THIS is why people need guns. Not semi-automatic Marine Corps rifles, but 16 gauge shotguns. Maybe a handgun in the purse, but there is no reason to be out buying military grade weapons. Especially since the 2 most common reasons for buying a gun is protection and hunting. You can't hunt anything with a rifle!
Did you know that Arizona is the 2nd highest ranked location for kidnapping in the WORLD?!? And that it's over drugs coming over the border. Apparently it's quite easy to walk into a gun shop and purchase one of those military grade weapons. What a vicious cycle. Maybe Arizona deserves to have all those kidnappings.
If you just want the thrill of shooting a machine gun or other military weapon, then find a shooting range and rent one. If none exist, start one. Get the licensing and make a ton.
Big boys like big toys and I'm about to quit caring when this country goes to hell in a hand basket because everyone wants to own power. Everyone thinks that Jurassic Park will be the ultimate destruction of the world (science going too far), but no. It's happening right now when the "bad people" get easy access to drugs and guns because the "good people" HAVE to have easy access to their hobbies. Obviously, no one cares about those "unintended" consequences or maybe there would be more regulation.
I'm all for getting rid of government regulation, but only when humans can prove that they are actually capable of monitoring themselves--of being good, moral citizens. We tried to deregulate the business world and they showed themselves to be just as greedy as they were 100 years ago--so, back to square one with high regulation. Maybe in 20 years we can breed morality back into that segment of the economy. Maybe if gun-shop owners would start caring less about a profit and more about who they are actually selling to, we could deregulate that industry.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
1767
You might wonder what's up with 1767 since I have it in the web address for most of my linked blogs. There are 2 reasons for this. The first is quite simply that I have to find a "random" number to differentiate between mine and another's sites. The reason I chose 1767 is because it's a very important date to me. It's in honor of the Proclamation of 1767 which stated that the English settlers in the New World were not allowed to venture past the Appalachian Mountains.
Why, you might ask, do I care about this proclamation? Well, it's because it's used as one of the reasons for declaring independence from the king of England--that the king had no right to make such a request of the settlers. That's the Conservative answer. The liberal, and practical, side of me knows why this proclamation was made--that it was costing the king an arm and a leg to protect the settlers from the Indians and various foreigners and if they didn't keep going where there was no one to protect them, there wouldn't be so much of an issue.
I find the Proclamation of 1767 to be the perfect example of a misunderstanding of law. Taxation without Representation is just as good--you see there was no voting for representatives in England--it was just understood that all members of parliament stood for all of England's citizens--including the settlers in the New World. While I can agree that they felt that the new laws being enacted weren't fair, there was no such thing as direct representation, so to claim it as a right is superfluous (I think I used that word correctly).
Why, you might ask, do I care about this proclamation? Well, it's because it's used as one of the reasons for declaring independence from the king of England--that the king had no right to make such a request of the settlers. That's the Conservative answer. The liberal, and practical, side of me knows why this proclamation was made--that it was costing the king an arm and a leg to protect the settlers from the Indians and various foreigners and if they didn't keep going where there was no one to protect them, there wouldn't be so much of an issue.
I find the Proclamation of 1767 to be the perfect example of a misunderstanding of law. Taxation without Representation is just as good--you see there was no voting for representatives in England--it was just understood that all members of parliament stood for all of England's citizens--including the settlers in the New World. While I can agree that they felt that the new laws being enacted weren't fair, there was no such thing as direct representation, so to claim it as a right is superfluous (I think I used that word correctly).
Friday, December 11, 2009
Gahh...still an idiot.
Remember that guy that cut his own arm off when it was trapped under a rock while hiking? Yeah, he's stupid.
I'm in Search and Rescue and rule number one for ANY outdoors adventure (and heck, it's a good rule for life in general--who knows when you'll need an alibi) is tell someone where you will be going--the more exact the directions the better and a close second is don't go alone. Half of our training is in SAR theory and figuring out how individuals react in certain situations. Did you know that Alzheimer's patients will walk in a straight line until they reach a barrier in which case they will follow said barrier until they can no longer walk anymore? A certain 80 year old man was out in the wilderness for 3 days and when he was found he thought he'd only been gone for 45 minutes and was fine, just dehydrated. Still we could judge where was the best place to put teams out to find people. Children are equally as easy to find--they will walk around in circles until someone finds them--they also "bounce" and can survive situations that older people wouldn't be able to.
