May 19, 2008
You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up!
So Obama thinks the rest of the world gets to have a say on how much I eat and where I set my thermostat. Like I always say, real life is very often a Monty Python skit. What's frightening is that this guy could be President.
I would love to see what him and Bitterchelle spend on groceries and what their utility bills are. I bet they aren't sitting under blankets during the cold Chicago winters, or sweating during the summer without air conditioning.
Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
May 18, 2008
Feed
I think I have the feed fixed, thanks to Jay. He sent me some instructions, which I managed to implement without blowing up the blog.
Pigeon hole: Nifty!
May 9, 2008
'Remembrance of Panics Past'
At the first Earth Day celebration, in 1969, environmentalist Nigel Calder warned, "The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind."C.C. Wallen of the World Meteorological Organization said, "The cooling since 1940 has been large enough and consistent enough that it will not soon be reversed."
In 1968, professor Paul Ehrlich, former Vice President Al Gore's hero and mentor, predicted that there would be a major food shortage in the U.S. and "in the 1970s . . . hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death."
Ehrlich forecast that 65 million Americans would die of starvation between 1980 and 1989, and that by 1999 the U.S. population would have declined to 22.6 million.
Ehrlich's predictions about England were gloomier: "If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000."
In 1972, a report was written for the Club of Rome warning that the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury and silver by 1985, tin by 1987 and petroleum, copper, lead and natural gas by 1992.
Gordon Taylor, in his 1970 book "The Doomsday Book," said Americans were using 50% of the world's resources and "by 2000 they (Americans) will, if permitted, be using all of them."
In 1975, the Environmental Fund took out full-page ads warning, "The World as we know it will likely be ruined by the year 2000."
Harvard biologist George Wald in 1970 warned, "Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." That was the same year that Sen. Gaylord Nelson warned, in Look magazine, that by 1995 "somewhere between 75% and 85% of all the species of living animals will be extinct."
Pigeon hole: You Don't Say?
Do I Have To?
I see headlines like this: McCain planning climate change tour -- and I ask once again, do I really have to vote for this guy? He sure doesn't make it easy.
Pigeon hole: ARGH!!
May 8, 2008
How High?
So how high do energy prices need to go before we can muster the public will to overcome the lock the environmentalist faction has on utilizing our native energy sources?
Pigeon hole: Not A Klew
May 6, 2008
Celeb Hippy-crites
Is the hot air emitted by celebrities when they spout ecological platitudes a greenhouse gas?
Pigeon hole: Blithering Fools
April 30, 2008
Why So Bitter?
I've been thinking about Michelle Obama lately. I admit, I don't get her. She's my age, but that's about all we have in common. She has a loving husband, healthy children, an Ivy League education, and makes more money than me and my entire family combined. And yet, she seems so angry, and dare I say it, bitter. In Michelle Obama's world, living in America sucks. And yet, she is blessed with a life few of us will ever have. She doesn't have to worry about her next paycheck, or paying a credit card bill, or paying her rent when it goes up. I doubt she ever lived out of the family car when she was a teenager. But instead of feeling blessed at what being an American woman brings her, she's angry; all the time, it would seem.
I'm not rich, I never went to college -- I was too busy working as a teenager to help support my family. And no, not in the U.S.A., but in Canada, that perfect society, or so the liberals would have us believe. I have a roof over my head, and food on the table, and I'll never be rich and powerful like Mrs. Obama. But you know what? I thank God everyday I was born in this country. I am blessed. Mrs.Obama may not think she is, but I know I am. I can vote, I was educated, I know I won't be murdered by my family for besmirching some disgusting concept of honour, or stoned to death for talking to a man who isn't a male relative. I don't have to worry about armed gangs slaughtering me and my family, or wonder where my next bowl of rice will come from. Each and every one of us in this country is blessed beyond compare to so many who suffer in this world.
John Edwards talked about 'Two Americas', and perhaps he was right. There's the America he and Mrs. Obama inhabit, the one that's hopeless and never good enough. Then there's mine, the one I'm grateful for and wouldn't change for a life in any other country in the world. Sure, we all go through hard times. But that's life. No one promised us we'd have perfection. It isn't possible. All we can do is be the best people we can be with the life we have, and to be thankful for the blessings we've been given. And we've certainly been given many. It's sad that Michelle Obama will never realize that.
Pigeon hole: God, Family, Country
[snorfle]
I love the title of this article: Dude, Where's My Recession?
And if that weren't enough, he throws in a Terminator analogy for good measure.
[snorfles some more]
Pigeon hole: For Your Perusal
I Hate That!
