Constitution Club

“The current Democratic mantra on energy is: ‘We can’t drill our way out of this problem.’ Apparently their plan is to talk our way out of this problem. Democrats are also alleging that the oil companies are sitting on millions of acres of oil but are refusing to drill—presumably because oil company executives hate the American people and perversely don’t want to make money. Manifestly, those acres are being explored for oil or have already come up dry. If the Democrats really wanted oil companies to find more oil, they’d allow oil companies to drill offshore and to drill in ANWR, which we happen to know is bursting with oil. But they don’t. They don’t want drilling. They don’t want more oil. They want humans to ride bicycles and then to die. We deserve it: We were mean to the polar bears. It’s good to know that in the middle of a crisis, the Democrats are still liars. As long as we’re fantasizing about ‘alternative’ energy sources, what we really need is a car that runs on Democrats’ lies.”

—Ann Coulter

“Generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment—when ‘the rise of the oceans began to slow.’ “

- Barack Obama

“Moses made the waters recede, but he had help. Obama apparently works alone.”

-economist Irwin Stelzer

Compare this column from Americanthinker to The Coming Fascist State that yours truly published a few days ago. The realization of what the environmentalists seek, and how far Obama and the Democrats may be willing to go to fulfill their vision, is increasingly on the minds of many and is certainly worthy of being made available to those who would care to enlighten themselves.

Why do we call them Democrats?

The Socialist Party of America has arrived, wearing Democrat clothing. Socialist control of the presidency and congress would knock America to its knees as nothing has before. What was inconceivable five years ago becomes a frightening possibility with Obama, Pelosi, Boxer and Reid. The Democrats socialist vision will be a disaster.

If you think gas is expensive now, wait until the socialists in congress run the oil business.

Democrats have worked hard to ensure that Americans pay as much for gas as Europeans do. After a quarter-century of gas tax hikes, a ban on drilling for oil and a complete destruction of the nuclear power industry in America, I guess liberals can declare: Mission accomplished!

In response to skyrocketing gas prices, liberals say, practically in unison, “We can’t drill our way out of this crisis.”

What does that mean? This is like telling a starving man, “You can’t eat your way out of being hungry!” “You can’t water your way out of drought!” “You can’t sleep your way out of tiredness!” “You can’t drink yourself out of dehydration!”

Seriously, what does it mean? Finding more oil isn’t going to increase the supply of oil?

It is the typical Democratic strategy to babble meaningless slogans, as if they have a plan. Their plan is: the permanent twilight of the human race.

-Ann Coulter

The literal hysteria when it comes to global warming is bringing the nuts out of the woodwork. It’s just amazing to watch, and would be humorous if these people didn’t wield power and prestige. This clown draws a government paycheck. And I’ve been attacked for comparing such tactics to fascism. I should demand yet another apology from my critics.

Put Global Warming Skeptics on Trial

It was reported in the London Guardian that NASA Scientist James Hansen (pictured), in prepared remarks to a House committee, “will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.”

I have a different vision of the future, one in which government bureaucrats like Hansen and radical environmentalists are held accountable for creating a multi-trillion dollar climate crisis in order to get more government funding and grow their own political and cultural influence.

In the previous post, Dave pointed out the true intentions of the modern day green movement.  While environmentalism is a minor concern, the true intention of the watermelon left (green on the outside, red on the inside) is nothing less than socialist-style control over individuals, families, and businesses.  Certainly the economic interests of the American nation-state are of no concern to them.  And most assuredly, America’s national security is at the bottom of their wish list.  To illustrate this, one needs to only look at the responses to two Supreme Court decisions regarding national security.

This morning, the Supreme Court refused to hear one case and review another case involving national security and worries over environmental issues.  The Court refused to hear a case involving environmental attempts to halt construction of 700 miles of security fence along the southern border.  Normally, the building of such a fence would require the multiple layers of slow, difficult environmental reviews that other public and private projects are forced to endure.  Although I am not crazy about the government not following its own dictates, I think it is smart to charge on toward the construction of the wall.  The environmental reviews are costly and time consuming and will do nothing but give time for millions of illegals to continue to pour through the open borderlands.   The Sierra Club is up in arms over the construction.  Oliver Bernstien, a spokesman for the group said, “This decision leaves one man — the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security — with the extraordinary power to ignore any and all of the laws designed to protect the American people, our lands, and our natural resources,”  Of course only a rabid environmentalist would believe that a fence designed to protect the American people doesn’t meet its intended goal.  But I’m sure his intentions are to protect the arid desert lands of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, right?  Right?  And Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson believes the use of the waiver authority will only spare the Homeland Security Department from addressing “the real issue: their lack of a comprehensive border security plan.”  Hmmm. . . it seems to me that building a wall is squarely at the top of most peoples border security plan.  Call me kooky.

In the case the Court agreed to review, a lower court stopped the navy from using a powerful sonar off of the coast of southern California.  The sonar is apparently too strong and environmentalists fear it will hurt or disorient the poor whales and dolphins.  I am sure that there is no proof of harm, but in the world of radical environmentalism, one only needs to speculate before that theory becomes gospel.  After all, environmentalists are the only people in the world who can ring the siren of impending doom to the earth and have it met with anything but sneers or straight jackets.  The Administration argued that claims of harm to aquatic wildlife were being exaggerated.  This line of reasoning seems entirely plausible since entire careers have been made by exaggerating claims.  Just ask Al Gore. 