"Professional" hikers are annoying. Granted, some people just get turned around and have no idea how to get out by themselves. That is perfectly fine. Someone in our organization actually did just this (although out of state, so at least it wasn't his friends going out to find him). There was a blind guy who missed his turn off and ended up just making camp until he was found. These are the REAL professionals--the ones who you can count on to have been lost for a week and will come out tired, hungry, dehydrated, but will be back to normal after a night in the hospital. The blind guy was actually out there for 3 weeks including the time before he got "misplaced" because he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Amateur hikers are just as good as the real professionals--they stay on trails and don't do stupid stuff (like walk OFF the trails). Even if they fall off a mountain, at least we know which trail they were on which considerably shrinks the search area.
But those who think they know what they are doing are the one's we get most frustrated with. They are the ones who "follow their nose down a "shortcut"", do something they know they aren't ready for without preparing for the risks (such as bringing along someone who can bail them out) or making the most noobish mistake of going out for an adventure without telling anyone where they are going. Sigh. I most can't believe that he wouldn't change anything after getting stuck and having to cut off his arm--not even telling anyone where he was going so that he might have been found 3 days sooner. I shall have to read his book and if it doesn't start out with saying what he did wrong I will probably have to carry it along in my pack as a source of dry flint for my fire in case I ever get lost.
***Edit 3/31/2011:
I can't believe he got a movie deal out of this and that it made it to the Oscar nods. I really don't care to watch it, but as my newest goal is to watch every movie that got an Oscar nomination and/or Win (best picture category only) I unfortunately must. This is one case where I won't feel the least bit guilty pirating.
***Edit 3/31/2011:
I can't believe he got a movie deal out of this and that it made it to the Oscar nods. I really don't care to watch it, but as my newest goal is to watch every movie that got an Oscar nomination and/or Win (best picture category only) I unfortunately must. This is one case where I won't feel the least bit guilty pirating.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Jefferson agrees with me!
There is no such thing as a vegetable--just fruits, leaves, stems, roots, etc.
"The 1000-foot-long vegetable garden was carved into the protected south side of Monticello Mountain. The terraced beds were supported by a massive stone wall, so that one visitor described it as a "hanging garden." The methodical Jefferson divided the garden into twenty-four "squares," or growing plots, arranged according to which part of the plant was harvested -- whether "fruits" (tomatoes, beans), "roots" (beets, carrots), or "leaves" (lettuce, cabbage)."--from the Monticello website here.
"The 1000-foot-long vegetable garden was carved into the protected south side of Monticello Mountain. The terraced beds were supported by a massive stone wall, so that one visitor described it as a "hanging garden." The methodical Jefferson divided the garden into twenty-four "squares," or growing plots, arranged according to which part of the plant was harvested -- whether "fruits" (tomatoes, beans), "roots" (beets, carrots), or "leaves" (lettuce, cabbage)."--from the Monticello website here.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
It's sad when "The Onion" is dead on.
So, here's the real take on the 9/11 mastermind conclusions and why it's taken so long. Yeah, I'm that synical, today. It makes more sense than anything else I've heard.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Personal Weirdness
Okay. I've had friends who have been "followed" by a song that meant a lot to their life, but it's never happened to me before...until now. The song is "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift. Yeah, not sure why exactly this song is following me. I mean, it fits better with the friend who first blasted it 4 times while I was with her--though there might be a few lines which may relate to me. But yeah, it was playing in the car when I got in with another friend and then tonight when I was riding the bus to go to a concert with another friend (who I may or may not have a crush on ;-) ).
So, anyway. I don't generally plan to post personal stuff up here (or at least, stuff about other people), but when I heard the song on the bus earlier tonight I was just VERY confused. Oh well. It's just my luck, I guess.
So, anyway. I don't generally plan to post personal stuff up here (or at least, stuff about other people), but when I heard the song on the bus earlier tonight I was just VERY confused. Oh well. It's just my luck, I guess.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Here are some facts about the 1500s:
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor" But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot...........they "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell . .. . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer...
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell . .. . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer...
Friday, December 4, 2009
Catholic Religion Proven?
Check out this episode of "Reaper"--watch all the episodes on http://www.hulu.com/reaper if you can--it's very philosophical.
