A Dog Named Kyoto

The nationalization of General Motors

2009-04-27T20:54:00.002-04:00

Unthinkable? Not really.

GM’s restructuring plan would lower its debt by $44bn to an estimated $23bn, leaving the government and a healthcare trust managed by the United Auto Workers union with 89 per cent of the equity.

That sounds a lot like socialism to this old dog. Problem is, most (young) folk these days don't even understand what socialism is or what an abject failure it has been where ever and when ever it has been implemented.

Methinks Atlas just shrugged.

Don't tread on me, pirates.

2009-04-26T22:23:00.003-04:00

Ted Nugent says,

"Keep your little terrorist dinghy at home, boys, or I will turn you into shark food".

Captain Nuge reporting for duty. I think he means it.

Related.

Rasmussen: Only 34% Now Blame Humans for Global Warming

2009-04-19T14:26:00.002-04:00

Encouraging news from Rasmussen.

Just one-out-of-three voters (34%) now believe global warming is caused by human activity, the lowest finding yet in Rasmussen Reports national surveying. However, a plurality (48%) of the Political Class believes humans are to blame.

Forty-eight percent (48%) of all likely voters attribute climate change to long-term planetary trends, while seven percent (7%) blame some other reason. Eleven percent (11%) aren’t sure.

These numbers reflect a reversal from a year ago when 47% blamed human activity while 34% said long-term planetary trends.

Maybe it's because of reports like this.

CNN "reporter" confronted by Tea Partiers

2009-04-16T20:36:00.010-04:00

Allahpundit has an update on that CNN "reporter" who described yesterday's Tea Party protests as "anti-government" and "anti-CNN" as if those two terms were one and the same.

A seamless conclusion to the smear job heard ’round the world, thanks to some amazingly fortuitous timing by Founding Bloggers. On a day when the grassroots came out to protest the establishment, it’s fitting that a small indie outfit like FB would end up putting the screws to CNN this way.

More video at Hot Air.

Update: Chicago wasn't the only place where CNN got their butts kicked yesterday.

Upperdate: Oops, looks like CNN has pressured YouTube to remove the above video. But you can still see it because the one below still works (for now).

DeWeese on radical environmental policy

2009-04-16T20:22:00.003-04:00

Tom Deweese the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and is the President of the American Policy Center, a grassroots, activist think tank headquartered in Warrenton, Virginia. These are excerpts from a speech he delivered in Kalispell, Montana and Spokane, Washington to County Republican Lincoln Day dinners in late March. It's called The Wrenching Transformation of America and was reported by Canada Free Press.

I believe the American people, and their every action, are being ruled, regulated, restricted, licensed, registered, directed, checked, inspected, measured, numbered, counted, rated, stamped, censured, authorized, admonished, refused, prevented, drilled, indoctrinated, monopolized, extorted, robbed, hoaxed, fined, harassed, disarmed, dishonored, fleeced, exploited, assessed, and taxed to the point of suffocation and desperation.

America is drowning in a sea of rules and regulations, particularly under the guise of “saving the environment.”

(...)

Tonight, I’m going to try to give you at least a peek at the all-encompassing, gut wrenching national transformation that we face—and, hopefully, help to lift the veil of confusion.

To put things in perspective, here are some questions every American should ask their elected officials – especially those supporting “climate change” legislation.

If it is proven that climate change is not man-made, but natural, will you be relieved and excited to know that man is off the hook?

We’ve been terrorized into accepting that human society was on the brink of extinction because of man-made global warming. We’ve been warned that, unless we take drastic action to reverse it – then islands will disappear, whole cities will be destroyed and polar bears will drown.

So, if it’s not true, will you now help to remove all of the draconian regulations passed during the global warming hysteria? Will you help to restore our Republic with common sense and sound economics?

Their answers to these questions should be very illuminating as to the true agenda they seek to impose.

I will let you read the rest at Canada Free Press.

Glenn Beck at the Alamo

2009-04-15T23:19:00.006-04:00

Tea Party Day, April 15, 2009. Glenn Beck criticizes runaway government spending by both Democrats and Republicans.

Fox News provided extensive coverage of today's Tea Party events - and rightly so because of the significant story that they represent. Other news networks tried to downplay the significance of them, like this CNN reporter who portrayed them as "anti-government" and "anti-CNN". Hmmm, perhaps they don't see the difference between the two.

