Old Patriot's Pen

Good advice!

2012-01-03T21:05:00.002-07:00

One of the best pieces of advice I've ever read or heard is "when you're in a hole, stop digging". Apparently our government either has never heard that (which I doubt), or they don't care.

The United States is more than $15 TRILLION in debt, and going further into debt at the rate of about $4 Billion a day. The House of Representatives passed a budget back in April, 2011. That bill, along with another twenty or so, still sits on Harry Reid's desk, and he and the Democrats don't plan on doing anything about it except buy more shovels.

The economy is in the tank. The unemployment is officially 8.9%, and unofficially above 12%. The underemployment figure is something like 17%. Every day, however, sees more regulation, more rules, more restrictions that keep employers from being willing to hire, and keeping investors from parting with their money.

I think the best thing the electorate can do come this November is buy a large bulldozer and fill in that hole our current government is digging -- with them still in that hole. Getting rid of between a third and a half of our current bureaucracy would do wonders for job creation, and would reduce spending considerably. All in favor, say Aye, and get behind that dozer!

"What's wrong with you?"

2012-01-03T20:54:00.003-07:00

I'm disabled. You can't really tell it by looking at me, unless you catch me in one of those periods where my pain is definitely showing in my face, and even then you probably wouldn't think much of it. Looks, however, are deceiving.

I have a number of problems, beginning with a bad back. I've got problems from my skull to my tailbone. The biggest problem is osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis begins whenever the bones or joints have been damaged, and they add calcium in response. I've had two surgeries on my neck to have some of those deposits scraped away, to relieve the pressure. Each time, they've removed one or two disks, and fused the vertebrae together above and below where the disk was. This limits how much I can turn my head, or how high I can look up. The surgeries did relieve some of the pressure (and pain) each time, but it gradually returned.

I also had surgery on my lower back to correct "severe spinal stenosis". That's where the vertebrae grow extra bone, putting pressure on the spinal column and the nerve roots that come out between the vertebrae. The surgery helped a lot to relieve the lower back pain I had, which had become permanent, and unrelieved. I still get it from standing, walking, or moving, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was before the surgery.

My osteoarthritis is everywhere. There's not a joint that doesn't have at least some minor problems. One of my Air Force doctors said I was the first person he'd every heard about that had osteoarthritis of the collarbone. In addition to the osteoarthritis, some of my joints are "blessed" with bursitis and tendonitis, too.

I also have a problem called neuropathy. Neuropathy (literally "nerve pain") is where the nerves are being trapped, rubbed, or pressed by the arthritic build-ups around them, or the excessive movements of the joints. The same problems that cause neuropathy also cause numbness, tingling, "dead" places where I have little or no sensitivity, and lack of coordination. One major problem I'm having right now is trying to discover whether particular problems are being caused by my osteoarthritis, or by diabetes, which can also cause neuropathy.

Another problem I have is degenerative disk disease. This is usually caused by the disk tissue not getting enough nutrients, and they dry out, compress, and even deteriorate ("degenerate"). That puts pressure on the spinal joints as the disks degenerate and the vertebrae rub together ("bone on bone"), or where the facet joints (the joints holding the spine in place) are strained. This, too, causes pain.

I also have Type II diabetes. I'm not taking insulin yet, but I do see that in my future, and perhaps not too far in my future. Diabetes does quite a number of things to your body, including causing degenerative disk disease and neuropathy, especially in the upper and lower extremities (arms and legs).

I also have a problem called sleep apnea, where I literally stop breathing for periods from thirty seconds to two or three minutes while I'm asleep. I've only found out recently that sleep apnea is a serious condition, and can cause loss of brain cells and memory. Luckily, it's not that hard to treat.

I have a few other problems, too. Some of them stem from the problems I listed above. Others are caused just from getting old (I'm 65+). One of the problems is tinnitus and hyperaccusis. Tinnitus is a ringing in the ears, and hyperaccusis is pain caused by noise above a low background level. They're both problems for which there is no cure, and very few successful treatments. I also tore the cartilage in one of my knees, and had to have surgery to have it corrected. That knee allows me to forecast weather changes far better than any meteorologist! I also had carpal tunnel surgery on one hand, and probably didn't need it - the real problem was some of that neuropathy I mentioned earlier. I also had to have cataracts removed from both eyes due to a nasty virus I caught somewhere.

My biggest problem is just plain old pain: headaches caused by nerves in my neck being pinched, pain in my upper arms, pain in my legs and feet, and pain in my neck, mid-back, and lower back from my spine. On a good day, I'll hurt for about six hours, reduced by medication to something I can tolerate. On a bad day, I never stop hurting, the pain medication I take reduces the pain to maybe half of what it is at the worst, and bad days can run together for more than a week.

I'm not going to 'get better' - ever. All of my problems are more or less permanent. I move in the opposite direction, since many of my problems are degenerative in nature. I've learned to live with my problems for the most part, except when they're really bad and not responding to medication. Luckily, or by design, I have a very high pain threshold, and I can still take care of myself, and do a few things around the house. A lot of the times, however, when I'm not on Facebook, when I don't update my weblog, or I don't respond to emails, it's because I just don't have the energy or clear enough thinking to do so. Pain can make you very, very tired!

I appreciate people saying they "hope I get better", but it's not going to happen. Just forgive me when I get grouchy and irritable, and smile and ignore when I screw something up. That's the best thing you can do for me!

Time to issue an untimatum.

2011-12-28T11:09:00.004-07:00

It's becoming more and more obvious that the Professional Political Class - from both parties - aren't listening to "We, the People". It's time to get their attention. Here's my open letter to both parties:

Listen, Jackasses, both Donkeys and Elephants,

It's obvious you only play lip service to our Constitution, and to the people it was created to provide governance of. You're playing the part of King George III and the British Parliament under him. We, the People, didn't like that the first time, and did something about it. Either return, as PARTIES and individuals, to the limits of our Constitution, or we'll be forced to do something about it again.

We don't need to use the force of arms to throw you out. We can use two very powerful tools: our vote, and our pocketbook. You felt the first part of that with the "Tea Party Revolution" over the past two years. So far, the Tea Party has backed the Republican Party, attempting to use it as a vehicle to affect change. It's become obvious, however, that the "movers and shakers" of the Republican Party haven't gotten the message we've been sending. There is nothing keeping us from divorcing the Republican Party and creating our own. There is a large enough grass-roots movement there now to make that work, to provide candidates at every level of government, and to support those candidates in their quest for office. Political parties aren't sacrosanct - just ask the Whigs, if you can find one.

The second power we have is the power of the pocketbook. We can not only withhold funds from your "reelection campaigns", but also from those rich and powerful that support you for personal gains. There are usually alternatives for everything, and the Internet allows us to communicate those alternatives to one another. Just to show you how that works, I've owned a number of General Motors products over the past 55 years, but I will NEVER buy another one. If 50% of the Tea Party members and associates refuse to buy GM, I'm sure their sales will drop - perhaps enough to throw them into bankruptcy again, this time without a government bailout.

We can do that with any company, large or small. For every member of the Tea Party that's active, there are a dozen of us working in the shadows to support them. We're a lot more powerful than you think - if that thought process actually applies to any elected member of Congress.

We're tired of having to hold our nose when we vote for YOUR choice of candidate. We're tired of seeing our wishes and desires for smaller, cheaper government ignored. We're tired of lying, stealing, backstabbing, deal-making, and cronyism that passes as "business as usual" in our government. We're tired of an out-of-control, unrestrained bureaucracy making rules that hit us in the pocketbook, or in our freedoms. We're tired of government at every level ignoring the limits our Constitution places on it. Many of us have fought for that Constitution, and hold it sacred. Obviously, few in Congress do.

Of course, if it does come down to the force of arms, remember that there are 40 million of us, and most of us own guns of some sort. Depending on the Armed Forces of the United States may not be practical, since their commitment and primary duty is to "SUPPORT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO BEAR TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE TO THE SAME". They may not be on your side.

This is your last chance. Either shape up, or find out how the Dodo felt.

Disrespectfully,

Michael A. Weatherford
Old Patriot
MSgt, USAF, Retired
Colorado Springs, CO

Tallbloke Tort Action

2011-12-20T14:15:00.002-07:00

One of the many people I keep track of via their weblogs is Roger Tattersal, who posts as Tallbloke's Talkshop. Roger was visited by the Norwich constabulary a few nights ago, and had some of his computer equipment taken, with the promise that all would be returned soon. This is in response to "Climategate 2", the release of another large data dump from "FOIA", an unknown person who apparently doesn't like the downright fraud being committed by many of the people associated with "climate science", including Phil Jones and Michael Mann. These new emails and other data provide additional information that "Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming" (CAGW) has no basis in science, and is nothing more than a fraud to perpetuate and expand the authority of the United Nations over everyone on the planet. Tallbloke is suing a particularly nasty and libelous blogger at another blog that all but charged him with being one of the "thieves" that took the email information from the University of East Anglia and posted it on a Russian server. Since the post was both libelous and defamatory to Tallbloke's reputation, he is suing for damages. If you wish to help out, click on the link. It will take you to Tallbloke's blog, where you can both read some very interesting things the lame-stream media won't talk about, but also help by clicking the PayPal button and making a donation to Roger's legal fund. I hope that "discovery" during this trial brings even more derogatory information about the "team" promoting CAGW to light.

I do wish that someone in the United States would bring RICO charges against all the "team" members in this country. Even if they weren't convicted, the "discovery" phase would destroy the entire fabrication that is CAGW.

"Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Change" is a Fraud

2011-12-14T19:32:00.002-07:00

Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Change (CAGW) is a fraud. More and more evidence of this is surfacing, yet tens of millions still believe it. Why? The major reason is a lack of understanding of atmospheric science and just plain general knowledge. I'm going to try, in this post, to provide the necessary information to allow anyone to understand why CAGW is not, and cannot, happen.

First, we need to know something about the atmosphere. Here is the chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere, from About.com:

This is composition of air in percent by volume, at sea level at 15°C and 101325 Pa.

Nitrogen -- N2 -- 78.084% (78%)
Oxygen -- O2 -- 20.9476% (21%)
Argon -- Ar -- 0.934% (1%)
Carbon Dioxide -- CO2 -- 0.0314% (0.03%)
Neon -- Ne -- 0.001818% (0.002%)
Methane -- CH4 -- 0.0002%
Helium -- He -- 0.000524% (0.0005%)

As you can see, Carbon Dioxide is the fourth most predominant gas in the atmosphere, behind Argon, but makes up only 3/100 of a percent of all atmospheric gasses. Methane, another "greenhouse gas" makes up 2/10,000 of a percent.

Next, we need to know about the so-called "greenhouse effect", and how it works. We also need to know how the name is misleading, and what actually takes place.

The way a greenhouse works is that it allows sunlight into an enclosed space, where the air is warmed to above what it would be outside. The reason the heat is trapped is that there is little or no air movement. Some greenhouses augment this by having a 'thermal trap' that absorbs visible light energy, converts it to long-wave thermal energy, and 'traps' the heat until the sun no longer strikes the surface before re-radiating it. The Earth's atmosphere does something similar. From CO2 Science:

The mechanism by which carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere is commonly referred to as the "greenhouse effect." Stated very simply, carbon dioxide, or CO2, is nearly transparent to the solar radiation emitted from the sun, but partially opaque to the thermal radiation emitted by the earth. As such, it allows incoming solar radiation from the sun to pass through it and warm the earth's surface. The earth's surface, in turn, emitts a portion of this energy upwards toward space as longer wavelength or thermal radiation. Some of this thermal radiation is absorbed and re-radiated by the atmosphere's CO2 molecules back toward earth's surface, providing an additional source of heat energy. Without water vapor, CO2, and other radiatively-active trace gases in the air, the planet's average temperature would be about 34°C cooler than it is at present.

Note how the explanation includes ALL greenhouse gasses, including water vapor. This is very important. Water vapor makes up 95% of ALL greenhouse gasses. Carbon Dioxide is the next most prominent greenhouse gas at 4%. All others - about 20 - make up the last 1%. The Earth's average temperature without greenhouse gasses would be 34 degrees Celsius cooler, or about 14 degrees BELOW zero Fahrenheit.

We know approximately how much energy is re-radiated from CO2 back to the Earth, and how much is re-radiated into space. Recent findings, however, show that the Earth is losing more heat (about 40% more) than estimated based on current heat-loss determinations. The science isn't completely settled yet, but the main reason for additional heat loss may be from water vapor, which has a much larger "window" of infrared ratiation.

We noted above that water vapor makes up 95% of all greenhouse gasses, with CO2 a distant second at 4%. There are problems with using carbon dioxide as a "driver" of warming: the effects of CO2 are logarythmic, not linear. Here are a few links to people who explain this a lot better than I can:

Dr Roy Spencer
The Tucson Citizen
David Archibald at Watt's Up With That (an excellent source of all things related to global climate change).

So, carbon dioxide does NOT drive temperature increases beyond about 500 parts per million (PPM). The IPCC and most "climate scientists" get around this by saying that CO2 causes some increase in temperature, which causes more water vapor, which raises temperatures more. The problem with that is that water vapor forcing is more often negative than positive - that is, it DECREASES temperature by increasing cloud cover (thus increasing the amount of solar energy reflected back into space) and by cooling the air in general by precipitation.

Another major problem with blaming "climate change" on human burning of fossil fuel is that we add so very little to the atmosphere - less than 3% of all the CO2 added. I used to think that 3% of 4% (the amount of human-created CO2 versus the total amount of CO2 in all greenhouse gasses) was a ridiculously low number, and it is (it works out to about 0.12%), but that's the wrong way to look at this. We need to look at the total amount of CO2 increase within the entire atmosphere! That makes the formula 3% of 0.03%, or 0.009%.

The bigger problem is some pretty shoddy science has been used to attempt to scare people into believing in a doom-and-gloom scenario. Let's begin with the most important one: what is the "normal" temperature of the Earth? That temperature has ranged from about five degrees Celsius (5C - +41F) during Ice Ages to about 26 degrees C (+79F) before the last Ice Age started.

Harping on the role CO2 plays does nothing to explain the Earth's current climate. The only reason "climate scientists" are harping on it is because it's something we ARE contributing to, and it's something they can BLAME US ALL FOR, and therefore, enhance their own personal power and prestige. The truth is, we really don't understand much about climate, or what affects it. We THINK we know what causes Ice Ages, but we're not certain. We THINK we know what causes interglacials like the one we're currently in, but we're not certain. In fact, the number of things we're not certain about is extensive:

We really don't understand the sun and solar cycles. We know the sun is a variable star, and that solar output varies by anywhere from 2% to 4%, but we don't know why, what triggers it, and what the overall effects are on Earth or the rest of the Solar system. We have some ideas (hypotheses), but we're not CERTAIN. Some of the questions we don't have complete - and sometimes even partial - knowledge of are what causes sunspots to form or not to form, how do sunspots affect the Solar Wind, the magnetic field of the sun and Earth, how much do they contribute to total solar variance, especially beyond the visible spectrum. We're just beginning to determine if galactic cosmic rays affect the Earth, especially cloud formation, and how. We haven't begun to determine if space dust has an effect on the sun, or what that effect might be. We're beginning to study coronal mass ejections (CMEs) more closely, but we haven't even begun to determine if (or how) they may affect day-to-day weather or long-range climate.

We're just beginning to research how much cloud cover affects the Earth's climate, and how. We've made the first tenative studies of how cloud formation moves heat from the lower troposphere to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. We're only now beginning to recognize the importance of cloud cover as a feedback mechanism, and how it works. We still have a long way to go before we can say we're CERTAIN of how clouds affect long-term climate, or even day-to-day heat distribution.

We're still in the early stages of knowledge about our oceans, and how they control not only climate but weather. We're just beginning to acknowledge the large roles played by the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) not only on short-term weather changes but also on long-term climate variations. We still have much to learn about the Deep Ocean Circulation System and how the oceans store heat and carbon dioxide, among other things.

We are still "barely walking" in our understanding of the entire CO2 cycle. We have a glimmering of knowledge of how CO2 is sequestered in soil and water, how plants utilize CO2, how they respond to increased levels of CO2, how much CO2 is sequestered by growth worldwide, and a number of other factors. There is still much to be learned. We do know that plants respond positively to increased CO2, but not how much CO2 this actually sequesters on a planetwide basis. There is still much that needs to be learned.

There are dozens of other items that affect overall climate that haven't been looked at closely enough yet. These range from the Earth's rotation (Is it speeding up, or slowing down? How does that affect climate?), the location and strength of the Earth's magnetic pole, the "wobble" in the Earth's geographic pole (and thus solar inclination), the effects of the gravitational fields of the Sun and other planets, the eccentricity of Earth's orbit (what causes it, how significant is it, and is it changing, and how much, if it is), how ocean-spreading, surface and undersea volcanic action, changes in coastline and ocean currents, airborne aerosols, and a dozen other things affects long-term climate, and how all of this interacts.

Using Dick Cheney's words, there are "known knowns" about climate, and "known unknowns". There are most probably a few "unknown unknowns" yet to be discovered as well. There are quite a few things we're fairly certain of, such as CO2 has been far higher and somewhat lower in the past than it is now, that CO2 levels usually FOLLOW warming by about 700 years, that below about 140 ppm all plant life on Earth will die, and that most of the records used to look at previous high and low temperatures are "proxies", and some are quite POOR proxies. If you're a true climate scientist, there's quite a bit to learn. If you think the "science is settled", you're NOT a scientist.

Three more things need to be said. The first is that there is no direct evidence that human burning of fossil fuel will create a catastrophic runaway climate. This only comes from computer models, and as one "climate scientist" said in one of the just-released Climategate 2.0 emails, "none of the models really work". The second thing is that the models only provide "evidence" of catastrophic global warming if EVERY feedback mechanism considered provides a positive response. Since we've already seen that cloud cover and cloud heat transfer provide a NEGATIVE feedback, there is no reason to put any credence into "global warming" scare tactics. Finally, according to satellite records there has been no net warming since 1998, even though CO2 continues to build up in our atmosphere. None of the models can even begin to explain why that has happened.

Climate HAS changed over the last 100 years. Climate ALWAYS changes. Human beings HAVE had an influence on some climate change. Land use - from agriculture to forestry to building houses and cities - have all affected change. We grow grass in a desert. We turn parts of the Great Plains into cities and even forests. These changes are regional, and small. In fact, most changes Man has made to climate have been regional and small. The big changes are primarily governed by the sun. We just haven't learned all the different ways yet.

Letter to my Congresscritter

2011-12-02T12:52:00.001-07:00

Here's a letter I'll be posting this afternoon to my Congressman, Doug Lamborn. Feel free to use any or all of it for your own letter. The fraud of catastrophic, anthropogenic climate change MUST be stopped before it destroys our future.

