In the winter, when the temperature drops and the air becomes crisp and clear, when everything gets a little brighter, the constellation Orion stands ready, right over my house at about midnight. I can stand at the end of the driveway and stare up at the hunter in the sky, so clear, just awesome. It makes me feel small and "speck like", it makes me love the God that created such a beautiful thing, it makes me feel at peace with everything in the world. I've always been terrible at finding constellations, when they taught us in school about the dippers and the bear and casseopia and all the rest i could never find them at night, when i got frustrated my father would try to show me and i would tell him i saw what ever he was explaining to me, but the truth is, i did not. Later he made a telescope and took us away from the light pollution to see everything more clearly, and the stars were brilliant through that telescope ... i still could not see the pictures in the sky. Except for Orion. Maybe that's why i love it so, maybe because i've been able to see it everywhere i lived and so it's been the constant, the one thing i've always had. Most cultures think Orion is a hunter, there are some that see other things, a deer, the last Pharo, a canoe (?), a warrior ... my favorite is the Hungarians who have an "ancient Hungarian myth which states that Orion is also a great hunter and warrior, his name is Nimród and he's the mythological father of Hungarians" Seriously? So that's where the word Nimrod comes from, you thought it meant idiot when really it means father of all Hungarians. Hooray learning.
1. In personal news my wife's friend has suffered an unimaginable tragedy ... the kind of thing that would break most people, and i don't feel at liberty to give out a bunch of details, but if anyone can survive this it is my wife's friend and i love her for that (even though i barely know the woman) but please, if you believe, pray for strength for mothers everywhere; in Haiti, in the war torn regions of Asia and Africa and right next door.
In not-the-bikini-team Sweden news a weight watcher's weigh-in meeting was disrupted when the ladies got on a row of scales and the floor collapsed beneath them. I'm serious and you can come up with your own punch line for that. Don't worry, no one was hurt and they put the scales in the hallway and finished their weigh-in without further collapse. Authorities claim that they are investigating the cause of the cave in, i'm guessing that over loading is going to have something to do with it in the end.
In ... i don't know what news ... i don't even know what to say about this, here's the AP article "TACOMA, Wash. - A Washington state blood center is offering donors a deal: Give a pint of blood, get a pint of beer. Cascade Regional Blood Services in Tacoma says its "Give blood, get beer" promotion has worked so well that it's being expanded. The News Tribune of Tacoma reported Monday that donors who are at least 21 years old are given a coupon for a free pint of beer. Participating pubs and restaurants must wait at least four hours after the blood drive ends before donors can collect their free pint. Cascade's director of donor resources Dan Schmitt says it's a fun way to get more donors, and it's good for the participating businesses as well." I'll bet that less blood does wonders for your B.A.C. so, after i give blood and then drink my free beer and then drive home and kill someone or myself and everybody sues the blood mobile, do you think that they'll rethink this one?
Today we close with Yemen news, Friday the Yemeni military (with the help of US couterterrorism and intelligence) bombed a village 118 miles north of the capital, maybe. This information came from anonymous sources because they are forbidden to discuss any details with the media. So what does the headline read, (on page 9 section B) "Yemen: Six al-Qaida Militants Killed in Airstrike" really? You're not sure enough where the bombs went to talk about it but you're going to call it an "airstrike" and claim success? Well good job Yemen! Certainly we trained you in that, after you bomb a village with hundreds of people in it, act as if you have assassinated a few very bad people. Because the least messy way to accurately kill a single person is to decimate a population center that the person may or may not be it ... makes sense to me.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
What do you know about Haiti?
So my request for 500,000 views and comments got me 6 views and no comments ... folks, if this relationship is going to work you are going to have to put some effort in it, i mean if you got me 200,000 views and 50,000 comments at least i could feel like you were trying. No, seriously, thank you to the 6 of you for checking it out. If you leave comments though i can; 1) know that you were here and 2) help me shape the posts around what you want to talk about. The entire global warming post came from a comment in the previous post, so let me know what you think or ask questions and i will research them for you.
1. That being said, today is all about Haiti. On Tuesday there was a 7.0 earth quake right outside the capital and it caused massive destruction ... right now the phone lines are down so no one is completely sure what is going on. Buildings collapsed and fell down the sides of mountains in the immediate aftermath. It struck me as i read about this that i don't know a whole lot about Haiti, and one of my good friends is from there. So i did some reading.
The Republic of Haiti was the first independent country in all of Latin America, and it gained its independence from France by means of a slave revolt (how cool is that?). It was the first independent nation in the modern world that was lead by black people, again, very cool. Their entire history has been marred by foreign military invasion and occupation. Early in their history (1792 and 1803 and 1825) the French tried to retake the republic as it was extremely profitable, in fact the most profitable colony in the world. Also in the 1800's they were invaded by the British, Spain, Germany and the United States, leaders were kidnaped and murdered by foreign governments and then in 1915 the United States invaded to "protect the Haitian people" and occupied the country until 1934. Since that time there was 50 years of King-like tyranny and then 25 years of chaos. Elections are held and winners declared, coup-d’etat and another election, Presidents live in exile and corrupt leaders bleed the country dry. Which brings us to yesterday. Yesterday a massive earth quake rocked the small island nation and brought buildings down upon the heads of their occupants, the news today is saying that as many as 100,000 people may be dead and that they are having a very difficult time getting basic needs met; food, water, shelter, first aid. There are bodies in the streets and the effort to excavate the living from the rubble is going around the clock. Russia is sending help, the United States is sending help, China is sending help ... you know how in your family when someone gets sick or dies all the people who don’t like each other get along and help out and work together for a little while, I guess the world works that way too. President Clinton is heading up the UN relief efforts and has set up a system where-by you can text in a donation ... technology rocks! My heart bleeds for the people there and I pray that God will be with them and comfort them and meet their needs, furthermore I pray that the people of the world don’t forget Haiti when the crisis is averted.
In other Haitian news Pat Robertson is about as out of touch with reality as a human being can be without LSD. Another quick history lesson; Christianity is the worship of Jesus Christ as God incarnate and following in His teachings. While on earth Jesus taught things like humility, acceptance of the rejected, putting others above self, the virtues of poverty, longsuffering, meekness, ministering to the needs of widows, prisoners, the sick and often missed is his rejection of all religious hierarchy or man made rules pertaining to God. Any way, Pat Robertson is a hateful old man who has become rich saying stupid things that excite the fears of well meaning people who have been tricked into believing that Robertson is some kind of teacher, tricked into believing that he is legitimate. I’m not a close follower of his but as far as I can tell he hates gays and democrats and believes that every natural disaster is the result of God’s wrath at the sinfulness of certain people ... not him. Katrina was God killing bad people, the tsunami in Asia was God killing bad people, and now the earthquake in Haiti is God’s wrath against the Haitian people. Are they bad now? No. Pat has it on good authority that the slaves who revolted against the French did so with the assistance of one Lucifer ... that’s right the devil helped the brutalized and exploited slaves of western Hispaniola win their freedom and God has decided in his ever loving mercy to kill their decedents 200 years later . The Bible is full of examples of God doing things like that ... oh, it’s not? God doesn’t do that? Pat Robertson is a psycho who teaches false doctrine and brings the wrath of God on himself? You don’t say. I just hope that in Pat’s case that God doesn’t wait 200 years.
