Is The Debate Really Over?

Global Warming/Climate Change ala Al Gore is a religion. Like all religions, there are a number of facts you can point to, but there are gaps where you have no facts to lean on. This is where faith comes into the picture. Faith allows you to believe even when you might not have a reason for that belief. Most religions tend to be dogmatic about their beliefs. If I as a Christian believe that Jesus is the only way God established for salvation, and that Jesus is God; that is something that I cannot necessarily prove . . so it is a matter of faith. But if I really do believe that (as I do), then how could I also believe or accept some other religion's belief that directly contradicts this belief? Bottom line is that I cannot. So for me, the matter is settled. There really is no reason for debate. And yet I, as well as other Christians, are more than willing to have that debate with people who do not share my (our) beliefs. I'm not inviting a debate because I am still weighing my own decision. The debate is to hopefully sway others toward my way of seeing things, as well as to refine the argument.

So getting back to Global Warming and specifically Al Gore. Al has been saying for several years now that the Global Warming debate is over. He says that we are beyond that point, that we now need to act on what he believes we as humanity must do, regardless of what the consequences of those actions might be to humanity. He refuses to debate, despite the FACT that there are notable, respected scientists and climatologists who strongly disagree with many of Al's conclusions. Al of course knows what is right, and he carries all the dogmatic, judgmental overtones that you will find in many religions. His is the only way, all others be damned. There are many very serious thinkers out there who want to publicly debate Al Gore. Once Al got his movie out, and won his awards, I'm sure he figured why mess up a good thing with a debate. Why risk having people actually look at his data and his conclusions, and then actually question him? Al stands to make even more money from this scam in the future. I guess I don't blame him for playing it this way. It's too bad because we will be paying for all of this for many, many years to come.

More Global Warming Hype

I'm not sure what draws me so much to this global warming issue. I'm certainly not concerned that the earth is in crisis mode. I think it is more the hypocrisy of those who preach global warming, as well as my own concern about what it will mean if and when we allow people like Al Gore control our energy policies. Al Gore, in response to an environmentalist who dared question the reality of man made global warming, said to this man: "I want to be polite to you," Gore said, in turning him down. "The scientific community has gone through this chapter and verse. We have long since passed the time when we should pretend this is a ‘on the one hand, on the other hand' issue," he said. "It's not a matter of theory or conjecture, for goodness sake," he added.

So is the debate really over? Paul Driessen, in an article titled "Global Warming Bait and Switch", writes this:

"No one yet knows what solar energy fluctuations, planetary orbit shifts, recurrent oscillations in ocean currents, cloud cover variation and other natural forces combined to cause these potent climatic changes. But there is no evidence that they have suddenly been displaced by human CO2 emissions.

Growing numbers of scientists say the climate change debate is far from over, and global warming was never a crisis. Over 650 certified meteorologists and climate scientists are on a US Senate compilation of climate cataclysm skeptics – and 32,000 scientists have signed the Oregon Petition, saying they dispute claims that humans are causing climate change, and the changes will be disastrous."

I would encourage you to read the article. The debate is not over Al.

Federal Control

When Dominion Virginia Power wanted to run power lines along the W&OD bike trail in Loudoun County Virginia, they ran into a long and bitter battle with locals and environmentalists (strangely mostly locals). The major objections had to do with the idea of ripping down trees and putting up steel structures along one of the most beautiful stretches of the bike trail. After years of back and forth, a compromise was struck that probably didn't satisfy either party completely. Hopefully it will work out okay.

We now hear that with the desire of the Obama administration and Congress to impose on us alternative energy such as wind and solar, that the federal government will force state and localities to accept the building of infrastructure wherever the federal government desires. Harry Reid said this week that what the federal government wants to do the federal government will do. If they want to build a stretch of power lines through your neighborhood, you will have no say in it. The federal government, led by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, knows what is best for us. It is for the good of the whole that you will have to just accept what they tell us.