Dec 1, 2011

Dear Congressman Lamborn,

I have currently read less than ten percent of the latest "Climategate" emails, and less than 70% of the previous release. Even so, it has become blatantly obvious that climate "science" is not as settled as many would have us believe, and that the "anthropogenic signal" is neither as strong as it has been portrayed to be, nor as "dangerous" as the "true believers" espouse. The one certainty I have acquired from my readings of these emails and other information is that the Environmental Protection Agency's ruling that carbon dioxide is a "pollutant" is both scientifically wrong and politically indefensible. Any regulation based upon that ruling is also indefensible.

I know you don't have time to keep up with all the information currently available, and the tons of additional information that is constantly being generated. I do believe, however, that this subject is something that must be dealt with, and that someone on your staff should be tasked with openly, honestly, evaluating this data. There is every indication that not only fraud but slander, libel, and the deliberate destruction or misrepresentation of data has taken place, including such acts at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU).

While it would be "nice" to have a totally reliable, pollution-free, low-cost source of electrical energy, the technology just isn't currently available, and probably won't be for fifty years or more. The current Administration's attempt to force the issue has resulted in extensive fraud, graft, and outright theft, and has failed miserably. We truly do need a national energy policy, but that policy will require that we continue to use oil, coal, and natural gas for the foreseeable future - possibly for another century or more. Nuclear power, especially thorium reactors, may be one key to a carbon-free future, but obviously solar and wind will only be capable of supplying a small percentage of our needs. In the meantime, government action is only delaying our achieving any sort of energy independence and killing jobs.

I'm a disabled veteran with a chronic pain problem, so I can't be much help with keeping track of this for you. I do recommend, however, that this is something that could be "crowd-sourced" here in Colorado, for little or no cost. I'm sure that there are many others who would be willing to devote a small portion of their time to tracking what is being written about climate science, and keeping you informed. There are also another dozen topics that could equally be crowd-sourced to your advantage, including environment, jobs, the military, infrastructure, and government over-reach. You may also wish to discuss some of these ideas with your colleagues in the House of Representatives.

In the meantime, here are a list of sources that can provide anyone interested with links to both sides of the climate debate:

Honest, open debate
Watts Up with That http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/
Climate Audit/Steve McIntyre http://climateaudit.org/
CO2 Science http://www.co2science.org/
Bishop Hill http://bishophill.squarespace.com/
Bob Tisdale http://bobtisdale.blogspot.com/
The Air Vent/Jeff Id http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/
Icecap http://icecap.us/
Dr. Roger Pielke Sr http://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/
Climate Skeptic http://www.climate-skeptic.com/
Dr. Tim Ball http://drtimball.com/
Tallbloke's Talkshop http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/
Jo Nova http://joannenova.com.au/
The Chiefio - E. M. Smith http://chiefio.wordpress.com/
Global Warming Policy Fndn. http://thegwpf.org/
Dr. Roy Spencer http://www.drroyspencer.com/
Dr. Judith Curry http://www.judithcurry.com/
Science & Environmental Policy Proj. http://www.sepp.org/
Science & Public Policy Inst. http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/

"Consensus-driven Science"
Real Climate http://www.realclimate.org/
Sierra Club http://www.sierraclub.org/
Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/
Science of Doom http://scienceofdoom.wordpress.com/
Tamino's Open Mind http://tamino.wordpress.com/
Skeptical Science http://www.skepticalscience.com/
Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/
NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html
Natural Resources Defense Council http://www.nrdc.org/

Sincerely,

Michael A. Weatherford
MSgt, USAF, Retired
Colorado Springs, CO

This man humbles me.

2011-09-30T12:38:00.003-06:00

I'm copying this in full from Donald Sensing's post I read this morning. This Christian pastor has been sentenced to death for his belief. This man is a saint.

Written in June 2010 by Pastor Yusef Nadarkhani while imprisoned in Lakan Prison, Iran, for refusing to renounce his Christian faith and adopt Islam. Translated from the original Farsi.

Dear brothers and sisters, Salam

In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am continuously seeking grace and mercy to you, that you remember me and those who are bearing efforts for his name in your prayers.

Your loyalty to God is the cause of my strength and encouragement. For I know well that you will be rewarded; as it’s stated: blessed is the one who has faith, for what has been said to him by God, will be carried out. As we believe, heaven and earth will fade but his word will still remain.

Dear beloved ones, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of a few verses, although you might know them, So that in everything, you give more effort than the past, both to prove your election, and for the sake of Gospel that is to be preached to the entire world as well.

I know that not all of us are granted to keep this word, but to those who are granted this power and this revelation, I announce the same as Jude, earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

We are passing by special and sensitive days. They are days that for an alert and awake believer can be days of spiritual growth and progress. Because for him, more than any other time there is the possibility to compare his faith with the word of God, have God’s promises in mind, and survey his faith.

Therefore the true believer does not need to wonder for the fiery trial that has been set on for him as though it were something unusual, but it pleases him to participate in Christ’s suffering because the believer knows he will rejoice in his glory.

Dears, the “ judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

Therefore those who are enduring burdens by the will of God, commit their souls to the faithful Creator. Promises that he has given us, are unique and precious. As we’ve heard he has said: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

How can it be possible for a believer to understand these words? Only if he is focusing on Jesus Christ with adapting his life according to the life Jesus lived when he was on earth. As it is said, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”
Have we not read and heard: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there are who find it. Many attempt to flee from their spiritual tests, and they have to face those same tests in a more difficult manner, because no one will be victorious by escaping from them, but with patience and humility he will be able to overcome all the tests, and gain victory.

Therefore in the place of Christ’s followers, we must not feel desperate, but we have to pray to God in supplication with more passion to help us with any assistance we may need. According to what Paul has said: In every temptation, God himself will make a way for us to tolerate it.

O beloved ones, difficulties do not weaken mankind, but they reveal the true human nature. It will be good for us to occasionally face persecutions and abnormalities, since these abnormalities will persuade us to search our hearts, and to survey ourselves. So as a result, we conclude that troubles are difficult, but usually good and useful to build us.

Dear brothers and sisters, we must be more careful than any other time, because in these days, the hearts and thoughts of many are revealed, so that the faith is tested. May your treasure be where there is no moth and rust.

I would like to remind you of some verses that we nearly discuss everyday, (Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven), but as long as our human will has priority over God’s will, his will shall not be done. As we have learned from him in Gethsemane, he surrendered his will to the father, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

What we are bearing today is a difficult but not unbearable situation, because neither he has tested us more than our faith and our endurance, nor does he do as such. And as we have known from before, we must beware not to fail, but to advance in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, And consider these bumps and prisons as opportunities to testify to his name. He said: If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

As a small servant, necessarily in prison to carry out what I must do, I say with faith in the word of God that he will come soon. "However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Discipline yourself with faith in the word of God. Retain your souls with patience. For there is no man who does anything in secret, and he himself seeks to be known openly.

May you are granted grace and blessings increasingly in the name of Lord Jesus Christ.

Yusef Nadarkhani
Lakan Prison in Rasht

Please, anyone who reads this, keep this man in your prayers.

Still rearing children.

2011-08-18T14:53:00.002-06:00

My 65th birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and my wife is several years older than I am. My birthday is a good time to reflect on where we are, and where we're going. The one thing that stands out is that, after 45 years, we're still rearing children.

Jean and I became the permanent guardians of Timmy back in July of 2009. Timmy was a part of our lives, and living in our house, off and on for another two years before that. He's now 6 1/2, and will probably be with us for another few years, if not until he's 18. My youngest daughter wants to adopt him, but she's got a lot of issues to get through before she can. We'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, Timmy is ours. He calls us Grandma and Grandpa, since that was the way he knew us before we became his guardians. We don't intend to change that.

Jean and I are both retired, and have our physical problems (getting old seems to increase the frequency and extent of such problems). We're not doing as much as we want in showing Timmy the world around him, but we do go and do fun things with him. He's really having fun with "his" garden this year. I'll write more about Timmy as the year progresses.

Garden update

2011-08-18T14:37:00.004-06:00

We're finally seeing some produce from the garden, but not an overwhelming amount (except for zucchini - that always overproduces). Our only doubts now are whether we'll have enough warm, sunny days to get everything that's currently beginning to produce to finish the project. It's already starting to be cooler in the mornings.

Our garden has done two things we wanted it to do - it gives Timmy a better idea of where food comes from, and he's trying new vegetables. He still won't eat radishes (the few we've harvested have been hotter than average), but he's tried zucchini and raw green beans. He can't wait until we get some more tomatoes so he can eat them. I doubt we'll get any pumpkins, watermelon, or cantaloupe, although we do have the vines growing everywhere they can.

We have one ear of corn on one corn plant, and that plant was actually planted by a squirrel! We have fox squirrels in the neighborhood, and my next-door neighbor feeds them corn on the cob. The squirrels of course bury the corn for the winter, and sometimes it grows. We have corn plants in several places in the yard that were definitely not planted by any of us.

We planted tomatoes late, but they're finally beginning to produce more than one or two fruit each. We're going to try to plant earlier this coming year. This year we had a freeze on the last day of May, and had to replant. I've found a couple of ways to keep our new plants from being frost-bitten, so we should have a longer growing season next year.

We had a disappointing time with carrots, and the sunflowers are just now beginning to produce heads.

The blackberries I planted ten years ago for my wife are doing well this year. Last year's crop was fairly poor, but we've gotten three or four quarts from the canes this year.

Our big worry now is an early fall snowstorm. I've seen snow in my back yard as early as August 29th. If that happens this year, it will probably mean the end of our gardening until next year.

It's almost August already.

2011-07-28T12:59:00.003-06:00

The summer has seemed to fly by this year. It's almost August already! I need to take some photos of Timmy's garden and upload them on Facebook. Some things are doing well, others are not. Unfortunately, with my bad back, I haven't been able to help him as much as I'd like, and his garden needs a major weeding.

We've managed to pick about a half-dozen tomatoes, and there are more growing on the various plants we have. The Romano plant is covered with small tomatoes, but none of them have ripened to the point where they can be picked. We bought bush green beans, but one of them turned out to be a pole bean plant. Luckily we've managed to get it to go up a piece of chain we had nailed to the fence. The beans are growing, but they're still only an inch or two long. It'll be mid-August at the earliest before we'll be able to pick any. One of the things that I had hoped is actually happening - because Timmy is growing green beans, he's more willing to eat them now. I hope to do that with two or three other food items we have growing.

There have been a couple of radishes that have gotten large enough to pick and eat, but Timmy still won't try them. I haven't pushed very hard - radishes are an acquired taste. Besides, that leaves more for me! 8^)

We have one zucchini growing on one plant. The other four plants have tiny zucchinis, but the blooms haven't opened on them yet. The pumpkin plants are sending out runners, and the male flowers are beginning to bloom. The cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelon are also beginning to send out runners, but there aren't any blooms yet. We're going to have to have an exceptionally long growing season this summer to get anything, but even that is a lesson to be learned.

Repeat after me: CUT GOVERNMENT.

2011-07-22T12:38:00.005-06:00

I'm getting sick and tired of "politics as usual" in Washington, DC. We need a budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins in 39 days. The President's budget proposal was so horrible it was voted down 97-0 in the Senate. Yet the Democrats have refused to even bring an idea to the table. There's a reason for that: they believe as long as we don't have a budget, they can push "continuing resolutions" that do nothing but either maintain the current high level of spending, or push it higher. In a just world Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi would now be swinging from a rope tied to a lamp post in Washington, DC, along with about 70 of their fellow Democrats. Unfortunately, we don't live in a just world, but our current insane one.

Since the House of Representatives, the US Senate, and President Obama can't seem to find a plan hidden in plain sight, I think it's up to us, the American people to "suggest" one for them. Here are some ideas to start with.

Cut Spending. The United States does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. The Government currently "borrows" $.43 out of every dollar it spends. Most of us have to live within our means - we can't afford to spend more than we take in, or we go to jail. We need to curb how much our government is spending. The "Cut, Cap, and Balance" law doesn't do enough. We have to do more, and we have to do it immediately. Here are my recommendations. Each of these should be submitted to the entire House and Senate for a roll-call vote as a separate bill, with no amendments or changes.
- Cut the amount of every payroll or retirement check the Government issues by 2.5%, from the President to the lowest-paid private or civilian worker. Make the cut temporary, until the US government is operating in the black again, then reinstate the pay incrementally over a two-year period. Pay interest on the reduced pay at 3% per year.
- Phase out, over a six-month period, all government subsidies to industry, including agriculture. Retain the crop insurance support, so farmers won't be driven into bankruptcy during bad weather. Include phasing out support to National Public Radio, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Science Foundation, and any other subsidized group that is not essential for the safety or security of the nation. Include subsidies to the Post Office and AMTRAK. Slash redundant staffing and operating expenses accordingly.
- Cut duplicate offices and their personnel. The Government Accounting Office and several other government agencies have identified dozens of duplicate, wasteful, and in some cases, outright useless offices. Close them down, and slash the redundant staffing and operating expenses accordingly.
- Set a scientifically upper limit to regulatory actions on air, water, and soil - setting limits to no more than 1/2 of the amount considered harmful to plants, animals and humans in a natural environment. The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to get one stream in Colorado "cleaned up", when 99% of the pollutants found in the river are of natural origin, and cause no harm to people or the biosphere. This kind of "over zealousness" is taking things to extremes, cost more than they're worth, and are fraudulent and wasteful. The entire "carbon dioxide is a pollutant" meme is a fraud, and any actions taken to "reduce" such emissions are fraudulent. Stop them, and the expense of "monitoring" sites for compliance. I am sure there are other regulatory agencies with equal problem areas that need to be addressed. Slash the redundant staffing and operating expenses accordingly.
- Establish limited, written authority for each and every regulatory agency within the government that CANNOT be exceeded except by approval of 2/3 of the House and Senate, and only for a limited time not to exceed two years, with a maximum of one renewal. Slash the redundant staffing and operating expenses accordingly.

Reduce the size and scope of government. Government is too big, costs too much, does too much, and interferes too much in the daily lives of its citizens. That needs to end immediately.
- We need a law, and possibly a Constitutional amendment to FORBID the government from writing any law that cannot be applied to every person, company, place, or organization equally.
- The government MUST end immediately all union activity on the part of government workers. Such activity is both unnecessary and unconstitutional.
- Establish immediately a non-partisan board to examine EVERY law, rule, regulation, or edict from the federal government, determine its purpose, usefulness, effectiveness, and cost, and make one of the following recommendations: end it, establish a sunset date for the law to be discontinued, establish that it is necessary based upon one of the government's ENUMERATED responsibilities, or that it needs to be altered, amended, or corrected, and why.
- Reduce significantly the size of the Executive Offices. Administrative bloat has been carried to extremes, especially in the current Executive. We have too many unelected administrators, too many levels of (mis)management, and too high a cost for too little results. Eliminate or combine offices to reduce excessive staff and their associated cost, improve efficiency, and reduce expenses.
- Eliminate, or at least reduce, unfunded mandates on cities and states. The Federal Government has no business telling cities and states how to operate, what to do, or how to do it. Cut the funding to the agencies given "oversight responsibility" for these unfunded mandates.
- Start paying down, and eventually pay off, the national debt. Establish by law that the only two reasons the United States Government may borrow money is to wage war or to combat a natural or manmade disaster that affects a minimum of 1/4 of the nation or its population.
End government support to those who will not support themselves. We make welfare too easy to get, too easy to manipulate, and too convenient for those that engage in fraud, waste, and downright theft. This needs to end immediately. At the same time, there does need to be a safety net. That net should be operated by civic, social, and religious groups, with some support from government at the State level.
- The federal government should provide limited support in the form of block grants to the states to cover welfare, including Medicaid, however, each function and every operation should be reviewed and audited frequently to determine (1) if it is actually providing a useful service that helps people help themselves, (2) is an efficient use of government funds in support of the health and well-being of the recipients of such services, (3) the activity is not redundant to the point of fraud or waste, and (4) there is no better way to provide the support. Such support should be limited to the level necessary for the individual to reach a point where they no longer need such services.
- People with permanent, non-self-inflicted disabilities should be provided for as is currently done through Social Security, plus whatever assistance can be provided at limited cost by the state and local governments and civic, religious, and social organizations. Contributions from non-federal groups should not be used to deny or reduce federal support payments.
Change the tax laws to eliminate deductions, special favors, and other non-equal tax laws. Here's a flat minimum tax plan that will work:
Earned income between:
$1 – $25,000 – pay 1%
$25,001 – $50,000 – pay 2.5%
$50,001 – $100,000 – pay 5%
$100,001 – $250,000 – pay 7.5%
$250,001 – $500,000 – pay 10%
over $500,000 – pay 12.5%

If you earned $800,000, you pay 1% on the first $25,000, 2.5% on the next $25,000, 5% the next $50,000, 7.5% on the next $150,000, 10% on the next $250,000, and 12.5% on the $300,000 above $500,000. This way, everyone pays the same tax rates, regardless of how much (or how little) they earn. No deductions! The only excluded income would be disability income and a percentage of retirement income (say, the first $45,000, indexed to inflation). The tax form would be about the size of a postcard, and anyone with a calculator could figure their taxes in about three minutes. Here are some other suggested tax laws:

Consider interest, dividends, capital gains, and all other forms of income simply as earned income. Allow one-time transactions such as a home sale, inheritance, or other unearned income to be spread out over ten years.

Phase out the corporate income tax on businesses over ten years. This will provide sufficient time to determine whether personal taxes need to raise.

Evaluate every other form of government income (land sales, land leases, oil/gas/mineral leases) to determine if the current level is sufficient or too high. Establish a flat import duty of 2.5% of all imported goods to be used to establish, maintain, and/or enlarge ports and harbors, and to build and maintain the infrastructure to support them. This money cannot be used for anything else except to reduce the national debt, and then only to a maximum of 25% of the gross funds, only with a 2/3 approval of the House and Senate, and only for a maximum of three years out of every ten.

A federal excise tax on "luxury items" of up to 10% may be authorized, with the income going into the general fund. The excise tax should be graduated in increments of 2.5%, for luxury items valued at up to $10,000 (0%), $10,001-%50,000 (2.5%), $50,000 - $250,000 (5%), $250,000-$1,000,000 (7.5%), and anything over $1,000,000 at 10%.

Any other tax legislation must be approved by 2/3 of the membership of the House and Senate, must establish specifically what the tax will be used for (NOT the "general welfare"), why Congress has the authority and the need to establish the tax, and a "sunset date" when the tax will expire.

That's a start. I'm sure there are other ideas out there that can also help get us out of our current debt problem.

If you agree with what I propose, please copy this into an email and send it to your Representative or Senator. Add any additional ideas you may have, or comments on what I suggest as you see fit. Our government is a spendaholic. It's time to cut them off and dry them out, before we're all in the poor house. We need to start today.