So it was brought to my attention by lovely reader #3 that I can’t spell. I read it in the comments section. No, I don’t read it there because she waited to tell me in person. So here’s how the comments section works. You read the post and then write a comment about it, for example, “I think you are a bad writer.” “You can’t spell.” “Your opinions are stupid.” etc and then I can respond with my next post.
Love you guys!
1. That being said, today is all about Haiti. On Tuesday there was a 7.0 earth quake right outside the capital and it caused massive destruction ... right now the phone lines are down so no one is completely sure what is going on. Buildings collapsed and fell down the sides of mountains in the immediate aftermath. It struck me as i read about this that i don't know a whole lot about Haiti, and one of my good friends is from there. So i did some reading.
The Republic of Haiti was the first independent country in all of Latin America, and it gained its independence from France by means of a slave revolt (how cool is that?). It was the first independent nation in the modern world that was lead by black people, again, very cool. Their entire history has been marred by foreign military invasion and occupation. Early in their history (1792 and 1803 and 1825) the French tried to retake the republic as it was extremely profitable, in fact the most profitable colony in the world. Also in the 1800's they were invaded by the British, Spain, Germany and the United States, leaders were kidnaped and murdered by foreign governments and then in 1915 the United States invaded to "protect the Haitian people" and occupied the country until 1934. Since that time there was 50 years of King-like tyranny and then 25 years of chaos. Elections are held and winners declared, coup-d’etat and another election, Presidents live in exile and corrupt leaders bleed the country dry. Which brings us to yesterday. Yesterday a massive earth quake rocked the small island nation and brought buildings down upon the heads of their occupants, the news today is saying that as many as 100,000 people may be dead and that they are having a very difficult time getting basic needs met; food, water, shelter, first aid. There are bodies in the streets and the effort to excavate the living from the rubble is going around the clock. Russia is sending help, the United States is sending help, China is sending help ... you know how in your family when someone gets sick or dies all the people who don’t like each other get along and help out and work together for a little while, I guess the world works that way too. President Clinton is heading up the UN relief efforts and has set up a system where-by you can text in a donation ... technology rocks! My heart bleeds for the people there and I pray that God will be with them and comfort them and meet their needs, furthermore I pray that the people of the world don’t forget Haiti when the crisis is averted.
In other Haitian news Pat Robertson is about as out of touch with reality as a human being can be without LSD. Another quick history lesson; Christianity is the worship of Jesus Christ as God incarnate and following in His teachings. While on earth Jesus taught things like humility, acceptance of the rejected, putting others above self, the virtues of poverty, longsuffering, meekness, ministering to the needs of widows, prisoners, the sick and often missed is his rejection of all religious hierarchy or man made rules pertaining to God. Any way, Pat Robertson is a hateful old man who has become rich saying stupid things that excite the fears of well meaning people who have been tricked into believing that Robertson is some kind of teacher, tricked into believing that he is legitimate. I’m not a close follower of his but as far as I can tell he hates gays and democrats and believes that every natural disaster is the result of God’s wrath at the sinfulness of certain people ... not him. Katrina was God killing bad people, the tsunami in Asia was God killing bad people, and now the earthquake in Haiti is God’s wrath against the Haitian people. Are they bad now? No. Pat has it on good authority that the slaves who revolted against the French did so with the assistance of one Lucifer ... that’s right the devil helped the brutalized and exploited slaves of western Hispaniola win their freedom and God has decided in his ever loving mercy to kill their decedents 200 years later . The Bible is full of examples of God doing things like that ... oh, it’s not? God doesn’t do that? Pat Robertson is a psycho who teaches false doctrine and brings the wrath of God on himself? You don’t say. I just hope that in Pat’s case that God doesn’t wait 200 years.
So it was brought to my attention by lovely reader #3 that I can’t spell. I read it in the comments section. No, I don’t read it there because she waited to tell me in person. So here’s how the comments section works. You read the post and then write a comment about it, for example, “I think you are a bad writer.” “You can’t spell.” “Your opinions are stupid.” etc and then I can respond with my next post.
Love you guys!
Monday, January 11, 2010
If you and 500,000 of your friends read this and comment i think i can get a sponsor and quit my job!
Today's post is brought to you by "Gotcha!" a new board game invented by your government. It's a great game, you'll love it, and here's how it works; you wait until one of your opponents says something that they shouldn't and then you go to every media outlet available and tell the world that they are bad people and that their comment proves it and that they should resign from their job in politics. Gotcha! And then one of your friends says something that they shouldn't and your opponents go to every media outlet available and ... Gotcha!
1. So Senator Harry Reid said that President Obama made a good candidate because he was light skinned and did not talk with a "Negro dialect" ... and let's get this straight, what the Senator from Nevada was saying is that a dark skinned man who doesn’t "talk white" is unelectable. I do not like Harry Reid, but he's not lying ... how does Rev. Sharpton do in national elections, Jesse Jackson? So the Republicans come out and say he should resign from the senate because ... (no, not for what he said) former Senator Trent Lott. Gotcha! Eight years ago Trent Lott was majority leader of the Senate and went to Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party and told Strom that the country would have been a better place if he had been elected President in 1948. ***Quick history lesson; Strom Thurmond invented racist old white guy and then ran in 1948 as a pro segregation democrat "Dixie-crat".*** So when news of this terrible remark reached the ears of the saintly Democrats they insisted he resign by going on TV and telling the world that Trent Lott wanted to segregate America and that he was a racist, and they did it all day every day until two weeks late they got their wish. So now the Republicans are trying to say that the two are the same and that Reid should be forced to resign as well. First of all, the two are NOT the same, Senator Trent Lott told a senile old man that he would have been a great president 54 years after the fact, and Strom was shocked because he thought that he WAS the president. Senator Harry Reid said that America would not elect a black man that the white people couldn't identify with ... except he's old and an idiot and he said the word "Negro". Neither of them should resign for that! Lying to old people and telling them that they were great is what you do, everyone does that! I do that and it does not mean that i'm bad at my job. Harry Reid told the truth and that DOES make him bad at his job, he's a politician and they are only considered good at it if they lie really, really well ... so maybe he should resign for telling the truth. I'm sorry, old people say "negro", my grandfather (not a racist) called blacks "colored" and Asians "oriental" because that's what they used to be called in this country by nice people who didn't hate them. There was a time when racists brutally murdered people and got away with it, and non-racists used what is now considered offensive language. Actually Reid should resign because he is a disgrace to this country and is pushing "heath care reform" that doesn't really help anyone except for insurance companies who are going to get a bunch of new customers and then they get to raise our rates. But readers listen to me a second, people say things poorly all the time, you do ... all the time, and you don't talk that much. Imagine if you talked all day without a script and everything you said was recorded and dissected and you could never make a mistake. There is not a racist bone in my body and i guarantee you that if you made me talk all the time and recorded me i would say something stupid with in the first two days. Here's what i say; forgive Senator Reid for his comments and forgive equally the next Republican that says something stupid. Don't use the NAACP to attack one person and defend another. I mean there are actual things going on right now, this health care debacle, a war in Afghanistan, our soldiers are still dying in Iraq, the coming invasion of Yemen, the ice age that has begun in Florida ... we've got real problems that are important!