Both cases illustrate just how far removed from common sense we have wandered.  The lands, resources, creatures and plants are all very nice and necessary in our free society.  But if we entrust aquatic life to protect our national security, then it better have a big ‘A’ for a belt buckle and be able to command the force of thousands of animals to reap destruction on evil doers.  Frankly, I would just prefer the goverment have the ability to detect sea-bourne danger and keep out those that don’t belong without having to use the bat signal or any other environmentally nefarious device. 

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” —-C.S. Lewis

If the government gets into the business of regulating and controlling carbon emissions it will be an unparalleled concentration of power far exceeding the New Deal under Roosevelt. The government will be in complete control over what businesses and average citizens consume and produce. It is the gateway excuse to rule, regulate and control your daily life in a fashion that we have never tolerated before but are now expected to meekly accept as we attempt to bailout the bathtub with a teaspoon. Never have Americans been so willing to hand over the most fundamental financial, transportation and quality of life decisions to a central authority on such questionable grounds.

We have been brainwashed that climate change is mainly caused by human activity and that somehow carbon taxes, economic socialism, monitoring lawn mower emissions, criticizing cow flatulence and flailing away at the faceless evil that is “oil” will somehow make a difference on climate changes we are only barely beginning to understand, let alone significantly influence one way or another.

Rather disturbingly, presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama made the following statement while campaigning in Oregon.

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.” “That’s not leadership,” Obama declared. “That’s not going to happen.”

(more…)

I used part of the following article and quote in my upcoming column The Coming Fascist State that I am writing for Watchblog (and will be reprinted here) and should hopefully be out sometime this week.

The Question of Global Warming

lf the books that I have seen about the science and economics of global warming … miss the main point. The main point is religious rather than scientific.

“There is a worldwide secular religion which we may call environmentalism, holding that we are stewards of the earth, that despoiling the planet with waste products of our luxurious living is a sin, and that the path of righteousness is to live as frugally as possible.

“The ethics of environmentalism are being taught to children in kindergartens, schools, and colleges all over the world.

“Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. And the ethics of environmentalism are fundamentally sound. Scientists and economists can agree with Buddhist monks and Christian activists that ruthless destruction of natural habitats is evil and careful preservation of birds and butterflies is good.

(more…)

Is a Democrat and my favorite author. He also in not a big fan of Obama and radical environmentalism. Andre once basically asked (sarcastically) “which is it, is Obama a Muslim or a nutty Christian?” Card believes the answer is that Obama’s true religion is environmentalism. He is probably right.

Obama’s Real Religion

No, what troubles me most is what he said right after that, while campaigning in Oregon: “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.”

“That’s not leadership,” Obama declared. “That’s not going to happen.”

What’s not going to happen? Us continuing to drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes at 72 degrees? Or other nations saying OK?

We already know, from Obama’s comments at a private meeting with big-pocket donors in San Francisco, that he’s an elitist who sneers at the common people who cling to religion and guns because they’re bitter about job losses twenty years ago.

But what this statement reveals is that Obama’s real religion has nothing to do with Reverend Wright.

Obama is a true believer in the religion of Environmentalism.

But at least it’s a start. If I were the Republican strategist running the brain trust for the 2008 elections, there wouldn’t be one interview, one TV spot, or one piece of literature that would not explicitly, boldly, loudly, and bitterly attack the Democrats for soon to be $5.00 a gallon gasoline and the resulting skyrocketing prices of nearly everything that is connected to such prices. Not to mention that I would make the words “Democrats” and more taxes synonymous. Barack has basically promised to raise taxes on just about everything and isn’t feeling overly upset over high gas prices. The GOP, if it was smart, would be able to nail the Dems to the wall on the energy issue. That should be a Republican issue and if presented right would be a brilliant propaganda coup in the fall elections.

Bush to urge lifting of ban on offshore drilling

“With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, tomorrow he will explicitly call on Congress to also pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Tuesday.

 Republicans have called for ending a ban on offshore drilling that has been in place since 1981, but Democrats have repeatedly rebuffed such attempts on environmental concerns.

Congrats to our Chinese friends for finally winning one. Anybody know how to say “We’re Number One!” in Chinese?

China clearly overtakes U.S. as leading emitter of climate-warming gases

China has now clearly overtaken the United States as the world’s leading emitter of climate-warming gases, a new study has found. The increasing emissions from China - up 8 percent in the past year - accounted for two-thirds of the growth in global greenhouse gas emissions in 2007, the study found.

If the Al Gore and environmental wacko/luddite types would kindly go bother someone else, and quit cheering soon to be $5.00 a gallon gasoline, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Chalk another one up for the people haters who are so desperately attempting to slit the throat of civilized and industrialized Western Civilization. I am beginning to despise those are intent on indoctrinating us all with their hatred of modern society. Modern man can not, and should not, just return to the days of hunting and gathering. A washing machine is not evil (my wife will agree with me on this one) and neither is my heated home, or motorized vehicle. I have no wish to return to the days of horse and buggy or simply squatting in a cave at night. The modern day luddites continue their assault on the rest of us using the same polluting, technologically advanced, consumer goods medium that they despise in their heart of hearts.

ABC kids’ website shows Aussies as pigs

The Planet Slayer website, which can be accessed via the science section on the ABC home page, also demonises people who eat meat and those involved in the nuclear industry, a Senate estimates committee heard.

The site has several features including a cartoon series, Adventures of Greena, and a tool called Prof Schpinkee’s Greenhouse Calculator to help kids work out their carbon footprint.