But anyway. Here are a bunch of demons (fallen angels) who's philosophy is to do good works to win back the grace of God. Watch until the end to see what the hero (Sam) says about good works and the Devil. Good stuff.
Fox News as Bad as Liberal Media
Some people say it better than I could. See below.
Please ignore the conservative crack about the candidate Fox News attacked in favor or Dole. I'm NOT that conservative--I believe in a wide world effort, not isolationism--while I can appreciate Ron Paul, I believe that there is a purpose for government in global interactions--since it's obvious that big economic bosses screw up royally more often than not. The purpose of this video is that it is a better description of how I feel about Fox News.
Here's my 2 cents. News is News--not opinion. News is by my definition facts. There is no place to put "spin" or opinion. "8 year old boy is killed by stray bullet at 2am" can't get spun much, except from conjecture that it might be a gang killing (which, since I watch a LOT of "liberal" news, isn't conjecture). Giving a number of dead in Iraq also doesn't involve much spin, except that maybe the "liberal" news will actually give pictures to go along with names and numbers. To not do that is disrespectful to the dead in my opinion.
But I don't get much Fox News. You see, I'm poor. We spend $10 on cable a month and don't get those special channels. The way I look at it, the fact that Fox News loses most of it's potential fanbase because they can't afford to pay for the channel and/or choose not to. People already either love or hate Fox News--they aren't going to make any converts from those who already have access. By being on the expensive cable, they are choosing to limit their "fan base" and therefore, when Bill O'Reilly tells about how Fox News has the highest viewership out of all the news channels, I have to wonder how skewed the numbers are.
Another thing about Fox News is that they aren't much actual news--it's mostly opinion. Like I said, news is news. And Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh AREN'T news. They are commentators, not news casters. Fox News Sunday (which IS shown on the local fox station) isn't news either. It's a roundtable discussion much like "Ask the Press". They even bring in a guy from NPR and other "liberal" sources. They comment on this weeks news. Pointless in my opinion.
Besides. Pro-Life isn't conservative in my opinion because it's having big government dictate the rights of individual women...but that's just me.
Please ignore the conservative crack about the candidate Fox News attacked in favor or Dole. I'm NOT that conservative--I believe in a wide world effort, not isolationism--while I can appreciate Ron Paul, I believe that there is a purpose for government in global interactions--since it's obvious that big economic bosses screw up royally more often than not. The purpose of this video is that it is a better description of how I feel about Fox News.
Here's my 2 cents. News is News--not opinion. News is by my definition facts. There is no place to put "spin" or opinion. "8 year old boy is killed by stray bullet at 2am" can't get spun much, except from conjecture that it might be a gang killing (which, since I watch a LOT of "liberal" news, isn't conjecture). Giving a number of dead in Iraq also doesn't involve much spin, except that maybe the "liberal" news will actually give pictures to go along with names and numbers. To not do that is disrespectful to the dead in my opinion.
But I don't get much Fox News. You see, I'm poor. We spend $10 on cable a month and don't get those special channels. The way I look at it, the fact that Fox News loses most of it's potential fanbase because they can't afford to pay for the channel and/or choose not to. People already either love or hate Fox News--they aren't going to make any converts from those who already have access. By being on the expensive cable, they are choosing to limit their "fan base" and therefore, when Bill O'Reilly tells about how Fox News has the highest viewership out of all the news channels, I have to wonder how skewed the numbers are.
Another thing about Fox News is that they aren't much actual news--it's mostly opinion. Like I said, news is news. And Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh AREN'T news. They are commentators, not news casters. Fox News Sunday (which IS shown on the local fox station) isn't news either. It's a roundtable discussion much like "Ask the Press". They even bring in a guy from NPR and other "liberal" sources. They comment on this weeks news. Pointless in my opinion.
Besides. Pro-Life isn't conservative in my opinion because it's having big government dictate the rights of individual women...but that's just me.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
North-West Passage
I've heard a lot of people call global warming/climate change a hoax and of course I have my own opinion on the phenomena.