Poor thing, after she failed to interrupt this guy who she tried to interview/argue with, she had to cut off her report because she couldn't hear herself think with the noisy crowd behind her.

Update: Michelle says, "I just have one word: Wow. More than 800 tea parties across the country."

It's a party!

2009-04-15T17:35:00.001-04:00

A National Tea Party! Here's just some of the events happening today as the "silent majority" mobilizes to protest high taxes and out of control government spending.

Washington: Olympia: The national Tax Day Tea Party brought the largest rally of the year to the Washington Capitol. The State Patrol estimates the noon crowd at more than 5,000. There are a number of signs in the crowd: “Socialism never succeeds,” “Nazis were socialists too,” and “I am not your ATM.”

Florida: Ocala: Crowd estimated at 1,000 - Many in attendance waved “Don’t Tread on Me” flags or signs that read messages like “Enough is Enough,” “Encourage capitalism, not socialism,” and “Let them eat pork.”

Wisconsin: Madison: Over 5,000 protest - the Democrats in charge don’t care about the concerns of taxpayers - they just want people to “pay up and shut up.”

South Dakota: Sioux Falls: 3,000 protest - The re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party carried a modern-day twist with boxes labeled “Tarp,” “Bailout” and “`Higher taxes.” The crowd chanted “`Dump that tea” as two men in colonist garb threw the boxes out of a replica of a sailboat from the nation’s earliest days.

Tennessee: Knoxville: Ampitheater overflows with 1,200 - Another sign said: “We the people, not we the GOVERNMENT” “Impeach them all - ASAP” “Attention Washington: You have run out of our money”

Click the link above for more. Or check out TeaPartyDay.com

Meanwhile, at the Washington Post Grover Norquist gives credit where credit is due:

The rallies were organized by three folks. Obama, Reid and Pelosi. The massive stimulus bill (NB: Stimulus is a french word for 'spending') has angered and scared a great number of Americans.

Just how many Tea Parties are there today? Click here for an incredible map.

Be sure to check in with Glenn Reynolds and Kate at SDA and of course Michelle is all over this - with a nice history of this grass roots movement too.

Pajamas Media has live video coverage here.

And don't forget about the mainstream media. Oops, it looks like Fox News has the scoop on the rest of the MSM. How odd! Here's links to Sean Hannity outside the CNN headquarters in Atlanta and Glenn Beck, who's at the Alamo.

Let's hope the folks in Washington are paying attention.

Update: Ted Nugent just played the national anthem at the Tea Party at the Alamo. It was carried live on Fox. Awesome. Glenn Beck is interviewing Pen Jillette right now.

The green economy takes it's toll

2009-04-13T20:25:00.001-04:00

...on Al Gore.

Heaven and Earth

2009-04-13T11:46:00.003-04:00

An Australian's passion for global warming cools in the face of evidence:

Former believer Paul Sheehan, in The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, develops a new respect for informed dissent

WHAT I am about to write questions much of what I have written in this space, in numerous columns, over the past five years. The subject of this column is a book entitled Heaven and Earth, written by one of Australia's foremost earth scientists, Ian Plimer.

Much of what we have read about climate change, he argues, is rubbish, especially the computer modelling on which much current scientific opinion is based, which he describes as "primitive".

Plimer does not dispute the dramatic flux of climate change but he fundamentally disputes most of the assumptions and projections being made about the current causes, mostly led by atmospheric scientists.

"To reduce modern climate change to one variable, CO2, or a small proportion of one variable - human-induced CO2 - is not science. To try to predict the future based on just one variable (CO2) in extraordinarily complex natural systems is folly. Yet when astronomers have the temerity to show that climate is driven by solar activities rather than CO2 emissions, they are dismissed as dinosaurs undertaking the methods of old-fashioned science."

(He argues that) the hypothesis that human activity can create global warming is extraordinary because it is contrary to validated knowledge from solar physics, astronomy, history, archeology and geology.

"But evidence no longer matters. And any contrary work published in peer-reviewed journals is just ignored. We are told that the science on human-induced global warming is settled. Yet the claim by some scientists that the threat of human-induced global warming is 90 per cent certain (or even 99 per cent) is a figure of speech. It has no mathematical or evidential basis."