In crazy Walmart news, the retailer fired one of their greeters after he tried to see a receipt and was punched in the face by the customer/thief. He asked the guy on the way out to show his receipt and the shopper flashed the receipt quickly, the greeter followed him to see the receipt because he suspected that the man stole something, when they got outside the shopper punched the employee in the face before running away and then Walmart fired him because going outside after a shop lifter is against policy. The greeter in question is 69 years old, the assailant was caught and arrested for battery, so the police think that a crime was perpetrated on the old fella, and i agree, but the assault was committed by Walmart. You can't fire an old man who is trying to protect YOUR assets, an old man who was battered in the line of duty. Give the old guy a medal and tel him privately to never do that again. All i know is that if i worked at Walmart i would never check anyone's receipt, In other crazy Walmart news really fat people go to Walmart at night and wear mesh shirts and fishnet stockings and generally make everyone else uncomfortable.
In sports news, athletes cheat! Olympic runners cheat, cyclists cheat, football players cheat, boxers cheat and yes, Mark McGwire cheated! Are you shocked? A baseball player? A baseball player that dominated the time in the history of the game called the STEROID ERA took steroids? Next they'll be telling me that Jose Canseco took steroids ... oh, he did? Well next they'll be telling me that Rafael Palmero took steroids ... oh, he did too? So what you're saying is that all of baseball hit a ton of home runs and that it suddenly stopped when they started testing for steroids and i'm supposed to believe that it's because the players were cheating? Yes, you're supposed to believe it because they were cheating! We knew it at the time, if i'm 10 years old and i realize that there is something wrong with the Oakland Athletics (Canseco, McGwire, Parker, both Hendersons ... ) i really hope that the sports world could see it. They cheat because you want them to, they cheat because a great defensive outfielder that always backs up the throw to second base doesn't get butts in seats, they cheat because you want new world records every Olympics, they cheat because they get paid well to do it, they cheat because they're afraid "the other guy" is doing it. Oh, Barry Bonds was juiced too and so was Lance Armstrong ... i love them both and they were both great ... and they cheated. So don't cry Mark, just tell the truth, "I did it so that i could hit a ton of home runs and be a hero and get paid a ton of money and if i could do it over again i would do the same thing, except that i wouldn't commit perjury in congress, i am sorry about that part."
Happy Monday!
1. So Senator Harry Reid said that President Obama made a good candidate because he was light skinned and did not talk with a "Negro dialect" ... and let's get this straight, what the Senator from Nevada was saying is that a dark skinned man who doesn’t "talk white" is unelectable. I do not like Harry Reid, but he's not lying ... how does Rev. Sharpton do in national elections, Jesse Jackson? So the Republicans come out and say he should resign from the senate because ... (no, not for what he said) former Senator Trent Lott. Gotcha! Eight years ago Trent Lott was majority leader of the Senate and went to Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party and told Strom that the country would have been a better place if he had been elected President in 1948. ***Quick history lesson; Strom Thurmond invented racist old white guy and then ran in 1948 as a pro segregation democrat "Dixie-crat".*** So when news of this terrible remark reached the ears of the saintly Democrats they insisted he resign by going on TV and telling the world that Trent Lott wanted to segregate America and that he was a racist, and they did it all day every day until two weeks late they got their wish. So now the Republicans are trying to say that the two are the same and that Reid should be forced to resign as well. First of all, the two are NOT the same, Senator Trent Lott told a senile old man that he would have been a great president 54 years after the fact, and Strom was shocked because he thought that he WAS the president. Senator Harry Reid said that America would not elect a black man that the white people couldn't identify with ... except he's old and an idiot and he said the word "Negro". Neither of them should resign for that! Lying to old people and telling them that they were great is what you do, everyone does that! I do that and it does not mean that i'm bad at my job. Harry Reid told the truth and that DOES make him bad at his job, he's a politician and they are only considered good at it if they lie really, really well ... so maybe he should resign for telling the truth. I'm sorry, old people say "negro", my grandfather (not a racist) called blacks "colored" and Asians "oriental" because that's what they used to be called in this country by nice people who didn't hate them. There was a time when racists brutally murdered people and got away with it, and non-racists used what is now considered offensive language. Actually Reid should resign because he is a disgrace to this country and is pushing "heath care reform" that doesn't really help anyone except for insurance companies who are going to get a bunch of new customers and then they get to raise our rates. But readers listen to me a second, people say things poorly all the time, you do ... all the time, and you don't talk that much. Imagine if you talked all day without a script and everything you said was recorded and dissected and you could never make a mistake. There is not a racist bone in my body and i guarantee you that if you made me talk all the time and recorded me i would say something stupid with in the first two days. Here's what i say; forgive Senator Reid for his comments and forgive equally the next Republican that says something stupid. Don't use the NAACP to attack one person and defend another. I mean there are actual things going on right now, this health care debacle, a war in Afghanistan, our soldiers are still dying in Iraq, the coming invasion of Yemen, the ice age that has begun in Florida ... we've got real problems that are important!
In crazy Walmart news, the retailer fired one of their greeters after he tried to see a receipt and was punched in the face by the customer/thief. He asked the guy on the way out to show his receipt and the shopper flashed the receipt quickly, the greeter followed him to see the receipt because he suspected that the man stole something, when they got outside the shopper punched the employee in the face before running away and then Walmart fired him because going outside after a shop lifter is against policy. The greeter in question is 69 years old, the assailant was caught and arrested for battery, so the police think that a crime was perpetrated on the old fella, and i agree, but the assault was committed by Walmart. You can't fire an old man who is trying to protect YOUR assets, an old man who was battered in the line of duty. Give the old guy a medal and tel him privately to never do that again. All i know is that if i worked at Walmart i would never check anyone's receipt, In other crazy Walmart news really fat people go to Walmart at night and wear mesh shirts and fishnet stockings and generally make everyone else uncomfortable.