So here we are: the federal government, that symbol of incompetence and waste, is now wanting to take over health care, education, and energy, essentially federalizing all three. Liberals blasted George Bush for what they perceived as him crossing the line in assuming increased presidential powers. With those powers they feared he would force ideals and values on the American public, something that never happened. Now we actually do have a president (and a Congress) who are taking on powers and imposing themselves in our lives in ways that George Bush never would have dreamt of during his years. These same liberals are strangely quiet now. I never could understand how these people, especially the Hollywood types who seem to love questioning authority and government in general, seem to be fine when their brand of government ends up being more intrusive than the one they were criticizing. Someone please explain that.

Joe's Restaurant

Joe owns a pizza restaurant. It's not a big place, maybe about 40 seats. At any given time he has 5 employees working. Joe's been in business now for 5 years. He has never made a profit. Joe says that business is not good because he doesn't advertise enough. Truth is business is not good because he serves lousy pizza. In fact nothing he serves on his limited menu is all that good. People come once and never come back, so most of Joe's customers are tourists who don't know any better. It's amazing that Joe stays in business.

I talked with Joe awhile back and he said he was ready to make a change at his restaurant. He was going to increase the size by adding enough space for another 60 seats. He was also going to add a few more items to his menu. Even though he has been losing money since he opened, he figured if he just invested another $100,000 into the business, things would get better. To pay for it he said he would just raise the prices on the menu. I asked him if he was going to change anything about the pizza and he said no. I asked him if he was going to change anything about any of the food he currently serves, and he said no. I asked him if he had ever prepared the kinds of menu items he was considering adding, and he said no. I shook my head, wondering if Joe had any business sense at all.

Joe went ahead and built his addition to the restaurant. He added a few more items to his menu, still everything he served was pretty bad. People stayed away just like they did before. They knew the food was terrible, the service was inconsistent, and it was expensive. People figured they could make a better pizza on their own. No one could understand how Joe stayed in business for this long. Despite having few customers, he always kept a staff of 5 people on duty, even though they mostly just sat around doing nothing.

When I think of what is going on with our country, specifically how much money is being spent in the name of "stimulus" and how much money is being added toward bigger governmental programs, as well as new programs, I think of Joe's restaurant. President Obama wants to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into a nationalized health program, billions of dollars into a larger more intrusive federal educational system, hundreds of billions of dollars into an unproven energy plan, and on and on. You would think that there must be a current governmental program or department that serves as a model for excellence, a model that Obama could point to and say, "this is the kind of excellence I want to see applied to all these larger, newer programs". I wonder what that program or that department could be. The IRS? The current Department of Education? HHS?

Just like Joe's pizza, the federal government is not very good at what it does. If it were a business, it should probably go out of business. Instead, Barack Obama believes that if only we spend more money, add more items to the agenda, and charge citizens more money for all these great services, then everything will be good. Before spending all this money, increasing its size, and adding even more items to its menu, maybe the government should prove that it can get things right with what it currently serves. Right now their pizza stinks. And here we are ready to give them even more money to make even more pizza that stinks. Does that make any sense to anyone?

Imagine if Joe's restaurant was in your area, along with 6 other pizza restaurants. Now imagine that Joe had the power (or the money) to close down the other 6 restaurants, leaving his as the only choice if you wanted pizza. If you like your pizza, it's kind of a scary proposition.

Global Warming Hype, Part 3

Here, in more detail, is additional information regarding the scam known as global warming or "climate change" (amazing to me how the fact that our climate changes is considered a crisis), as well as more on Dr. Harper's testimony to a Senate sub-committee. I know there are people perhaps reading this that probably think I am a kook for not buying into this scam, but the consequences of following Al Gore and his minions is just scary. Billions of dollars will be thrown at a problem that doesn't exist. People talk about man made global warming, but this is really a man made crisis scam. For those who believe the debate is over . . it is just beginning. I'm personally ready for a sensible debate, based on facts. So far we have been fed a steady diet of bad information from people who start with their own agenda and conclusions, then go out to find data that supports those conclusions. That's okay, we all tend to do that. There is a problem though when the data they use is just wrong, or they disregard other data that contradicts their agenda.