The calculator lets users compare their own carbon output to the “average Aussie greenhouse pig” and estimates at what age a person should die so they don’t use more than their fair share of the Earth’s resources.

Too much carbon production causes a cartoon pig to explode, leaving behind a pool of blood.

Link: Planet Slayer homepage

Be sure to take the test at the Greenhuouse Calculator to figure out when you’re supposed to die. Definitely a “nice” site for kids. It told me “you should die at age 57.7″. I have a feeling I did quite a bit better than some of you will. When I played the “How much do you suck” game it told me that “I totally suck”.

Those who lecture us on the evils of the internal combustion engine and sneer at those selfish Americans who insist on driving to work and heating their homes deserve just as much derision as they level at the rest of us. Only elitists say “too bad but what about the polar bears” when confronted with the human and economic costs on the middle and lower classes that high gas and food prices invariably have. And the next idiot that tries to somehow justify his finger wagging in my face by referring to Europe, in any sense, should simply be slapped.

Why $4-a-gallon gas is a bargain

On the environmental front, people concerned about greenhouse-gas emissions should be cheering today’s oil prices. Expensive motor fuel is the only thing that will lead consumers to use less and make the switch to hybrid vehicles, smaller cars and public transit. Higher oil prices are persuading automakers to change their fleets.

Obama’s view of your economic future

Buried in the sea of Obama’s largest crowd (what Drudge calls the “Obama Mass”) is the economic ramifications of his latest pronouncements on global warming:

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK…. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.”

Let’s break that down. First, under an Obama administration, “we can’t drive our SUVs,” which begs the question: “What precisely qualifies as an ‘SUV’? Is my family minivan an SUV? Perhaps any vehicle that doesn’t deliver 30 miles per gallon will be a banned ‘SUV.’ Let’s move on. ” We can’t… keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times.” My home was set at 70 degrees last night and my office is at 72 degrees all day. I think it’s been proven that air conditioning actually does increase productivity. And why pick on ‘72 degrees’? Why not 76 degrees? What is morally acceptable in this new Obamaworld?

Of course, what’s funny is that I keep my work temperature at pretty much 72 degrees for three fourths of the year and a bit cooler in the summer (about 70 depending on the day) and my wife drives a minivan. But that’s not good enough or acceptable for ol’ Barack. He would have to start picking on me personally. Back off Barry!

I’m speechless. Twenty nine thousand dollars for this? Nero fiddled while Rome burned… and then he blamed the Christians for it. Western Civilization, what hath ye wrought? It’s an interesting concept but the kind of halfhearted attempts to flail away at ‘evil oil’ is a bit much. Are you complaining about high prices or that we have to have oil to get to work, bring food to the stores and heat our homes? Even she doesn’t really seem to know what point she’s trying to make, but she sure knows how to make it. Whatever that may be.

 I was going to say something about this gal needing a hobby, but apparently she’s found it. How do these people get these jobs? Wrapper of abandoned building, UN Special Rapporteur. I need a cushy job like that. Blogger extraordinaire, planter of vegetables, typer of words, producer of children… and I’ll need lots of donations to keep me going as well. Somebody’s got to save the planet with your money. It might as well be me.

Artist Covers Old Gas Station with Huge Blanket

”I really tried to find a good balance of art and politics. I don’t want it to be just a political statement. And I don’t want it to just be a sculpture,” said the 27-year-old Marsh, who is finishing her master of fine arts degree at nearby Syracuse University. 

”I wanted to startle people so they would stop and think about it (oil) … and be inspired to make up their own opinions about the situation and how it has affected their community,” she said. 

With the help of professional and amateur artists from 15 countries and more than 2,500 grade-school students in 29 states, Marsh covered the 50-year-old former Citgo station — pumps, light stands, signs and all — with more than 3,000 fiber panels that are crocheted, knitted, quilted or stitched together.

”My teacher told us it’s about creating a caring community,” he said.

Or about creating an eyesore and gawdy tourist attraction. I wonder how many people drove their cars to go look at the big blankie attacking “oil”? Wait until you see what she did with her lawnmower.

View a vid and interview here.

My panel would have said:

 My car runs on food. Oil sucks, but now I’m hungry.

Wanna help planet? ‘Let’s all just die!’
Group pushes to improve Earth’s ecosystem by ensuring human species does not survive

“There must be several million people who have arrived at the conclusion that we would be better off without humans.”

When Knight formed the movement, he had one objective in mind:

“The ultimate goal is one I will never see,” Knight said. “I will never see the day that there are no humans on the planet.”

I was just thinking about this earlier in the day. At work I often have long, lonely and uneventful hours to ponder philosophy, theology, ideology and our understanding of our own existence. Playing ‘philospher and sage’ helps the time go by more quickly sometimes.

If you don’t believe in God and Christianity, and believe we are just a random cosmic accident that is just a slighter smarter version of a lemur or howling monkey, then our subjugation and development of the earth has to be deeply disturbing. If you think that we are morally equivalent with a hamster then any polices and practices that may harm it become loathsome and offensive. The attempts to equate humans as “just” another species on this planet is the overriding philosophy of large swaths of ideologies and movements from vegetarians to the Greens to the Climate Change crowd to the animal rights movement.

