We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Amateur addicts always have an excuse, but those who are honest with themselves will admit that it just makes them feel good and that they have addictive tendencies.
Government is failing spectacularly at its core functions, such as budgeting and educating. Yet it continues to multiply its peripheral and esoteric responsibilities, tasks that require it to do things for which it has no aptitude, such as thinking and making common-sense judgments. Government nowadays is not just embarrassing, it is — let us not mince words — inappropriate.
Feel free to punch holes in his argument, but based on his examples it seems to work dramatically - watch his example in Mexico. A guy who exterminated 40,000 elephants by mistake deserves to be listened to.
On a micro, non-desertification level, I have noticed that the quality of the grasses on one of our 50-acre fields at the farm has deteriorated visibly since we have not had cattle there. Of course, our New England meadows are naturally woodlands and not natural grasslands.
15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.
15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
15:3 So he told them this parable:
15:11b "There was a man who had two sons.
15:12 The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them.
15:13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
15:14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.
15:15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.
15:16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.
15:17 But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!
15:18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;
15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."'
15:20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
15:21 Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
15:22 But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
15:23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;
15:24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.
15:25 "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
15:26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.
15:27 He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.'
15:28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.
15:29 But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.
15:30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!'
15:31 Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
15:32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"
First off, a commenter (I wouldn't want to mention any names but his initials are Z.A.C.H.) made a very good suggestion in my AGW post the other day.
According to him, belching volcanoes lower the earth's temperature. This, despite hearing about the dreaded 'greenhouse effect' for the past 50 years.
This esteemed commenter noted that it's estimated when Mt. Pinatubo blew its stack back in '91, the planetary temperature lowered by 1/4 degree.
By implication, then, he was suggesting that we nuke a number of volcanoes, causing them to belch their mightiest into the atmosphere, thereby saving the planet from immolation because of your neighbor's SUV. At 1/4 degree of cooling apiece, I figure about a dozen of them should hold things off for at least a few decades, then we can set off a few more should the need arise.
The commenter raised the issue of having to breathe all that volcanic dust, but I quickly pointed out that (1) at least volcanic dust was natural and organic, as referred to smog and smoke, and (2) breathing volcanic dust was scientifically proven to be better than melting.
As it turns out, though, we're all wrong on this direst of subjects. Me, I've got 8,144 words spread over twoarticles that's about to get flushed down the toilet because of what I just found out.
Almost every major news site carried this story yesterday, some of them right at the top.
Before we get to the big surprise, though, let's first attack this piece like any AGW screed, just for old time's sake.
It begins:
Global warming has propelled Earth's climate from one of its coldest decades since the last ice age to one of its hottest -- in just one century.
Decades? Decades?? Judging geological climatology by decades is like judging how your day went by evaluating one minute. When you're speaking in global geologic terms, 'decades' are irrelevant.
Ice age? Pardon me? Although it eventually earned the sobriquet Little Ice Age, it only covered a few hundred years, hardly a geologic 'age' by any definition. Slight Cooling Trend Period would be more accurate.
And, if we're admitting the Little Ice Age existed, then doesn't that indicate that the temp must have dropped pretty far for it to have earned such a lofty title? Might this extra-warm period it dropped from be the Medieval Warm Period? But, if so, then why was it missing from Prof. Mann's infamous 'hockey stick' graph that so swayed the Kyoto delegates?
And wait, didn't it say this is just one of the century's hottest decades? You mean, there were other hot decades in the distant past — like the Dust Bowl 30's — but without an SUV or coal plant in sight?
And that was just the first sentence of the article.
But, rather than continue in this vein, let's get right to the facts of the matter.
I guarantee you'll be stunned.
If not for man-made influences, the Earth would be in a very cold phase right now and getting even colder, according to the joint study by Oregon State University and Harvard University.
So, to sum up, SUV owners should be thanked for helping to save the planet. Remember, without them, as the article clearly states, it wouldbe getting even colder right now, with Florida projected to be the last state with unfrozen summers by 2060. See accompanying picture for specific details.
As usual, Maggie's Farm has some suggestions on how you, too, can fight the impending menace of Natural Global Cooling:
— Let your car sit there idling whenever you're not using it. This might cost you a few bucks in gas, but what price, saving the planet?
