Gloff’s Blog

“Just a bloody minute, mate” redux

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:43:42 -0600

Last last June I posted a link to a fine piece done by Robert Tracinsky and Tom Minchin for RealClearPolitics.com having to do with the rising skepticism in the Australian Senate on the subject of global warming. Today, Messrs Tracinsky and Minchin cover the Senate’s subsequent defeat of what would have been Australia’s ‘Cap and Trade’ legislation.

Apart from being worthy of a rousing ‘Good on ya’, the Aussie debate contained some clear, cogent analysis by University of Adelaide geologist Ian Plimer whose book “Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science” is stirring the debate down under and clearly winning.

It’s a lesson for us. This argument can be won. This fraud can be stopped. Go here and enjoy.

Communitarianism

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:14:51 -0600

This from former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, writing today on Real Clear Politics. The Mayor has just been released from the hospital following a quadruple bypass and an aortic valve replacement.

Hizzoner, is expounding on Obama’s health care plan (which of course isn’t really Obama’s. It was written by a gaggle of congresspersons) In the process of doing so, Mayor Koch wrote this:

Most alarming for people like me, who at 84 years of age recently needed a quadruple bypass and aortic valve replacement, are the pronouncements of President Obama's appointee, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who, according to a New York Post op ed article by Betsy McCauley, former Lt. Governor of the State of New York, stated, "Savings, he writes, will require changing how doctors think about their patients: Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, 'as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others' (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008)." He also stated, "...communitarianism' should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those 'who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens...An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.' (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96). "

Go Here to read the entire piece.

Now, I’ll grant you we have here an embarrassment of riches in the way of jaw droppers. But there, buried in the statement is a word I’ve not seen before: ‘Communitarianism’. It had that feel of a very sinister concept dressed up in that intellectual camouflage the collegiate left depends upon so much? Similar terms would be ‘wealth redistribution’, ‘fairness’, and ‘reeducation center’.

The dictionary explains:

Communitarianism: an ideology that emphasizes the responsibility of the individual to the community and the social importance of the family unit.

And you can bet that the left will take out that last part about the family unit.

In this age of thousand-page bills which go unread by members of congress, silly, scientifically absurd concepts like ‘Cap and Trade’ and the abrogation of legal contracts, I know the average American head is swimming with how the country is being changed and how fast that change is happening. But here is one more concept whistling past … ‘Communitarianism’. What does it mean? More important what does it mean to Dr. Emanuel, to President Obama and to our future? Ed Koch may have tipped us off just in time.

“Just a bloody minute, mate.” Australia thinks the unthinkable.

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:31:38 -0600

This excellent piece from Robert Tracinsky and Tom Minchin on today’s Real Clear Politics.

Just when you think that the world has lost its mind and it ready to happily march off the cliff of ‘cap and trade’, somebody, somewhere, stands up, stops marching in step and ruins the parade. This, of course, leaves us all wondering why we didn’t say something ourselves. But that’s another issue.

Click here to see how one Australian author and several Aussie legislators have stood up to the high priests of the global warming orthodoxy.

Jacques, you old dog.

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:07:19 -0600

Once again Charles Bremner, the Time of London’s man in Paris, brings us another fascinating, funny (and slightly maddening for some) look at our friends the French. In this case it’s former President Jacques Chirac. And as many French folks might tell you, ‘Well, that’s just Jacques being Jacques’.

Here’s the set up, monsieur Chirac is attending a address given by his wife, Bernadette. But he can’t seem to stay focused. And it’s not as though he’s getting away with it.

You don’t need to speak French to get it

Recommended Reading - Essington has fun with numbers

Tue, 19 May 2009 08:09:30 -0600

You mean it’s not my fault?
Hi there numbers fans.
Well, thanks to the internet, I’ve come across some more fascinating figures and facts about global warming.
We all know the chant…mother earth is being fouled by humans by their big silly, SUV’s, and if we don’t repent soon, we’re all gonna die.
Or words to that effect.
So what have we found recently.
First, a great chart that lists yearly CO2 emissions from fossil fuels broken out by country.
Turns out China now puts more fossil fuel-derived CO2 in the air (6,018,000,000 tons) than the US (5,902,000,000 tons). The third largest contributor is Europe with (3,330,000,000 tons.)
Interesting that Europe’s total economy is just about the size of the U.S.’s but their carbon output is about half.
Why? Nope, it’s not all about small cars. It’s about the fact that Europe relies more on Nuclear and natural gas for power generation and much less on coal than does the U.S. Throw in the fact that European homes, appliances and home heating needs are all about 60-70% smaller than the average U.S. home, and it all adds up to less power consumption.
Another interesting fact. The U.S. is number two in CO2 emissions per capita. Who is number one? Read on.
All told, the fossil fuel CO2 production from all major sources adds up to 23,193,000,000 tons. Add in everybody including the guys boiling their tea over camel dung, and we’ll estimate some 30,000,000,000 tons of CO2 are going into the air due to man’s activities.
Then along comes our friends the Union of Concerned Scientists.
According to their info, the ocean puts some 90,000,000,000 tons of CO2 in the air.
Activity from all animals, including man and his economic activity comes in at 55,000,000,000 tons.
Overall, the UCS figures that when it’s all added up, including emissions from rotting plants, dead animals, volcanic activity, and Uncle Fred’s rancid farts, the Earth generates some 224,000,000,000 tons of CO2. They go on to show that some 204,000,000,000 tons of that total is absorbed by vegetation.
That leaves 20,000,000,000 tons of CO2 being added to what’s already in the atmosphere, and that, they say, is what’s responsible for the world heating up.
Hey, 20 billion tons is nothing to sneeze at, right?
But. Or should I say “Aha!”
What do those 20 billion tons represent in the larger scheme of things?
What does 20 billion tons really add to the atmosphere?
Never ask a question unless you know the answer.
The atmosphere weighs some 550,000,000,000,000,000 tons, give or take. I believe that is expressed as 550 quintillion tons.
Next, do the math.
20 Billion tons put into an atmosphere weighing 550 Quintillion tons represent a contribution of exactly .000000035% .
That’s 35 of one-hundred billionths of a percent.
At this rate, it would take about 3 billion years to add 1% CO2 by weight to the atmosphere.
And remember, this figure represents all CO2 from all sources.
By the way, the average car puts about 5 tons of CO2 in the air per year (one gallon of gas burned = 20 lbs, or one-hundredth of a ton of CO2)
So when these figures are considered against the proven up and down history of Earth’s ongoing climate changes, e.g. Vikings raising cattle and growing grapes on the balmy slopes Greenland during the 1100s , all Europe north of Paris freezing solid during the 1300s , then a brand new warm-up beginning to melt glaciers in the early 1800’s and continuing into today…
…the next time some well-meaning soul accuses your car of changing the climate, just tell them “climate happens,” and whip out this statistic.
Of the 20 Billion tons of un-absorbed CO2 from all sources going into the atmosphere today, your car adds about .000000000025%, or 25 one trillionth of a percent to that total.
So get into your car with a clear conscience, wind the motor up and lay rubber as far as you can.
Oh, yes. Our filthy bugger friends in Australia put the most CO2 in the air per capita. Our slightly less filthy bugger friends in Canada come in third. So much for their lily white reputation.