In the Christian world view we are to be the caretakers and stewards of the earth (I believe this means wise and responsible use of its resources) but it’s resources, and the animals that exist upon it, were created and exist for our use. This is a significant difference of opinion and understanding of man’s place on this planet and to blissfully wish for the day when the great herds can wander the grasslands without the taint of human habitation or mere human existence is to turn the natural order upside down. To worship the Creation over the Creator, and to wish for the extinction of His most important and momentous creation, is to reverse what was intended and is a blatant attempt to deny the unique place mankind occupies in the grand scheme of things.

From PopSci.com via Instapundit:

Before:

After

Looks like God scoured it with a Brillo pad. Of course this was all caused by Global Warming…

You knew this was coming. Global Warming is to blame for everything these days, including Global Cooling. From The Guardian:

Two deaths in the waters off California and Mexico last week and a spate of shark-inflicted injuries to surfers off Florida’s Atlantic coast have left beachgoers seeking an explanation for a sudden surge in the number of strikes.

In the first four months of this year, there were four fatal shark attacks worldwide, compared with one in the whole of 2007, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Of course, these deaths began with an unprecedented number of Great White sightings in southerly west coast waters beginning on March first. West Coast whites are migratory - they work a circuit across the Pacific that appears to be determined by fish runs, seal populations, time of year and breeding/birthing instincts. The fact that they all showed up at once in these waters suggests something along those lines - think Salmon in the fall.

‘The one thing that’s affecting shark attacks more than anything else is human activity,’ said Dr George Burgess of Florida University, a shark expert who maintains the database. ‘As the population continues to rise, so does the number of people in the water for recreation. And as long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites.’

Some experts suggest that an abundance of seals has attracted high numbers of sharks, while others believe that overfishing has hit their food chain. ‘I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but it’s a convenient excuse,’ Burgess said.

So sharks don’t eat people but with more people in the water sharks are starting to eat people? And changes in their food chain (more seals off beaches and overfishing) are just an excuse? The question that should be asked (and isn’t) is how does Mr. Burgess know that? The belief that rising shark attacks is caused by more people in the water has become dogma with the Shark Commentariat, but where are the real numbers?

And there’s this silliness:

Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising sea temperatures. ‘You’ll find that some species will begin to appear in places they didn’t in the past with some regularity,’ he said.

This is just wrong. The Argo system - a series of 3,000 underwater buoys placed all around the world’s oceans to measure temperatures have shown ZERO increase in water temps - and actually a slight cooling. So how can warming sea temps be a factor when they are cooling?

it sounds like spin to this Beast - Mr. Burgess and his ilk appear to be casting the wide net for excuses. We can’t be certain what caused this recent spate of attacks, but one thing we can definitely be sure of is that it wasn’t global warming.

“In a quest to lower my impact on the environment, I calculated our [family's] carbon footprint if we cut our use of electricity and natural gas in half, switched our two cars for a single Toyota Prius and reduced our annual mileage by half, tripled our train travel, and never took an airplane. Furthermore, what if we became vegetarians, ate only local organic food in season, bought only second-hand clothes, furniture and appliances, never went to movies, bars or restaurants, and recycled or composted all our waste? Even then our combined carbon footprint would be 7.3 tons per year, but that would get us just below the world average of 4 tons per capita annually… The creators of Carbon Footprint claim that everyone in the world must eventually emit no more than 2 tons of carbon dioxide per year. When did Americans last emit so little carbon dioxide? Around 1870.” —Ronald Bailey

People Will Go Hungry

Long before man-caused global warming kills people and topples governments, the man-caused scare over global warming is going to have the same effect.

Unlike the myth of man-made global warming, the scare is real, and it is here today…

…With shortages of affordable food spreading around the world, food-related unrest has broken out in nations as diverse as Egypt, Haiti, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

One of the base causes of the shortages is the effect of global-warming concerns in the United States, where it is estimated that 30 percent of the nation’s corn crop now is devoted to the production of ethanol, rather than going into the food chain. As the “food basket” of the world, what happens in crop production in the U.S. affects the world food supply.

A noted professor of applied economics and law at the University of Minnesota, C. Ford Runge, has concluded that ethanol production in the United States - a product of the global-warming scare - has had a “clearly substantial” effect on the world food crisis.

Yep.

This is an interesting article mocking the “green fads” that are being peddled, the uselessness and idiocy of using one’s food sources to make fuel, and the nonsense of carbon offsets. The author then turns around and calls for massive government regulation to “help you” reduce your energy consumption. At Conclub we’ve been chronicling the rush to regulate, tax and control every aspect your life in the name of the planet. The agenda is clear, the calls for its implementation are increasingly open and unapologetic, and it means nothing but trouble for you and the concepts of liberty and freedom that we have come to take for granted. What a bunch of little green fascists.

We can’t afford to make any more mistakes in how to ’save the planet.’ Start by ditching corn ethanol

The greatest folly is the “what you can do” fairy tale. Yes, every bit of saved energy—by insulating homes, driving less—helps. But we shouldn’t fool ourselves that individual eco-conscious behavior can prevent dangerous global warming. That will require “serious interventions from governments to change how we produce and use energy,” says Gabrielle Walker, coauthor of the new book “The Hot Topic” with Sir David King, Britain’s former science adviser. “Everyone can try to do our bit, but it’s not the sort of thing that individuals can greatly influence by themselves.” Some problems are too big to solve one weatherstrip at a time.

That’s too bad. They were starting to win me over to the ‘do what you can’ and reduce, reuse and recycle. We currently recycle tin, aluminum and plastic bags and closely monitor electricity consumption. We also grow some of our own food in the summer, planted a few trees in the backyard, combine commuting trips (due to gas prices) and generally attempt to not be overly wasteful. And now they tell me that is not good enough? Shame on them. I may not be effectively “carbon neutral” but at least I’m not the one calling for the all powerful, all intrusive, nanny state.