You just discover a product you really like, and when you got to buy more, find out it's been discontinued! Last year, at Bath & Body Works, I bought a shower gel form a new line they were carrying, Aquatanica Spa. I really liked it it -- it had a fresh oceany sorta scent, made with seaweed and other sea type ingredients. I went to the website, and they've discontinued it! The bottle said it was a line from France, but it looks like it was actually made by B&B W since I can't find it anywhere else but on Ebay. I'm bummed. My favourite showergel by Aveda (sage and cedar), which I'd used for years, was discontinued last year, and this was what I'd replaced it with. To add insult to injury, the B&B site recommended I try instead one of their other lines, which they claim is similar, but it's almond scented! Bleah! Almonds do not smell like the ocean where I come from.
/ticked off
Pigeon hole: ARGH!!
Blog Tech Stuff
Just an FYI that I'm trying to get a quote on how much it will cost to get the RSS feed fixed. I know it's been broken for something like two years, but I just wasn't blogging enough for me to want to spend more money on the place :) Since I'm blogging more regularly now, I figured it was time to get it fixed. Depending on the cost, of course. As for all the other broken bits, it's been suggested I switch over to WordPress, but while I'm blogging more, I'm not sure I'm blogging enough to justify what that would cost to have installed and set up. Same thing with just upgrading to the newest MT, which seems to do all the things I've wanted for quite a while.
So, RSS first, and then see if it's worth doing a complete overhaul at some later date.
Pigeon hole: Not A Klew
April 29, 2008
Travel Notes
We stayed at the Gold Hill Hotel this weekend, which is the oldest hotel in Nevada. Highly recommend it if you're in the Virginia City area. On Tuesday nights, they have historical lectures w/barbecue for $15 a person.
Will have photos later.
Pigeon hole: Rummaging In the Attic
'An Anatomy of Surrender'
Motivated by fear and multiculturalism, too many Westerners are acquiescing to creeping sharia.
An excerpt:
Western legislatures and courts have reinforced the “spirit of appeasement.” In 2005, Norway’s parliament, with virtually no public discussion or media coverage, criminalized religious insults (and placed the burden of proof on the defendant). Last year, that country’s most celebrated lawyer, Tor Erling Staff, argued that the punishment for honor killing should be less than for other murders, because it’s arrogant for us to expect Muslim men to conform to our society’s norms. Also in 2007, in one of several instances in which magistrates sworn to uphold German law have followed sharia instead, a Frankfurt judge rejected a Muslim woman’s request for a quick divorce from her brutally abusive husband; after all, under the Koran he had the right to beat her.Those who dare to defy the West’s new sharia-based strictures and speak their minds now risk prosecution in some countries. In 2006, legendary author Oriana Fallaci, dying of cancer, went on trial in Italy for slurring Islam; three years earlier, she had defended herself in a French court against a similar charge. (Fallaci was ultimately found not guilty in both cases.) More recently, Canadian provinces ordered publisher Ezra Levant and journalist Mark Steyn to face human rights tribunals, the former for reprinting the Jyllands-Posten cartoons, the latter for writing critically about Islam in Maclean’s.
Even as Western authorities have hassled Islam’s critics, they’ve honored jihadists and their supporters. In 2005, Queen Elizabeth knighted Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain, a man who had called for the death of Salman Rushdie. Also that year, London mayor Ken Livingstone ludicrously praised Qaradawi as “progressive”—and, in response to gay activists who pointed out that Qaradawi had defended the death penalty for homosexuals, issued a dissertation-length dossier whitewashing the Sunni scholar and trying to blacken the activists’ reputations. Of all the West’s leaders, however, few can hold a candle to Piet Hein Donner, who in 2006, as Dutch minister of justice, said that if voters wanted to bring sharia to the Netherlands—where Muslims will soon be a majority in major cities—“it would be a disgrace to say, ‘This is not permitted!’ ”
Pigeon hole: Warm, Fuzzy, "Religion of Peace" Moment
Question Time
They note that "the government-subsidized burning of our food supply to create ethanol has both increased carbon dioxide emissions and driven up food prices at a startling rate" and join the growing chorus to end the mandate.Add the fact that it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than you get out of it, and that it requires an enormous amount of another increasingly precious resource — water — in order to process this inefficient fuel, and you wonder how ethanol was ever considered green to begin with.
So who's going to pull a George Stephanopoulos, and ask Obama about his support for Third-World-starving ethanol policy, just ahead of the Indiana primary?
Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
April 28, 2008
Bitter Californians
From an Obama delegate:
* Message # 3: If someone in SF asks you about those "strange rural people in PA"...don't indulge their liberal, latte drinking bull [poop]...Just tell them if they want to understand rural and ethnic PA that they should get in the Prius's and drive down to Bakersfield or any of the other mid state towns in California where there are people who actually lead ordinary lives and care about God and own guns....
Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
That About Covers It
The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death.
Word.
Read the rest of Chickenfeedhawks.
Pigeon hole: Hanson, Goldberg, & Steyn
April 24, 2008
Criminal
Here's another good article on the suffering ethanol has wreaked across the globe. One wonders how people like Al Gore and his ilk sleep at night. Of course, him his other wealthy frineds never have to worry about going hungry, do they?
Global Food Riots: Made in Washington, D.C.
That reminds me of the House Hunters episode we saw last night. Talk about the hypocrisy of the modern enviro nut. This well off couple who lived in New Mexico wanted a vacation home on the Oregon Coast. They prattled on about what great people they were because they recycled, and lived 'green'. And then they prattled on about how the vacation home they bought just had to be 'green' with energy saving appliances, etc.. They seemed to have not a clue about what hypocrites they were! If they're so interested in saving the planet and carbon footprints, why on earth would they want two homes? And just for the two of them? Not to mention two large homes. Homes that require either driving two days to get to or flying! By the end of the episode, I just wanted to slap them. Okay, I wanted to do that way before the end of the episode. I admit it.
Pigeon hole: Worried & Watchful
April 23, 2008
Fallen Angels
Anyone else remember the Niven/Pournelle novel form the eighties, "Fallen Angels"?
Basically, the Earth is facing an Ice Age, while environmentalists are still going on about global warming.
Turns out it might not be so fictional after all:
Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh
Pigeon hole: For Your Perusal
April 21, 2008
Chickens Coming home To Roost
Except there's nothing to feed them.
Food Crisis Shows How Bad Policies Can Be Deadly
Pigeon hole: Worried & Watchful
April 16, 2008
Beautiful
Rush just played the Army Chorus singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic from the Pope thing this morning. I actually started to cry at my desk. Really amazingly beautiful performance.
Pigeon hole: God, Family, Country
April 12, 2008
Some Things Never Change
"The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States."
It's not what you think. Well, maybe it is. But the answer lies here.
Pigeon hole: Blithering Fools
April 6, 2008
Hot Damn!
I'd forgotten how good my smoked habanero salsa is. I just made some for tonight's dinner, and whoa! I should bottle and sell the stuff [g]
Pigeon hole: A Shortcut to Mushrooms
March 17, 2008
New Entry On the 'Awesome Possum Show List'
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles! We watched all of them over the course of the weekend, and loved it to pieces! What a great show!
Pigeon hole: Here Be Dragons
March 8, 2008
In Ur Base, Reading Ur Fic
This is the most cracktastic piece of fic. I really and truly was weeping with laughter.
Why do you need to go read this? It's Torchwood/LOLcats. Really.
Shoo!
Pigeon hole: Quill & Ink
March 7, 2008
Fair Play
I thought this was interesting:
British sense of fair play proven by science
The British sense of fair play has been scientifically proven by experiments held in 16 cities which show that, by comparison, the Russians and Greeks thirst for revenge.The idealised games held around the world have shed new light on the way in which people co-operate for the common good - and what happens when they don't.
The research published today in the journal Science shows that taking revenge is more common in relatively corrupt and undemocratic traditional societies based on authoritarian and parochial social institutions, where citizens think it is acceptable to dodge taxes or flout laws because criminal acts frequently go unpunished.
[...]
In a commentary in the journal Science, Prof Herbert Gintis of the Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico, confirms how: "Anti-social punishment was rare in the most democratic societies and very common otherwise."Using the World Democracy Audit evaluation of countries' performance in political rights, civil liberties, press freedom and corruption, the top six performers among the countries studied were also in the lowest seven for anti-social punishment. These were the USA, UK, Germany, Denmark, Australia and Switzerland."
He adds: "Their results suggest that the success of democratic market societies may depend critically upon moral virtues as well as material interests, so the depiction of civil society as the sphere of 'naked self-interest' is radically incorrect."
Pigeon hole: For Your Perusal
March 5, 2008
Can We Say, "Duh!"?
Study: Illegal immigration costs border counties millions
Pigeon hole: Repelling the Invasion
Not Average
Like that's a surprise.
Americans love mobile phones more than Internet: study
Americans would find it harder to part with their mobile phones than the Internet, television or landline telephones, according to a survey released Wednesday.