First off. The name change. Yeah, totally political. People are more willing to believe in "climate change" over "global warming" simply because when winter gets brutal, it makes no sense to think that the world is getting warmer. All it tells me is how ignorant a certain demographic of the population is. You see, weather and climate are two VERY different things. The definition of weather (from one of my envi.sci. textbooks) "includes an area's short-term temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, and other physical conditions of the lower atmosphere over a short period of time--the atmospheric conditions we experience day by day". Climate (from the same book) is a "region's general pattern of atmospheric or weather conditions over a long time--years, decades, and centuries. Average temperature and average precipitation are the two main factors determining climate, along with the closely related factors of latitude and altitude. Many factors contribute to a local climate, including the amount of solar radiation reaching the area, the earth's daily rotation and annual path around the sun, air circulation over the earth's surface, the global distribution of landmasses and seas, the circulation of the ocean currents and the elevation of landmasses.
Second: The environment is a LOT like the economy. You change something and there is an affect in what feels like an unrelated area.
For example. If you lose 100 jobs in production of refrigerators, you will lose 50 jobs in the production of refrigerants and 25 jobs in production of steel. With 175 jobs lost you will find a decrease in demand for luzury goods like big screen tvs. Then you lose jobs in that area as well. This is of course, a very simple model. The environment is just as wide spread. The death of honey bees in Europe will cause a decrease in food supplies that would normally be sent to Africa. You would think that it would just mean the death of more Africans. Nope, because American's will take up the slack. Our food supplies would decrease, increasing our prices.
Now for the "real" environment. Water is amazing--it absorbs an amazing amount of energy without changing temperature. Ocean currents are probably the most important influencer on climate. It's why England doesn't freeze while Greenland does. But the oceans can only take so much. Watch a pot of water boil. In a split second the water goes from 99.9C and not boiling to 100C and is boiling. If you increase temperatures, you increase evaporation of oceans, thus increasing the salt concentration of the oceans because salt is not evaporated. Increased salt concentrations will make them reach levels that fish and other sea life cannot survive. If the fish die, then humans can't eat them. Also, if the fish die, the other sea predators, whales for example cannot eat them. The whales will die and thus can't be used by individuals for food or oil--whalers will go out of business. Also, increasing ocean temperatures causes some funky things to happen with ocean current systems. You see, there are layers to the ocean with lower levels with temperatures holding at a pretty constant amount (kept warm by the Earth's core). The surface is warmed up by the sun. But there are certain physical properties that get messed up as temperatures change. The yearly turn-over of the oceans is caused by changes in temperatures--if temperatures are screwed up, they won't happen. If you're studying a lake, you can watch every fish die when the lake doesn't turn over and replinish oxygen into the lower levels of the water and put nutrients into the upper level.
So, what causes an increase in temperatures? Who cares. Doesn't matter. Be green because it's economical and sustainable. Be green because it doesn't destroy the environment and kill off the beautiful bugs that make it possible to have food, the animals that clean up our wastes, or the plants that give us the oxygen that we breathe.
Still don't believe me that the climate is changing? How about this fact. We now have a North-West Passage that was the dream find in 1600. Had there been a NW passage back then, life as we know it would be very different. England might not have decided to send settlers to this new world, or would have at least not have invested so much money--their focus was on getting to Asia. Recently, (within the last 2 years) the NW passage was crossed. This is probably the most visible example of how the sea-ice up there has melted and probably the most widely noticible examples of visible climate change. Weather change wouldn't cause that much ice to melt--only sustained increased temperatures would be enough to cause it.
Latest article on carbon levels here.
First off. The name change. Yeah, totally political. People are more willing to believe in "climate change" over "global warming" simply because when winter gets brutal, it makes no sense to think that the world is getting warmer. All it tells me is how ignorant a certain demographic of the population is. You see, weather and climate are two VERY different things. The definition of weather (from one of my envi.sci. textbooks) "includes an area's short-term temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, and other physical conditions of the lower atmosphere over a short period of time--the atmospheric conditions we experience day by day". Climate (from the same book) is a "region's general pattern of atmospheric or weather conditions over a long time--years, decades, and centuries. Average temperature and average precipitation are the two main factors determining climate, along with the closely related factors of latitude and altitude. Many factors contribute to a local climate, including the amount of solar radiation reaching the area, the earth's daily rotation and annual path around the sun, air circulation over the earth's surface, the global distribution of landmasses and seas, the circulation of the ocean currents and the elevation of landmasses.
Second: The environment is a LOT like the economy. You change something and there is an affect in what feels like an unrelated area.
