Global Cooling? Oh for Chrissakes.
February 26th, 2008 by VinnyOkay, can we make up our minds on what we’re going to be killed by? Is it cooling or warming?
No wonder the environmentalists stopped using “global warming” and started with the more generic “climate change.”
Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile — the list goes on and on.
No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA’s GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.
Meteorologist Anthony Watts compiled the results of all the sources. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C — a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year time. For all sources, it’s the single fastest temperature change every recorded, either up or down.
Scientists quoted in a past DailyTech article link the cooling to reduced solar activity which they claim is a much larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases. The dramatic cooling seen in just 12 months time seems to bear that out. While the data doesn’t itself disprove that carbon dioxide is acting to warm the planet, it does demonstrate clearly that more powerful factors are now cooling it.
Face it, the most we can do is take care of the planet and hope for the best. We don’t know what’s going on, we don’t understand it, and we probably never will. One thing’s for sure, though. Seeing as man hasn’t done much to change its ways, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that our impact isn’t quite as large as we were lead to initially believe.
News Flash: Hillary Clinton Did Her Job
February 25th, 2008 by VinnyI love how all of a sudden everyone is going out of their way to find new ways to discredit Hillary Clinton. Drudge, bastion of all things correct, proper, and interesting, posted the following headline (it was in red earlier today):
LAWYER HILLARY GRILLED 12-YEAR OLD OVER ‘RAPE’; attacked child’s credibility…
Hmmmm… So what’s the whole story? From the linked article…
Hillary Rodham Clinton often invokes her “35 years of experience making change” on the campaign trail, recounting her work in the 1970s on behalf of battered and neglected children and impoverished legal-aid clients.
But there is a little-known episode Clinton doesn’t mention in her standard campaign speech in which those two principles collided. In 1975, a 27-year-old Hillary Rodham, acting as a court-appointed attorney, attacked the credibility of a 12-year-old girl in mounting an aggressive defense for an indigent client accused of rape in Arkansas - using her child development background to help the defendant.
The case offers a glimpse into the way Clinton deals with crisis. Her approach, then and now, was to immerse herself in even unpleasant tasks with a will to win, an attitude captured in one of her favorite aphorisms: “Bloom where you’re planted.”
So… As a court-appointed attorney, she vigorously defended her client.
The nerve of her.
Next thing you know they’ll be telling us she paid parking tickets.
And the sky opened…
February 25th, 2008 by VinnyYes We Can!
February 25th, 2008 by VinnyDare I say it? Saturday Night Live has gone completely off the reservation and isn’t fellating Barack Obama?
End the embargo already.
February 22nd, 2008 by Vinny
Fidel Castro, long suspected dead by anyone with any insight into world politics, is stepping down. In the place of one brutal dictator that Hollywood fawns over and sucks up to will be the brother of the brutal dictator that Hollywood fawns over and sucks up to. Not much is going to change in Cuba. The people will still be poor, oppressed, and mistreated, and the Castro family will live like kings on their stacks of US Dollars all over the island.
In fact, Cuba has shopping malls where the only currency accepted at all is the US Dollar. Think about that. A country we can’t legally trade with prefers our currency to their own in a shopping mall.
Since Fidel Castro has taken control of Cuba, and the United States started its embargo, Cuba has fallen into disarray. Part of it is related to the fact that Fidel Castro is a brutal bastard who holds his power by maintaining an insane level of fear in his people. Part of it is that the tourism business that was fostered by being a few mere miles off the coast of Florida is now dead. Part of it is that, despite all logic, the US continues to keep this embargo going.
In China, journalists are regularly “disappeared” for writing anti government articles or postings on websites. In Saudi Arabia, women are stoned if they’re the victims of rape (this happens in other “friendly” countries like Pakistan as well). Russia continually strikes back at “separatists” with brutal and complete dominating force and with little regard for the human rights issues involved. Mexico’s prisons are some of the worst and most dangerous in the world. Indonesia is a country that’s so brimming with hatred that when their country was under 10 feet of water from the Tsunami, they wouldn’t accept money and medical aid from Israel. Today, George W. Bush’s White House announced that we’ll be increasing aid to Gaza and the West Bank, parts of the Middle East that are controlled by an elected terrorist government.
