article by Ben Lerner which talked about the three Navy SEALs who are currently facing courts martial.

On the off chance you’re not familiar with the case, in a nutshell, the SEALs captured Ahmed Hashim Abed. Whilst so doing says Abed, one of them allegedly punched (some accounts say “slapped”) him, while the other two purportedly made false statements helping to cover up the incident. Bear in mind that this whole mess began with an unsubstantiated complaint levied by an al Qaeda terrorist who was wanted for the torture and murder of four American contractors in Fallujah back in 2004. Further, I might point out that as a part of his training, our friend Abed was instructed to be sure to make false allegations of abuse and torture if he was ever captured.

So, regarding the SEALs, Mr. Lerner was remarking that more than 170,000 American signatures were delivered to the Pentagon requesting that courts martial proceedings be dropped, as they of course should be. (In an ideal world, they never would have been brought up on charges based on unsubstantiated allegations by a known terrorist in the first place, but whatever.) Mr. Lerner recently returned from a week-long media tour in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba “where some of our finest soldiers and sailors are tasked with a difficult and thankless job: guarding dangerous detainee enemy combatants captured in the course of the Global War on Terror.” He went on to draw some parallels between Gitmo and the case of the Navy SEALs.

Read the rest of this entry »

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6
Mar

So I was thinking, you know …

   Posted by: Kate   in , ,

… what if … like … it was really that …

like childhood obes-ity? … what if like the last thing you wanted to do was like … you know, fight childhood obesity, because it was like, what if it was our way of like, you know, thinning the herd?  … you know, culling the masses …  like survival of the fittest, natural selection, you know … like built-in population control? maybe it’s like, you know, necessary to like ev-olution … and what if, like, you know, global warm-ing? what if that was,  like …  necessary for our survival you know?  like, by causing some of us to be like, you know, like sac-rificed? for like the greater good?  wouldn’t that be like, fucked UP man?

This stream of epicurean consciousness is brought to you by the letters “E” and “D” for ‘eavesdropping on dumbasses.’

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6
Mar

Mindless Entertainment

   Posted by: Kate   in ,

I actually did the whole thing …

No, I am not kidding.  I sat here and clicked on the damn thing and I “finished” it.  Want to know what the hell it is I’m babbling about?  Want to know what happens when you finish the damn thing I’m babbling about?  Here:  go try it.

Seen enough and want to know what happens without completing the damn thing?  Look under the fold.

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In answer to a comment …

Earlier today, “Kievan Rus” left this comment on a thread about global warming:

OFF TOPIC NOTE TO BLOGGIST:

I notice you don’t bother to mention anything about the gun toting wingnut that went off at the Pentagon the other day.

If it had been a liberal who did the shooting you would be all over it, though.

I’m surprised. Not.

This is my response to “Kievan Rus” which is far too long for a comment window. Read the rest of this entry »

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5
Mar

More on “Climate Change”

   Posted by: Kate   in , ,

Inconvenient FACTS is a fibber

The other day someone named “Inconvenient FACTS” sent me an email rant in support of global warming — ’scuse me, “Climate Change,” to which he insisted it should more accurately referred. His rant included a link to a New York Times article wherein Al Gore was a bit pissed off about all the people ridiculing global warming by pointing to the mountains of snow in their yards.

In the article, Gore said: “The heavy snowfalls this month have been used as fodder for ridicule by those who argue that global warming is a myth, yet scientists have long pointed out that warmer global temperatures have been increasing the rate of evaporation from the oceans, putting significantly more moisture into the atmosphere — thus causing heavier downfalls of both rain and snow in particular regions, including the Northeastern United States.”

Well, I wrote a lengthy reply back pointing out some problems with their argument in support of Mr. Gore. My reply bounced, because the cowardperson who wrote me did so from behind a proxy and used a fake email address. I don’t understand the logic here — you sent me something in a clear effort to persuade me to see your point of view, something specifically requesting an opening of dialogue, but you left me no method of reply. How are we supposed to debate the matter, how are you going to convince me and sway me to your position, when I can’t reply? I don’t get it.

So, anyhow “Inconvenient FACTS” if you’re reading this, here’s what I tried to say to you:

Interestingly enough, I recently saw a report put out by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) which stated that “Global precipitation in 2009 was near the 1961-1990 average.” (Source: “State of the Climate” summary report for 2009.)