In sports news, athletes cheat! Olympic runners cheat, cyclists cheat, football players cheat, boxers cheat and yes, Mark McGwire cheated! Are you shocked? A baseball player? A baseball player that dominated the time in the history of the game called the STEROID ERA took steroids? Next they'll be telling me that Jose Canseco took steroids ... oh, he did? Well next they'll be telling me that Rafael Palmero took steroids ... oh, he did too? So what you're saying is that all of baseball hit a ton of home runs and that it suddenly stopped when they started testing for steroids and i'm supposed to believe that it's because the players were cheating? Yes, you're supposed to believe it because they were cheating! We knew it at the time, if i'm 10 years old and i realize that there is something wrong with the Oakland Athletics (Canseco, McGwire, Parker, both Hendersons ... ) i really hope that the sports world could see it. They cheat because you want them to, they cheat because a great defensive outfielder that always backs up the throw to second base doesn't get butts in seats, they cheat because you want new world records every Olympics, they cheat because they get paid well to do it, they cheat because they're afraid "the other guy" is doing it. Oh, Barry Bonds was juiced too and so was Lance Armstrong ... i love them both and they were both great ... and they cheated. So don't cry Mark, just tell the truth, "I did it so that i could hit a ton of home runs and be a hero and get paid a ton of money and if i could do it over again i would do the same thing, except that i wouldn't commit perjury in congress, i am sorry about that part."
Happy Monday!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
All the answers to Climate Change ... or more questions?
Todays post is brought to you by "climate change" buzz words of today! What i'm going to try to do is present both sides of this, the most heated of issues, and then tell you where i stand on it. I am hopefull that i will manage to make everyone mad enough to leave me a "nasty-gram" in the comments section below.
In my last post i made light of Al Gore and "global warming" and tied in the deaths of five unfortunate people (probably went too far with that one) which had everyting to do with my sick sence of sarcasm and nothing to do with the science of climate change.
For starters i come from a scientific family, my father is a physicist, my Uncle has a couple of PHd's in some kinda science stuff and my brother's degree is in chemical engineering ... DISCLAIMER ... i, however, am NOT a scientist. I mention the family of science not because i did any reasearch, but more that it created a mindset in me that forces me to be sceptical of information, my mind does not allow me to jump to conclusions. Blah, blah, blah, i know. So here's the example; in the late 1990's when the ozone layer and desertification were all the rage (for those of you who either forgot or wern't paying attention or wern't born yet, 10-15 years ago the gas in your refrigerator and the hairspray from New Jersey were creating a hole in the ozone layer that was going to grow huge if we didn't devolop new hair styles and then the sun would burn everything off the face of the earth, at the same time the deserts of the world were expanding by inches every year and eventually would cover the entire earth if we didn't ... i forget what the solution there was) anyway in the 90's i read an article about the Sahara desert expanding to cover all of Africa in just a few short years in the Tuesday Science Times and i ran to my father to show him the article which he read and then asked, "When did they start measuring it?" The article didn't say and i didn't know. His point was that there may not be enough data to make a conclusion and there might be some general lack of thoroughness in the scientific community. A few years later the desert began to shrink (didn't make the paper) the ozone hole began to shrink (didn't make the paper) and some scientist figured out that both run on an 11 year cycle that coincides with the cycle of sun spots. Which is super fascinating and makes me wonder how many other things we don't understand.
On to climate change. News flash, the earth's climate is changing ... cannot be debated, it has always been changing, ice age after ice age after jungle in Canada after ice age, it changes. Here's the question, are we making it change by being irresponsible polluting bastards?!? Or is it happening all by itself?
First the argument on the side of pollution creating climate change. I'm going to allow the Environmental Defence Fund make their own argument, so here's what they say about it, "Before the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere was in a rough balance with what could be stored on Earth. Natural emissions of heat-trapping gases matched what could be absorbed in natural sinks. For example, plants take in CO2 when they grow in spring and summer, and release it back to the atmosphere when they decay and die in fall and winter. Industry took off in the mid-1700s, and people started emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels were burned more and more to run our cars, trucks, factories, planes and power plants, adding to the natural supply of greenhouse gases. The gases—which can stay in the atmosphere for at least fifty years and up to centuries—are building up beyond the Earth's capacity to remove them and, in effect, creating an extra-thick heat blanket around the Earth. Already, people have increased the amount of CO2, the chief global warming pollutant, in the atmosphere to 31 percent above pre-industrial levels. There is more CO2 in the atmosphere now than at any time in the last 650,000 years. Studies of the Earth’s climate history show that even small changes in CO2 levels generally have come with significant shifts in the global average temperature. Scientists expect that, in the absence of effective policies to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, the global average temperature will increase another 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100" I even let them be in green ... wasn't that nice of me? So the obvious problems with this position is the lack of facts about actual CO2 levels and anytime someone quotes "scientists" be afraid, be very afraid.
So on to the oposition ... i thought about letting the "Mr. Burns" of coal power plants respond, but honestly, the people who try to tell you that burning stuff that pours smoke into the sky is good for the earth and should, in fact, be done more, are crazy ... and they are lying. So i found a scientist that doesn't like hippies to respond instead. This is the quote from the web site of Steven Milloy (Johns Hopkins educated science guy), "One point apparently causing confusion among our readers is the relative abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere today as compared with Earth's historical levels. Most people seem surprised when we say current levels are relatively low, at least from a long-term perspective - understandable considering the constant media/activist bleat about current levels being allegedly "catastrophically high." Even more express surprise that Earth is currently suffering one of its chilliest episodes in about six hundred million (600,000,000) years. Given that the late Ordovician suffered an ice age (with associated mass extinction) while atmospheric CO2 levels were more than 4,000ppm higher than those of today (yes, that's a full order of magnitude higher), levels at which current 'guesstimations' of climate sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 suggest every last skerrick of ice should have been melted off the planet, we admit significant scepticism over simplistic claims of small increment in atmospheric CO2 equating to toasted planet. Granted, continental configuration now is nothing like it was then, Sol's irradiance differs, as do orbits, obliquity, etc., etc. but there is no obvious correlation between atmospheric CO2 and planetary temperature over the last 600 million years, so why would such relatively tiny amounts suddenly become a critical factor now? " I made him red because clearly he's evil and he proved it by using facts and big words! The knock on Milloy is that he's super political and preaches against global warming like he's the antiAlGore ... which he is. Plus he writes for FoxNews.com ... boo to you Steven!