Be very careful when encouraging those true, dyed in the wool, drinking the kool-aid, crawling over glass, environmental wacko types. They’ll will use anything to wage their little war on oil, the internal combustible engine, and the industrial state. And they are even managing to a leading car dealer to accept this garbage. Never mind that high gas prices already are squeezing the middle class, the independent trucker, and the American consumer and is downright catastrophic for the lower and fixed income classes. One shouldn’t have to be independently wealthy to own a motor vehicle, or to actually add a bit of fuel to it from time to time.

The Left claims to be “the compassionate ones” but when it comes to global warming and the threatened catastrophe of climate change they are glad to steamroll over everything and everybody in their quest to “save the planet”. Yet no proof exists that any effort made by any of us would make the slightest difference in the temperature rhythms of the climate. But we better make sure those greedy Americans are severely penalized for taking the family out to McD’s or over to Wal-Mart to buy their Chinese made shiny baubles and trinkets. This big brother approach and deep seated need to tax, shackle and otherwise oppress the American people and condemn their way of life is just the latest attempt at control and regulation of every aspect of your daily life. And this time it comes in a green colored package. How pretty! The watermelon (green on the outside and red on the inside) approach to punishing you for being an American by birth (or choice) continues unabated.

Should You Pay $6 Per Gallon?
Why higher prices makes economic sense

But America’s top car dealer says what we really need in this country is high gas prices—something in the neighborhood of $6 a gallon—if we ever really want to tackle the critical issues of the day: global warming and our oil addiction. “The biggest lie in America politics today is to say you care deeply about global warming and advocate for the price of gas to go down,” says Mike Jackson, CEO of the AutoNation car dealer chain. “Those are mutually exclusive concepts.”

It’s been an interesting week and a great one for crazy quotes:

Eco-Theology

 ”Almost four decades ago, a group of visionary Americans energized the environmental movement, and indeed our nation, by dedicating a day to this ideal: we must preserve God’s creation, our planet, for the generations to come… The Bible tells us in the Old Testament ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship.’ To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us. On this Earth Day, and every day, let us honor the earth and our future generations with a commitment to fight climate change.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

What does that have to do with the Constitution?

 ”We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old—and that’s the criteria by which I’ll be selecting my judges.” —Barack Obama

Obama playing “the race card” on the First Black President?

“I think that [the Obama campaign] played the race card on me. And we now know, from memos from the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along… I don’t think I should take any s**t from anybody on that, do you?” —Bill Clinton

The Perpetual Candidate

“[Hillary's win in Pennsylvania] is great news. For Sen. John McCain. She’s never getting out. Hillary will not leave the race tonight. She will not leave the race before the convention in August. She may not leave the race ever.” —Rich Galen

So it appears we may not have seen the last of Al Gore.

This article is reposted here in full:

WALLINGFORD, Pa. — Democrat Barack Obama says as president he would consider putting Al Gore in a Cabinet-level position _ or higher.

A woman at a town hall asked the Illinois senator if elected president would he consider tapping the former vice president for his Cabinet, or an even higher level office, to address global warming.

“I would,” Obama said. “Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He’s somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I’m already consulting with him in terms of these issues but climate change is real.”

Gore, who’s work on climate change earned him a Nobel Prize, he is popular among Democrats.

Higher level than cabinet? Supreme Court? VP again? Perhaps an all powerful Czar of Climate Change or actually officially ordaining him as the High Priest of Global Warming? What a disaster that would be for the economy and the American way of life.

Please, I pray to you oh Saint Obama, intercede for us poor and ignorant consumers of manufactured goods and carbon based fuels. Don’t let Gore anywhere near the center of power. I beg of thee. Amen.

Ok, I give in. Just one Chicken Little the sky is falling, we need to dabble with totalitarianism to save the planet, type article for you.

Carbon Rationing for All

The best indication of whether a person truly grasps the scale of the global climate crisis is not whether they drive a hybrid car or offset their flights, nor whether they subscribe to the Ecologist or plan to attach a wind turbine to their house. The most reliable indicator is whether they support carbon rationing. The received political wisdom is that the general public will recoil in horror at a scheme whose very name recalls wartime national emergencies and austerity. Rationing is the opposite of today’s consumerist free-for-all, where economic growth is the highest objective of government policy.

But that is precisely the point. It is because carbon rationing represents a total break with business as usual that it is the only climate-change policy that will work.

Junk Science: Looming Lightbulb Liability

This activist-business-government marketing juggernaut has succeeded. Wal-Mart alone sold100 million CFLs last year.

But the partnership is about to implode. As predictable as Lucy pulling away the football from a determinedly charging Charlie Brown, the environmentalists are preparing to turn the tables on the CFL businesses and consumers.

The signal came in a Feb. 17 New York Times editorial entitled “That Newfangled Light Bulb.”

The editorial read, in part, “Across the world, consumers are being urged to … switch to [CFLs]. … Now the question is how to dispose of [CFLs] once they break or quit working … each [CFL] has a tiny bit of a dangerous toxin … almost 300 million CFLs were sold in the U.S. last year. That is already a lot of mercury to throw in the trash and the amounts will grow ever larger in coming years … the dangers are real and growing.”

The Times piece continued, “Businesses and government recyclers need to start working on more efficient ways to deal with that added mercury. Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, is raising the cry about the moment when millions of these light bulbs start landing in landfills or incinerators all at once. The pig in the waste pipeline, she calls it.”