Heaven and Earth is an evidence-based attack on conformity and orthodoxy, including my own, and a reminder to respect informed dissent and beware of ideology subverting evidence.

Heaven and Earth

Doom and Gloom from Copenhagen

2009-04-13T11:28:00.004-04:00

The following video was produced by CO2 Science:

"At a recent meeting of climate alarmists in Copenhagen, Denmark, one of the event's co-chairs -- Katherine Richardson -- stated that "the worst-case IPCC projections, or even worse, are being realized." According to the report of the meeting published in Science, she said that "emissions are soaring, projections of sea level rise are higher than expected, and climate impacts around the world are appearing with increasing frequency." These are powerful headline-grabbing contentions. But are they correct?

H/t to Icecap, where Dr. Brian R. Prattwrites:

Global Warming: An Alternative View

By Brian R. Pratt, P.Geo., Ph.D.

FACT AND FICTION

Even though I consider myself a dedicated environmentalist I cannot accept the claims of anthropogenic - human caused - global warming. My research involves deducing climate back in what we call ‘Deep Time’ - geological eras of millions and billions of years ago - so I think I have enough background to understand the evidence. I know that the factors controlling climate work as an extremely complex, integrated system that cannot be resolved by debate and exchange of opinion.

Therefore the suspicions of any scientist should be aroused by glib assertions like “the science is settled” or “there is a consensus,” because this is not how scientists and engineers operate. Al Gore’s movie and books are so appallingly riddled with mistakes and outlandish exaggerations that they would be laughable if they weren’t taken so seriously by so many. Legislators have even passed laws declaring CO2 to be a pollutant, seemingly unaware of photosynthesis, respiration and biodegradation. Should I feel guilty that my beer gave off CO2 during fermentation and when I opened it? I need something to cry into when I hear of the measures planned to reduce “carbon emissions”, because of the threat these pose to our already economically fragile society.

Here are the facts, as I understand them: solar heat varies cyclically at different frequencies, from the decades to the hundreds of thousands of years. Atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature are linked, but rather than the former driving the latter, it is the other way around and there is a nearly thousand-year lag in the response. The oceans are the great sink for CO2.

Atmospheric CO2 concentration is not uniform around the globe and regional variations are tied to sea-surface temperature because CO2 dissolves in colder sea water while it degasses from warmer sea water. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, yes, but it absorbs only a very small portion of the infrared spectrum and its capacity to do so declines exponentially with concentration. It’s a fact of physics that the CO2 molecule radiates almost none of the heat it can absorb. Moreover, it is such a trace gas that this effect is negligible, and even less so at the low pressures and cold temperatures high in the atmosphere.

All of this explains why, when CO2 concentration is thought to have been much higher in Deep Time such as during the Paleozoic, the surface of the globe did not overheat and the polar regions were still cold.Water vapour is what insulates the Earth and CO2 concentration has nothing to do with cloud generation. Why, then, have anthropogenic global warming promoters seized upon CO2 as the culprit?

BEYOND THE SCIENCE

Climate change has now become so highly politicized that one wonders whom or what to trust. It turns out that the legitimate science in the successive UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports was laundered to such a degree by a very small and select group of experts and bureaucrats charged with preparing the “summaries for policymakers” that they are often contradictory - indeed, some of the scientific contributors have since distanced themselves from these reports.

There has grown a whole industry of taxpayer-funded climate modellers whose equations can�t reproduce last week’s weather let alone past climate change at all, but whose crystal balls universally forecast impending disaster (and of course the urgent need for more research money). Why haven’t physicists pointed out the basic mistakes in the science? Read more here.

The Copenhagen Cabal: Doom and gloom pervaded an international meeting of climate alarmists in this famed city. Click on the image below (or larger image here) to watch a CO2 Science produced video presentation of this editorial.

Foster: An Inconvenient Film

2009-04-12T09:58:00.005-04:00

Peter Foster via the National Post:

Al Gore is about to feature in a new movie, but he’s not going to like it very much. Titled Not Evil Just Wrong: The True Cost of Global Warming Hysteria, the film presents a devastating account of the shaky foundations and hefty price of Mr. Gore’s brand of self-interested and hypocritical alarmism.