Here's the problem with the climate change debate as it currently being run (here's where everyone can get mad) on one side they insist that CO2 levels are the cause of the warming of the earth and on the other side they disagree and encourage pollution and polluter-friendly legislation. CO2 levels are really low right now, not if you look at the last couple of huindred years, but if you look at the last couple of hundred million years, they were exponentially higher. A couple of different times in the earth's history spikes in atmospheric CO2 levels coincide with ice ages (not warming) and really there seems to be many more factors at play here than just carbon dioxide, i mean if CO2 was the only issue then couldn't we just get more plants and suck it right back out of the atmosphere? And the answer to that is yes by the way if you were thinking about it. The earth's climate is always changing and sometimes with catastrophic results ... certainly it could be really bad for people all over the world, but there is no way you could prove that one thing, the addition of one variable is having an impact nor can you say to what extent that variable is changing the climate of our planet. Here are some pollution facts 1) American corporate agriculture is the largest polluter in the world (no, it's not factories or SUVs ... forget the Prius, grow your own food) 2) pollution is bad for everyone regardless of the temperature outside 3) we are creative enough and rich enough (as a group) to choose to stop polluting and to figure out a way to do it 4) God gave the earth to us and we were to be stewards of His creation, that means we were supposed to take care of it, and i don't think that he meant pave it, burn it, pour chromium in the rivers, and to just generally destroy everything we touch.
Anyway, here's where i stand; i completly agree that we need to find ways to be less wastefull and to pollute less. Treating the earth like it's an everlasting gobstopper is just plain stupid. Resources are finite and can be completly depleted, not to mention while we use water to wash our cars and fill our swimming pools there are parched people with dry cracked lips living on dry cracked soil praying for rain to come all over the world. I love those people and they are the reason that i do not water my grass or wash my car ... i just need to figure out how to send the water i'm not using to them. Burning coal (right next to my house) sucks and should be outlawed, not because of climate issues but because it's dirty and lacks creativity ... we've been burning coal for hundreds of years, we can't come up with anything better? SUVs are stupid because you don't need a school bus for you and your one child to go to the store on a Saturday afternoon, take the bus or walk or ride bikes ... then you wouldn't pollute AND your kid wouldn't be so fat ... forget the climate. Common sence should tell you to turn the lights off when you leave a room, common sence should tell you that the Ohio river catching fire is a really bad thing. Do you seriously expect me to believe that you thought the Ford Excursion was practical before Al Gore told you about the homeless polar bears. You bought a vehicle that gets 8MPG highway if you're going down hill with a tail wind and you thought it was a great idea ... but since those polar bears you're driving the Prius and loving it. Now you get to save the world and do nothing all at the same time ... 5 stars for that one.
Bush didn't need WMDs to get our support the invasion of Iraq ... all he had to say is that Sadam and his sons are killing innocents and raping virgins and we're going to stop him. I would have been 100% behind that. The "scientists" don't need climate change, let's stop polluting because it makes sence and after that if the climate reverses itself back to "normal" hooray! We don't need extra reasons to not pollute, do we? I love Africa, and Africans ... it breaks my heart that the people of that continent suffer through so much. Famine, drought, flooding, disease, war ... it is constant, and i'm sure that we can start working on some real solutions, i wish that it mattered to most people, but here's what i know; Africa had all the same problems 4000 years ago (it's in Genesis for crying out loud) and if you send them money the dictator of the minute takes it and puts it in his Swiss retirement account so when he is overthrown in two weeks he can live like a king in Paris for the rest of his life while the people of his country are left to deal with the worst the human condition has to offer. So don't pollute, don't be wasteful. Be a good steward of this beautiful planet that your God has seen fit to allow you to live on, use the resources that He has bestowed upon us, just don't abuse those resources. I'm glad that people are passionate about the world they live in, they should be, but please don't buy the simple solutions that they're selling you. Signing an accord and taxing polluters and sending money to Africa is not a solution ... revamping our entire economic (especially food) system and coming up with real, sustainable, solutions for the southern half of the earth's problems ... i mean really figuring out how to reduce milaria deaths, AIDS deaths, famine (see Joseph's solution in Egypt) drought ... and maybe rewarding "green" innovations rather than punnishing the uncreative (read "polluting bastards") is the way to go.
In my last post i made light of Al Gore and "global warming" and tied in the deaths of five unfortunate people (probably went too far with that one) which had everyting to do with my sick sence of sarcasm and nothing to do with the science of climate change.
For starters i come from a scientific family, my father is a physicist, my Uncle has a couple of PHd's in some kinda science stuff and my brother's degree is in chemical engineering ... DISCLAIMER ... i, however, am NOT a scientist. I mention the family of science not because i did any reasearch, but more that it created a mindset in me that forces me to be sceptical of information, my mind does not allow me to jump to conclusions. Blah, blah, blah, i know. So here's the example; in the late 1990's when the ozone layer and desertification were all the rage (for those of you who either forgot or wern't paying attention or wern't born yet, 10-15 years ago the gas in your refrigerator and the hairspray from New Jersey were creating a hole in the ozone layer that was going to grow huge if we didn't devolop new hair styles and then the sun would burn everything off the face of the earth, at the same time the deserts of the world were expanding by inches every year and eventually would cover the entire earth if we didn't ... i forget what the solution there was) anyway in the 90's i read an article about the Sahara desert expanding to cover all of Africa in just a few short years in the Tuesday Science Times and i ran to my father to show him the article which he read and then asked, "When did they start measuring it?" The article didn't say and i didn't know. His point was that there may not be enough data to make a conclusion and there might be some general lack of thoroughness in the scientific community. A few years later the desert began to shrink (didn't make the paper) the ozone hole began to shrink (didn't make the paper) and some scientist figured out that both run on an 11 year cycle that coincides with the cycle of sun spots. Which is super fascinating and makes me wonder how many other things we don't understand.
On to climate change. News flash, the earth's climate is changing ... cannot be debated, it has always been changing, ice age after ice age after jungle in Canada after ice age, it changes. Here's the question, are we making it change by being irresponsible polluting bastards?!? Or is it happening all by itself?
First the argument on the side of pollution creating climate change. I'm going to allow the Environmental Defence Fund make their own argument, so here's what they say about it, "Before the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere was in a rough balance with what could be stored on Earth. Natural emissions of heat-trapping gases matched what could be absorbed in natural sinks. For example, plants take in CO2 when they grow in spring and summer, and release it back to the atmosphere when they decay and die in fall and winter. Industry took off in the mid-1700s, and people started emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels were burned more and more to run our cars, trucks, factories, planes and power plants, adding to the natural supply of greenhouse gases. The gases—which can stay in the atmosphere for at least fifty years and up to centuries—are building up beyond the Earth's capacity to remove them and, in effect, creating an extra-thick heat blanket around the Earth. Already, people have increased the amount of CO2, the chief global warming pollutant, in the atmosphere to 31 percent above pre-industrial levels. There is more CO2 in the atmosphere now than at any time in the last 650,000 years. Studies of the Earth’s climate history show that even small changes in CO2 levels generally have come with significant shifts in the global average temperature. Scientists expect that, in the absence of effective policies to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, the global average temperature will increase another 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100" I even let them be in green ... wasn't that nice of me? So the obvious problems with this position is the lack of facts about actual CO2 levels and anytime someone quotes "scientists" be afraid, be very afraid.
