From Autoblog: there’s always a catch, isn’t there?
I have always thought hybrid purchases were more sanctimonious than harmonious.
Another means to an end we should mean to end.
Let’s give it 10 minutes before the sponsors of this study are libeled.
Tom Maguire on Paul Krugman’s fine whine about deadly heat waves caused by climate change.
Heat is already the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States. More than 3,400 deaths between 1999 and 2003 were reported as resulting from exposure to excessive heat.
That is about 850 deaths per year. Each untimely death is tragic and Krugman is surely vexed that this number might rise. But by way of comparison, a 2002 study estimated that higher CAFE standards would put Americans in smaller cars and result in an additional 2,000 deaths per year; Krugman, as a party-line progressive, surely supports higher CAFE standards. I denounce Krugman as a traitor to the national highway system Not to mention as a traitor to the safety of my wife and kids.
Progressives like Krugman are willing to heartlessly sacrifice thousands of innocent lives to pursue “well meaning” policies that have little chance of producing realistic outcomes.
Devolving into teh stoopid.
And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.
I mean, really.
Thanks, hippies.
But the science is settled, right?
Now it’s (the lack of) lead particulate in the air that curbed growth in global temperatures.
So now they’re giving George Will the cold shoulder for not towing the line. Â Because there can only be one take when discussing fragmented evidence.
Does Gore use these moderated panels as proof that he’s operating on the premise of having an open mind? Because he sounds more like a corporate fatcat unwilling to concede any nit at any cost. As if he’s got. . . . some ulterior motive to keep towing the line.
Where does he get off claiming the chapter of scientific debate on climate change was closed long ago? The only thing that’s been settled is that there isn’t any firm conclusion. The man has been showing signs of hockey-stick psychosis for nearly a decade but yet remains undebatable. Score one for enlightened discourse, Al.
via Samizdata
What did you do during the recession, Daddy?
I installed solar panels and wind turbines.
If only Franklin Roosevelt had thought to put millions of Americans to work during the Depression doing make-work jobs that were gee-whiz futuristic…. Oh, that’s right. He did. And it didn’t work then, either. But this time is different, you know.
America’s commitment to averting the world’s climate crisis has been restored! However vacuous and noncommital the words, it’s enough for true believers the world over to exclaim that the new Obama administration has officially reversed the damn-near suicidal course we were on before. We will NOT let California shrivel up and die!
From here forward, it will not matter that nothing substantial happens–the tone has been set. America cares now, and is worthy of regaining international respect. Esteemed intellectuals will define our challenges, and deploy non-political technocrats to marshal the appropriate public and private resources needed to fight a battle that America cannot lose.
Big ol’ furnarole eating away at Alaskan glacier. The last this endangered glacier needs is to be consumed by some cowboy volcano.
Because gasoline vapors are destroying the environment!
Dozens, and potentially hundreds, of gas stations around California are choosing to shut down rather than comply with a state mandate that would require owners to purchase new equipment to reduce vapor emissions at the pump.
The requirement, known as Phase II in the state’s Enhanced Vapor Recovery Program, is set to go into effect in April. It requires gas station owners to individually purchase tens of thousands of dollars of equipment designed to prevent harmful vapors from escaping into the air when gasoline is pumped.
My guess is that the recent hike in minimum wages isn’t helping these small business owners either.
It’s starting to fray a little at the edges, kind of like the idea of taxing the world economy to conform to junk religion science.
They still have to use evil fossil fuels to justify their slaughter of Japanese fishermen. Not really what I would call “guardians of the earth.”
Wait. . got that messed up a little. But you’d think they’d use a hybrid boat or something. Maybe an electric u-boat that leaves a lighter carbon footprint.
New US proposals for protecting penguin species fall short, say gay activist penguins:
Environmentalists hailed the Bush administration’s proposal to fully list six penguin species, but criticized its decision not to protect three others, including the emperor penguin, the largest and gheyest penguin in the world and one that depends on sea ice for breeding and feeding.
Activist penguins complain that the new proposals unfairly exclude non-traditional penguin species from government protection and diminish these species’ abilities to compete with puffins and other land-based “breeders.”