Creating jobs, killing debt

2011-07-09T13:10:00.002-06:00

Nobody in Washington, DC, is really serious about cutting the national debt. If they were, they'd be introducing simple things that could do it every day. Instead, they're trying to do everything in one bill. Personally, I think that's stupid, unproductive, and impossible to do. We need to see single bills, each doing something to cut the debt. Here are some ideas:

Cut regulation. Over-regulation costs the US economy over $1.5 TRILLION every year - about the same amount as the deficit. Trying to reform it all at once would be a Herculean task at best. It would be much easier to pass one piece of legislation that would eliminate one bit of regulation, or a few related items. Do it again, and again, and again. Pretty soon, most of the unnecessary regulations will be gone.

Cut spending. Again, not all at once, but one tiny bit at a time. Trim $20 million here, $15 million there, $45 million over there. Do the cutting of a single amount in a single bill.

Cut taxes, and simplify the tax laws. Re-define "earned income", and tax only earned income. Quit taxing social security and unemployment. Don't tax capital gains separately from earned income. Reduce the income tax laws down to where they'll fit on a single sheet of paper. It can be done, but a lot of fat cats will scream. If the US goes bankrupt, most of those fat cats will end up being hanged. The sentiment is out there, and a bankrupt nation will see a fit of anger not seen since the Revolution.

Eliminate Obamacare. It's not only unconstitutional, it's unsupportable and unaffordable. It's also one of the biggest things holding up hiring today.

Reduce duplication of effort among national offices. I'm sure there's enough to do some serious whittling away at the size and scope of the bureaucracy. Start with President Obama's 'czars'.

Stop subsidizing EVERYTHING. We can no longer afford it, most of it ends up as waste, and it does little or no good. The savings from eliminating the bureaucracy supporting such subsidies would be significant in itself.

End all public service "unions". They're nothing but an attempt to govern from behind a false front. There is no legitimate reason for a public service union but to scam the public.

Change public service retirement rules. Too many people are allowed to retire too early, and to get retirement pay they've not really earned. Also, don't allow any public service retiree, other than the military, some law enforcement personnel, and those in physically demanding jobs to collect retirement pay before age 65.

Accept that there is no such thing as a cut 'too small to matter'. Every dollar spent is one that was forcefully taken from a taxpayer. No government has a right to any citizen's money, and any money they do take needs to be spent wisely and frugally, for something that legitimately supports the overall health and well-being of the ENTIRE nation, not a specific person, or a particular class of people.

Quit trying to do 'social engineering'. A government created to secure the rights of its citizens has no business doing it, no one's given the government the permission to do it, the government is usually wrong in what they try to do, and they're so ham-fisted doing it that they cause more problems than they solve.

Get government out of the way. One of the biggest reasons today's unemployment is so high is that planners in private enterprise have no idea what tomorrow's going to bring in the way of new regulations, new taxes, new requirements, and new limitations. No one's going to hire in that kind of environment. As President Reagan proved in the 1980s, when government gets out of the way, private enterprise will expand, hire, and grow. When it does, tax revenues will also grow. Anything else is stupid.

These are generalities. I'm sure that 90% of all US citizens between the ages of 15 and 105 could provide specifics for each and every one of these topics. Let them! Ask them for ideas, sift through them, take the ones that will work, and implement them. Stop trying to run the government as if it, or any member of it, is omnipotent. It isn't. Get the American people involved, and accept their ideas. You'd be surprised at the results.

Paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson, the largest government the citizens should ever allow is the minimum government that can satisfy their legitimate needs. Anything else is fraud, waste, and abuse. End it now.

My favorite time of year.

2011-06-30T19:37:00.001-06:00

This month marks my favorite time of year, when the winged elm in our back yard blooms. The blossoms open at night, and the smell can literally stun you. The only problem is watching out for all the bees! It's a beautiful tree, the shade it provides is fantastic, and the smell puts roses to shame.

Timmy's Garden update

2011-06-30T15:32:00.005-06:00

Today is the last day of June, and I thought I'd catch everyone that's interested up to speed on how Timmy's garden is doing. The whole idea of the garden was hopefully to get him to eat more vegetables, as well as for him to know where vegetables came from. We haven't started harvesting anything, so I can't say it's a success yet.

We now have pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupes, zucchini, and acorn squash up. Some are doing very well, some (most notably the acorn squash) are just breaking ground. We have corn growing everywhere. The two biggest cornstalks (knee high) aren't in the garden, but elsewhere. We think some of these were planted by Timmy, and some by a squirrel that lives next door. The corn we planted in a specific spot isn't doing very well at all. The first beans we planted are growing, but only seven hills out of 24 came up. The second planting, 16 hills, have 15 growing. The sweet peas are growing in several places, and the radishes are growing like weeds (so are the weeds). The sunflowers we planted on the south side of the house aren't doing well, while the ones we planted next to the fence (on the south side) are doing great! Timmy has two cauliflower plants up, but they're barely two inches high. The tomatoes are beginning to have more blooms on them, and we may be eating tomatoes from our garden by mid-July -- if the squirrel leaves them alone.

I found a dozen or more packets of seeds around the house and the garage, left over from attempts at gardening in 1996 and 2001. We planted all of those in one small area about 18" wide and 7' long. You wouldn't believe how many of those seeds have sprouted, and are growing - sometimes better than the ones we planted in Timmy's garden.

One thing we planted from seeds dated 2001 were "Birdhouse" gourds. We planted ten seeds in two areas, hoping at least one of them would germinate. So far, nine have started growing. We'll probably try to transplant a few of those plants elsewhere, but at the moment we're letting them grow where they are. Those, as well as most of the other "old" seeds we planted and that are growing, were all from Ferry-Morse. I guess their "guaranteed to grow" label is true.

Hopefully we'll get some rain this week. While I water the plants every other day, a good soaking rain would do far more good.

My "Other" Life

2011-03-14T14:05:00.002-06:00

I think most of the people who read my weblog know I write science fiction, and that I've finally begun to have it "self-published" for Nook and Kindle. I write because it helps me forget how badly I hurt from my bad back. Just as you can get lost in reading a good book, you can also get lost in writing a book. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to "get lost" very much in the last few years. Two surgeries, one in August, 2010, and one last week, may make it easier, as both have eased my pain quite a bit.

I'm also not really anxious to make a lot of money writing. I'd much rather be READ than RICH. I give more books away than I sell. I especially like to give my books to people I've met and interacted with over the past 45 or 50 years. I especially like to give my books to people I went to high school with, to those I've served with in the Air Force/Army/Marines, and those I've met and developed a friendship with on the Internet.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't like to make some money at this. That is the true measure of success, I'm told. I don't want to make money off my friends and family, but I wouldn't be unhappy with making money from THEIR friends and family. Word of mouth is still the most successful form of advertisement in any market.

For those of you who don't yet know, here are my books, in the order I wrote them, with a brief teaser.

HUKATA

Mankind has wondered about life elsewhere ever since he realized the lights in the sky were other stars. Scientists dedicate their entire career to looking for extraterrestrial life. Professionals in more than a dozen specialties try to envision new ways to contact other civilizations. Nobody expected them to "just drop in".

-- In the middle of the night.
-- Forty miles from nowhere.
-- In a blizzard.
-- By the gross.

When aliens drop in, it can change your life forever.

Jim Frasier simply set out to rescue a stranger who made a wrong turn heading for a ski holiday. Instead, he finds himself trying to cope with disaster on a dozen levels at once. He has to somehow keep 700 aliens from freezing to death. He has to get help, and he knows that if he doesn’t do it quietly, he’ll be overrun by media and the curious. The complications are enormous – Jim has never faced anything like this before. Food for 700 people, with obvious different backgrounds and different nutritional needs, is alone a catastrophe waiting to happen, and that’s just one of many problems he faces. Just accepting these strange creatures actually exist was a major challenge.

Debbie Fontenot, young, deeply battered by a past she'd like to forget, suddenly finds herself shoved into a series of dilemmas. On a professional level, she’s challenged to provide emergency treatment to creatures that are definitely not human, but who, without care, will surely die. She’s confronted on a personal level by events that shove her into the arms of a loving older man.

And John Tolliver, the sheriff of a small, peaceful mountain county, suddenly finds himself not only the center of the most historical event in a thousand years, but is also confronted by murder, mischief, and a plot to steal half the county.

Last Flight from Queensland Station

Queensland station was a nice place, until a rogue neutron star decided to pay a visit. Then the entire civilized galaxy had to pitch in to move the inhabitants out of harm’s way. A few brave scientists, and the crew of the Galactic Communications and Information (GCI) heavy cruiser Excalibur, would remain behind to record the planet’s demise.

Another group, using the evacuation of Queensland Station for its own purposes, plans to make it Excalibur’s final moment, as well. Their failure puts the lives of more than two hundred men and women in great danger, and sets up a confrontation between what some feel is the most powerful non-government group in the galaxy and those that have attacked it.

Last Flight from Queensland Station is suspense, drama, intrigue, romance and comedy, mixed together in a fast-paced, easy-to-read story.

Cynthia

Cynthia Canarias was a nice young girl who'd attended all the "right" schools, learned all the "right" subjects, and always moved in the "right" circles. Cynthia wanted more than just a quick marriage to the "right" person - chosen by her mother - and a long, dreary life as someone's personal possession. When she tried to find a different life, she found out just how poorly all those "right" things prepared her for reality.

Reality turned ugly quickly, and Cynthia found herself thrust into a series of difficult situations that took every bit of ability, skill, and just plain luck she possessed to survive. She and her new friend, her first real friend, Judy Garcia, not only managed to survive, but to end up fabulously wealthy young ladies. Judy also found romance, and began her own family. That was something Cynthia desperately wanted, but it seemed to constantly elude her, until one young man with the courage to persist entered her life. Reality once more interfered, and Cynthia was once again faced with the possibility of a deep personal loss. Fighting for what she wants encounters some complications, including some totally unexpected - and even humerous - ones.

The Wizard of Skye

Jaren Nordreiker was a nice young man from a planet that didn't believe in mental powers - what the rest of the galaxy called "Magic". He'd still found a way to attend the prestigious "College of Magick" on Frome. His newly-minted diploma, even with honors ribbons, appeared to be no help, however, in finding a job in his chosen field, weather manipulation. He'd been barred from joining the Society of Magicians, who control most of the jobs graduates from the College of Magick usually fill.

Finding a job that didn't require membership in the Society of Magicians wasn't impossible, only quite difficult. Jaren finally accepts conditional employment on the strange world of Skye, which apparently won't hire anyone who IS a member of the Society. It's not an easy job. The weather on Skye can be unbelievable at times. His job is made more difficult by another person who unknowingly interferes with his work, and by a growing feud between the Society of Magicians and worlds like Skye.

Kings' Cross

Steve came fully awake slowly. He knew he wasn’t alone in the room. There were at least three other people with him – he could see that many feet. He had no way of knowing if there were more in the room without letting them know he had regained consciousness.

“I think he’s awake,” a quiet, whispery voice said.

“Good,” a more guttural voice answered from behind Steve. “We have much to say to him, and much to discuss.”

“Where’s Tommy?” Steve asked, not moving from where he lay.

“Tommy? Oh, the boy. He’s safe, don’t worry about him,” the guttural voice answered. “You are hungry. You need to eat and drink. When you are finished, we will talk.”

“I want to see Tommy! He’s my responsibility. I’m supposed to keep him safe,” Steve answered.

“Eat, young Marine,” the whispery voice said. “Your young boy child will not come to harm. He is safe with us. Hurry, eat. We have much to discuss.”

Steve realized he wasn’t going to get any further answers, and gradually sat up. The room was small. The seven people in it made it even smaller. One reached down and grasped his right hand, easing him to his feet. As Steve stopped swaying, an eighth person brought a tray of food into the room. Her appearance – she was definitely female – and her clothing gave him is first indication of who had kidnapped him. That knowledge only made him more curious. Why would the Universal Church, known for its peaceful behavior and generous philanthropy, suddenly begin kidnapping people?

Being kidnapped was just the beginning of a new life for Steve, one he’d never have considered before. Only time would tell what that new life would mean, not only for him but for his sister and her husband, his best friend and fellow Marine, Rob Wollcott.

Reducing Government spending: some recommendations.

2011-02-17T15:58:00.004-07:00

I've been working on this for quite a while. I think I'm ready to post it online, as well as sending it to my senator, congresscritter, and a few others. I'll try to keep things neat. This will be a cut and paste operation, so there may be a failure or two.

Reduce or eliminate at LEAST half the regulatory burden the nation operates under. It's nothing but an unreasonable drag on the economy. The best way to do this is to state unequivocally that ALL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES must reduce their regulatory burden by 50%, and tell them they will have their budgets cut accordingly.

Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts.

Eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Eliminate funding for farm subsidies on all farmers earning (not profits, earnings) more than $2 million a year, and ALL corporate farms. Establish provisions for rescuing farmers from being shut down due to national disasters such as floods, drought, etc., but not from bad management.

Eliminate the ethanol subsidy, and subsidies on solar and wind energy.

Require the Department of Energy to actually do something useful, like approve new nuclear reactor designs, or be eliminated.

De-fund Obama~~nation~~care.

Shut down and phase out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and Sally Mae.

Cut all government payments to individuals by 2.5% across the board: that includes ALL salaries to government employees, elected and appointed officials, payment to retirees, and Social Security payments, Presidential compensation, and all cabinet-level posts and below. Do NOT cut disability payments.

End public employee unions, they're unconstitutional. ALL public employees serve at the convenience of the government. There is no such thing as a guaranteed government job, nor should there be. Unionization of government employees is a farce.

End the forced unionization of the railroads, the Jones Act, and Davis-Bacon.

Eliminate ALL of President Obama's "czars". There is no provision in the Constitution for them, and no need. The Cabinet is supposed to be his "advisors". He doesn't need double the number, especially with the poor "advice" his "czars" have given him, and the expense of their offices.

Reduce the size of the Federal bureaucracy by 10% across the board. The only exception would be the size of the Armed Forces, the Coast Guard, and the non-administrative positions of the Border Patrol, Immigration, Customs, the FBI, and Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

STOP all payments of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to illegal aliens and use the savings to enhance border security.

Eliminate at least one-half of all unfunded liabilities imposed on state and local governments.

Re-establish congressional control of government agencies such as the Environmental "Protection" Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Security Agency, NASA, NOAA, and the rest of the alphabet soup of government agencies. Establish operating rules that are consistent, scientific, and reasonable. Cut funds accordingly.

End the subsidy to Amtrak. It either stands on its own, or it dies. Eliminating unreasonable union rules that make passenger service unaffordable will do wonders for making passenger service more affordable. It may not be enough, but that’s tough. We can’t afford to subsidize white elephants.

Why do we have all of these independent agencies, with the bloated bureaucracies they generate, instead of having them as part of one of the established Departments? I’ve made recommendations.

Independent Agencies and Government Corporations
“Independent establishments are created by Congress to address concerns that go beyond the scope of ordinary legislation. These agencies are responsible for keeping the government and economy running smoothly.”

Congress created them, Congress needs to clean them up. I’ve recommended either putting them under the appropriate (to me) Department, or eliminating them.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
Department of the Interior
African Development Foundation
State Department
AMTRAK (National Railroad Passenger Corporation)
Eliminate.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
National Directorate of Intelligence, along with many others.
Commission on Civil Rights
Health and Human Services
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Labor Department
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
Labor Department
Corporation for National and Community Service
Labor Department
Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia
??? Congress has abdicated most of its responsibilities for administering the District of Columbia. They need to re-assert them under a central agency UNDER the Legislative Branch.
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
Defense Department
Election Assistance Commission
I haven't decided on this one yet. It probably should go under Justice.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Department of Interior.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
Department of Labor
Export-Import Bank of the United States
Commerce Department
Farm Credit Administration
Agricultural Department (Commerce and Industry)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Commerce Department
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Treasury
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
This and the Election Assistance Commission can be combined.
Federal Housing Finance Board
Eliminate.
Federal Labor Relations Authority
Labor Department
Federal Maritime Commission
Commerce Department
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
??? Health and Human Services?
Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
Interior
Federal Reserve System
Treasury
Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
Treasury
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Commerce
General Services Administration (GSA)
Keep independent and separate.
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Move to Interior
Inter-American Foundation
State
International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB)
State
Merit Systems Protection Board
Labor Dept.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Either give it a real mission, or eliminate it.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Combine with Institute of Museum and Library Services under Interior
National Capital Planning Commission
See "Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia"
National Council on Disability
Labor
National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
Commerce
National Endowment for the Arts
Eliminate
National Endowment for the Humanities
Eliminate
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Labor
National Mediation Board
Labor
National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK)
Eliminate
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Commerce Department
National Transportation Safety Board
Labor
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Energy Dept for now, move where Energy ends up.
Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission
Health and Human Services
Office of Compliance
Justice
Office of Government Ethics
Create Office of Congressional Oversight and Management. Include this, Office of Personnel Management, Office of Special Counsel, Office of the District of Columbia (and all District government supervisory functions), etc.
Office of Personnel Management
Same as Office of Government Ethics
Office of Special Counsel
Same as Office of Government Ethics
Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive
Homeland Security
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
State Dept, or eliminate.
Panama Canal Commission
Eliminate - we no longer "own" the Panama Canal, and we should quit trying to undo Jimmy Carter's blunder.
Peace Corps
State Department.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
Labor Department
Postal Regulatory Commission
Congressional Oversight & Management
Railroad Retirement Board
Eliminate at the same time the union requirement for railroads is eliminated, merge with either Social Security or other government retirement accounts.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Commerce
Selective Service System
Defense
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Commerce
Social Security Administration (SSA)
Labor
Tennessee Valley Authority
Interior
U.S. Trade and Development Agency
State
United States Agency for International Development
State
United States International Trade Commission
State
United States Postal Service (USPS)
Commerce

I'd appreciate comments or feedback on this.

Books online

2011-01-29T15:47:00.002-07:00

Just a quick post to say that I've uploaded three of my books to the Amazon Digital Editions (Kindle) self-publishing program, and one to Barnes & Noble's NookBook program.

"Cynthia" is available from both programs. Amazon Kindle also has "The Wizard of Skye" and "Last Flight from Queensland Station" available. I hope to have two others ("King's Cross" and "Hukata") available in the near future, and all available from both locations by the end of March.

Cranking up the economy.

2011-01-23T17:49:00.001-07:00

I think any halfway intelligent person can build a better plan than the one President Obama is working on right now. Here is mine:

1. Cut spending. Half or more of it's a waste anyway.
2. Fire the "Czars". They only get in the way and cost far more than they're worth.
3. Reduce taxes, especially those on business and investment.
4. Reduce the regulatory burden. It costs us over $1 trillion a year.
5. Reduce or eliminate most of the burden on developing domestic energy production.
6. Allow more drilling, faster.
7. Speed up the approval for nuclear energy plants.
8. Reduce the regulatory burden on the development of domestic mineral resources.
9. Quit the stupidity of CO2 being a "pollutant".
10. Reduce or eliminate farm subsidies, especially on ethanol.
11. Reduce the power of labor unions and their drag on the economy. Why are the railroads still saddled with a 1942-era Executive Order requiring them to be unionized?
12. Start fighting wars to WIN, not "tied". Build up the national defense structure to where we can fight two wars simultaneously without being totally dependent upon the National Guard and Reserves. We're going to have MORE wars in the future, not fewer.
13. Restore public confidence in the voting process by actually prosecuting voter fraud, instead of sweeping it under the rug.
14. Secure the borders and start cleaning house of all the "undocumented immigrants" - i.e. illegal aliens. We have a process for immigration - strengthen it and ensure it's followed.
15. Cut the size of government by at LEAST one-fourth. We have far too many "civil servants".
16. Stop putting burdens on the states they didn't ask for, and can ill afford.