So on to the oposition ... i thought about letting the "Mr. Burns" of coal power plants respond, but honestly, the people who try to tell you that burning stuff that pours smoke into the sky is good for the earth and should, in fact, be done more, are crazy ... and they are lying. So i found a scientist that doesn't like hippies to respond instead. This is the quote from the web site of Steven Milloy (Johns Hopkins educated science guy), "One point apparently causing confusion among our readers is the relative abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere today as compared with Earth's historical levels. Most people seem surprised when we say current levels are relatively low, at least from a long-term perspective - understandable considering the constant media/activist bleat about current levels being allegedly "catastrophically high." Even more express surprise that Earth is currently suffering one of its chilliest episodes in about six hundred million (600,000,000) years. Given that the late Ordovician suffered an ice age (with associated mass extinction) while atmospheric CO2 levels were more than 4,000ppm higher than those of today (yes, that's a full order of magnitude higher), levels at which current 'guesstimations' of climate sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 suggest every last skerrick of ice should have been melted off the planet, we admit significant scepticism over simplistic claims of small increment in atmospheric CO2 equating to toasted planet. Granted, continental configuration now is nothing like it was then, Sol's irradiance differs, as do orbits, obliquity, etc., etc. but there is no obvious correlation between atmospheric CO2 and planetary temperature over the last 600 million years, so why would such relatively tiny amounts suddenly become a critical factor now? " I made him red because clearly he's evil and he proved it by using facts and big words! The knock on Milloy is that he's super political and preaches against global warming like he's the antiAlGore ... which he is. Plus he writes for FoxNews.com ... boo to you Steven!
Here's the problem with the climate change debate as it currently being run (here's where everyone can get mad) on one side they insist that CO2 levels are the cause of the warming of the earth and on the other side they disagree and encourage pollution and polluter-friendly legislation. CO2 levels are really low right now, not if you look at the last couple of huindred years, but if you look at the last couple of hundred million years, they were exponentially higher. A couple of different times in the earth's history spikes in atmospheric CO2 levels coincide with ice ages (not warming) and really there seems to be many more factors at play here than just carbon dioxide, i mean if CO2 was the only issue then couldn't we just get more plants and suck it right back out of the atmosphere? And the answer to that is yes by the way if you were thinking about it. The earth's climate is always changing and sometimes with catastrophic results ... certainly it could be really bad for people all over the world, but there is no way you could prove that one thing, the addition of one variable is having an impact nor can you say to what extent that variable is changing the climate of our planet. Here are some pollution facts 1) American corporate agriculture is the largest polluter in the world (no, it's not factories or SUVs ... forget the Prius, grow your own food) 2) pollution is bad for everyone regardless of the temperature outside 3) we are creative enough and rich enough (as a group) to choose to stop polluting and to figure out a way to do it 4) God gave the earth to us and we were to be stewards of His creation, that means we were supposed to take care of it, and i don't think that he meant pave it, burn it, pour chromium in the rivers, and to just generally destroy everything we touch.
Anyway, here's where i stand; i completly agree that we need to find ways to be less wastefull and to pollute less. Treating the earth like it's an everlasting gobstopper is just plain stupid. Resources are finite and can be completly depleted, not to mention while we use water to wash our cars and fill our swimming pools there are parched people with dry cracked lips living on dry cracked soil praying for rain to come all over the world. I love those people and they are the reason that i do not water my grass or wash my car ... i just need to figure out how to send the water i'm not using to them. Burning coal (right next to my house) sucks and should be outlawed, not because of climate issues but because it's dirty and lacks creativity ... we've been burning coal for hundreds of years, we can't come up with anything better? SUVs are stupid because you don't need a school bus for you and your one child to go to the store on a Saturday afternoon, take the bus or walk or ride bikes ... then you wouldn't pollute AND your kid wouldn't be so fat ... forget the climate. Common sence should tell you to turn the lights off when you leave a room, common sence should tell you that the Ohio river catching fire is a really bad thing. Do you seriously expect me to believe that you thought the Ford Excursion was practical before Al Gore told you about the homeless polar bears. You bought a vehicle that gets 8MPG highway if you're going down hill with a tail wind and you thought it was a great idea ... but since those polar bears you're driving the Prius and loving it. Now you get to save the world and do nothing all at the same time ... 5 stars for that one.
Bush didn't need WMDs to get our support the invasion of Iraq ... all he had to say is that Sadam and his sons are killing innocents and raping virgins and we're going to stop him. I would have been 100% behind that. The "scientists" don't need climate change, let's stop polluting because it makes sence and after that if the climate reverses itself back to "normal" hooray! We don't need extra reasons to not pollute, do we? I love Africa, and Africans ... it breaks my heart that the people of that continent suffer through so much. Famine, drought, flooding, disease, war ... it is constant, and i'm sure that we can start working on some real solutions, i wish that it mattered to most people, but here's what i know; Africa had all the same problems 4000 years ago (it's in Genesis for crying out loud) and if you send them money the dictator of the minute takes it and puts it in his Swiss retirement account so when he is overthrown in two weeks he can live like a king in Paris for the rest of his life while the people of his country are left to deal with the worst the human condition has to offer. So don't pollute, don't be wasteful. Be a good steward of this beautiful planet that your God has seen fit to allow you to live on, use the resources that He has bestowed upon us, just don't abuse those resources. I'm glad that people are passionate about the world they live in, they should be, but please don't buy the simple solutions that they're selling you. Signing an accord and taxing polluters and sending money to Africa is not a solution ... revamping our entire economic (especially food) system and coming up with real, sustainable, solutions for the southern half of the earth's problems ... i mean really figuring out how to reduce milaria deaths, AIDS deaths, famine (see Joseph's solution in Egypt) drought ... and maybe rewarding "green" innovations rather than punnishing the uncreative (read "polluting bastards") is the way to go.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Wednesday Stuff
So today's post is brought to you by my good mood, the kind of good mood you get in when you spend your third day at your new job in a meeting recapping the performance of your predecesor and your peers from 2009. I love meetings in which i cannot possibly get yelled at! Hooray new job!
Ok, so thousands of you responded to my last post and of those there were hundereds and hundreds (or maybe it was just reader #3) of you that wanted to know how i could not give my youngest the Madeline dolls ... and the answer to that is that of course i could GIVE them to her i just couldn't BUY them for her. I'm not really sure that it's legal to charge $18 for a 4 inch high doll, but i was charged almost $3 for a cup of coffee at the same book store and $5 for a couple of chocolate chip cookies which leads me to believe that book store should stick to books, they are not very good at selling other things competitively. Seriously, i bought 3 hard cover books for less than one Madeline doll.