A new documentary is coming out soon: Not Evil, Just Wrong. It counters Al Gore's film. Let's see how the media and schools treat it.

Global Warming Hype, Part 2

I've come to believe (very strongly) that what might ultimately destroy the world is not supposed global warming, but the consequences of policies created in order to fight supposed global warming. If you get the impression that I don't believe in global warming, you are correct. It basically doesn't exist, at least not in the Al Gore sense of global warming. Fortunately more and more scientists are stepping up to make this argument. And they are using science as their weapon, rather than fear and emotion. What we are in store for if the global warming zealots (yes, it is a religion) get their way is unbelievably heavy regulation and taxation on energy that will certainly stifle our economy, if not destroy it. People like Al Gore will get rich at our expense. Huge amounts of money will go toward alternative fuels that are unproven and/or inadequate to provide for our energy needs. Can we become more energy efficient? Sure. Should we? Sure. I mean, why not? I'm all for conserving resources, living simple, and being good stewards. I like for things to be clean. But where the zealots are wanting to take this country (and the world) is getting a bit scary. Their data is largely wrong. Their interpretation of the data is largely wrong. And yet their interpretations are preached about and blindly accepted in schools, in the media, and in Washington. Can you handle a counter argument? Here is a piece about William Harper, Physics professor at Princeton. Below is one of his statements to the U.S. Senate on February 25, 2009:

"The climate is warming and CO2 is increasing. Doesn't this prove that CO2 is causing global warming through the greenhouse effect? No, the current warming period began about 1800 at the end of the little ice age, long before there was an appreciable increase of CO2. There have been similar and even larger warmings several times in the 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age. These earlier warmings clearly had nothing to do with the combustion of fossil fuels. The current warming also seems to be due mostly to natural causes, not to increasing levels of carbon dioxide. Over the past ten years there has been no global warming, and in fact a slight cooling. This is not at all what was predicted by the IPCC models."

I Don't Get It

Let me see if I have this straight: for the past several months, politicians have been railing against corporations and banks for spending millions of dollars that these institutions don't seem to have, but these same politicians don't seem to be bothered when they themselves are spending billions of dollars that our country does not have. These clowns are steering our country over a cliff. President Obama clearly sees the federal government as the only entity with the ability and the integrity to spend our money, decide what and where children should learn, and dictate how and where we get our health care. He is, in a not so subtle manner, leading us down a path where we depend exclusively on the government for our needs. I am not trying to be an alarmist here. How else can you seriously access what has been going on over the past month? And it is not just Obama, although he shares the most blame. It's all of them . . Democrats, even the Republicans have little ground to hide. George Bush should have set the precedent for the opposition: no bailouts . . period. Let the market work itself out. Provide incentives through tax breaks and less regulation (or at least sensible regulation). Conservatives have an opportunity to stand in stark contrast to all of this nonsense, as long as they don't cave in. The question is whether it will be too little too late.

I Love Irony

Today, members of Congress are outraged at how Wells Fargo, a recipient of TARP bailout money, was planning on spending money on an employee appreciation trip to Las Vegas. Barney Frank spoke out on the inappropriate spending by Wells Fargo. This of course is just days after the House Of Representatives, including Barney Frank, voted in favor of the largest spending bill in history ($800 billion). Americans are outraged at how easily Congress is willing to spend money, all in the name of stimulus, yet very little of this bill has anything to do with stimulating the economy. Members of both parties, mostly Democrats in this case, were throwing into this bill all kinds of fluff that could not be passed in previous attempts. Their arguments that these millions here and there were minor in the scope of the billions involved in the overall bill has fallen on deft ears in the public. The public understands, hopefully, what is going on here . . and they don't appreciate what these guys are trying to do. I love the irony of seeing these guys complaining about what a bank is doing, and here they are doing the exact same thing. The problem is that they don't get it. Kind of scary.