— Buy some cows and feed them lots of baked beans to encourage high methane output. Methane, remember, is 21 times better at saving our planet than mere CO2.
— Start a campaign to bring back the SST. Because of the ultra-high altitudes it flew at, it was estimated that it did hundreds of times more damage to the upper atmosphere than regular commercial airliners. Put another way, and with what we've learned today, the higher up you go, the more help CO2 can offer.
— If the SST project seems a bit daunting, you can do the same thing from the comfort of your own back yard. Merely start a compost pile, then collect the resultant methane, pump up large weather balloons with it and release them. Once they hit max elevation and pop, you can pat yourself on the back for a job well done. While they cost a bit more, get the ones that don't pop until they hit 50,000 feet as they're deemed to be much more effective than the 30,000-foot model when it comes to preventing the current ice age that's threatening to engulf us all.
The latest scientific results are in, folks. We're literally fighting for the survival of the planet and it's up to each and every one of us to do our part in staving off this menace.
If you won't do it for yourself, do it for the children.
As we often mention here, the (eventual but inevitable) global cooling is a far greater threat than any global warming. The most recent glacial insursion had Manhattan Island under a mile of ice.
You shall hear how Hiawatha Prayed and fasted in the forest, Not for greater skill in hunting, Not for greater craft in fishing, Not for triumphs in the battle, And renown among the warriors, But for profit of the people, For advantage of the nations.
First he built a lodge for fasting, Built a wigwam in the forest, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, In the blithe and pleasant Spring-time, In the Moon of Leaves he built it, And, with dreams and visions many, Seven whole days and nights he fasted.
On the first day of his fasting Through the leafy woods he wandered; Saw the deer start from the thicket, Saw the rabbit in his burrow, Heard the pheasant, Bena, drumming,
Heard the squirrel, Adjidaumo, Rattling in his hoard of acorns, Saw the pigeon, the Omeme, Building nests among the pinetrees, And in flocks the wild-goose, Wawa, Flying to the fen-lands northward, Whirring, wailing far above him. "Master of Life!" he cried, desponding, "Must our lives depend on these things?"
On the next day of his fasting By the river's brink he wandered, Through the Muskoday, the meadow, Saw the wild rice, Mahnomonee, Saw the blueberry, Meenahga, And the strawberry, Odahmin, And the gooseberry, Shahbomin, And the grape.vine, the Bemahgut, Trailing o'er the alder-branches, Filling all the air with fragrance! "Master of Life!" he cried, desponding, "Must our lives depend on these things?"
The entire poem, a collection of Algonquin Indian myths, here, with a little commentary. Read it outloud to your kids or spouse. They will never forget it.
Photo is Augustus Saint-Gaudens' (1848-1907) Hiawatha, marble, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
These people who seem to believe they are the spawn of aliens, animals inside a human body, boys who believe they are girls, and all the other sorts of silly fantasy lives that people put on display today, are people with only the slightest grip on reality.
I would never claim that we shrinks and psychoanalysts have the power to change such unfortunate fantasies/delusions, but seeing other physicians collude with such fantasies disturbs me more than a little bit.
Many rightly criticize Psychiatry for over-pathologizing human variation, but normalizing total weirdness is another matter. Strange is strange, and nobody should be afraid to say so in fear of the Thought Police.
Jeff Daniels, from the TV show The Newsroom, lists out America's standing in the world in a few choice categories. (language warning in effect)
I loved the comment about angels. One of my sisters-in-law believes in them. (Or is it fairies?)
Of course, all of the above could be easily dismissed as 'So what?'. Okay, friggin' Uganda beat us in math. So what? It doesn't make any difference. The only bottom-line question is, would you rather live here or in Uganda?
And there's one facet of life that America's so good at that there's not even a second place:
Weather.
Because our one big mountain range is placed exactly where it is, slightly off to one side, our continent has the vast Food Belt in the center, and on the outside of the eastern coast runs the Gulf Stream current, protecting that side of the continent with a belt of warmth. On the west coast, the Sierras and Cascades act as a buffer, keeping the worse ravages the Pacific has to offer at bay.