The are wanting you to pay, pay, pay for these ‘newfangled’ light bulbs that pretty much suck to read by, and then they will want you to pay, pay, pay to have them disposed of properly. All while (theoretically) potentially contaminating your house, and your children, with a dangerous neurotoxin in the name of global warming and saving the planet.

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Will Shayne shows off the stickers on his family’s hybrid automobile in Burlington, Vt. Shayne constantly reminds his mother to drive at the more eco-friendly speed of 55 mph. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Have you ever noticed how children are not taught citizenship, patriotism, morality, virtue, integrity, and the concepts of liberty or free enterprise anymore?  Instead they are being taught to be the new ideological enforcers of the Green Movement. How long until they become the new informants for the new utopia, turning in those who take a long shower or fail to recycle a plastic bag? And who’s running these households, the children or the parents?

There is nothing wrong with proper conservation and wise use of natural resources. But the increasing mantra of the radical environmentalism movement is that somehow we don’t have the right to consume natural resources. The truth is that we are to be stewards of the earth, but not subjegated to it. We should worship the Creator, but not the Creation.

Generation Green: Taking on parents to help them save the planet

Say hello to Generation Green.

They’re young, well-researched and mad as heck — inspired by an outpouring of movies, TV shows, books, Web sites and “green classes” at school. They’ve been learning how to save the planet since toddlerhood, and they’re taking on their parents to do more, do better.

While some parents fret that the pop culture tidal wave amounts to environmental indoctrination, others are looking for ways to accommodate their kids — and compromise when the price tag or the convenience factor come into play.

This appears to be a juvenile male, maybe six to eight feet in length. Not sure exactly what happened in this story because the Beast’s German is rusty, and currently limited to the “Wollen sie mit mir geschlafen?” level.

The Blonde News Babe is hawt too.

Update: Caught the words “Zwei hunderd kilo” and “affrika”  assume that’s  South Africa and 200 Kilo (weight of the shark), which would make him about 440 pounds. The weight to length formula for a White Shark is as follows:

WT = 4.34 x 10-6 TL 3.14

What does than mean? It means the Beast is an English major so one of you propeller heads figure it out.

“What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act. It’s an intergenerational crime in the face of all the knowledge and science from over 20 years.”

 —Dr. David Suzuki, a former board member of the Canadian
Civil Liberties Association, on global warming “deniers”  (via The Patriot Post)

I anxiously await the next Al Gore film depicting poor penguins stranded on icebergs 

Scientists have discovered a huge active volcano under Antarctica.

The volcano in the West Antarctic ice sheet last erupted 2,000 years ago but nay still be helping to melt the ice sheet and speed up sea level rises.

Big Brother steps back from the thermostat

Joseph Somsel first revealed here that California was considering requiring the installation of remotely controllable thermostats in all new construction and remodeling, so that authorities could lower or increase temperatures when energy supply considerations made this desirable in in the eyes of the all-knowing state.

A small scale national firestorm began, and even the New York Times credited  American Thinker with putting the story on the national agenda.

The California Energy Commission has now backed down  and removed  programmable communicating thermostats (PCT) from the 2008 Building Standards.

The days of the all powerful government bureaucrat, the green police and the carbon cop are nearly here. We’ve seen the increased proposals to tax you for having to many children, to issue carbon cards to ensure your carbon neutrality and the concept of consumption taxes.  Some mock the idea that such incredible intrusions into your personal life could ever happen in the good ‘ol US of A, and yet it nearly did in California. The age of the nanny state is upon us and it continues to flex its muscles. How long before we are truly not free, but merely subserviant serfs to the almighty modern feudal state?

And don’t miss The Bureaucrat in Your Shower.

You might have some vague memory from childhood, and perhaps it returns when visiting someone who lives in an old home. You turn on the shower and the water washes over your whole self as if you are standing under a warm-spring waterfall. It is generous and therapeutic. The spray is heavy and hard, enough even to work muscle cramps out of your back, enough to wash the conditioner out of your hair, enough to leave you feeling wholly renewed — enough to get you completely clean.

Somehow, these days, it seems nearly impossible to recreate this in your new home. You go to the hardware store to find dozens and dozens of choices of shower heads. They have 3, 5, 7, even 9 settings from spray to massage to rainfall. Some have long necks. Some you can hold in your hand. Some are huge like the lid to a pot and promise buckets of rainfall. The options seem endless.

But you buy and buy, and in the end, they disappoint. It’s just water, and it never seems like enough.

The link also contains one of those great “Warning: The following section is for information purposes only” that tells you how to dramatically increase the water flow from your showerhead and skirt the restrictions of the ‘water nazis’. Alter your shower at your own peril, but with my blessing.

From The Shower Episode of Seinfeld:

Kramer, Newman and a ’salesman’ are at the back of a van in an alley.

Salesman: All right, I got everything here. I got the Cyclone F series, Hydra

Jet Flow, Stockholm Superstream, you name it.

Newman: What do you recommend?

Salesman: What are you looking for?

Kramer: Power, man. Power.

Newman: Like Silkwood.

Kramer: That’s for radiation.

Newman: That’s right.

Kramer (pointing to the largest one): Now, what is this?

Salesman: That’s the Commando 450, I don’t sell that one. What about thi-

Kramer: Well that’s what we want, the Commando 450.

Salesman: Nah, believe me. It’s only used in the circus. For elephants.