That didn't even take me five minutes. I'd bet that if these suggestions were implemented, even if only 50% of them were implemented, or if they all were only halfway implemented, our economy would BOOM.

I'll elaborate on what I mean for each of these in a later post.

Smitty

2010-12-24T00:30:00.003-07:00

My father-in-law, Clarence Smith, died October 10th, 2010 - 10-10-10. While we weren't always on the best of terms, we had many enjoyable times together. Regardless of the personal feelings between us, I have nothing but the deepest respect for him, and for what he accomplished in his life. I'm going to miss him.

He was "Smitty" to his friends and co-workers, and eventually to me as well. There was no better friend on this earth. He was constantly helping out others, especially with their automobiles. He was an exceptional mechanic, not only with cars, but with anything mechanical. One of his friends jokingly told me one day that he was certain Smitty could rebuild a B-25 from nose to tail - in flight! At least, I think it was a joke. Seeing some of his handiwork, I'm not so sure any more.

Our relationship got off to a terrible start right from the beginning, the night I asked for his daughter's hand in marriage. He yelled and screamed at me, but in the end gave me his daughter, to whom I've been very happily married for almost 45 years. The years in between were a see-saw: from being an unwanted appendage to being someone to be proud of - and back again. One major problem between us was that we had far too much in common, and were too much alike - strong-willed, stubborn men. Gradually, however, we got to where we actually enjoyed each others company.

Smitty put in more than 20 years in the Air Force, including tours during World War II and Korea. I spent 26 years in the Air Force, including a tour in Vietnam and almost 10 years in Germany. He contracted malaria in India, and nearly froze in Korea. One of his early assignments was to Panama, which also happened to be my first overseas tour. We had many similar experiences: he was stationed in El Paso, I spent time in Alamogordo. He was stationed in northern Texas, I spent a year in Oklahoma, not too far north of there. He went to India, I went to Vietnam. He belonged to SAC the last seven or eight years of his career, I was stationed at Offutt AFB, SAC Headquarters, three times during my career.

We did do things together, many times. We rode the D&RGW narrow gauge from Durango to Silverton together. We went fishing together, at a number of different lakes. We went cross-country skiing together, and visited many of the less-well-known attractions of Colorado. He even got me inside the missile production facility at the Martin Company where he worked, and showed me around. Unfortunately, except for a brief time in the late 1970's, my Air Force career took me away from Colorado, and visits were few.

Smitty began working for the Martin Company shortly after he retired from the Air Force, and spent thirty years there. He worked his way up from the manufacturing floor to a position of quality control, and worked on quite a number of the space-related aspects of Martin's production. His first job was with the Titan missile system, and he continued with that program through the Titan 4. He was associated with the Mars program, the sun-shield for the Spacelab, and lastly and most importantly, with the X-24B program, where he was the senior quality-control engineer. That's quite an accomplishment for a man who ran away from home to join the Army at 16, with an 8th-grade education. By the time he retired from Martin, he had expanded his education through self-study to the point where he had the equivalent of at least a bachelor's degree.

He even made the cover of Aviation Week! He's the guy at the far left on the ladder.

Smitty will always be for me the epitome of American exceptionalism - no matter where you start out, where you end up is only limited by your willingness to work toward your goals. We've been privileged as a nation to have people like Smitty among our citizens. I had the special privilege of being a part of his family.

We'll all miss you, Smitty, but we're a little better for having known you.

No excuses, or too many?

2010-11-21T17:55:00.003-07:00

Life has been a roller-coaster for us over the last three months, and I haven't even THOUGHT about this blog.

I had surgery August 26th to have some problems with my cervical (neck area) spine corrected. The fusion I had done back in 1990 had deteriorated, and the C5-C6 area was no longer fused. The surgery corrected that, and also fused the C6-C7 disk space. The C4-C5 fusion was still intact, but the new surgery expanded a two-level fusion to a three-level fusion, with corresponding loss of range of motion in my neck. The doctor also put in a titanium plate to ensure a better fusion this time. Prior to the surgery, I was having headaches almost constantly. Afterwords, the number has dropped to one or two a week. I also don't have as much pain in my shoulders and neck area as I did before.

My wife's father went into the hospital in late September, and we had to make an emergency trip to Ruston, Louisiana. I was still in a neck brace, and couldn't drive. My wife and youngest daughter did all the driving. The trip is a two-day marathon each way. We only spent a single day with Smitty before lack of money drove us back home. At least Timmy got to see his great-grandfather one more time (this makes twice...), and at an age he might be able to remember him. Smitty died October 10th. He was 91 years old. I plan to write more about him in a later post. We weren't able to make the trip back south so soon, and didn't get to go to the funeral. It was physical problems more than money that kept us from going.

I got my neck brace off October 8th, but still had a long list of restrictions (no lifting of more than 5 pounds, no prolonged sitting, etc.) on me. I've finally had a few of those restrictions eased, but none of them are totally lifted yet. Maybe when I see the doctor again in January...

About the same time Smitty died, we found out that one of our friends from the 1970's, Roberta Clark, was in the hospital in Denver with a terminal illness. Jean went up there to see her three times, but I was still having problems with long drives, and wasn't able to go. Roberta died in mid-October, about ten days after we learned she was in the hospital.

I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes last February, and was doing pretty well on the medication I was taking until about the end of October. About that time, Walgreen, where I get my medication, changed vendors. My blood sugar has been bouncing up and down ever since. It hasn't gotten completely out of hand, but it's about 30 points higher than it was before the change. With the increased blood sugar level has come more pain and more foot problems. Apparently, something called "Diabetic neuropathy" is to blame, along with some just plain old-fashioned osteoarthritis, which I've had problems with for 30 years.

I used to get Ultram, a prescription pain reliever, in bottles of 720 for three months from the Peterson pharmacy, with three refills - a year's supply. Things have changed since those days, and now I can only get a month's supply at a time, with no refills - apparently to cut down on the abuse and resale of this very strong medication. I need it too much to do anything but take it, but we all pay the price for those that abuse medications. I at least now have things set up so that I can get a refill without having to make a doctor's appointment. Twice each year my pain level goes up significantly - in the fall and in the spring. I guess the change in weather patterns has something to do about it, but it's decidedly present. My pain level during six to eight weeks before the winter sets in more than doubles. The same thing happens in the spring, before summer kicks in. Luckily my pain doctor understands this, and is willing to work with me.

I saw my pain doctor Friday, and he and I discussed my lower back problems. He told me that I have "significant stenosis of the L5-S1 area", which is causing my pain. I hope to have him do something about it next year. I want to wait until after the summer, so I can take Timmy fishing. We only got to go three times this year. I should feel better, with my neck problems not causing me as much pain as it did this year.

Jean has back problems, too, although not as bad as mine - thank God! Unfortunately, every time her stress level goes up, she gets stress-related migraine headaches from her back. She's had them a lot the past three months, as you can imagine. She had to do ALL the driving for at least six weeks while I was wearing my neck brace, then her father was sick and subsequently died, then we learned about Roberta. She started having really bad migraines when we returned from Louisiana. This was one of the main reasons we didn't return for the funeral. Timmy started to kindergarten the week after my surgery, and Jean had to drive him to school and pick him up - I wasn't allowed to drive. Timmy does show some signs that the abuse he suffered back in 2007 has caused some developmental delays, and we've been taking him to physical, occupational, and speech therapy at least twice a week. All that put a much greater amount of stress on her than normal. She's finally, in the last week or so, begun to recover from the two previous months.

We've been worried about Timmy's school progress, but the last couple of weeks have been filled with one surprise after another. We can definitely tell he's learning, and more than just what he's being taught in school. He hasn't learned to read yet, but we expect him to be able to read simple books by the end of this school year. His handwriting has been a significant problem, but the extra practice he gets at home and from his speech therapist seems to be paying off. He still wants to write from right to left, instead of left to right. That would be ok in Japan, but English just doesn't work that way. When a little boy shows you a frisbee he got from McDonald's that he'd stuck a piece of Styrofoam plastic into, and tells you it looks like Saturn, you know he's learning SOMETHING!

As we get closer to the holidays, things are looking up. The only problem we still have is one a lot of people are having - a lack of money. My son-in-law has been out of work for several months now, and we're trying to help them out. My youngest daughter has had to take a pay cut, and we're helping THEM out. Our oldest son just plain doesn't have any money, and we're trying to help HIM out. We have enough to cover our expenses, but none left over for frills. Hopefully Blair will get a job, Anna will get a promotion (or a better-paying job), and even Joe can find something that will allow him to pay for his own bus pass and cigarettes. That will take quite a few burdens from us.

A Prayer for Fred and Rantburg

2010-08-20T12:46:00.003-06:00

... as well as all other oppressed people.

We've seen quite a few comments referring to Psalms 109:8. It would be better to quote the entire first 20 verses:

1 Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.
4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.
5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 ¶ Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.
17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

AMEN

Let the targets of this prayer - the Obama Administration and those members of Congress and the bureaucracy who feel nothing but contempt for "flyover country" - find that those who truly love the Lord our God will be victorious, and they shall taste the dregs of defeat.

Accommodation - or Surrender?

2010-07-16T15:28:00.002-06:00

I received this in an email earlier today:

When I was a kid, I couldn't understand why Eisenhower was so popular. Maybe this will explain why.

General Eisenhower Warned Us.

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'

This week, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many in the world looked the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people! Help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center "NEVER HAPPENED", because it offends some Muslim???

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE...SOMEONE HAD TO PAY FOR IT!

This isn't half as impressive without the images, but I can't seem to get them to copy, either to my computer or to this weblog.

Ending AGW foolishness, once and for all.

2010-05-21T12:03:00.002-06:00

The following testimony to the US Senate should end the folly of AGW once and for all. I doubt it would, but it should. The information comes from ICECAP, one of the most scientific "blogs" on the Internet.

May 21, 2010
Dr. Happer Testifies to Congress: ‘Warming and increased CO2 will be good for mankind’

Dr. Will Happer’s Testimony Before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming - May 20, 2010

My name is William Happer, and I am the Cyrus Fogg Bracket Professor of Physics at Princeton University. I have spent my professional life studying the interactions of visible and infrared radiation with gases - one of the main physical phenomena behind the greenhouse effect. I have published over 200 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. I am a member of a number of professional organizations, including the American Physical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. I have done extensive consulting work for the US Government and Industry. I also served as the Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy (DOE) from 1990 to 1993, where I supervised all of DOE’s work on climate change.

Read the whole thing, here.

"Scientific" Stupidity

2010-05-21T11:42:00.002-06:00

My local newspaper, the Colorado Springs Gazette, ran the following headline on Thursday, May 20, 2010: "Scientists: Use of Coal, Oil should be Penalized". I cannot think of a more idiotic approach to "science" in all the past 60 years of my existence. ANY continued actions to "reduce greenhouse gasses to keep temperatures from soaring" is a farce, and an attack upon the lives and freedoms of the American people. THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC PROOF OF ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING CAUSED BY A MAN-MADE INCREASE IN CO2. Period.

The American people should know three things about carbon dioxide:

(1) Carbon dioxide is a trace gas, even among "greenhouse" gases. Water vapor provides 95% of ALL greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide accounts for about 4%, while all other "greenhouse gases" constitute approximately 1%. Mankind's total contribution of greenhouse gases, in total, is less than three percent (3%) of all greenhouse gasses.
REF: http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

(2) Carbon dioxide's contribution to the greenhouse effect is logarithmic, meaning that the first 50 parts per million by volume (ppmv) is responsible for half the greenhouse effect, the next 50 ppmv account for the next 25%, and so on, until the increase in temperature from doubling carbon dioxide is too small to measure. The current level of CO2 is high enough to account for 98.5% of all forcing that can be done by CO2.
REF: http://brneurosci.org/co2.html

(3) Carbon dioxide levels have been significantly higher than they are today, even while temperatures were significantly cooler.
REF: http://ff.org/centers/csspp/library/co2weekly/2005-08-18/dioxide.htm

The sun, not the burning of fossil fuels, controls temperatures on Earth. There is a growing list of evidence that we are in the early stage of a significant COOLING, rather than the over-hyped "unprecedented warming" the AGW crowd continues to bleat. That ANY "scientist" would put his name to the kind of arrogant stupidity displayed by the members of the National Academy of Sciences in this recent article does not bode well for scientific progress in the United States. Another "Dalton Minimum" would cause far more deaths - from just about every cause - than an increase of 1-2 degrees centigrade.
REF: http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/nasa_now_saying_that_a_dalton_minimum_repeat_is_possible/

It's time for the political hype of "Anthropogenic Global Warming" to die a well-deserved death, and the stupidity of backing actions to reduce CO2 emissions be recognized for the farce it is.

Another Earthquake Tragedy

2010-02-27T14:36:00.003-07:00

Less than two months after the tragic earthquake in Haiti, a larger, more powerful earthquake has struck in Chile. The epicenter, about halfway between Santiago, Chile's largest city, and Conception, on the coast and Chile's second-largest city, has already claimed at least 120 people. The death toll will inevitably climb, as dozens of buildings have collapsed. The earthquake struck just after midnight local time, and many people were outdoors when it struck. For more information, check out these links:

The USGS Earthquake map centered on 75 degrees west.

The Daily Crawler, a web aggregator, with a very inclusive report.

Lucianne, another news aggregator.

The London Times

South America Daily, another news site I bookmarked.

People in Hawaii and American Samoa are being asked to evacuate low-lying areas due to the threat of a Tsunami.

The Marines have Landed!

2010-02-23T14:14:00.017-07:00

I revisited Haiti today, and found that the area around Port au Prince, Carrefour, Leogane, and Jacmel has been updated with imagery from January 25, 2010. One of the first things I noted was that the Marines had landed! There are also quite a few other changes, mostly for the better.

This image is an overview of the harbor and downtown area of Port au Prince. You can't tell much from this image, but as we zoom in, things begin to come into focus. As with all the other images I've captured of Haiti, click on the image to see the full-size version. All these images have come from Google Earth.

There are many changes to this area. At the bottom of the image, you can see that one of the damaged buildings has been fenced off, and clean-up work has begun. At the far left, about halfway down the left-hand side, there's a compound and a building that is an arc with two posts, one at each end. You can see a number of tents in what is probably an embassy compound. Immediately above that area, there's what was once a parking lot that's been turned into a tent city. At least one part of the area is being used as a tent hospital, with several military ambulance vehicles parked nearby. The clean-up work on the buildings to the top of the image has begun, but the rubble of only one building seems to have been removed. Don't be fooled by the limited amount of traffic - other areas show heavy traffic coming into the city, and moderate traffic leaving it. The building in the lower right corner of the image shows that the clean-up of some buildings and areas has just begun.

The Marines have come to Port au Prince. Here is one of the encampments where they stay when they're not working 16-18 hours a day.

With much of the harbor area still damaged, the only sure way to get supplies to shore is by using landing craft (inset). There aren't many places where these craft can land inside the city of Port au Prince. This image shows one such area, just above the main pier.

Compare the following images with the ones from the 21st, posted here.

The warehouse area in this photo, and the streets surrounding them, are jammed with people. Most of these people are those that have lost their homes entirely, or whose homes are so damaged it's not safe for them to return.

This soccer field has been turned into a squatter's camp, filled with refugees from destroyed or damaged homes.

The soccer field in the center-left portion of this image hosts a modular, deployable, inflatable European field hospital. You can see several tent cities in other parts of the image. This scene, mostly without the hospital, can be seen in many parts of the city.

This is the US Embassy in Port au Prince (not in the overview photo). Note the number of tents inside the compound. I don't know if these are living quarters for Embassy staff that lost their homes, staff being recalled and housed in tents to be available whenever they're needed, or tents for visitors. The area to the left of the image shows a crowd of people, and the street in front of the embassy is crowded with vehicles.

The National Palace (Haitian National Government) area is still surrounded by tent camps of earthquake victims, and little has been done in the four days since the previous imagery to clean up the debris in the area. Estimates of five to ten years for Port au Prince to fully recover are probably conservative.

Port au Prince isn't the only area where the Marines are landing. This minor port facility provides room for another landing craft to bring desperately needed supplies to people in Carrefour.

This image shows a tanker offloading petroleum products (gas, oil, diesel, etc.) to an area that also serves one of Haiti's oil-powered electric generating plants. Restoring electricity to Port au Prince will help restore a sense of recovery to the city.

Those of us in the United States have every right to be proud of our nation's military and their response to the Haiti earthquake disaster. Here is the USNS Comfort, one of two hospital ships in the US Navy.

The USNS Comfort isn't the only ship providing assistance to Port au Prince. This photo, centered on the USNS Comfort, also shows two US Navy LSDs (Landing Ship, Dock - where those landing craft come from), and a US Frigate. There are several ships from other navies, as well that are helping out. The sole ship providing assistance (as of Jan 25) to Jacmel, to the south, is a Canadian Destroyer.

As always, I'm not the only person reporting on this. There are dozens of others. One of them, my good friend Chuck Simmins has several posts on Haiti at his North Shore Journal weblog. If you want to know what our military leadership is saying about Haiti, visit the US Southern Command weblog. The US Southern Command has responsibility for all US military forces and operations in Central and South America.

A bit of Explanation

2010-02-23T13:53:00.003-07:00

Anyone visiting my blog, even for the first time, will see that my posting schedule is very erratic. I think it's time for an explanation, and a forecast.

First the explanation. I spent 26 years in the Air Force. During that time, I was injured about 30 times, mostly not very seriously. Sometimes it was bad enough that I would go to the doctor, sometimes I didn't. I had surgery - a two-level disk lamanectomy and fusion - in 1990. That was the first indication of how those previous injuries, often so innocuous that I didn't even think about them, would affect my future.

Now, almost 20 years after I retired in 1991, I've been diagnosed as having osteoarthritis in virtually every joint in my body. I don't hurt ALL the time, but the amount of time when I DON'T hurt has been constantly decreasing over the last ten years, to where today it can be measured in hours per month. Significant barometric pressure changes can aggravate my arthritis to where the pain medication, which normally reduces my pain to a very manageable level, just can't hack it. That's when I slip into hibernation mode, and virtually shut down all unnecessary activity, including blogging.