“Death map” is a fun way to predict how you will die. My fortune? I will slip on a snowy sidewalk in Las Vegas.
Politico just now decides that global warming skeptics might now have a point. This is a purely manipulative news release designed to unsettle expectations of climate activists.
Before now, Senator Inhofe’s environmental stance was lambasted by the MSM as being . . .retarded, yet undeniably cynical. . So now there’s mounting evidence that he might have a point? And he’s collecting even more evidence to back his position? WHY THE HELL IS THIS NEWSWORTHY NOW?
But I get the the NYT for the crossword puzzle.
Kudos to President Elect Obama (or to Rahm Emmanuel?) for doing something. He smartly designates an non-partisan to head Treasury, and the markets go bonkers in a good way. I’m not sure how he found someone that wasn’t connected somehow to ACORN, CRA, Fannie or Freddie, but he got him, and it’s a good choice. Let’s hope that today’s late day market swing excites foreign exchanges and carries some momentum through to Monday.
The market has tanked big since the election, partially because the bailout seems misapplied and ill-designed and partially because an absent President Bush seems unintereste– wait a minute. Nobody really cares what the president thinks anyway, no matter how much fake “one president at a time” chivalry we’re fed. The most significant factor is the legitimate fear businesses have had of some of Obama’s campaign proposals that, within the last two weeks, have been quietly yanked from public discourse by a Transition team already peddling lower expectations to the 52.7% crowd. “Right here, right now” has become “not here right now.”
Today’s selection of Geithner goes a long way to easing some market anxiety, but what would really help the market find sure footing is a continued embargo of the anti-business rhetoric that dominated the campaign.
Markets are still down big. I keep wondering why businesses are feeling pessimistic about the future. . . below are a few of my hunches:
- Democrats wanted to impose the Kennedy Sick Leave Act on companies with more than 15 workers
- Obama campaigned to to increase taxes on all Americans making over $250k $200k $150k $120k per year — including that lyin’ SOB Joe the Plumber who, although he may end up buying a $250k/year company, would end up receiving a tax break! Which would be negated by. .
- Obama’s counterpunch of forcing small businesses making over $250k per year to purchase health insurance for their employees or pay the equivalent amount into a national subsidy fund. There went Joe’s tax break.
- Democrat’s agenda to eliminate the secret ballot in an effort to drastically increase unionization among American workers. Joe the Plumber will need to retain a labor lawyer. There were two leading factors driving the exodus of many American manufacturing jobs overseas–taxes and unionization. Here we have “intellectuals” arguing for even more of it to save American jobs.
- Obama’s plan to institute a cap and trade ‘economy’ that would intentionally force energy prices sky high and force certain types of energy providers to go out of business.
- Democrats pondering the effects of nationalizing your 401k savings, all of which is funded by wages paid by American business..
So yeah, everything should work out just fine, but I’ll keep watching.
“Changes that took place 6000-7000 years ago were controlled by other climatic forces than those which seem to dominate today,” Astrid Lyså believes, but is not certain because of lack of data.
I might have added some at the end, but one thing is important: Please, don’t draw parallels between then and now. It would crush so many little egos.
Environmental Wunderkind & Editor in Chief of the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, M.Hiatt reexamines the takings clause in a climate changed future…and to think, I was just about to do the same! Congratulations Mr. Hiatt! It’s amazing you even associate with dullards like me.
American problems postpone Eurocratic pet projects.
It will take years to unravel this nonsense, but I’ve always thought that the entire programme was never more than a scheme by carbon-poor industrialized nations to create an entirely new revenue stream out of whole cloth (or dare I say CO2 vapor?) in order to compete with carbon-rich growth nations. Hundreds of billions of euros siphoned right out of the normal economy. Really seems like a good idea.
Yes, I said programme. . . .
Prepare for the onslaught of polls showing Obama dragging behind a resurgent McCain. Which will lead to all sorts of underdog cheerleading by an “impartial” national press.
*update* No better way to guarantee your underdog position than to appoint Joe Biden as your VP! It’s almost as if they’re trying to lose. . .