Created by the Irish film making duo of Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney — who made another excellent documentary about the “dark side of environmentalism” called Mine Your Own Business — Not Evil provides the perfect rebuttal to Mr. Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

Despite being chock-a-block with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, Mr. Gore’s movie has frightened schoolchildren all over the world, driven the public policy debate, and garnered both an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize for its star.

Not Evil — which is due to be released later this year — will appear at a crucial time. The world’s crisis-beset nations are due to meet in Copenhagen in November to concoct a new policy straitjacket to succeed the meddlesome but utterly failed Kyoto Accord. If global warming's U.N.-based ringmasters have their way, this will lead to a slashing of industrial production in developed countries and to a huge extension of boondoggle redistributionist schemes to fund “green” technologies in developing countries.

Higher taxes, closed factories. Otherwise known as the "green" economy.
More about Not Evil Just Wrong here.

Update: Thanks to Magnus in the comments, here is another video with Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney being interviewed by Sean Hannity on Fox News.

Climate Depot

2009-04-10T00:50:00.002-04:00

Marc Morano no longer works for Senator James Inhofe. But Morano has expanded his campaign to bring reality to the climate change debate with his new website.

Bookmark it now.

NASA links arctic ice melt to human activity

2009-04-10T00:38:00.004-04:00

But not because of those those CO2 emissions that the alarmists like the Goreacle and kooky Suzuki would have you believe. Noooo. This study reaches a rather surprising conclusion.

New research from NASA suggests that the Arctic warming trend seen in recent decades has indeed resulted from human activities: but not, as is widely assumed at present, those leading to carbon dioxide emissions. Rather, Arctic warming has been caused in large part by laws introduced to improve air quality and fight acid rain.

Dr Drew Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies has led a new study which indicates that much of the general upward trend in temperatures since the 1970s - particularly in the Arctic - may have resulted from changes in levels of solid "aerosol" particles in the atmosphere, rather than elevated CO2.

Shindell's research indicates that, ironically, much of the rise in polar temperature seen over the last few decades may have resulted from US and European restrictions on sulphur emissions. According to NASA:
Sulfates, which come primarily from the burning of coal and oil, scatter incoming solar radiation and have a net cooling effect on climate. Over the past three decades, the United States and European countries have passed a series of laws that have reduced sulfate emissions by 50 percent. While improving air quality and aiding public health, the result has been less atmospheric cooling from sulfates.
Meanwhile, levels of black-carbon aerosols (soot, in other words) have been rising, largely driven by greater industrialisation in Asia. Soot, rather than reflecting heat as sulphates do, traps solar energy in the atmosphere and warms things up.

More info at the NASA website.

h/t: Captain Ed.

Obama to save the planet

2009-04-08T21:57:00.003-04:00

with Geoengineering:

WASHINGTON – The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."

Holdren outlined several "tipping points" involving global warming that could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of "really intolerable consequences," he said.

Twice in a half-hour interview, Holdren compared global warming to being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog."

You can't make this stuff up. The lunatics are now officially in charge of the asylum - (no disrespect to lunatics intended).

So how do you like our green world?

2009-04-04T18:08:00.007-04:00

Those who have been lobbying for a "green economy" no longer need to look very far to see an example of what they wish for.

We are now experiencing it first hand.

The always eloquent (and it would seem, the lone voice of sanity at our state owned broadcaster) Rex Murphy looks at our current economic situation and asks,

"Is there no light amid all this gloom?"

Well, if you are among the great tribe of global warming catastrophists, surely there is. If the industrial economies of the world are in a forced slowdown, if auto companies - the manufacturers of those demonic gas-guzzling SUVs - are facing ruin, if long-standing business are cutting their work forces by 20 per cent and 30 per cent and 40 per cent, if people are buying less and, consequently, business is making less, then surely the entire world's carbon emissions are, per necessitatem, going down. The world is burning less oil, because the world is doing less.

(...)

Thus, though it may be cruel and ironic, what the preachments of Al Gore and David Suzuki have failed to achieve, the crisis of the world's banking systems and consequent recession will accomplish.