For example. If you lose 100 jobs in production of refrigerators, you will lose 50 jobs in the production of refrigerants and 25 jobs in production of steel. With 175 jobs lost you will find a decrease in demand for luzury goods like big screen tvs. Then you lose jobs in that area as well. This is of course, a very simple model. The environment is just as wide spread. The death of honey bees in Europe will cause a decrease in food supplies that would normally be sent to Africa. You would think that it would just mean the death of more Africans. Nope, because American's will take up the slack. Our food supplies would decrease, increasing our prices.
Now for the "real" environment. Water is amazing--it absorbs an amazing amount of energy without changing temperature. Ocean currents are probably the most important influencer on climate. It's why England doesn't freeze while Greenland does. But the oceans can only take so much. Watch a pot of water boil. In a split second the water goes from 99.9C and not boiling to 100C and is boiling. If you increase temperatures, you increase evaporation of oceans, thus increasing the salt concentration of the oceans because salt is not evaporated. Increased salt concentrations will make them reach levels that fish and other sea life cannot survive. If the fish die, then humans can't eat them. Also, if the fish die, the other sea predators, whales for example cannot eat them. The whales will die and thus can't be used by individuals for food or oil--whalers will go out of business. Also, increasing ocean temperatures causes some funky things to happen with ocean current systems. You see, there are layers to the ocean with lower levels with temperatures holding at a pretty constant amount (kept warm by the Earth's core). The surface is warmed up by the sun. But there are certain physical properties that get messed up as temperatures change. The yearly turn-over of the oceans is caused by changes in temperatures--if temperatures are screwed up, they won't happen. If you're studying a lake, you can watch every fish die when the lake doesn't turn over and replinish oxygen into the lower levels of the water and put nutrients into the upper level.
So, what causes an increase in temperatures? Who cares. Doesn't matter. Be green because it's economical and sustainable. Be green because it doesn't destroy the environment and kill off the beautiful bugs that make it possible to have food, the animals that clean up our wastes, or the plants that give us the oxygen that we breathe.
Still don't believe me that the climate is changing? How about this fact. We now have a North-West Passage that was the dream find in 1600. Had there been a NW passage back then, life as we know it would be very different. England might not have decided to send settlers to this new world, or would have at least not have invested so much money--their focus was on getting to Asia. Recently, (within the last 2 years) the NW passage was crossed. This is probably the most visible example of how the sea-ice up there has melted and probably the most widely noticible examples of visible climate change. Weather change wouldn't cause that much ice to melt--only sustained increased temperatures would be enough to cause it.
Latest article on carbon levels here.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Is it the Government or the greedy individuals?
Stella Awards
It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased coffee.. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy. Here are the Stella's for the past year:
* SEVENTH PLACE*
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.
Start scratching!
* SIXTH PLACE *
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Scratch some more....
* FIFTH PLACE Calibri, sans-serif; ">
Goes to Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house, because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days, and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company, claiming undue mental anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more.
Double hand scratching after this one..
* FOURTH PLACE Calibri, sans-serif; ">
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for, because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite, because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..
* THIRD PLACE Calibri, sans-serif; ">
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania wins, because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
Only two more, so ease up on the scratching...
*SECOND PLACE*
It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased coffee.. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy. Here are the Stella's for the past year:
* SEVENTH PLACE*
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.
Start scratching!
* SIXTH PLACE *
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Scratch some more....
* FIFTH PLACE Calibri, sans-serif; ">
Goes to Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house, because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days, and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company, claiming undue mental anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more.
Double hand scratching after this one..
* FOURTH PLACE Calibri, sans-serif; ">
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for, because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite, because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..
* THIRD PLACE Calibri, sans-serif; ">
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania wins, because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
Only two more, so ease up on the scratching...
*SECOND PLACE*
Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth.. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.
OK. Here we go!!!!!
* FIRST PLACE
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down?
$1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
Are we, as a society, getting more stupid.... or are more members of Congress serving on juries these days?
Remember, a government big enough to do everything for you, is also big enough to take everything from you.
OK. Here we go!!!!!
* FIRST PLACE
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down?
$1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
Are we, as a society, getting more stupid.... or are more members of Congress serving on juries these days?
Remember, a government big enough to do everything for you, is also big enough to take everything from you.
My question is...........what's wrong with these stupid juries who awarded all the money??????
***Who cares about the government involvement, I want to know why our "Christian" society breeds these types of people.
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