In South America, the mountain range is too near the coast, so you end up with very little habitable land on one side and lots of barren or swampy nothingness on the other.
The Eurasian continent is simply too big and is becluttered by large mountain ranges, and what little 'food belt' there is lies in some of the poorest, most underpopulated, underindustrialized countries on the continent, the ex-Russian -stan states.
So, when it comes to a nation's overall weather — you know, the stuff you actually have to live in — ours is so bountiful that, as I said, there's not even a second place.
Funny how lucky Lefties always get with their investments. Everybody still wonders how Harry Reid has $10 million after a life in "government service."
Of course, since the subject is global warming, I suppose I wax redundant.
As you know, every storm, drought, plague, meteor shower, volcanic eruption and earthquakian upheaval is because of your neighbor's SUV. Curse his ragged hide.
This is especially true with large storms, the perfect example of which would be SuperstormSandy, she of the Category 1 level — the lowest hurricane level — with some meteorologists claiming it had dropped down to Tropical Storm level by the time it actually hit land.
The only reason New York City had all the flooding was because Sandy (1) hit at high tide, (2) hit right as there was an extra-large low pressure area out to sea, allowing the tide to rise even higher than normal, and (3) the fact that NYC had been hit by two storms even larger than Sandy in the previous 100 years, both times the sea wall had been breached with the resultant massive flooding, yet they never did anything about it.
In the meantime, how much money has NYC spent on 'green' measures because of the peril of global warming? True; it, too, is supposed to breach the sea walls, but over the course of a century — not the two hours it took Sandy.
This week's example of global warming run amok was Snowquester, the largest, meanest, baddest storm that global warming run amok has yet produced!
So did all the schools. The AGW advocates, however, were thrilled, and were halfway through writing their next article citing Snowquester as just a sign of things to come when the bad news struck.
What the article doesn't mention is that the popular Indonesian volcano is probably belching more CO2 into the atmosphere every half-hour than mankind has over its entire existence.
I find myself wondering how the college students of today can be so full of hate and intolerance that they require mandatory regrooving. Perhaps there is only so much sanctimonious bs one can absorb without vomiting or laughing.
This reminds me of a local town employee who got in a little trouble with his free speech at work and was sent to mandatory diversity training. He told me afterwards "I went to their classes, but it didn't take."
There's a fairly interesting documentary out there called Microcosmos. It's a flick on the world of bugs, a subject I've always been interested in. To all the bugs I inadvertently killed by placing them in glass jars to study when I was a kid — sorry about that. Shit happens.
The documentary did, in one way, set itself apart from your usual documentary fare.
Here's what the narrator says at the beginning:
A meadow in early morning, somewhere on earth. Hidden here is a world as vast as our own, where the weeds are like impenetrable jungles, a stone's a mountain, and even the smallest pond becomes an ocean.
Time passes differently here. An hour is like a day, a day is like a season. And the passing of a season is a lifetime.
To observe this world, we must fall silent now, and listen to its murmurs.
Those are the last words spoken for over an hour.
Herewith I present ten of its more magical moments.
That Damned Interdimensional Barrier
At least, if you're a bug.
Here are four scenes dealing with that dreaded interdimensional barrier — at least, if you're a bug — known as adhesion or surface tension. In the first one, while it probably just looks that way, it appears the ant is having trouble penetrating the bead of water. Yet, in the next scene, the ants are lappin' away around the ol' water hole like a herd of buffaloes.
That brings us to the third part and one of everybody's favorite critters, the water skeeter. Now here's an animal that knows how to use adhesion to its advantage.
But the fourth scene poses something of a question. If the water skeeter is using adhesion to its advantage, what are these guys using? Reverse adhesion?
First off, a commenter (I wouldn't want to mention any names but his initials are Z.A.C.H.) made a very good suggestion in my AGW post the other day.
Some Ivy League Students 
An excerpt from The Song of Hiawatha:
How to Identify
As you know, every storm, drought, plague, meteor shower, volcanic eruption and earthquakian upheaval is because of your neighbor's SUV. Curse his ragged hide.