It defies logic that when taken into account all those facts that we choose to not do business with Cuba over its human rights record or the fact that their government is run by a brutal dictator. The idea that a brutal dictator like Castro is no good to do business with while a brutal government like Hamas is okay to talk to and send aid to is something we really need to reconcile.
As we stand on our high horse, Cuba is dying. Oh sure, you’ll never hear that from the media; they love Castro and love portraying him as a strong leader with a great literacy rate and free healthcare for all his people, but the truth is the truth. Cuba’s economy would get an instant boost from increased tourism from the United States. This is indisputable. The infusion of money into small merchants and shop owners would lift the economy up in a profound way. That is also indisputable.
Holding on to this embargo is accomplishing nothing. The Castros will never step down. The Cuban people are suffering and poor. In the meantime, we still deal with dictators and despots on a regular basis while chastising the Cuban government for being the same.
If that makes sense to you, then so be it, but that, to me, sounds more than a tad hypocritical.
It’s time to end the embargo and stop punishing the Cuban people.
Tell me again how this isn’t a cult?
February 21st, 2008 by Vinny
It’s probably safe to say that you have arrived as a politician when your audience applauds when you blow your nose.
Yes, just a day before a debate in Texas, Sen. Barack Obama has a head cold.
And about a half-hour into a speech here, the Illinois Democrat announced that he had to take a quick break. “Gotta blow my nose here for a second,” Obama said.
Out came a Kleenex (or perhaps it was a hankie), and he wiped his nose.
The near-capacity audience at the Reunion Arena, which his campaign said totaled 17,000, broke out in a slightly awkward applause.
If it walks like a cult and quacks like a cult…
Symptoms of a Douchebag
February 20th, 2008 by VinnyDoes spelling the words of your title wrong mean anything?
*cough*
If you want to watch the whole video, check it out. I advise against it, though.
Yet Another Devoid Obama Supporter
February 20th, 2008 by VinnyAnd to answer his question, no it doesn’t concern anyone because no one dares ask the question. It surprised me that ole Chris had the intestinal fortitude to ask it, frankly.
via Chris
links for 2008-02-20
February 20th, 2008 by Vinnylinks for 2008-02-16
February 16th, 2008 by Vinny-
Find out the lighting colors for each night.
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This is the first game of Anti-Games series. This game is contrary to Pacman. Yo…
Wizbang gets in on the act…
February 15th, 2008 by VinnyThe iconic “Hillary as Hitler” photos are now popping up all over the place. This time on Wizbang.
Does it ever get old with these folks?
links for 2008-02-15
February 15th, 2008 by Vinny-
Don Reisinger is my favorite writer at C-Net, bar none. This is exactly why.
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LOL Dogs? Baroo?
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Candidate Picker for the undecided. No surprise: Hillary Clinton won for me.
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Type an artist and a song title, and it plays. Cool stuff.
Idiots
February 14th, 2008 by VinnyAt least 82 U.S. youths have died since 1995 engaging in “the choking game” in which they try to experience a fleeting “high” by cutting off the oxygen supply to the brain, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.
An unknown number of youths, mostly boys, are taking part in the practice in which they strangle themselves with their hands or a noose or have someone else strangle them, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report.
“They hope to get a cool and dreamy feeling, as they’ve described it,” said Robin Toblin of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, who led the report.
I call it “thinning the herd.”
For once, I agree with Dave Winer
February 14th, 2008 by VinnySo Dave Winer thinks he’s funny. He also thinks he’s relevant. I know what you’re thinking, but stick with me here.
Anyway, Dave thought it would be funny to play with the error screen on Twitter (which we’ve all seen so much of lately). I wanted to see just how much fun it was. You know what? The man has a point. It’s a hell of a lot of fun.
Here’s my interpretation.
A real knee-slapper if you ask me.
I’ll take things you never hear for $100, Alex
February 14th, 2008 by VinnyThings you hear from John F. Obama and his supporters:
Change
Transformative
Unity
Uplifting
Vital
Anti-establishment
Steadfast
Eloquent
Inspiring
Things you never hear from John F. Obama and his supporters:
How?
Speaks volumes.