All this should come as no surprise. At least not to those of us who have been following the radical environmental movement and the global warming fear mongers. After all, it's not like they've kept their plans a secret:

From an interview with Council of the World Economic Forum co-chairman Maurice Strong, in which he outlines the plot of a novel "he would love to compose if only he could write":

"Each year, [Strong] explains as background to... the novel's plot, the World Economic Forum convenes in Davos, Switzerland. Over 1,000 CEO's, prime ministers, finance ministers, and leading academics gather in February to attend meetings and set economic agendas for the year ahead. With this as a setting, he then says: 'What if a small group of these world leaders were to conclude that the principle risk to the earth comes from the actions of the rich countries? ...In order to save the planet, the group decides: Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring this about?'

"'This group of world leaders,' he continues, 'forms a secret society to bring about an economic collapse. It's February. They're all at Davos. These aren't terrorists. They're world leaders. They have positioned themselves in the world's commodities and stock markets. They've engineered, using their access to stock markets and computers and gold supplies, a panic. Then, they prevent the world's stock markets from closing. They jam the gears. They hire mercenaries who hold the rest of the world leaders at Davos as hostage. The markets can't close...' This is Maurice Strong. He knows these world leaders. He is, in fact, co-chairman of the Council of the World Economic Forum. He sits at the fulcrum of power. He is in a position to do it. 'I probably shouldn't be saying things like this.'"

It's not unfolding exactly the way that Chairman Mo envisioned it back in 1998.
But it's way too similar.

Green energy destroys 2 jobs for every 1 created, study finds

2009-03-31T00:20:00.002-04:00

via Bloomberg:

Job Losses From Obama Green Stimulus Foreseen in Spanish Study

By Gianluca Baratti

March 27 (Bloomberg) -- Subsidizing renewable energy in the U.S. may destroy two jobs for every one created if Spain’s experience with windmills and solar farms is any guide.

For every new position that depends on energy price supports, at least 2.2 jobs in other industries will disappear, according to a study from King Juan Carlos University in Madrid.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget proposal contains about $20 billion in tax incentives for clean-energy programs. In Spain, where wind turbines provided 11 percent of power demand last year, generators earn rates as much as 11 times more for renewable energy compared with burning fossil fuels.

The premiums paid for solar, biomass, wave and wind power - - which are charged to consumers in their bills -- translated into a $774,000 cost for each Spanish “green job” created since 2000, said Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at the university and author of the report.

“The loss of jobs could be greater if you account for the amount of lost industry that moves out of the country due to higher energy prices,” he said in an interview.

h/t: FoxNation

The automakers need customers, not bailouts

2009-03-11T16:50:00.003-04:00

While Obama gleefully spends a trillion or so dollars in a futile attempt to spend the US out of recession, here's surprising news about one country doing something sensible.

China February Auto Sales Rise 25% After Tax Cuts

The Commies are acting like capitalists and our Capitalist leaders are spending like commies. Tell me how screwed up the world is right now!

The Failure of Obamanomics

2009-03-10T23:52:00.000-04:00

Obama Fiddles While Wall Street Burns by Jed Babbin

But President Obama -- having first claimed that only government can solve the economic problems -- is failing to provide any solutions Wall Street can believe in.

RTWT.

McClintock: An Inconvenient Question

2009-03-10T20:17:00.002-04:00

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York on the contradictions of green policies:

Via Reason.com

Goldenberg: AGW = Al Gore Warming

2009-03-10T19:59:00.004-04:00

NOAA Meteorologist Claims 'Gross, Blatant Censorship' for Speaking Out Against Climate Change Alarmism

Stanley Goldenberg of NOAA's Hurricane Research Division tells ICCC audience global warming has no measurable impact on hurricane activity.

By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
3/9/2009 8:06:09 PM

You often hear scientists who promote the theory of man-made global warming allege they are victims of censorship. But when it is the other way around – that scientists who dispute that claim are victims of the same thing, you never hear a peep.

That’s what Stanley Goldenberg, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) Hurricane Research Division, told an audience at the The Heartland Institute’s 2009 International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) in New York on March 9. Voices that counter global warming alarmism are often subject to censorship, he said.

“The debate, as you also know, is masked by media censorship, bias and distortion,” Goldenberg said. “I’m interviewed quite bit on many, many levels and thankfully most of our interviews are benign. They’re trying to get out to the public.”

Goldenberg explained that as a skeptic of the anthropogenic global warming theory, he had firsthand experience, and he challenged the media to give a positive spin to the ICCC event.