I started having some other problems about three months ago - almost-constant headaches, thirst, hunger, dry, cottony mouth, always exhausted, and very, very irritable. My wife made me see a doctor a week before our anniversary. It took less than 10 minutes to confirm what I'd suspected - that I had become a diabetic. We're still trying to get my sugar levels under control. Until I do, I'll still have many of the symptoms listed above. Things ARE getting better, which is one reason I'm posting this. I also urge anyone who have the symptoms I listed to see a doctor and have a blood test. It' takes about 10 minutes, and is very accurate. Undiagnosed diabetes can kill.

I'm not "cured", or even "controlled" yet, but I am beginning to feel better. The medication I'm taking takes time to build up in my system. I also need to go on a diet for diabetics, and attend a course in how to manage my illness. One of those classes is scheduled this Thursday, the other is scheduled for next Monday. I hope that once I get my blood sugar under control, I'll want to post more often.

I've also decided that I'll begin posting articles about stamp collecting to this weblog. I had a separate one, but it's pretty well dead from lack of posting (the last was almost two years ago, I believe). I'll also post more about Haiti, including an article today.

Posting Holiday

2010-02-08T12:55:00.003-07:00

This is my last post until I can get a few things done and caught up. Here's the list:

-- I've decided that I'll wait until Google Earth can come up with more up-to-date imagery before I do any more reporting on Haiti. A lot can happen in a week, and the "latest" imagery is from January 21st.

-- I've got about 500,000 loose postage stamps in my office, and I need to get rid of about 90% of them. I can't do that and be here, on facebook, still have enough time to keep current on some 50 weblogs, AND take care of my family, especially a typical 4-year-old.

-- I've had a headache for over a month now, and working on my computer doesn't do anything to relieve the pain or pressure.

No Third Party, Please

2010-02-07T17:08:00.003-07:00

There's a lot of talk going on about forming a third party - the Tea Party. That could possibly be the most devastating thing that could happen to the United States. The Tea Party should be bigger than that - it should be the force that holds both Republicans and Democrats to the principles of smaller government, lower taxes, and less regulation. An outside group that can harness public activities for or against politicians may be able to do far more for this nation than a third party.

Establishing the ideals that are endorsed and supported by the Tea Party, requiring candidates to commit themselves to those ideals before receiving any support from the Tea Party, and by holding those same candidates to their promises when they are elected would do far more than electing a handful of people to the House and Senate. The Tea Party can have far more influence by NOT being a part of the Beltway Insider club than they can by joining it.

The Tea Party convention in Tennessee had a great opportunity to establish its basic ideals, in writing, after strong negotiation among the various "delegates". They failed to do so. They cannot afford to miss any other such opportunities. The "Tea Party" is best associated with Internet networking and support. Let the people from last week's convention gather together online (Facebook, anyone?), put forth a list of principles, have those principles debated (add some, delete some, make significant or even cosmetic changes to them), and then vote on what ones are to be included in the Tea Party agenda, and which any candidate for public office must support at least a fair percentage of them in order to get support (financial, physical,and electronic) from the Party.

Here's my list of principles I would like to see as part of the Tea Party agenda:

Conduct a campaign to reduce the size and scope of the Federal government and the concurrent bureaucracy.

Require all legislation in the future to reference the specific Constitutional requirement (article and paragraph) under which the legislation falls. If this cannot be done, then the Congress has no authority to establish the legislation.

Establish control of both the northern (US/Canada) and southern (US/Mexico) borders of the United States, for political, economic, and national security reasons.

Simplify the tax code, reduce taxes, and eliminate loopholes for special interests. This goes in conjunction with #1.

Reduce the complexity of government.

Restructure the entire civil service hiring process.

Eliminate all "public sector" union affiliation.

The government has no "right" to demand that certain employees belong to a union. Government interference in private-sector employment must be ended immediately.

Government operations should be subject to outside auditing at specific intervals. This includes audits not only of the financial operations of an agency, but an audit of employment records, regulations affecting the agency, or issued by the agency to regulate, restrict, or limit the actions of private citizens or other outside groups.

This is enough for you to get the idea. None of these items would be implemented by either political party, for obvious reasons. The government isn't going to simplify itself, or stop compounding the burden it inflicts upon citizens and businesses. The only way to achieve these goals is by having an outside party pressure both government and its members to make the changes necessary to accomplish these tasks. The Tea Party can (and has) have a positive or negative impact on any election. By only supporting those who not only endorse the goals of the Tea Party, but also work inside the system to make the necessary changes, the Tea Party can exert fantastic influence on both elections and laws. By opposing bad legislation both vocally and by electronic print, the Tea Party can force those currently in legislative positions to work more closely for the nation's good, rather than the politician's good.

Taking a Break

2010-02-03T14:40:00.002-07:00

I'm taking a break today. We must have a weather front moving through - the arthritis in my neck is VERY painful, and my lower back and legs hurt. I'm trying to relax - working on my stamp collection, doing some light reading on the Internet, and just "chillin'". I hope to get back to writing about Haiti tomorrow, looking at some of the small towns along the coast and to the south of Port au Prince. I strongly recommend checking out Chuck Simmens' blog, "America's North Shore Journal".

God and Science

2010-02-02T18:24:00.007-07:00

Professor John Horner, a psychologist at Colorado College wrote a letter to the Editors that was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette (Flat-earthers, and other crank theorists, always deny science) On January 27, 2010. Somehow I missed it in last week's paper, but that's not unusual. Whether I take the time to read the various letters depends on how well I feel, and whether there's anything that appears to be interesting to read. Wednesday, unfortunately, was a VERY bad day.

Thankfully, the Gazette archives letters, and one can read them well after they've been published. I read several responses from others addressed to Professor Horner, and became interested. I just finished Professor Horner's letter. Obviously Professor Horner is unhappy with "flat-earthers" - people that don't believe the Earth is round, and who deny science that says it's a sphere (and others like them). Agreed, it's annoying when someone who has absolutely no interest - or foundation - in science takes up valuable time (and occasionally, resources) to deny the latest scientific "breakthrough". Other than that, however, exactly what was Prof. Horner's point?

There are several possibilities, and I'll address each in turn. Let's begin with the "cause de jour", "climate change". Before we get into the steamy, smelly mess of CRUtapes, "Climategate", the unraveling of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's AR4 "scientific" assessment, and all that goes with it, let me state my personal credentials.

I began my post-secondary education at the Air Force Academy, Class of 1968. I left at Christmas break my Doolie year due to a boxing accident. I rejoined the Air Force in 1965 as an enlisted person. I spent most of the time between 1965 and April, 1991, in either the Active forces or Active Reserve forces of the Air Force. My specialty was imagery analysis - looking at all manners of reconnaissance imagery, both of a tactical and a strategic nature. That's not an easy career field to succeed in, but I left as a Master Sergeant. You also learn an incredible amount of history, geography, economics, math, and virtually every known science related to the earth and what appears on its surface. At the same time, I earned more than 200 college-level credits through classroom work, correspondence courses, and hands-on experience. I have three Associate's Degrees, but never satisfied residency requirements at any college, and therefore don't have a higher degree. I am currently disabled, and have no time or energy to commit to furthering my education. The education I have is quite sufficient for me to read and understand most technical papers.

I agree with the statement "Flat-earthers and other crank theorists always deny science". As a psychologist, Prof. Horner should understand that people are usually afraid of what they don't understand. One significant way they respond is to deny what they don't understand. That doesn't mean, however, that everyone who denies current scientific theories is necessarily a "flat-earther".

One of the most idiotic statements in circulation today is that "climate change" is real because there's a "scientific consensus". Science is NEVER decided by consensus. The scientific method is quite strict, and has no place for majority rule:

Postulate a theory

Gather and interpret data

Judge the theory by the data

If the data agrees with the theory, try to disprove it. If it doesn't agree with the theory, either gather more data or refine the theory to match the data. (NOTE: Real science NEVER changes the data (facts) to match the theory. It's always the THEORY that must be changed to conform to the data - something the Climategate "Hockey Team" did repeatedly.)

Once the theory and the data are in agreement, publish your findings and the data (facts) the theory is based upon for others to study.

Unfortunately for "climate change", it's a "solution" looking for a problem. Our planet has gone through HUGE temperature variances, from near-global tropical conditions to 100,000-year long Ice Ages. Climate is ALWAYS in a state of change. It changes from day to night, through annual seasons, through various natural cycles that last from a year or two (El Nino) to 22-year solar cycles, to various cycles lasting 30, 60, 90, 110, 1500, 24,000 and 125,000 years (I probably missed some - there are a LOT of them that have begun to be discovered). It doesn't help so-called "climate scientists" that the world has discovered their chicanery, unscientific behavior, and just plain criminal conduct. Nor does it help that the latest IPCC report has been found to have used "tainted data". Some of the references in the last IPCC report (AR4) included "studies" from the World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace, and in one instance, a magazine dedicated to mountain climbing. The statement that the Himalayan glaciers would "disappear by 2035" was discovered to have been idle speculation during a telephone interview with a scientist in India, published in a non-scientific magazine. Not very scientific. We won't even get into the mess about "peer review" and the exclusion from publication of any contradictory evidence to "manmade global warming".

Unfortunately, too, this is Colorado Springs, home of Focus on the Family, New Life Church, and dozens of other religious organizations. Prof. Horner's attack COULD have been launched against those that adhere to a staunchly fundamentalist belief that claim the earth is only 6000 years old. Perhaps Professor Horner's attack was against those that don't accept some scientific discoveries, such as the earth being round geological principles, biology, or chemistry. Prof. Horner may be one of those that believes it's impossible to believe in God and in Science. In any case, there is nothing clear and concise in Prof. Horner's letter.

In my personal opinion, those that deny scientific evidence OR the existence of God are extremely narrow-minded. The Bible doesn't say when the Earth was formed, only that God created the "heavens and the earth". The hapless "6000 years" is the product of Bishop Unger, one poor clergyman that has caused more confusion than can be imagined. Bishop Unger tried to convert WHO, WHAT, WHY and HOW into WHEN. That, too, wasn't very scientific. Bishop Unger also forgot one other thing, something countless other clergy have forgotten (or ignored) for centuries: God time is not necessarily the same as Man time. An immortal being has no use for hours, days, weeks, or years.

A major failure of "science" is its lack of common sense. Scientific evidence supposedly "proves" that there can be no God. The Bible tells us, however, that God created the heavens and the earth. Let's take a look at it through the "Scientific Method":

1. Postulate a theory
-- That there is no discernible difference between a universe that exists "by random selection" and one created by an Omnipotent God who not only created the substance of the universe, but the rules under which it operates.

2. Gather and interpret data
-- The Bible
-- All scientific evidence about the universe and everything within it (I've sampled quite a bit, but obviously haven't studied ALL the scientific [or religious] evidence that exists. I believe I've studied a sufficient amount to write this article).

3. Judge the theory by the data.
-- Interpreted correctly, the Bible states WHO (God) WHAT (the universe), and WHY (the sustainability of life). It doesn't delve into the WHEN (except, IMHO, metaphorically), or HOW.
-- The timeline is subject to speculation. Common sense suggests that God created both the physical substance of the universe, and also the "scientific" or "natural" rules that bring order to it. Accepting that God Time is highly flexible ("A day is as ten thousand years, and ten thousand years as but a day"), and also accepting that the universe is orderly, rather than chaotic, there is no scientific basis that God CANNOT exist.
-- If it is accepted that the physical laws of the universe are created by God, then scientists are merely searching for God's presence in a different manner than "preachers"or "prophets" - or psychologists.

4. If the data agrees with the theory, try to disprove it. If it doesn't agree with the theory, either gather more data or refine the theory to match the data.
-- Scientifically, the theory that there is no discernible difference between an ordered, "natural" universe and that created by an Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Eternal God cannot be DISPROVED. This is not the same as being PROVEN.
-- There is a growing preponderance of evidence that the universe as it currently exists shouldn't exist as it does, if it were not "created", but just "suddenly appeared". Chaos theory would require a wildly chaotic universe, yet the observed universe responds to rules that human beings are just beginning to observe, and attempt to understand.
-- The sole bit of empirical evidence that can "prove" the existence of God is a personal relationship with Him. There is a large compendium of observations and anecdotal evidence (Lourdes, Fatima, etc.) such as "miracles" and the response to prayer that others observe from without. While skeptics may try to deride such evidence as mere coincidence, results beyond a certain point render "coincidence" unsustainable.
-- Anti-semitism is a "proof" of the existence of God. The Jews are supposed to be the "Chosen" of God. For far longer than 6000 years, Jews have been the most prosperous people in the world (and the most persecuted), no matter what hands are raised against them or circumstances they're forced to endure. They prosper no matter where they are, or the circumstances. Others, not necessarily groups but individuals who believe in the same God, and follow the same rules of living, also prosper. These prosperous people are hated and despised by others BECAUSE others perceive that God indeed does "play favorites", especially with the Jews. There IS a disparity between the lives of non-believers and believers.

5. Once the theory and the data are in agreement, publish your findings and the data (facts) the theory is based upon for others to study.
-- Have at it.

One final observation - perhaps Prof. Horner is angry because psychologists aren't considered "real scientists". It's a thought.

A City of Dead People

2010-02-01T16:23:00.013-07:00

The entire city of Port au Prince suffered to one extent or another. The death toll is horrendous, the cost to recover from the damage is staggering, and the long-term effects of the earthquake on survivors may haunt them for the rest of their lives.

I've backed out even farther in the image below, but I wanted to be sure the names of the various neighborhoods in Port au Prince were still shown. I'll highlight the worst damage in these neighborhoods.

Most Americans have heard about Hotel Montana, where many Americans stayed when visiting Haiti. Hotel Montana is in the Petionville neighborhood, in the hills to the southeast of the city center. From the air, there doesn't appear to be much damage. The walls appear to be standing, the roof doesn't look damaged, and there isn't much debris around the building. Reports from people on the ground indicate the inner walls collapsed, and rubble is stacked dozens of feet high within the outer walls. This is one of the drawbacks to using imagery alone for damage assessment - the camera usually can't look inside the walls or through the roof.

This is the Berthe neighborhood, less than a mile from the Hotel Montana. At least half of the buildings have suffered extensive damage, and a large number of them were destroyed.

These six ridges, facing the southwest, suffered extensive damage. These are areas where many of Haiti's middle class owned homes, and where the damage has destroyed whole neighborhoods.

This image is typical of the areas found on each of the ridges.

Here is another photo, taken of one of the other ridges.

This is a neighborhood near Bois Patate. To the right in the image is another of the many tent encampments - people who have lost their homes, or are afraid to go inside.

This area, in the Saint Gerard neighborhood, is filled with buildings that have been totally destroyed.

This last image is of a village on the southern boundary of the city. The damage is very visible.

All of the neighborhoods in today's post are along the southern boundary of the city. Tomorrow (or later), I'll try to provide some shots of the eastern portions of the city.

City Center

2010-01-31T12:44:00.010-07:00

In my first post, I reported on the warehouse area near the Port au Prince container port, and the devastated city center behind it. This is a supplement to that post, with images.

This overview shows the main harbor area, the container port and storage areas to the north, and the city center. I'll briefly discuss the warehouse area (near the center of the photograph), then go in to detail on the destruction found elsewhere.

I've rotated this image 90 degrees so the buildings look more realistic. I'll do this with all the remaining photographs as well. The main warehouse area contains mostly red-roofed buildings. The compound to the south has three buildings with writing on the top - "SOLIDARITE-HAITI-VENEZUELA". Actually, Venezuela's contributions to the rescue effort so far have been fairly small.

This blow-up shows part of the area in more detail. This is one of the areas with a major tent city, and shows the number of people wandering the streets. I'm sure the situation has changed in the last ten days, but I don't have any more recent imagery.

This is the first of several images showing the extent of the damage to the city center area of Port au Prince. I am using images of the first six blocks of the city center only. The damage extends for about 20 block to the east from this area. There are also significant other areas that have equal or greater damage, but I'm pushing Blogger's limitations on images as it is.

I do wish I had a decent map of Port au Prince, showing the names of the streets. Unfortunately I don't, so we'll have to just muddle through. If any one knows the street names, please feel free to let us know in the comments.

Some areas are more seriously damaged than others. The force of the shock from this earthquake appears to have been an up-and-down motion, rather than a shearing (left and right) motion. The structures of the buildings couldn't take the added force, and collapsed. The buildings themselves more or less collapsed straight down, like a stack of pancakes. This has made it difficult to dig people out from the rubble, as the upper floors of a building had collapsed onto the lower floors, with the bottom floors receiving the majority of the rubble. It will take years to completely remove all the debris from the city.

Many of the buildings that don't appear to be badly damaged from the images may be totally structurally unsound, may contain internal damage that doesn't show in the image, or may be relatively structurally sound, but have areas where the damage is significant enough the buildings are unsafe for people.

Everywhere you look in the city, there are dozens of trucks and hundreds of people, either trying to save what few possessions they can, or helping rescue those trapped inside buildings, or removing some of the rubble so emergency vehicles and aid can reach more parts of the city.

I wrote about this park on the waterfront in my first post. Here is a better-resolution image of the area.

Not only can you see the collapsed buildings, but the sidewalk near the ocean front is cracked and damaged.

Most of the major civilian hospitals were in the more built-up parts of the city, and suffered significant damage. There is no estimate of how many schools have been damaged, or how severe the damage to them might be. Currently, the only jobs for most Haitians in Port au Prince may be for rubble-removal. It will be difficult to impossible to begin rebuilding until the rubble and debris is cleared away.

The area I've covered in today's post is less than five percent of the total area of Port au Prince that was actually damaged by the earthquake. This doesn't include the damage to other towns and villages - Carrefour, Grassier, Saint Mesmin, Leogane, and dozens of others. Google Earth has not posted any updated imagery from Jacmel, which is stated to have been heavily damaged. Some of the more isolated villages in the mountains may not have even been reached for assessment yet.

Several people have commented that it may take ten years to rebuild Port au Prince. That may be an optimistic estimate.

As before, you can click on an image for a larger one. I also encourage everyone to read Chuck Simmins' "North Shore Journal", where they can find more information on the Haiti earthquake.

It's Airport Day.

2010-01-30T10:44:00.005-07:00

One of several favorable events following the Haiti earthquake that devastated most of the capital, Port au Prince, was that the international airport there wasn't badly damaged. The control tower was down, and there was damage to the passenger terminal, but the runway and offloading ramp were functional. That greatly speeded up getting first-responders into the city.

Unfortunately, the airfield only has one operational runway, and there is no room to add a second, temporary runway. Apparently the airfield is handling 125 or more flights a day, where its usual activity prior to the earthquake was six to ten flights a day.

Two other limiting factors is the difficulty of supplying the airport with fuel through the damaged harbor facilities, and ramp space.

This photo shows two C-130 aircraft (one US), one US C-17, a dozen or so smaller aircraft, and six to eight helicopters. The tent camp on the left side of the image probably houses the airfield personnel that keep supplies flowing into the airfield and out into the city, as well as keeping aircraft turn-around to a minimum.

All of the highways leading out of the airfield area are in good condition, and don't appear to have suffered any delay-causing damage.

This area, less than two miles from the airport, show some of the damage the people of Haiti are contending with.