Newman: We’ll pay anything. We’ve got the (hands a wad of money to Kramer)

What about Jerry?

Kramer: He couldn’t handle that, he’s delicate.

Good Grief, are all these goobers really that gullible and gobbling up this gunk?

FTC Asks if Carbon-Offset Money is Well Spent

Carbon offsets are essentially promises to use money in a way that will reduce carbon emissions. Panelists at the F.T.C.’s session on Tuesday raised a number of questions about certifications behind the claims, wondering if the offset companies might be double-counting carbon reductions that would have happened even without their efforts.

There is even disagreement over how much carbon dioxide can be neutralized by tree-planting, which is the type of offset that is easiest to grasp.

Carbonfund.org, for example, which provides offsets to companies like Amtrak and Allstate, uses the offset money in three ways: to plant trees; to subsidize wind and solar power so that it can be sold at more competitive prices; and to purchase credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange, which barters among hundreds of companies trying to reduce their emissions.

You know that there are some people making some serious money with this scheme, including Al Gore himself. And we may have stumbled upon a great way to subsidize Conclub. For starters, send me a check and I promise I won’t drive as much or burn any wood in my fireplace thus ‘offsetting’ your next trip to the grocery store. Pretty simple gimmick but one I’m willing to engage in for personal profit as well.

And in our “What The Hell Were You THINKING?” department…

Alone in his tiny plastic sea kayak, marine biologist Trey Snow had hoped to stealthily track a great white shark. But he had the shock of his life when he spotted a giant fin and realised it was he who was being stalked - by surely one of the most feared killers in the world.
The magnificent creature initially dived to the seabed, inspecting the kayak from below, before rising menacingly to the surface. Luckily for Trey, the 13ft-long shark was more inquisitive than hungry.

Trey was just one of a team of scientists hoping to discover why a large group of great whites, which travel off southern Africa’s tip during the summer, regularly swim so close to the beaches.

They decided to venture into the deep blue in the quietest and most unobtrusive vessel they could think of - a bright yellow sea kayak. Amazingly the sharks carried on as normal, giving the scientists a unique insight into their lives.

They observed that the intrepid animals come inshore to interact socially with others of their species - possibly using the opportunity to mate and give birth - and can often be spotted following, or swimming circles around, one another, for extended periods of time.

This incredible picture was taken by wildlife photographer Thomas Peschak - who had to tie himself to the high bridge of a nearby vessel and lean precariously over the ocean before he could get his shot.

The holy grail of shark research and marine wildlife photography is to see great whites mating and giving birth. It is a task which is extremely difficult and dangerous, if not impossible, and even Thomas Peschak has not achieved it yet. And Trey Snow might be thinking he has already got as close to a great white as he wants to …

It is interesting how wealthy liberals are continually blaming the American middle class for global warming, terrorism, and pretty much all of the world’s problems. Simply put, it is all your fault.

People in the third world are aware of this difference in per capita consumption, although most of them couldn’t specify that it’s by a factor of 32. When they believe their chances of catching up to be hopeless, they sometimes get frustrated and angry, and some become terrorists, or tolerate or support terrorists. Since Sept. 11, 2001, it has become clear that the oceans that once protected the United States no longer do so. There will be more terrorist attacks against us and Europe, and perhaps against Japan and Australia, as long as that factorial difference of 32 in consumption rates persists.

And if the guilt and emotional blackmail over the melting glaciers and shrinking polar bear genitalia wasn’t enough, now the fact that all of the world does not share our lifestyle (or conversely, we are not as poverty stricken as they are) is cause for serious self-examination and self-blame.  I don’t think I can bear it. After staggering for years under the ‘white man’s burden’ for 2,000 years of colonization and exploitation of those of a darker hue, now I must shoulder the burden for causing Islamic terrorism and the devastating changes to our planet that will quickly lead to the extinction of the human race.

All because my children have clean water to drink and live in a heated home while their father drives a vehicle to work and buys his socks, toothpaste and corn flakes at a big box store. Even worse is the fact that their mother washes their clothes in a machine instead of scrubbing them clean on the rocks in the river and has the audacity to make them pop tarts once in awhile.

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Dave, a little “Enviroes Gone Wild” bump for you…

Aussie Lifeguards: ‘400% Increase’ in Shark Alarms.

Money Quote:

Lifesavers on New South Wales’ north coast say there have been more than 100 shark alarms so far this summer.

Steven Leahy from of Surf Living Saving New South Wales, says that is an increase of more than 400 per cent from the total number recorded last season.

Mr Leahy says most sightings have been recorded at Byron Bay’s popular Main Beach.

Now, one must ask oneself why four hundred percent more sharks are seen along Aussie beaches this year as opposed to last year. Perhaps a little insight might be gleaned from this headline:

Aussie appeal: Put human lives before sharks; ‘environmentalism gone mad’

Money quote:

ALARM over rising numbers of killer sharks and attacks has prompted renewed calls from marine hunters, surfers and politicians for governments to place human life above “environmentalism gone mad”.

Critics have attacked the federal protection order placed on the great white shark a decade ago and NSW’s move to cut back on the use of “meshing” designed to deter sharks from popular beaches.

The NSW Greens yesterday countered with an emotive serve of their own, saying the “gruesome death” off Bondi of a grey nurse shark and her newborn pup pointed to “the obscenity of old-fashioned shark nets”

Poor sharks.

Poor us! (Note the bite radius on this dude - hip to armpit. Big fish - 12 footer at least.)