In moronic air travel news a Hawaiian Airlines Jet enroute to Maui landed in Oregon after a "disturbance" on the plane after take off. Not only did it land in Oregon, but it was escorted by two F-15's ... that's right, fighter jets! What sort of diabolical terrorist was threatening this plane? I mean if they couldn't catch a guy with explosives who tried to blow a plane up, if that plane did not get a military escort to the ground, this guy must have done something really awful. Right? I know, maybe they realised that Bin Laden was on board on his was to a sunny beach vacation. No. Maybe there was a large group of terrorists trying to take over the plane with guns. No. Maybe the Taliban was holding a strategy meeting on the plane and we had to stop then. No, actually it was an american-nonterrorist that caused the big fuss. What did he do? You're asking yourself, did he try to take over the cockpit? Did he attack the "Air Marshall"? No, he refused to stow his carry on bag. Here's the quote from MSNBC.com "The Hawaiian Airlines jet en route to Maui's Kahului Airport turned back because of “a suspicious passenger who made threatening remarks and refused to store his carry-on bag,” said Suzanne Trevino, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. " And she said it with a strait face. So let's make sure you have this right. You ARE safe from people not storing their carry on, but you are not safe from inept bombers. Hooray! The system works!
And tonight we close with global warming news. I live in Florida, lovely warm Florida where it is 26 degrees right now and has been cold all week. Today set a record cold temperature, the year that it beat ...1999. Wow, 2 record lows in 10 years, the earth must be warming! The ice caps are melting, the ice caps are melting, the ice caps are melting! The ice isn't melting, it's just moving to Florida because it found an affordable retirement community! And yesterday in Tennessee, where Al Gore is from, 5 people froze to death! F-I-V-E 5! All i know is if you're out trying to convince the world that man-made climate change is warming the earth and going to kill us all it makes you look like an idiot when you neighbors (in a southern state) are freezing to death. So my thoughts and prayers go out to them and their famlies and i have to wonder, how many more people have to die from listening to Al Gore before we throw him in jail? Seriously if you believed him you would throw out your jackets and blankets and remove you heater because you don't need them. People are still driving SUV's ... it'll be 300 degrees before you know it. All i know is that i had the heat cranking in my SUV today and there was ice on the windshield this morning ... so i hope that my choice of low gas milage vehicle warms the earth up soon because i'm really cold!
PS. we'll be invading Yemen soon. This week we evacuated our embassy staff so that they don't get hit with the bombs we're going to drop on the Yemeni countryside.
PPS Please comment so i know that someone heard the tree fall. Yes, you too reader #3
Ok, so thousands of you responded to my last post and of those there were hundereds and hundreds (or maybe it was just reader #3) of you that wanted to know how i could not give my youngest the Madeline dolls ... and the answer to that is that of course i could GIVE them to her i just couldn't BUY them for her. I'm not really sure that it's legal to charge $18 for a 4 inch high doll, but i was charged almost $3 for a cup of coffee at the same book store and $5 for a couple of chocolate chip cookies which leads me to believe that book store should stick to books, they are not very good at selling other things competitively. Seriously, i bought 3 hard cover books for less than one Madeline doll.
In moronic air travel news a Hawaiian Airlines Jet enroute to Maui landed in Oregon after a "disturbance" on the plane after take off. Not only did it land in Oregon, but it was escorted by two F-15's ... that's right, fighter jets! What sort of diabolical terrorist was threatening this plane? I mean if they couldn't catch a guy with explosives who tried to blow a plane up, if that plane did not get a military escort to the ground, this guy must have done something really awful. Right? I know, maybe they realised that Bin Laden was on board on his was to a sunny beach vacation. No. Maybe there was a large group of terrorists trying to take over the plane with guns. No. Maybe the Taliban was holding a strategy meeting on the plane and we had to stop then. No, actually it was an american-nonterrorist that caused the big fuss. What did he do? You're asking yourself, did he try to take over the cockpit? Did he attack the "Air Marshall"? No, he refused to stow his carry on bag. Here's the quote from MSNBC.com "The Hawaiian Airlines jet en route to Maui's Kahului Airport turned back because of “a suspicious passenger who made threatening remarks and refused to store his carry-on bag,” said Suzanne Trevino, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. " And she said it with a strait face. So let's make sure you have this right. You ARE safe from people not storing their carry on, but you are not safe from inept bombers. Hooray! The system works!
And tonight we close with global warming news. I live in Florida, lovely warm Florida where it is 26 degrees right now and has been cold all week. Today set a record cold temperature, the year that it beat ...1999. Wow, 2 record lows in 10 years, the earth must be warming! The ice caps are melting, the ice caps are melting, the ice caps are melting! The ice isn't melting, it's just moving to Florida because it found an affordable retirement community! And yesterday in Tennessee, where Al Gore is from, 5 people froze to death! F-I-V-E 5! All i know is if you're out trying to convince the world that man-made climate change is warming the earth and going to kill us all it makes you look like an idiot when you neighbors (in a southern state) are freezing to death. So my thoughts and prayers go out to them and their famlies and i have to wonder, how many more people have to die from listening to Al Gore before we throw him in jail? Seriously if you believed him you would throw out your jackets and blankets and remove you heater because you don't need them. People are still driving SUV's ... it'll be 300 degrees before you know it. All i know is that i had the heat cranking in my SUV today and there was ice on the windshield this morning ... so i hope that my choice of low gas milage vehicle warms the earth up soon because i'm really cold!
PS. we'll be invading Yemen soon. This week we evacuated our embassy staff so that they don't get hit with the bombs we're going to drop on the Yemeni countryside.
PPS Please comment so i know that someone heard the tree fall. Yes, you too reader #3
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Not Pinko Monday
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
So this is normally done by "normal" bloggers that talk about their kids and exercise routines and the things they eat ... an i have kids and i eat and i exercise ... and i don't blog about it. So that's why this is "Not Pinko Monday", like i needed an excuse to be sarcastic ... but i did need an excuse to refer to myself in the third person. And now i have one.
Clearly it was not the Pinko who found a way to be transferred from one branch of his company to another ... and even if he did this there is no way that he would be able to transfer back to the division that he started in 7 1/2 years ago. I mean no one is allowed to transfer without moving since we compete against each other in the market place, surely they would not let the Pinko transfer after all the years and training and success (and a few small catastrophic failures). So no, it was not the Pinko who got permission from his boss to pursue this, and certainly it was not the Pinko who verified before making this potentially career ending request that he had a place to land when the dust settled. Certainly the Pinko is so stupid that he would try the impossible without first putting all his ducks in a row, no one would be brazen enough to cross the line of demarcation without permission and then on top of that to skillfully use the false preconceptions of his superiors to get them to let him officially go and "talk" to the other side ... i'm sure that they didn't "know" i would be rejected. So no way, that was not the Pinko who did that and it is definitely not the Pinko who is starting his new job on Monday. Who's happy about it? Not the Pinko.