The area on the left contains one of the many tent cities that have sprung up throughout the area. Close examination of the buildings on the right show several buildings that have collapsed into the streets.

If the photos appear too small to see detail, click on them for a full-size view.

The Port at Port au Prince

2010-01-29T14:45:00.006-07:00

This is a follow-up from yesterday's blog post. I hope to find a way to add images to this post.

Another of the many problems of getting supplies and rescue equipment to Port au Prince has been the damage to existing, minimum port facilities. I'm going to look at those today.

There are several areas that contribute to the overall port operations for Port au Prince, stretching from the Cite Soliel area to the north to the petroleum pier in Carrefour to the west. These facilities consist of:

a limited-use T-head pier in the Cite Soliel area. There doesn't appear to be any damage to this site.

a concrete wharf and pier forming a "U" north of the La Saline area. This facility also has an unbroken pipeline, and can offload petroleum products. There appears to be minor damage to a large building near the pier, but not to the pier and wharf themselves. There is an offloading crane at the wharf, although its operational capacity isn't known. The petroleum storage yard to the southeast appears to be intact.

the port facilities at La Saline, which appear to be moderately to severely damaged, and will require extensive clean-up and repair before it can be used. There are several ships docked here, but don't appear to be doing anything. The wharf at the container port shows extensive signs of damage. There are a half-dozen sunken ships in the area, some being used as mooring platforms. There are a half-dozen containers in the water near the wharf.

the main container port near the city center, which is badly damaged. The concrete aprons around the facility are extensively cracked and broken. The wharf itself slopes down into the water, and a few containers have tipped into the water. There appears to be some subsidence in the area, with several areas that appear to have subsided as much as ten feet. Two cranes are in the water, including the main container loading/unloading crane. There is at least one truck in the water, and three or four additional goods containers.

the city's main commercial pier, which appears to have suffered little or no damage, but appears to have limited capacity.

a small pier about two miles west of the downtown area that appears to be undamaged, but capable of being used by small vessels only.

a pier on the eastern edge of Carrefour that appears to be totally delapidated, with four sunken ships nearby. There is another pier nearby to the west that can probably service small boats.

a tanker pier that appears to have suffered moderate damage. There doesn't appear to be any leaking at this pier, or at the petroleum storage area nearby. The petroleum power plant nearby appears to have suffered little or no damage. There are several buildings in the general area that were totally destroyed.

a probable petroleum-only pier due north of the center of Carrefour that appears to be serviceable. There was a major pipeline spill from this area, probably from the pipe from the pier to the petroleum storage area to the south. Spilled petroleum can be seen on the beaches for four or five miles to the east and west of the pier. There is considerable damage to the support structure, and many damaged or destroyed buildings and homes nearby.

what appears to have been a pleasure pier to the west of the petroleum pier listed above, which has suffered moderate to severe damage, and is probably unusable even for small boats.

The nearest other commercially viable port in Haiti is at Miragoane. The date of the most recent imagery for this port on Google Earth is 2005.

Tomorrow I'll discuss the airport, and why bringing in relief supplies through that facility was so limited>

Port au Prince, Haiti

2010-01-28T13:31:00.004-07:00

I'm a former Air Force imagery analyst. I've been looking at the ground from 50 to 250,000 feet (or higher) since I was 19 (I'm currently 63). I've been trying to find an "official" group I could work with in support of Haiti relief efforts, because I have a strong urge to help, and identifying and reporting on the damage there, based on aerial imagery, is about the only thing this disabled veteran can do. I haven't been able to find much information about the absolutely unbelievable destruction on the ground there, so I thought I'd begin writing about it here. I'll try to write at least once a day about what I see. The imagery I'm using comes from Google Earth, and anyone interested in more detail need only email me at mike.weatherford@gmail.com.

First of all, earthquakes are funny things. Two buildings, side by side, exactly alike, can suffer unbelievably different damage from an earthquake. Secondly, much of the damage that exists may not show in aerial imagery, and will have to be determined by a ground survey. Thirdly, the imagery I'm using is anywhere from three days to three weeks out of date. I try to use the latest, but sometimes it's just not available.

There are several things that make delivering aid to Haiti difficult. The container port is badly damaged and basically unusable. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of containers scattered in lots around the container port. In most of those walled lots, at least some containers have been toppled from their normally neat stacks. There are a few trucks working as of the 21st to move containers, but only a few have actually gone anywhere.

Behind the container port are a half-dozen compounds containing red-roofed warehouse buildings. Most of these buildings appear to be unaffected by the earthquake. Almost all of the yards and the streets around them are filled with refugees - some in makeshift tents, some living out of their vehicles, others just walking the streets. Except for the main thoroughfares through and around the area, most of the the streets are impassible due to people and vehicles filling the streets from side to side, or debris from collapsed buildings.

Outside the warehouse area, the destruction begins. An area ten to twelve blocks wide and as many as 40 blocks long contains an immense number of damaged or destroyed buildings, with an occasional building apparently unscathed in their midst. This is the heart of the downtown area of Port au Prince. Debris from collapsed buildings fill many streets. Relief efforts are on-going, but the biggest job in the near future will be removing the rubble and cleaning up the debris from collapsed and damaged buildings.

Much of the damage is to large, multi-story buildings, but there is equal damage to single-story buildings and shanty-town homes. There is a large park near the harbor - the JJ Desalines statue is prominent there. There is a huge building nearly totally destroyed at the top of the park. Two or three large buildings around the area are also damaged or destroyed. Across the major highway are several embassies, most of which have suffered little or no damage.

Almost every open space is filled with tents of people who either have no home to go back to, or who are afraid of being inside ANY building. In the Morne a Tuff area, the number of damaged or destroyed buildings is higher than in many other parts of the city. Food aid has been brought to this area through one cleared (or partially cleared) street. At least a thousand people are camping on a soccer field at Croix a Bosalles. Nearby, several large commercial buildings are damaged, some severely.

Just north of the Port area are a series of three-story apartments, built on a square design. None of those apartments appear to have suffered damage, but to the south and east are building that have suffered fairly severe damage. Another park to the northeast is crowded with people living in makeshift tents.

The Chancerelles area (about halfway between the port and the airfield) of the city contains many buildings that appear to be undamaged, but many of the large warehouse-type building show roof damage. That means there is damage to the support architecture within the building itself, and it's unsafe to move around in.

The petroleum storage area and the adjacent diesel power plant north of the La Saline area appear to be undamaged, and the pier where petroleum products are offloaded appears to be serviceable. This will greatly help the city recover.

The airfield and the areas around it appear mostly undamaged. One of the major impediments to the speedy deployment of sufficient aid material was that the airfield only had one runway, and no place to build a second, temporary one.

Most of the damage occurred to the south and east of the area from the airport to the La Saline area of the city, but no part was completely spared. The damage is greater in some areas than others. Near the Hotel Montana, several hillside villages have been more or less totally wiped out. Damage is especially severe between Petion-Ville and Juvenaut, and between Nerette and Gros Morne. An area between Juvenaut and Bois Palate looks especially heavily damaged. The Fort National area has areas of heavy damage, and other areas that appear from imagery to be undamaged.

The main Government Office building is heavily damaged to the north, but only minor damage exists to the back half of the building. Several other multi-story buildings in the area are totally destroyed.

There is plenty of traffic, both into and out of Port au Prince. Even more surprising are the number of people walking everywhere. The entire downtown area is filled with people. Many are undoubtedly trying to find missing relatives, in need of medical attention, or looking for food or water. Many others are just walking around. More than a dozen field hospitals have been set up, mostly near the airport and into the downtown area. The real medical problem is going to be long-term problems with PTSD in its various forms.

Port au Prince wasn't the only area devastated by the earthquake. The string of small villages between Port au Prince, through Leogane and to the west were also badly hit. Leogane, Gressier, and Carrefour suffered major damage. The petroleum pier in Carrefour was damaged, and an oil spill has blackened beaches for five to ten miles in both directions. The spill has been stopped, but there is still oil in the waters around the area. The power plant in the area appears to have suffered only minor damage, but only an on-the-ground survey can tell for certain. Venturing to the south, about one in every ten buildings appear to be damaged, with some areas suffering five to seven times that much damage. To the west of Carrefore, there was a drainage canal being built under the major east-west highway. The area was apparently unfinished, and the runoff from the mountains to the south is beginning to pour across the street.

The damage in some smaller villages may appear moderate, but that could be deceptive. There is damage to the west and south of Leogane, but the imagery from about Leogane west is too old to show it. Google hasn't updated the imagery west of Leogane or south of Port au Prince to Jacmel, and all that's available is imagery from before the earthquake.

The easiest way to determine if there is damage in any of the small towns, or in Port au Prince itself, is to look for blue material being used as a makeshift tent. They're everywhere in the Port au Prince area, to Carrefour, to Leogane, to points south.

I'll try to go into some more in-depth reporting in another post.

Haiti Earthquake

2010-01-13T13:13:00.002-07:00

Chuck Simmins, of North Shore Journal, is tracking the Haiti earthquake that devastated most of Port-au-Prince, the capital. He also has links to sites you can visit to offer aid. Chuck's site is worth bookmarking, with or without his attention to Haiti.

A Failed Power Grab

2009-12-28T13:36:00.003-07:00

A lot of things are happening in the "climate change" world. Some of it's good, and much of it is pure evil. I like this guy's comments, but some of the information he provides needs some explanation for those that don't follow this hysteria on a day-by-day basis. I've copied Mr. Gerhard's comments in bold, with my additional comments below.

First and foremost, everyone needs to understand that the current battle has nothing to do with "manmade climate change" and everything to do with the United Nations attempting to become a world government, with or without the consent of any of the nations that currently belong to it. Raw, naked power is what drives the IPCC and most of the other agencies of the United Nations. "Climate change" was just the last in a long list of scares the United Nations has tried to use to gain that power. Once you understand that, everything else falls into place.

Here are Mr. Gerhard's comments:

1. Comments by Lee C. Gerhard, Geologist, IPCC reviewer, December 16, 2009
These important comments should be kept in mind when reading articles about climate issues. [Note: these comments are now posted on the ICECAP web site: http://www.icecap.us/]

It is crucial that scientists are factually accurate when they do speak out, that they ignore media hype and maintain a clinical detachment from social or other agendas. There are facts and data that are ignored in the maelstrom of social and economic agendas swirling about Copenhagen. Greenhouse gases and their effects are well-known. Here are some of things we know:

The most effective greenhouse gas is water vapor, comprising approximately 95 percent of the total greenhouse effect.

The general breakdown of greenhouse gasses in most chemistry books are water vapor, 95%, carbon dioxide, 4%, all others (a LONG list), 1%. The latest information I've found indicate that human beings contribute about 2% of water vapor, 3.5% of CO2, and about 6% of all other gasses (including all the methane released by bovine (cattle) flatulence (farts) and oil and gas drilling. Total human contribution to greenhouse gasses is 0.021% (0.019% of water vapor, 0.0014% of CO2, and 0.0006% other). Mayon Volcano, in the Philippines, is currently spewing out more greenhouse gasses (carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and others) every day than all human contributions add in a year.

Carbon dioxide concentration has been continually rising for nearly 100 years. It continues to rise, but carbon dioxide concentrations at present are near the lowest in geologic history.

Current concentrations are approximately 380 parts per million by volume (ppmv). Human generated carbon dioxide is supposed to push this level to 450 ppmv by 2050. In contrast, the lowest level recorded for CO2 was around 285ppmv, while levels of more than 8000 ppmv have been detected in ice cores and interpreted from other sources. If levels ever dropped below about 250 ppmv, most scientists believe all plant life on Earth would die. On the other hand, scientific experiments in controlled environments show that increased levels of CO2 cause plants to significantly increase yields.

Temperature change correlation with carbon dioxide levels is not statistically significant.

Most studies show that CO2 levels usually FOLLOW, not lead, major temperature changes, making it difficult to correlate temperature changes from CO2 levels. It actually appears to be the other way around - rising temperatures cause CO2 levels to rise.

There are no data that definitively relate carbon dioxide levels to temperature changes.

Every report of how "greenhouse gasses" are causing "global warming" or "global climate change" are based on computer models. The CRUTape emails show how all of these predictions have been achieved by the date being "adjusted" to give the results desired. There is no scientific evidence for anthropogenic (human caused) climate change outside these models.

The greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide logarithmically declines with increasing concentration. At present levels, any additional carbon dioxide can have very little effect.

What that means is that the first 100ppmv of CO2 will cause, let's say, 90% of all warming due to atmospheric CO2. The next 100ppmv will cause 9%, the next 100 ppmv will cause 0.9%, etc., until the increase in temperature due to increased CO2 is virtually unmeasurable. That doesn't mean that there isn't a problem with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - beyond a certain concentration, human breathing is so
severely affected that it can cause anoxia (unconsciousness) and death. That's because the human lungs are managed so that humans are virtually forced to exhale when the level of CO2 in our lungs reach a certain point. If the level of atmospheric CO2 reaches too high a limit, this mechanism is overpowered, and we simply stop breathing. That's a bad thing. As an aside, submarine crews have been known to survive CO2 levels of 600 to 800 ppmv, although at that level, their physical and mental activity was severely impaired.

We also know a lot about Earth temperature changes:

Global temperature changes naturally all of the time, in both directions and at many scales of intensity.

During the past 2500 years, average annual temperatures have changed repeatedly. The period around Christ's birth was significantly warmer than today. This time period was called the Roman Optimum. The so-called "Dark Ages" can be correlated with a time when it was much colder. The period from around 900AD to about 1350AD is called the Medieval Warm Period, when the Norse settled Greenland (and probably Newfoundland), and grapes grew in England. A prolonged cold period began following the Medieval Warm Period, and lasted until about 1850. This period is known as the "Little Ice Age". The Norse colonies in Greenland were practically wiped out, the settlements elsewhere were withdrawn, the Thames River frequently froze over. This is the period Charles Dickins wrote about in his novels. The world has been recovering for the last 150+ years.

The warmest year in the U.S. in the last century was 1934, not 1998. The U.S. has the best and most extensive temperature records in the world.

While the last statement is the truth, there is one major problem with our temperature record: urban growth. Thermometers that were once in rural areas near towns and cities are now surrounded by suburbs and other urban growth. There is a valid temperature fault that is caused by this growth - a well-defined Urban Heat Island effect. This effect can raise recorded surface temperatures by as much as two degrees Fahrenheit, and can cause, if not properly corrected for, an indicated temperature increase that is local, not worldwide.

Global temperature peaked in 1998 on the current 60-80 year cycle, and has been episodically declining ever since. This cooling absolutely falsifies claims that human carbon dioxide emissions are a controlling factor in Earth temperature.

Many climate scientists, as well as specialists in dozens of other fields (especially solar physics) have discovered that there are many, many "cycles" in nature that affect climate. The simplest of these is the day/night cycle and the annual cycle of seasonal changes. Others include the approximately 11-year sunspot cycle, the 30-year sunspot cycle, up through the approximate 125,000-year ice age cycle (110,000 years of ice, 12,000 years of warmth, and a few thousand years in between where the two opposing cycles clash). Dr. Fred Singer has a book out about climate change, where he explains his deductions that we're in the end phase of a 1500-year cycle. There are dozens of often conflicting theories about what controls these cycles, and what their effect on our world's climate actually are. So far, none of the theories can explain everything that's going on ("the science is settled" is a myth mainly aimed at governments for grants and at citizen's pocketbooks).

One theory that has lots of support outside the CRUGroup is that the number and variety of sunspots affects Earth temperature. Two major periods of low sunspot activity are identified as the Maunder Minimum and the Dalton Minimum. The Maunder Minimum corresponds with the beginning of the Little Ice Age, and the Dalton Minimum corresponds to the extremely low temperatures just before the end of the Little Ice Age. Scientists aren't sure why sunspots affect temperature, but the current quiet sunspot period may provide additional information that will explain the link, at least in part.

Voluminous historic records demonstrate the Medieval Climate Optimum (MCO) was real and that the “hockey stick” graphic that attempted to deny that fact was at best bad science. The MCO was considerably warmer than the end of the 20th century.

See the first item above. The "hockey stick" was what started many people, especially Steve McIntyre, to question the climate "science" of people like Prof. Michael Mann.

During the last 100 years, temperature has both risen and fallen, including the present cooling. All the changes in temperature of the last 100 years are in normal historic ranges, both in absolute value and, most importantly, rate of change.

May we all say a heart-felt "Amen".

Contrary to many public statements:

Effects of temperature change are absolutely independent of the cause of the temperature change.

I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Gerhard means by this, but my best guess is that the effects of temperature change on the world are independent of the mechanism that causes those changes. For instance, one major factor appears to be the geomagnetic fields of the Sun and the Earth, and how they react. The changes in the strength of these magnetic fields may affect how many cosmic rays enter the Earth's atmosphere. Cosmic rays appear to change formation of low clouds in the atmosphere which has a direct effect on how much solar energy is reflected back into space, changes in sea surface temperatures, and much, much more. Sunspots have been shown to be huge solar magnetic surface storms that can also affect cosmic ray bombardments of Earth.

Global hurricane, cyclonic and major storm activity is near 30-year lows. Any increase in cost of damages by storms is a product of increasing population density in vulnerable areas such as along the shores and property value inflation, not due to any increase in frequency or severity of storms.

Polar bears have survived and thrived over periods of extreme cold and extreme warmth over hundreds of thousands of years - extremes far in excess of modern temperature changes.

The polar bear population in 1950 was around 8000. The current population is around 25,000. The biggest problem with polar bears is their range is being reduced by human development, but only in some certain areas. Elsewhere, the population continues to grow. Polar bears depend upon seals and walruses for food. There's no shortage of these food sources in 90% of the polar bear's current habitat. The only place where there's been a decline in polar bears is in the western Hudson's Bay area, where they've become a danger to the local human population.

Polar bears are VERY good swimmers, and can easily cover distances of 150 miles or more. They also like to "play" on ice floes. There is no danger of them becoming extinct from climate change OR human interference.

The 2009 minimum Arctic ice extent was significantly larger than the previous two years. The 2009 Antarctic maximum ice extent was significantly above the 30-year average. There are only 30 years of records.

The 2007 Arctic sea ice levels were unusual. The majority of people who study such things correlate the decline in sea ice coverage to changing ocean currents, not "global warming". There are two major current changes that happen periodically (mostly in 30-year or 40-year cycles): the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. These two patterns of ocean current changes, plus the El Nino/La Nina cycle, affect sea currents in the Arctic Ocean, and climate in the United States.

Rate and magnitude of sea level changes observed during the last 100 years are within normal historical ranges. Current sea level rise is tiny and, at most, justifies a prediction of perhaps ten centimeters rise in this century.