Nuh uh! I have no attachment to my cell phone whatsoever and would give it up over the internet or TV any day. I probably use my cell phone once or twice a month, more on vacations. But the internet? [HUGS] Nope, not giving that up!
Pigeon hole: You Don't Say?
March 4, 2008
Nifty
I was watching FNC, and they said if you went to their website, you could watch their Strategy Room as a live feed on the internet when the main broadcast isn't airing them. I decided to check it out. It's pretty neat! Though I seem incapable of listening to them and the TV at the same time.
In other election news, I watched McCain's speech and tried not to wallow in depression :) Really and truly, I'm trying to prepare myself for the reality of having to vote for him. and I will. I just need a little more time for acceptance!
Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
February 28, 2008
Now, I am an adult...
I can't post this on my livejournal, because it's full of leftist wackos [weg], so Ith told me to post it here...
Today, I saw my first ever anti-abortion protesters in real-life [tm]. I was getting dinner at KFC, and Planned Parenthood is across the street...
I feel so grown-up now! :-)
February 12, 2008
'The Saudi Woman is Always Guilty'
In December 2007, the Saudi English-language daily Arab News published an op-ed by Dania Al-Ghalib titled "The Saudi Woman is Always Guilty." In it, the author describes the condition of the Saudi woman, depicting her as born unwanted and held accountable for everything that happens to her in life - even though she is always the chattel of a man and has no control over anything.The following is the article as it appeared in the Arab News.
Pigeon hole: Warm, Fuzzy, "Religion of Peace" Moment
Abducted, Forced to Convert & Marry Muslim
Via Magic Statistics
Pigeon hole: Warm, Fuzzy, "Religion of Peace" Moment
February 11, 2008
"Has the Archbishop gone bonkers?"
A few weeks ago, I was chatting to a woman who works in an advocacy role for Muslim women in an area that, quite independently of the Bishop of Rochester, she described as a 'no-go area' for non-Muslims. Her clients were women in the process of being sectioned into mental health units in the NHS. This woman, who for obvious reasons begged not to be identified, told me: 'The men get tired of their wives. Or bored. Or maybe the wife objects to her daughter being forced into a marriage she doesn't want. Or maybe she starts wearing western clothes.There can be many reasons. The women are sent for assessment to a hospital. The GP referring them is Muslim. The psychiatrist assessing them is Muslim and male. I have sat in these assessments where the psychiatrist will not look the woman patient in the eye because she is a woman. Can you imagine! A psychiatrist refusing to look his patient in the eye? The woman speaks little or no English. She is sectioned. She is divorced. There are lots of these women in there, locked up in these hospitals. Why don't you people write about this?'My interlocuter went very red and almost started to cry. Instead, she began shouting at me. I was a member of the press. 'You must write about this,' she begged.
'I can't,' I said. 'Not unless you become a whistle-blower. Or give me some evidence. Or something.'
She shook her head. 'I can't be identified,' she said. 'I would be killed. And so would the women.'
So there you have it. After weeks of wondering what to do, inspired by the Archbishop, I've taken her word that she is telling the truth, respected her anonymity, and written it anyway.
Via KC Anathema
Pigeon hole: Warm, Fuzzy, "Religion of Peace" Moment
Personal Update
If anyone cares. Which I'm pretty sure they don't. But.
There really isn't a whole lot to report. I was really sick over Xmas, and then again a few weeks ago. I swear I seem to get seriously ill after having major dental work done. This time, it was a root canal. It's been two months, and it still hurts. They said it can hurt up to three months after, but I'm getting tired of it all.
We went to visit the family in Utah the second week of January. Had a relaxing sort of time. I always forget how much warmed it is without the coastal dampness, even though the temperature is 20 degrees cooler.
Nin has been working lots of nights, so making dinners has been a chore, plus I haven't been feeling well, but she starts on more days this week. I'm going to try and make homemade chow mein for the first time, to go with the gyoza we got at Trader Joe's.
Movies: Enchanted!!! We adored it! Saw it twice, bought the soundtrack. It was charming and fun and struck just the right balance. Really strong marriage and family message too.
TV: Oh, the writer's strike! not that I didn't support them, but I'm still going to whine about the truncated TV season. Especially since Peter Wingfield finally got a role on 24 this season, and now we won't see him till 2009! Argh!
Speaking of Peter, Nin and I will be going to the PWFC Road Trip in Vegas this year. Should be much fun! Unfortunately, I don't think we can do Denver Worldcon.
Writing, I've been doing some. In all my series pretty much. Let's see...