It was also not the Pinko who laughed "Ha Ha Ha" a loud and socially awkward laugh at the suggestion that the government was going to start following me because i keep predicting what they're going to do before they do it. I mean seriously the Pinko would not take such things lightly (and in not readers Monday news - It was not my readers who told no one about this blog so that no one would come and read it, it would not be my readers who were so thoughtful knowing that if more than 2 people visited this page the government might actually care what was in here.) So the Pinko is not at all thankful for his total lack of popularity. No, not him.
In other not Pinko news, it was certainly not the Pinko who thought it would be a good way to kill a couple of hours to take 3 children under the age of 7 to Barnes and Noble. I mean only an idiot would think that no books would be knocked over, thrown, ripped ... and who knew that they sold small stuffed Madeline dolls (the favorite of my youngest) At which point it was not the Pinko who tried to reason with a 25 month old child why the 4 Madeline dolls she had a death grip on could not come home with us. The little communist (Pinko Jr.?) was clearly thinking that "to each according to her needs" clearly applied since she NEEDED those dolls. So after dolls were pried from her clutches it was not the Pinko who bribed the tears away with chocolate chip cookies for everyone! It would not be sending a good parenting message to do such a thing and so the Pinko would not stoop bribery ... oh yes he would.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Evil Flu ... i did not invite you to 2010, go home!
So i did not do a Wednesday post because i was consumed by an evil fever/diabolically sore throat/gross stuff coming out of my nose/headache thing, and then i was going to do a New Years Eve post ... but when i tried to type the fever made me think about weirdness and you deserve better (both of you). So after two days of sickness my wife decides to tell me about Tylenol Cold ... (sponsorship!?!) and now i'm feeling like a human again. So today's post is brought to you by the miracle of Tylenol Cold ... i love you little pills!
I don't know if you caught any of it but there were huge pro-democracy protests in Iran the past week and the Iranian authorities responded by being incredibly violent, i'm surprised ... aren't you? So there is no media coverage (Iran does not allow it) but God bless cell phone cameras and YouTube because people filmed what was going on and posted it so you can check it out. Anyway, one of the videos shows a police truck trying to navigate through a crowd of protestors and having a hard time so they run over a woman and then drive away as fast as possible before the protestors kill them. You clearly see the whole thing, it is awful. I included a link to it here so after you read this go watch it. http://bit.ly/8KcLte
It's the second video down. That was a couple of days ago. Today the New York Times, bastion of the news decided to publish the Iranian response to the video getting out, here's what they wrote about it. "The Iranian police say a video that appears to show a police pickup truck running over a protester was faked, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported Thursday. The police statement was responding to the circulation on the Internet of an amateur video said to have been taken Sunday during large antigovernment demonstrations in Tehran. The video shows a pickup truck running over a man; other screaming protesters then run to him after the truck drives off. The police say that the video, which appears to show a police pickup truck running over a protester, was faked and that no deaths were reported in that area." Oh ... i feel better already, the Iranian police, who have been killing innocent people for days say that the whole thing didn't happen in the face of undeniable video evidence, well let's give them the benefit of the doubt. I can totally see why the NYT would publish the official response of a despotic regime and write it as if the delegation from Luxembourg was releasing a statement. It's the same right? Why would the Iranians lie? Please go watch the video so you can see it and realize how insane this is.
In other insane news, Evander Holyfield is going to be fighting for the Heavy Weight Championship of the world ... in 2010. He's only 47 years old, i'm sure he'll be fine. I mean it's not like he's completly punch drunk, his management team didn't quit 4 fights ago saying that they could not support his decision to keep fighting, he's not medically banned from boxing in multiple US states, he hasn't lost 5 of his last 9 fights ... oh he has? He is banned? That's ok, Uganda sanctioned him, they said he's fine to fight. I'm sure they have his best interests at heart. So go Evander ... go get you a belt and some permanant brain damage!
In closing i want to wish you all a Happy New Year and i hope that everyone had some safe fun last night. I did, i went bowling with my kids and Ang and our cool friends and then the brave people let us come to their house and hang out ... it went really well, i don't think that the kids broke anything the whole time ... as long as you don't count the unfortunate water incident ... sorry Dan.
Oh, don't forget to comment on the Iran video.
I don't know if you caught any of it but there were huge pro-democracy protests in Iran the past week and the Iranian authorities responded by being incredibly violent, i'm surprised ... aren't you? So there is no media coverage (Iran does not allow it) but God bless cell phone cameras and YouTube because people filmed what was going on and posted it so you can check it out. Anyway, one of the videos shows a police truck trying to navigate through a crowd of protestors and having a hard time so they run over a woman and then drive away as fast as possible before the protestors kill them. You clearly see the whole thing, it is awful. I included a link to it here so after you read this go watch it. http://bit.ly/8KcLte
It's the second video down. That was a couple of days ago. Today the New York Times, bastion of the news decided to publish the Iranian response to the video getting out, here's what they wrote about it. "The Iranian police say a video that appears to show a police pickup truck running over a protester was faked, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported Thursday. The police statement was responding to the circulation on the Internet of an amateur video said to have been taken Sunday during large antigovernment demonstrations in Tehran. The video shows a pickup truck running over a man; other screaming protesters then run to him after the truck drives off. The police say that the video, which appears to show a police pickup truck running over a protester, was faked and that no deaths were reported in that area." Oh ... i feel better already, the Iranian police, who have been killing innocent people for days say that the whole thing didn't happen in the face of undeniable video evidence, well let's give them the benefit of the doubt. I can totally see why the NYT would publish the official response of a despotic regime and write it as if the delegation from Luxembourg was releasing a statement. It's the same right? Why would the Iranians lie? Please go watch the video so you can see it and realize how insane this is.
In other insane news, Evander Holyfield is going to be fighting for the Heavy Weight Championship of the world ... in 2010. He's only 47 years old, i'm sure he'll be fine. I mean it's not like he's completly punch drunk, his management team didn't quit 4 fights ago saying that they could not support his decision to keep fighting, he's not medically banned from boxing in multiple US states, he hasn't lost 5 of his last 9 fights ... oh he has? He is banned? That's ok, Uganda sanctioned him, they said he's fine to fight. I'm sure they have his best interests at heart. So go Evander ... go get you a belt and some permanant brain damage!
In closing i want to wish you all a Happy New Year and i hope that everyone had some safe fun last night. I did, i went bowling with my kids and Ang and our cool friends and then the brave people let us come to their house and hang out ... it went really well, i don't think that the kids broke anything the whole time ... as long as you don't count the unfortunate water incident ... sorry Dan.
Oh, don't forget to comment on the Iran video.
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