If current global precipitation hasn’t changed from what it was in 1961-1990, I believe Mr. Gore’s statement is factually inconsistent at best and complete garbage at worst. Either way, the result is the same: it’s incorrect.

As for your assertion about the thousands of collective scientific minds forming the foundation for Mr. Gore’s statement, I challenge you to name them. You may be able to produce a small handful of miscreants and imbeciles, but neither you or Mr. Gore can produce the plenitude of which you boast.

On a side note, you seem especially fond of the Mpemba effect. Tell me, do you believe in the Easter Bunny as well?

Right after my letter to you bounced, Derwood sent me a link to an article by Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute, who not only mentioned that very same report, but also mentioned how in 2008, a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — “Climate Change and Water” — stated that in high latitudes and the tropics, their climate models were projecting “precipitation increases.” Projecting being the operative word, and in “high latitudes and the tropics” being the operative area.

Mr. Reynolds says it far better than I can, so why bother paraphrasing?

In other words, the IPCC said that its models predicted some increases in rain or snow — not observed them. And only in high latitudes or the tropics, which hardly describes New York or Washington, DC.

In fact, recent research actually contradicts Gore’s claims about “significantly more water moisture in the atmosphere.”

In late January, Scientific American reported: “A mysterious drop in water vapor in the lower stratosphere might be slowing climate change,” and noted that “an apparent increase in water vapor in this region in the 1980s and 1990s exacerbated global warming.”

The new study came from a group of scientists, mainly from the NOAA lab in Boulder. The scientists found: “Stratospheric water-vapor concentrations decreased by about 10 percent after the year 2000 . . . This acted to slow the rate of increase in global surface temperature over 2000 to 2009 by about 25 percent.”

Specifically, the study found that water vapor rising from the tropics has been reduced, because it has gotten cooler there (another inconvenient truth). A Wall Street Journal headline summed it up: “Slowdown in Warming Linked to Water Vapor.”

Moisture in the lower stratosphere (about 8 miles above the earth’s surface) has been going down, not up.

Aside from clouds, water vapor accounts for as much as two-thirds of the earth’s greenhouse-gas effect. Water vapor traps heat from escaping the atmosphere — but clouds have the opposite effect (called “albedo”) by reflecting the sun’s energy back into space. And snow on the ground from the IPCC’s predicted precipitation in high latitudes would have the same cooling effect as clouds.

What the new research suggests is that changes in water vapor may well trump the effect of carbon dioxide (only a fraction of which is man-made) and methane (which has mysteriously slowed since about 1990).

This raises an intriguing question: Since the Environmental Protection Agency declared that it has the authority to regulat[e] carbon emissions because of their presumed effect on the global climate, why hasn’t the EPA also attempted to regulate mist and fog?

So, Inconvenient FACTS, if you would like to write back — with a *legitimate* email address this time — and respond, please feel free. Even better, why not just leave a comment, and let everyone participate in the discussion? Who knows, maybe you’ll eventually manage to convince me.

But don’t hold your breath.

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5
Mar

I have some questions

   Posted by: Kate   in , ,

First off, why on earth would you do this?

Secondly, why on earth would you TELL ANYONE you did this? Here, for your horrified fascination, is Jennifer Love Hewitt explaining … well … just watch it. Seriously.

Disco ball. OMG.

You can blame Durkin and Derwood for these.

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4
Mar

Too much time on their hands …

   Posted by: Kate   in ,

But damn, what a creative way to use it!

Peter sent this one along.

Peter found it here.

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2
Mar

Protected: Confucius Say …

   Posted by: Kate   in , , ,

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:


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1
Mar

I’d beat this child

   Posted by: Kate   in ,

Several times

All I can say is: “Busted!”

I almost feel sorry for her thinking about what happened after Dad turned off that webcam.

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25
Feb

Evidence of Global Warming

   Posted by: Kate   in , ,

In the interests of full disclosure …

Have a look at this. It’s a power point presentation, so it will open a window asking if you want to run the file. You can either run it or save it and scan it first if you like. It’s virus free, but you certainly won’t offend me by checking for yourself!

Wintereinbruch

Yeah, serious global warming. Durkin sent this one along.

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