I actually wrote a Highlander/Twilight Zone story. I was pretty pleased with it: Silver Service
Two 'anti-Valentine Day' stories: So Close, and Live to Tell
And I started a Queen of Swords series! I loved it when it was on, and had the urge to pick up where the series left off: Santa Elena Welcomes You
And my current Work In Progress, which utilizes the Star Trek Mirror Universe: I Remember You Not Fondly
Now you know why I haven't been so good with the blogging!
That's the recap. Now, I need to get some dinner!
Pigeon hole: Not A Klew
February 10, 2008
A Soldier & His Dogs
Two homeless Iraqi dogs – Mama and Boris – are now safely on American soil thanks to the efforts of a soldier’s family, a U.S. senator, and the Best Friends rapid response team.Peter and doghouseSgt. Peter Neesley, on his second tour of duty with the U.S. Army, began feeding a mama dog and her two puppies when he patrolled a Baghdad neighborhood. After one of the puppies was hit by a car and killed, Peter built them a red-and-white doghouse – equipped with blankets, a mattress and an Army insignia above the door. He lured the mama dog and her remaining puppy to the doghouse, which he placed just outside the military base wall.
And then he e-mailed his family, sending them photos of the black Lab mix and her white-and-brown spotted puppy, and said he’d decided to fly the dogs home when he returned to the states in six months.
“Our family has always had dogs or cats and other little critters,” says his sister, Carey Neesley. “Peter was always bringing strays home.”
But on Christmas Day, Peter, just 28, died in his sleep in his barracks (no cause of death has been released) before he could send the dogs home. His soldier friends continued to feed Mama and Boris and watch out for them.
Pigeon hole: God, Family, Country
February 9, 2008
'Obama, the Progressive Pragmatist?'
I thought this was an interesting article.
An excerpt:
...Here is what one successful and high-profile political consultant—one who has worked for both Democrats and Republicans—told me recently: "What most people don't understand is that Hillary is the idealist and Obama is the pragmatist."It's an assessment that will surely surprise many people. Clinton, after all, is the "experience" candidate with five- and 10-point plans on pretty much every possible policy topic, including housing, healthcare, and technological innovation. And critics will point to her Iraq war vote in 2002 as the ultimate pragmatic political move. Obama, on the other hand, is more noted for soaring speeches about hope and unity than for Washington wonkery. He was also rated the most liberal U.S. senator in 2007 by National Journal. Yet this veteran politico was sure that if elected, Clinton would be the one, for instance, to push hard for a government-run, European-style healthcare system that would go far beyond what either she or Obama has suggested so far.
Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
February 8, 2008
'The Sun Also Sets'
An excerpt:
Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles.To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined.
And they're worried about global cooling, not warming.
Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity.
Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.
Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.
This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.
Pigeon hole: For Your Perusal
February 7, 2008
Romney Out
I guess it was inevitable [sigh] So does this mean Huckabee is going to 'do the right thing' now, and drop out? Why should Romney be the only one? Yeah, I'm seriously irritated right now, and really tired of seeing Huckabee's smug smirk on my TV.
Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
February 6, 2008
Depressing
I voted for Romney because the other guys all dropped out, and because he wasn't McCain. But the more I've seen of Romney over the last few weeks, the more I'm liking him. Which just makes this whole McCain thing even more depressing.
Here's hoping that four years form now, there will be a candidate I'll be excited about.
Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
February 2, 2008
GAH!!
This is exactly what I'm talking about. Every time I try and choke back my dislike of McCain, there's crap like this.
Hate speech!??! Far Right? Seriously? So because I think McCain would make a terrible president, and I don't like him, that constitutes hate speech? We may as well roll up the carpets and let the Dems win because when the supposed leaders of our party have stooped to this level, it's all over already.
I thought I could hold my nose and vote for him in November, but I don't know if I can do that now. If McCain and his people would shut their mouths for maybe five minutes, they might drive away a few less voters. Oh, but I'm not 'rational', so they obviously don't want my vote anyway. Nice to know. I've voted Republican in every single election since I turned 18. But John McCain isn't interested. Good luck with that, John. hope it works out for you and your 'rational' friends.
Seriously ticked off this morning.
The full text of the email is below in the extended entry.
There's More!!Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
February 1, 2008
I Voted
My ballot is in the mail. You all know I feel about McCain, so it probably won't be hard to figure out who I voted for. And only seven propositions this year! A one page ballot!
Pigeon hole: Electioneering We Will Go
January 30, 2008
Now That....
..qualified as "And now for something completely different". I'm watching the Hannity and Colmes and they're doing the Luntz focus group segment post debate, and who's in the room with the group but John Cleese! Very strange. I guess you can chalk it up to 'only in California'.
Pigeon hole: You Don't Say?