There are many different things that can cause sea-level changes, but melting polar ice is not one of them. Anyone who's ever enjoyed a glass of iced tea know that ice floats. Ice is less dense than water. All the sea-surface ice in the world won't add to sea-level rise, as the ice displaces more volume than the water contained in that ice that melts. A simple experiment shows this: take a glass, put it on a dish, add ice and water to the rim, and let it sit out (do this inside, so you don't cause too much water expansion as the water warms). Once all the ice has melted, look at the level of the water in the glass. It should be less than when it was filled. There should be only a tiny amount of water in the dish (from condensation of moisture in the air).

Sea levels in the past have been far less than they are today, and far more. During the Ice Age that ended about 11,000 years ago, one could walk from Great Britain to France without worrying about getting your feet wet. This is shown in one of the stamp issues of the Island of Jersey (Scott Catalog numbers 285-288). Sea levels 16,000BC appear to have been as much as 600 feet below current levels. As the glacial ice melted, sea levels rose to today's levels. There's very little, if any, glacial ice from the last Ice Age, so there is very little ice to add to current sea levels.

Another major factor changing sea levels for some is a process called "isostatic rebound". If you have an air mattress (and sometimes, even with a "normal" mattress), you can demonstrate this concept. Just press down on the center of the mattress, and watch the edges. Most of the time, the edges will rise in response to your pressing down. When you release the pressure, the area where you pressed down comes up, and the edges that rose decline.

The same thing happens during Ice Ages. As more and more ice builds up on the land, its weight presses down. Even continents respond when tens of trillions of ice presses down upon them as it did during the various ice ages. Equally, once the ice melts, the land begins to "rebound", rising in response to the released pressure. When the ice forms and the land is pressed down, the ocean bottoms rise, causing some islands to appear that didn't previously exist. Once the ice melts and the continents begin to rise, the ocean floor begins to sink. The combination of ice melting and ocean bottoms sinking cause many islands to disappear. None of these changes have anything to do with "anthropogenic global warming".

The present climate debate is a classic conflict between data and computer programs. The computer programs are the source of concern over climate change and global warming, not the data. Data are measurements. Computer programs are artificial constructs.

Public announcements use a great deal of hyperbole and inflammatory language. For instance, the word “ever” is misused by media and in public pronouncements alike. It does not mean “in the last 20 years,“ or “the last 70 years.” “Ever” means the last 4.5 billion years. For example, some argue that the Arctic is melting, with the warmest-ever temperatures. One should ask, “How long is ever?” The answer is since 1979. And then ask, “Is it still warming?” The answer is unequivocally “No.” Earth temperatures are cooling. Similarly, the word “unprecedented” cannot be legitimately used to describe any climate change in the last 8,000 years.

The Copenhagen conference in December was supposed to end in all the nations of the world signing a legally binding document to cut the use of fossil fuels, and thus the emission of carbon dioxide. It would have formed a permanent, very powerful bureaucracy that would control all economic activity in the world, "tax" the use of fossil fuels and use the money to pay "developing nations" "compensation" for developed nations' "excessive" use of fossil fuels. Thanks in part to the CRUtape scandal, and part to more and more people finally LISTENING to the people screaming for the imposition of such legislation as "cap and trade", it failed.

My only real complaint with Mr. Gerhard's article is the lack of references. The article itself was published on Dr. Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project web page. Much of what I've learned about the subject has come from Anthony Watt's weblog, Watts Up with That. I keep up-to-date on sunspots at Space Weather. Some of the other sites I visit are:
Steve McIntyre's Climate Audit site;
Bishop Hill Weblog
Dr. Roy Spencer's weblog
Heliocentric Climate Change weblog.

There are several others on the link bar to the left. I strongly recommend CO2 Science Magazine and the Cato Institute.

The Hadley CRU Email Scandal

2009-11-27T18:41:00.003-07:00

By now, most people know that more than 3000 emails and documents from the Hadley Climate Research Unit (CRU)have been posted on the Internet. These emails and files are damning evidence that Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is a fraud perpetrated by about two dozen "climate scientists" in positions of authority. These few dozen scientists not only manipulated data until they got the results they wanted, but also refused to allow others who doubted their work from having a say. Here is one of the emails showing how the network of "the right people" not only ensured that only "approved" data was published, but that any skepticism would be met with hostility. They gleefully discuss what amounts to playing the majority of British citizens as fools.

Email 0848679780.txt

From: gjjenkins@Xxxx.gov.uk
To: p.jones@xxxx.ac.uk, deparker@xxxx.xxxx.govt.uk
Subject: 1996 global temperatures
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 11:23 +0000 (GMT)
Cc: llivingston@xxxx.xxxx.govt.uk, djcarson@xxxx.xxxx.govt.uk, ckfolland@xxxx.xxxx.govt.uk

Phil
Remember all the fun we had last year over 1995 global temperatures, with early release of information (via Oz), "inventing" the December monthly value, letters to Nature etc etc?

I think we should have a cunning plan about what to do this year, simply to avoid a lot of wasted time. I have been discussing with David P and suggest the following:

1. By 20 Dec we will have land and sea data up to Nov
2. David (?) computes the December land anomaly based on 500hPa heights up to 20 Dec.
3. We assume that Dec SST anomaly is the same as Nov
4. We can therefore give a good estimate of 1996 global temps by 20 Dec
5. We feed this selectively to Nick Nuttall (who has had this in the past and seems now to expect special treatment) so that he can write an article for the silly season. We could also give this to Neville Nicholls??
6. We explain that data is provisional and how the data has been created so early (ie the estimate for Dec) and also
7. We explain why the globe is 0.23k (or whatever the final figure is) cooler than 95 (NAO reversal, slight La Nina). Also that global annual avg is only accuirate to a few hundredths of a degree (we said this last year - can we be more exact, eg PS/MS 0.05K or is this to big??)
8. FROM NOW ON WE ANSWER NO MORE ENQUIRIES ABOUT 1996 GLOBAL TEMPS BUT EXPLAIN THAT IT WILL BE RELEASED IN JANUARY.
9. We relesae (spelling original) the final estimate on 20 Jan, with a joint UEA/MetO press release. It may not evoke any interest by then.
10. For questions after the release to Nuttall, (I late Dec, early Jan) we give the same answer as we gave him.

Are you happy with this, or can you suggest something better (ie simpler)? I know it sound a bit cloak-and-dagger but its just meant to save time in the long run.

Im copying this to DEP and CKF also for comments.
Cheers
Geoff

This is one of the earliest emails in the queue, but already we see that this group feels it has the right to just plain make up data, and hope it comes out right. Keep the names of these people in mind, because the same people appear over and over in the emails.

Wanted: Conservative Candidates

2009-11-01T11:35:00.001-07:00

Regardless of political party - or even lack of party affiliation - the United States needs to back up and regroup. The current direction our elected "leadership" is taking us is wrong, and will destroy what is special, even unique, about the United States. The Democratic party isn't likely to change direction, considering those currently elected to public office. The only hope for a change in direction will have to come from newly-elected, conservative candidates - at ALL levels of government.

Conservatives who belong to the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, no party, or even the Tea Party, need to come together and state, unequivocally, what they want in a candidate, and refuse to support anyone that doesn't meet those qualifications. My personal list of absolutely necessary requirements are:

A candidate that puts the three essentials of good government first: protection of individual liberty, property, and process. By "process", I mean the right to make personal decisions for themselves about such things as political orientation, health care, where they live, housing, education, social contact, and other PERSONAL decisions. I also mean that people making these personal decisions must also be responsible for accepting the consequences of their decisions, good or bad. Unless a candidate will commit, in written or spoken word, to base every decision he or she makes on these essentials, they're not worthy of my vote.

A candidate that understands the critical necessity of responsible spending: all taxes are paid by individuals, either in direct payment or in indirect "pass-along" taxes. Only those taxes that are required to support essential government functions - defense, coining/printing of money, maintenance of basic infrastructure, foreign policy, and other specific, limited functions listed in our Constitution, are "essential". Anything else, especially anything that's solely based upon the "commerce clause" of our Constitution - and quite frequently, only by warping and twisting the meaning of "commerce" - needs to be examined closely to see if it's actually needed, actually producing the desired outcome, and can't be done by other means at less cost or intrusion into the lives of America's citizens. Any candidate that won't commit to working toward these goals is not worthy of my vote, and won't get it.

A candidate that understands that "government" is not the answer to every problem.

A candidate that understands that the Constitution means exactly what it says, and the only valid amendment process is the one listed in Article IV of that Constitution.

A candidate that understands that we have too many laws, many of them so vague that they're virtually impossible to implement properly, and that this mess needs to be cleaned up.

A candidate that not only understands these basic premises, but will promise that he will act in accordance with them on all issues he faces.

I'm sure such candidates will be difficult to find, but they're absolutely essential for the continuance of our nation as it was founded.

GOD is NOT happy with America.

2009-10-15T22:47:00.002-06:00

Contrary to most of the myths being spread around the world today, there IS a God - one God, the God of Abraham and Moses, of David and Solomon, of Joshua and Jeremiah. God is also not silent: He will talk to anyone who will LISTEN to Him. He is not happy with "modern"
America, and those of us who have quietly listened have gotten an earful.

God is not happy with our government. That doesn't just mean with the current president, or the Congress, but with every dishonest person that is elected, appointed, or employed to govern the affairs of our nation. He hates the fraud, waste, and outright theft that occurs on a daily basis. He hates those that use the power given to them to conduct the affairs of our nation in the manner established by our forefathers to line their own pockets, to enrich their family and friends at the expense of others, and those that use bureaucracy and red tape to deny aid to the needy, often for petty reasons.

God is not happy with our "entertainment" industry. It seems that each day, they try to see how more revolting they can be, how much farther they can push back the bounds of what most of us consider the minimum consideration of modesty and behavior. God punished Sodom and Gomorrah for behavior many of us can see or hear every day. He is also furious at US for allowing this garbage into our homes without protest.

God is not happy with our "news" industry. He knows that they lie to us at least once or twice each day, that they do this deliberately to promote or protect those they support with their efforts, and for many, with their hearts. He knows they have failed in their duty to be the "watchdogs of society". Instead, they have become the lapdogs of those that do all manner of evil.

God is not happy with those that pretend to "educate" our children Much of what they teach mocks God. Many of those that pretend to teach instead spend the majority of their time pushing an indoctrination that is destructive of the very rights and freedoms that are the Gift of God. Teachers' Unions are far more interested in seeing that they are not held responsible for the poor job they do than in preparing a new generation to deal with the future. The very basis of our government, its dedication to God, is prohibited from being taught in our schools.

God is not happy with our churches. These "Houses of the Lord" are all too frequently filled with cardboard worshipers - and led by cardboard "preachers/priests". The Spirit of the Lord is seldom evoked. The presence of the Spirit is palpable in its absence. Yet Jesus himself said that He would be with those that gathered together in His name. How many times has the Spirit of God, through His Son Jesus, been felt by most worshipers?

God is not happy with us. He gave us a new nation, conceived in His name, and dedicated to ensuring that His laws were paramount in our lives. Today groups are alive and active all across this continent, doing their best to destroy what our founders believed was the most perfect form of human government, and most of us do nothing. Too many people accept the fallacy that we have a "right" to not be offended, to not face unpleasant truths, to not have to accept responsibility for our own behavior. God, however, will sit in judgment on the final days, and He isn't distracted with all the petty "offenses" others use to destroy us.

God is also forgiving:

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

He also knows those who truly put Him first, instead of putting themselves first:

Matthew 7:15 ¶ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

21 ¶ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

God wants us to be happy, but He wants us to be happy in HIM. Look around the world today and see which people are truly happy. I don't mean those that pretend to be happy, but those that seem to be happy day in and day out. They are people who put God first in their lives. They're also remarkably successful. This, too, is the plan of God for His people:

Matthew 6:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Our nation lived by putting God first in the daily lives of its citizens from 1776 until the early 1960's, and our nation prospered beyond the wildest dreams of its founders. There were trials and tribulations, including some horrendous problems that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens, but God's Plan continued, and our nation prospered. But God isn't happy with our nation and its people today, and has turned His Face from us. Unless we return to the path of our ancestors, we will find God's Face turned from us permanently. That would be catastrophic for all of us.

"This too shall change."

2009-10-04T16:48:00.000-06:00

For those not familiar with the above quote, it's attributed to wise men of a Chinese emperor, who wanted to be known for something that would last "forever". Indeed, the truth behind these four words will always be with us - on the macro scale with universal entropy down to the micro scale of today's weather. EVERYTHING changes - the weather, girls' hemlines, what's "hip" or "in", even ourselves. None of us today are the same people we were at 25, 15, 5, or five months. We age, we change. Some of us even mature.

The current government of the United States is planning to try to "lock in" a particular level of one minor greenhouse gas to keep the world from changing. It's not going to work. In fact, the climate itself is showing that placing all our emphasis on one factor of literally dozens is foolish. The sun, rather active for most of the last century, has gone in to a quiet period not seen since 1913 - when there was little in the way of carbon dioxide being dumped into the atmosphere. Temperatures have steadily dropped - with a small delay - along with solar activity. Unless the sun's activity increases significantly, we can expect temperatures four, five, even ten degrees below normal over the next 20 years.

The current government action has nothing to do with science, and everything to do with a monstrous power grab. If Congress succeeds, expect to see huge taxes, prices escalating by unbelievable amounts, and fuel and utility costs increasing in inverse proportion to availability. Also expect to find that wheat won't grow in northern Alberta, that corn takes longer to ripen in Iowa, and a lot of food items won't grow any longer below Memphis. A Dalton Minimum (Google it), which is fast becoming a probability instead of a possibility, will shake up the entire world, far more than "global warming" ever would.

"Man-caused Climate Change" Take-down

2009-07-28T15:46:00.002-06:00

Dr. Richard Lindzen has posted an article at Quadrant Magazine Online that is one of the finest, best-researched, and well-spoken articles I've read in the last 10 years. I urge anyone who still has an open mind about anthropogenic climate change to read it.

Texas exempts 100% Disabled Vets from Property Tax

2009-07-21T12:37:00.002-06:00

Got this from a former boss of mine. I'm passing it along just as I received it (but in lower font size).

VETERANS:

DO YOU HAVE A 100% DISABILTY RATING??
DO YOU OWN A HOME OR PROPERTY IN TEXAS??

Texas passed a law, House Bill 3613 in June 2009 which provides a Texas veteran who has a 100% VA disability, a 100% exemption for taxation on your resident homestead. or are considered individually unemployable by the U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs, THIS MEANS YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO PAY PROPERTY TAXES ON YOUR HOME! The legislation applies to taxes assessed by all jurisdictions.

The new law is effective now, starting in 2009.

To download the required form, go to: http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/vetexempt.pdf

Exemptions will not be given automatically. Veterans must fill out and return new application forms to be eligible for the residential homestead exemption.

The veteran must fill out the application and attach a copy of the Department of Veteran Affairs letter documenting the disability percentage. It must then be delivered to the tax appraisal office in the district where the veteran resides.

HAYS COUNTY:
Hays Central Appraisal District (512-268-2522)
21001 N. IH 35. Kyle, Texas 78640

TRAVIS COUNTY:
Travis Central Appraisal District (512-834-9138)
8314 Cross Park Dr. Austin, TX 78626

WILLIAMSON COUNTY:
Williamson Central Appraisal District (512-930-3787)
625 FM 1460. Georgetown, TX 78626

Waxman/Markey and the destruction of capitalism

2009-06-26T12:22:00.004-06:00

I wrote a letter to both my Colorado Senators earlier this week. I heard back from Michael Bennet. Mark Udall was "too busy" to answer, or even have a staffer answer. I'm not impressed with either Senator, but then, I didn't vote for either one of them when I had the chance. Michael Bennet is a replacement appointed by Governor Ritter when Ken Salazar was made Secretary of the Interior - another stab in the heart of freedom.

I did get an answer back from Senator Bennet. It was straight out of the Democratic playbook, but did address my concerns. I still wouldn't vote for him for dog-catcher in East Tincup, but that's another story. Here's his email and my answer. Also note you can't email the good Senator directly - you have to go through his front page, where you can easily be ignored.
====================================
Senator Bennet,

>Thank you for contacting me regarding our nationâ€™s energy needs
>and energy legislation in the 111th Congress.

>As you know, America has an energy problem and the
>math tells the story: the United States consumes
>about one quarter of the world's oil, but has only
>three percent of the remaining total worldwide oil
>reserves.

The United States does NOT have an energy problem - it has a government problem, and a lawyer problem. There is plenty of oil. This government just won't allow any US company to drill for it. Even if the government were to allow some drilling, it would immediately be blocked by scores of "environmentalist groups" filing lawsuits in any and every jurisdiction they could reach. The NIMBYs whine and complain about everything and anything, forcing the cost of doing business to excessive levels.

>Our current rate of growth puts us on track to import 70
>percent of our oil in 2020, at costs even higher than today's.

Only because government at every level puts horrendous roadblocks in the way of companies to actually produce more domestic energy. If the United States government were to announce tomorrow that it was agreeing to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bristol Bay, and anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico more than 30 miles from the coast, the price of oil would drop $30 a barrel overnight. That would not only make domestic energy cheaper, it would take billions from the coffers of our current enemies - most notably Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

>To achieve the goal of American energy independence, we need
>innovative, home-grown American solutions. First, we need to
>encourage research and development to improve efficiency and
>find ways to get more out of our existing energy resources.

To achieve the goal of American energy independence, we need the government to get out of the way. We need a mix of coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, and so-called "green" solutions (that mostly aren't). We've cleaned up coal to the point that our air is cleaner than its been since the 19th century - possibly before. As a historian, I KNOW how polluted the air was in the Northeast, in Britain, and in most of Europe just 100 years ago. We will continue to need coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear energy, and whatever water-generated energy we can capture. These will be our mainstays for the next 50 years, until we can develop replacements that will pollute less, provide reliable energy, and remain cost-effective. Wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and all the other "green" solutions cannot produce the amount of energy necessary to replace other sources, cost more to operate, and cause as many new problems as they purport to solve (Hydroelectric dams are a good example - the problem of silt, of species migration, and several other problems we didn't consider when we built them).

>Second, we need to responsibly expand our domestic production
>options and invest in infrastructure. Finally, as billionaire
>oilman T. Boone Pickens has recently noted, we need new ideas
>and new markets if we are to solve our energy problem,
>including developing renewable energy resources that are
>abundantly available in Colorado.

The renewable energy resources in Colorado are not enough to supply the town of Trinidad. Tripling them still won't meet then needs of Trinidad.

>As you may know, lawmakers in Congress have been debating
>energy legislation that includes the implementation of a
>market-based cap-and-trade program. This legislation aims
>to improve air quality by requiring polluters to trade
>pollution allowances. The implementation of a national
>renewable electricity standard (RES), which requires
>electricity providers to produce a percent of their
>electricity from renewable sources, is also being considered.