“[I]’ve seen gross, gross blatant censorship,” Goldenberg said. “If you’re here from the media I’d be glad to argue with you from firsthand experience. I challenge anybody from a mainstream media source to take or print a positive report on this conference. They won’t get it past the editor. If they do, miracles do happen.”

Goldenberg is known for his research on how hurricane activity variability can be influenced on anything from intraseasonal to multi-decadal time scales. He disputes the theory hurricanes are significantly impacted by global warming. And he claimed his colleagues at other hurricane research institutions dispute it as well.

“Not a single, to my knowledge – not a single scientist at the National Hurricane Center, the Hurricane Research Division, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center – I’m trying to find out about the Central Pacific Hurricane Center – believe that hurricanes – numbers, activity – that there’s any measurable impact from any so-called global warming.”

Goldenberg explained there were differences between the terms anthropogenic global warming (AGW), referred to as “Al Gore warming” and global warming or climate change when used. He also alluded to the media’s willingness to use natural catastrophe to propagate this alarmism.

“Just because climate change has happened doesn’t mean AGW,” Goldenberg said. “Just because weather disasters happen doesn’t mean AGW. And an inconvenient truth that most of the media are speaking of, CAGW – that’s very important. They’re not just talking about AGW, but catastrophic [anthropogenic global warming]. If we just have a little bit of warming from manmade causes, nobody really cares, but they’re talking about it’s going to be catastrophic.”

A recent Business & Media Institute analysis discovered global warming alarmists often link weather phenomena like tornadoes, hurricanes, ice melt, droughts and wildfires with global warming and the media embrace the stories. However, when wintry weather hits places that aren’t accustomed to it – like recent snows in Las Vegas and New Orleans – the news coverage isn’t as quick to point their finger at the possibility of global cooling.

More links to news stories about the ICCC.

Vaclav Klaus

2009-03-09T23:29:00.001-04:00

The President of a former Communist country has some good advice for the president of the country known so far as the world's bastion of capitalism.

Massive government spending and tighter regulation would prolong recession, Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Monday, as he urged U.S. President Barack Obama not to endanger the free market economy in his response to the financial crisis.

PM Harper makes the TV circuit in the US

2009-02-25T09:15:00.008-05:00

Following the visit on President Obama to Canada, our PM Stephen Harper is staying in the limelight by speaking out on the US networks.

With Larry Kudlow on CNBC.

And also with Alexis Glick on Fox Business Network

click images to play videos

Harper's comments on oil production, the Oil Sands and carbon emissions are interesting. His position seems to be that Canada will move to reduce carbon emissions and he welcomes the fact that the US under Obama will do the same, thus leveling the playing field.

The rest of the conversations center on the economy and economic stimulus.

Mr. Global Warming

2009-02-17T23:17:00.001-05:00

The unauthorized biography, courtesy Celestial Junk.

h/t

Will history repeat itself?

2009-02-14T22:51:00.002-05:00

Avner Mandelman asks (Report on Business)if the stimulus mania currently possessing western politicians is just a case of history repeating itself.

Imagine this: A group of community organizers, aided by mesmerizing rhetoric and calls for equality, fraternity and hope, remove the privileged from power. But the government they inherit is heavily in debt to the tune of a third of the GDP. The debt comes due, the government can't pay, so the economy tanks.

What to do? Taxes are out - the taxpayers have fled (or are broke). The ingenious solution: Print more money as a stimulus package! What about interest on the printed stimulus? Piffle. Just print it also!

This is not the United States in 2009 - at least not yet. It is France, 1789, right after the French Revolution.

Why mention this history?

Well, because the results weren't very pretty.

Maine cold breaks 84 year record

2009-02-11T00:07:00.002-05:00

Just because you won't see this in the main stream media:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geological Survey and Maine State Climate Office announced today that a minus-50 reading in northwestern Maine held up to scientific scrutiny.

That beats Maine's old record of 48 below zero set in 1925 in Van Buren, and ties the record for coldest temperature recorded in New England. That reading was made in 1933 in Bloomfield, Vt.

The record on New Hampshire's Mount Washington is minus-47.

Maine's minus-50 reading was made on Jan. 16 at a remote site along the Big Black River near the Quebec border as the region was in the grip of a blast of arctic air.