The Way I See It #289

So-called “global warming” is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy independent, clean our air and water, improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more liveable. Don’t let them get away with it!

–Chip Giller Founder of Grist.ort where environmentally minded people gather online.
(source) - found on a disposable Starbucks cup

The question remains whether the panic over climate change and global warming is merely the Y2K scare of the decade.

My latest contribution over at Watchblog is up if you are interested in checking it out. I quote The Hairy Beast so you know it can’t be that bad. (:

Exploiting Children in the Name of Climate Change

No not your fashion sense, your Gore Quotient.

The Global Warming Test

Senate reports on over 400 top scientists who question Gore

I’m talking about a recent Senate Committee report on global warming. The report documents the views of over 400 well qualified scientists who severely question the views about human causation of global warming most popularly espoused Nobel prize winner Al Gore. The report lists scientists from many top tier and government organizations, including Harvard University and NASA.

In a disturbing paragraph, the report reveals that such global warming “skeptics” are often fearful to disclose their opinons:

Many of the scientists featured in this report consistently stated that numerous colleagues shared their views, but they will not speak out publicly for fear of retribution. Atmospheric scientist Dr. Nathan Paldor, Professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of almost 70 peer-reviewed studies, explains how many of his fellow scientists have been intimidated.

 

“Many of my colleagues with whom I spoke share these views and report on their inability to publish their skepticism in the scientific or public media,” Paldor wrote.

That’s scary. It’s difficult for me to ponder a world where facts are being intentionally withheld from the public in order to foster a desired public advocacy. It’s petrifying to think that those facts are in science.

I keep getting told over and over again that the issue has been settled. We’ve just got a extremely short time to drastically change our lifestyles, economies and culture or the world will end (while we give a pass to places like India and China but that’s another story). Those of us who have not joined the anguished mobs wailing and gnashing their teeth over their carbon footprint, or have dared to bring forth yet another generation to consume and pollute, are flat earthers wallowing in our ignorance and selfishness. But the more I look into it the more I see the ideological and political agendas behind the Green movement and the less I see of a truly honest attempt to understand climate change and seek sane ways to reduce the impact of humans upon the environment while simultaneously seeking to improve the conditions of the vast amount of humanity that lives in squalor and poverty.  Increasingly, especially when it comes to Al Gore, a brave few are venturing forth to point out the fact that the Emperor has no clothes. Some may still choose to follow this pied piper of gloom and doom, but I will not be among them.

Teacher’s Video Becomes YouTube Sensation

Science teacher Greg Craven had one night before the last day of school to finish “The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See” in time to let his high school students know about it.

Downing cans of Red Bull, Craven holed up in a science lab at Central High here, editing all night. At 6 a.m., bleary-eyed, he posted his 91/2-minute global warming video on YouTube.

His students linked to it on their MySpace pages. By that night, 60 people had clicked on it. The next day, 300. Soon after, 1,000. Craven was psyched. That kind of “viral” growth gets you noticed on YouTube, the Internet’s anarchic video smorgasbord. Within two more hours, his wife called: It’s up to 10,000, she said.

Now, six months later, Craven’s earnest and quirky appeal to act on climate change has collected more than 4 million views worldwide — roughly 500 times the population of Independence. That puts it near the top of YouTube’s all-time list for views in the news and politics category, despite competition from videos featuring Britney Spears, Satan’s face in a 9/11 explosion and an Alabama leprechaun.

The 38-year-old family man has sifted through some 7,000 comments and discussions, mostly critical. One said: “My toddler drools more cogent arguments.”

I guess scare tactics have always been the tried and true method of the fear monger. The sudden obsession with, and fad of, climate change is increasingly interesting to watch. The sheer panic it is triggering among some members of the population is disturbing and the agenda and ultimate goals of its architects are just beginning to be revealed. As usual, Conclub has been ahead of the curve reporting the agenda of wealth distribution, limitation of personal freedoms and vastly increased government control of every aspect of your life that goes hand in hand with the Green Agenda. The Watermelon Warriors are streaming forth to conquer society and civilization in the name of Climate Change and we are watching it unfold.

As holy as Al Gore’s ego is big, the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church suggested…

that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

Using logic that all but the cult of green can understand…

The 80-year-old Pope said the world needed to care for the environment but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given a greater priority than that of mankind.

I know all the kiddos who are already missing polar bears might get upset, but here are his actual words…

“Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow,” he said in the message entitled “The Human Family, A Community of Peace”.

“It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances.

Pope Benedict XVI vs Pope Peace Prize. You just have to love it! What say we do this the right way, the Roman way?Since Al Gore’s Green Religion is the new emerging faith, it would be only fair for the Greenies to go through a few hundred years of persecution. To kick things off, how about a call for games. I can see our heroic Al with a spear and a trident defending Gaia! (more…)

                                                                                                                                                     When true fascism emerges again in Western Civilization it will be a creation of the Left, not the Right. The goal of controlling your life from womb to tomb, and everything you do in between, will increasingly be realized under the guise of ‘public health’ and ‘climate change’. Totalitarianism marches on, and in the UK the race to destroy society seems to be a neck and neck race between the followers of Islam and the government. I’m not sure who’ll “win” first. Never mind that the human addition to the carbon pool is about equal to adding a tablespoon of water to a full bathtub. The issue here in the end is not ‘climate change’ but control (and wealth redistribution), pure and simple. The tool has been found and currently it is a blunt instrument. But it is being sharpened and will increasingly be