Cap-and-Trade is a fiasco in search of the gullible. It pretends to solve a problem that doesn't exist. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ANTHROPOMORPHIC GLOBAL WARMING. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, it is not causing runaway heating, and it doesn't need to be regulated. The entire scheme is merely a means to exert more government control, raise the price of energy, and make a bunch of millionaires billionaires. Here are three (of hundreds) of links one of your aides can run down that show this to be true:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/
http://www.sepp.org/
http://www.co2science.org/

The only "proof" for CO2-induced climate change (since "global warming is so 20th century) are computer models - models that can't even verify the past, much less predict the future.

There is one good thing to come from all the "global warming" hoopla - we've finally taken a closer look at exactly what does affect our climate. Carbon dioxide isn't it - carbon dioxide levels have been 20 times higher than they are now, and it didn't destroy life on Earth. If anything, it made life better for all those that lived in those times. Much more attention is being paid to the role the Sun has in our climate - not only by the variation in energy produced, but by the effects of sunspots, solar magnetic field strength, solar wind, solar interaction with galactic cosmic rays, solar forcing from ocean heating and cooling, and dozens of other areas that weren't given much attention by the "climate change" crowd.

We still don't know everything we need to know. In some areas, we don't even know what we don't know. The relationship between the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the El Nino/La Nina Surface Oscillation, the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Surface Oscillation, deep-ocean current flow, seawater CO2 sequestration, the effects of all of these on weather (as opposed to climate), and more than a dozen other things are just beginning to percolate in our scientific community, and haven't reached the point where scientists can definitely say that two actions are linked.

If "climate change" is caused by carbon dioxide, then why have CO2 levels always FOLLOWED temperature increases in the historical record?

Just as an anecdotal comment, there is still snow on top of Pikes Peak. Ask some of the long-term residents how often that happens in mid-June.

A vote for Cap-and-trade is a vote to add an extra $1800 or more to the cost of energy for every American, a cost that will probably triple within five years. None of your constituents are going to be happy with that, and they WILL know.

>Cap and trade was proven effective in the United States
>in the 1990s when a similar program was implemented to
>successfully curb acid rain caused by sulfur dioxide (SO2)
>emissions. Through the trading of pollution credits,
>industries that could not reduce emissions were able to
>purchase allowances at a lower cost than the cost of
>reducing their emissions, and industries that reduced
>pollution earned revenue by selling extra allowances.

Cap and trade has proven to be an horrendous disaster in Europe, and the US law is based on the European one. Sulfur dioxide was a known pollutant, and caused a very significant problem (I saw some of the acid-rain-damaged forests in Europe when I was stationed there). Carbon dioxide doesn't meet that same standard - not by a long shot. Not many people exhale sulfur dioxide - EVERY ANIMAL on the planet Earth exhales carbon dioxide. Sulfur dioxide was reduced because the EPA established minimum release levels that all industries HAD to abide by.

>Colorado has been ahead of the curve when it comes to energy
>efficiency. In November 2004, Colorado became the first state
>in the country to pass a statewide ballot referendum
>(Amendment 37) requiring a renewable electricity standard (RES)
>that requires that a portion of retail electricity sales be
>supplied by renewable sources. The majority of states in the
>country have now adopted statewide electricity standards, also
>referred to as renewable portfolio standards (RPS).

Tell me, exactly how well has Colorado met that standard? I'd say that the amount of electricity generated by "alternate" or "renewable" standards is minute, the cost several times that for energy generated by any other source, and heavily-subsidized. The only renewable energy that is cost-effective is hydroelectric power. Ninety percent of that is probably generated by the station in the Grand Canyon of the Gunnison. There are a few places where geothermal power could be used to augment (but not replace) other sources of energy. A few people use wind power to supplement their power usage, but that's all wind will ever be useful for - supplementing existing sources. The same can be said for solar power.

France did quite a bit of experimenting with alternate energy sources in the 1960s and 1970s. They ended up opting for nuclear power as their primary source, with "alternate" energy sources for supplementation. We could learn a lot from the mistakes and miscalculations the French made before the settled down to their current system.

>There are still many details to address before the President can
>sign a final comprehensive energy bill. First, Congress must ensure
>that the bill does not cause a rise in consumer energy prices.

Impossible. ANY restrictions, additional regulations, penalties, etc., that result from cap and trade will be passed on to the customer. Just satisfying the paperwork requirements will raise prices. NOTHING Congress does happens without someone, somewhere, paying more because of it.

>Second, the legislation must be carefully drafted in a way that
>limits future legal challenges.

Again, impossible. You're expecting the most litigious society in the world to accept one of the most intrusive pieces of legislation in our generation to NOT find a way to sue someone because of it. It won't happen. The only thing to do is to try to ensure that the majority of those lawsuits will be rejected for failing to provide evidence of harm. The information I've seen on the current bill doesn't even come close to meeting that requirement.

>Third, the bill must be drafted in a way that stimulates, not hurts,
>the American economy.

Again, you're talking about limiting growth of proven energy-producing operations, replacing them with pie-in-the-sky "renewable" sources THAT DO NOT EXIST, and pretending it won't hurt the economy.

Before you vote on this monstrosity, I suggest you spend some time with a true Colorado resource, Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr. He is professor-emeritus at the University of Colorado. I'm sure you can find him easily enough. Spend a couple of hours with him. I think it will be well worth your time.

>Please do not respond to this email. To send another message please
>visit my website at http://www.bennet.senate.gov and fill out the
>webform for a prompt response. Thank you.

I have no hope that Colorado will be adequately represented by this individual.

About Those Tea Parties...

2009-05-06T17:15:00.003-06:00

I have been pleasantly surprised by the turnout to the so-called "Tea Parties" around the country. It shows that people in this nation still care about the values on which this nation is founded, especially the issue of excessive taxation. But is that enough? What are the goals of the organizers of these "Tea Party" events? Are these events helping to move toward achieving those goals? Is there enough common ground that a Tea Party in Massachusetts, one in Missouri, and one in California will work toward the same goals? And, most importantly, will achieving those goals be truly beneficial?

I'm not being disparaging. A minimum amount of leadership and coordination can get the Tea Party process organized and on the street. It takes far more leadership and coordination to come up with common goals, common positions, and common approaches to what we the people want to achieve. Maybe that's working itself out in the background as these protests progress. I certainly hope so!

IMHO, the most significant goal any political/social/philosophical organization can work toward is the protection of individual freedom. All of our other freedoms hinge upon that. The more restrictions are placed on the individual, the fewer freedoms that individual has. The Bill of Rights was largely seen by the designers of our Constitution as the enshrinement of individual rights. That includes the right to keep more of the money we work to earn, as well as the rest of the litany of rights our founding fathers enshrined in our Constitution. A well-coordinated campaign against the actions of our government that infringe upon our individual liberties should appeal to all American citizens. And have no misunderstanding - the current government is definitely out to restrict the individual liberties of the majority of the citizens of this nation.

Tea Parties alone won't cause the government to even catch its breath. There has to be more - much more. With each additional goal the leadership of the Tea Party organization states, with each new activity they undertake, the government will work to demonize, demoralize, and disband the movement. Each action the Tea Party organizers approve of must be meticulous with being within the limits of legitimate legal discourse. Even one person working outside the legal limits of individual freedoms can bring an entire organization into disrepute. Tea Party organizers need to ensure that the goals of the organization are clearly stated, unambiguous, and legitimate. They must also be willing to forcibly eject from their organization any member that doesn't accept the restrictions the organization places upon itself, to stay within the bounds of legitimate opposition. Only then can these Tea Parties move on to more ambitious goals.

I'd like to recommend a few goals for the organization. My short list includes:

1) Education on the Constitution. You can't tell what rights you may be losing if you don't know what they are to begin with. You also can't identify behavior that is forbidden by our Constitution, or reserved for other than the Federal Government, if you don't know what our Constitution does and doesn't say. Our "public schools" do a very poor job of teaching both the letter of the Constitution, and "the rest of the story" - the Federalist/Anti-Federalist exchange of letters that helped form both the debate for acceptance, the huge public debates, and the thousands of letters that influenced the actual structure and content of the Constitution. I doubt more than one in ten-thousand US citizens has ever read ANY of the "Federalist Papers", although they're freely available online. They're just some of the historical documents that helped shape our fledgling nation that are stored at Thomas, the Library of Congress access portal.

2) Internal communication. An organization that can bring tens of thousands of signatures to a petition, or write tens of thousands of letters to the White House or Congress, or organize a demonstration of a half-million people can have serious impact on legislation, even in an all-Democratic Party government. That means developing lists of people, their home and email addresses, their telephone numbers, and what THEY WANT out of participating in this movement.

3) A list of well-defined, common objectives. There are a number of things that most Americans can agree on as legitimate objectives of both a political and a social organization such as the Tea Parties. My personal list would include:

repeal of the 17th Amendment, returning power to the States to appoint Senators, instead of having them bought by the highest bidder.

Elimination of several different taxes, including the Inheritance (or "death") tax, certain excise taxes, motor vehicle taxes, double-taxation on investment income and savings, etc.

Elimination of about half the Federal bureaucracy, and the shutting down of "temporary" offices whose usefulness expired decades ago.

Eliminating the power of unelected bureaucrats to institute new regulations and restrictions.

The review, repeal, re-write, or re-examination of every single US law that is currently "on the books", and reducing them to the absolute MINIMUM necessary to maintain an equitable society.

Term limits for members of Congress, the Senate, the Federal judiciary, and other elected or appointed positions.

I'm sure Tea Party members could add significantly to this list.

4) A program to get the attention of our "elected officials", including the President. That includes larger, noisier, and more robust (but orderly) Tea Parties, writing campaigns, public speaking engagements, involvement with local political organizations, and anything else that will eventually force those officials to respond. A sure-fire attention-getter is to hit politicians where it hurts them the most - in their wallet. Imagine the impact upon an elected official if there were a total boycott of one of the recipients of their "earmarks", including a daily picket line protesting the waste. Another excellent tactic is to find a major contributor to a particular candidate that has nationwide locations (Wendy's, JC Penneys, Sears, Allstate Insurance, etc - even Boeing or United Airlines), and organize a boycott of their products. The only three things that must be addressed first is a) whether or not the particular company is truly a prime contributor to the targeted candidate, b) whether the proposed boycott would have any effect (kind of hard to boycott the military, or have any influence when a particular candidate is running unopposed), and c) the legality of such a boycott.

5) Get more involved in the process of choosing candidates - at EVERY level. If enough people are involved, it'll be far more difficult to have a candidate forced upon the electorate that shouldn't be.

I'm looking forward to what the future brings. It promises to be entertaining, if nothing else.

The President of Big Media

2009-04-23T13:19:00.001-06:00

There's no doubt that the so-called "Mainstream Media (MSM)" - newspapers, television, and to a lesser extent radio - were instrumental in ensuring the election of Candidate Barrack Hussein Obama as president of the United States. Suddenly, however, the MSM wants to distance itself from President Obama, as his actions and words cause concern not only among conservatives, but also among many of Obama's supposed partners in the Democratic Party. The newspapers are beginning to understand why it's not wise to elect a relative neophyte to such a high office, and are afraid the coming failures of the Obama Administration will implicate them.

It's too late. The MSM cannot escape the reality of its extremely partisan behavior toward Barrack Obama, no matter how they conduct themselves over the next few years.

The same is true of the mainstream portions of the Democratic Party. They, too, endorsed a candidate they knew little about to a position that is the ultimate in the demand of personal trust - and at least a LITTLE experience in making difficult decisions. The election of Barrack Obama has led to the destruction of institutional trust between the President, Congress, and the People.

Both the media and the Democrats failed to "vet" their candidate, and today we have a person with NO executive experience in the most strenuous and demanding executive position in the free world. We have a president that doesn't really understand (or seem to care about) science, economics, general law, personal freedom, national defense, human psychology, or institutional or personal integrity.

It's going to be a LONG four years, not only for our nation and its people, but for the MSM and the Democratic Party. The failures of the Republican Party may spell its doom. For the Democratic Party, it might be success that destroys it. Either way, the MSM will be forced to shoulder a huge portion of the blame.

We need to have a realistic debate on "climate change".

2009-04-21T18:10:00.002-06:00

"Our" government is once again proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are few intelligent adults among its members. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to label carbon dioxide (CO2) a pollutant. If they succeed, perhaps we can convince all the employees of the EPA to stop breathing, since CO2 is a direct byproduct of that activity. In fact, a certain level of CO2 is ESSENTIAL to breathing, as its percentage of content in our lungs is what triggers exhaling.

CO2 is supposed to be causing runaway anthropogenic (man-caused) global warming. But there has been a net COOLING over the last ten years, even though CO2 levels continue to climb.

Man does belch a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere - but it only amounts to about 1.2% of the total atmospheric CO2. A little more than 55% of that is sequestered through various processes.

My chemistry and physics classes were long ago, but from recent readings has been somewhat refreshed. Accordingly, from what I've read various places, water vapor accounts for 95% of all greenhouse warming, with CO2 providing 4%, and all the rest of the greenhouse gasses making up the other >1%, dominated by methane (CH4).

Carbon dioxide, methane, sulfates (H2S, H2SO4, H2SO3), and in some cases aerosols (airborne particles) are constantly being emitted by volcanic action, among many other things. A large,lengthy volcanic eruption can put more of these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in a matter of days than human beings can do in a decade.

Before the EPA declares carbon dioxide or methane, both natural byproducts of natural processes, pollutants, there needs to be a very vigorous, very extensive debate. Sixty days isn't long enough to even build a bibliography of all the data collected in the last 50 years on Earth's climate, much less how and why it changes. We see "through a glass, darkly" only a portion of the variables that can - and do - have an impact on the climate of the Earth, nor how all the different variables interact.

We have a difficult time predicting the weather three days in advance, yet "computer models" claim to be able to predict what will happen a hundred years in the future.

Until we know how the climate (not weather) is probably going to react to interacting variables such as solar forcing, cosmic rays, sunspots, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, changes in the amount of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane in the atmosphere (both natural and anthropogenic), and dozens of other variables, making monumental decisions that will affect every person on the planet, based on partial and poorly-understood "evidence", may very well do far more damage than doing nothing.

Excuses, excuses

2009-04-21T18:07:00.002-06:00

As anyone who reads my blog has noted, I haven't been very productive lately. There are many reasons for that, from health issues to household changes to being the day-to-day "father" to a four-year-old (difficult at 40, even harder now at 62). I hope to get back to posting on a regular basis, especially with the current political, economic, and cultural environment.

Why the Attacks on Sarah Palin?

2008-11-09T15:23:00.001-07:00

John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin to be his running mate sent shock waves through the entire United States. Not only did it energize the Republican base, suck independent votes from Barrack Obama, and stir pure hatred in the hearts of the mass media, it sent fear through the hearts of the Washington insiders from both parties.

You see, Sarah Palin means what she says when she says she wants to clean up politics. Most of the people in Washington, regardless of political affiliation, or even those without it, don't want anything to change. That might mean the end of their gravy-train lifestyle.

We can see that fear in their vicious, unhinged attacks on Sarah Palin now that the election is over (and was part of the unbelievable personal attack against her from within her own party BEFORE the election). We can see the "Powers that Be" trying to destroy a true reformer before she can build enough credentials to actually succeed the next time she runs. I expect a huge, outside-funded program of constant personal and professional attacks against her when (or if) she runs for re-election.

Sarah Palin has exposed not only the corruption within the Democratic Party, but that within the Republican Party as well. For that she MUST be destroyed, before the "little people" catch on.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Democrats

2008-09-14T16:36:00.000-06:00

As an Independent, I have to judge who I vote for by the information I get from the sources I trust. This year, that's difficult to do. The Democratic Party continues to tell the largest whoppers in the fight to see who gets to control the purse-strings in the next administration. Here's one of their key pronouncements:

Obama camp suggests Palin has distorted record

"Since naming Gov. Palin as their vice presidential nominee, the McCain campaign has distorted, distracted and outright lied to the American people about her record in a desperate attempt to hide the fact that a McCain/Palin administration would be nothing more than a continuation of the failed Bush policies of the last eight years,"the memo read.

Huh? The FAILED Bush policies of the last eight years? What "failures" are those?

We have not been attacked on American soil since 9/11/01. Is that a failure?

There have been no MAJOR attacks against Americans abroad except those in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Is that a failure?

The United States has destroyed the ability of Saddam Hussein and the people of Iraq to support terrorism abroad, especially in Palestine and Lebanon, where Saddam was most active. Is that a failure?

The Bush Administration created a single point of attack for the terrorists behind 9/11, the Cole bombing, the attacks in Kenya and Uganda, the murder of diplomats in several countries, and the first WTC attack, and crushed them. Is that the failure they mean?
There is currently a democratically elected government in both Iraq and Afghanistan - for the first time in the history of either nation. Is that one of Bush's failures?

The Bush tax cuts ended a period of stagnation in the nation's economy, and led to more than six years of constant growth in the GDP of the United States. Is that the failure they mean?

The Bush Administration has established strong, mutually-beneficial relations with India, one of the two most actively growing areas of Asia. Is THAT the failure they mean?

The only things I can see that this administration has "failed" to do is to kiss up to our enemies, or to become "more like Europe" (which has more failed or failing programs that I can document, such as 10% unemployment, "national health care" that takes ten times as long to get a referral than our "broken" system, and costs three times more, 15% or more of its population on welfare of one kind or another, military units that can't fight, and a stagnant or declining GDP, just for starters).

What do the Democrats have to hold up as successes over the last eight years? There has not been any major legislation passed by either the House or Senate in the last two years, but dozens of "investigations" have been launched with the sole purpose of finding a "gotcha" moment to hang around the necks of Republicans. The price of gas went out of sight - almost doubling in the last two years. The Democratic Party leadership decided it was more important to go on vacation than to address this issue. This one single issue has had the greatest impact on the average citizen of the United States, raising the cost of everything they purchase. The Democrats still refuse to allow environmentally safe drilling in two-thirds of the unexplored areas in the United States and its territorial waters.

There are plenty of pieces of evidence to show that alternative energy supplies are not capable of meeting current energy demands, yet these are the ONLY means the Democrats will allow to be pursued. There are several new products that help reduce the environmental impact of coal-fired power plants that could use some support, but these are ignored. The Democrats want to force the United States to recognize carbon dioxide as a "pollutant", yet plant life would be incapable of continuing for even a day without it. The Democrats claim that man-made carbon dioxide is changing the climate, making it hotter. This argument has taken a direct hit below the waterline from the failure of the sun to generate more than a single sunspot in the current cycle, and we've had the coolest summer in 30 years.

The Republicans were elected to office beginning in 1994 to clean up the mess in Washington, and instead began acting like Democrats. We don't need TWO Democratic parties, and the Republicans have lost ground in the fight. Yet the Democrats have done nothing to prove they have a workable plan for ANYTHING.

It's time for a sycophant press to pull its head out of the nether regions of their bodies and begin telling us the truth about both parties, and stop being an active participant in one of the campaigns. Failing that, this nation may end up in much worse shape than it's been under our current administration.

The words of Joseph Pulitzer apply here: "Our nation and its press will rise or fall together". The current behavior of the majority news outlets are destructive of our form of government and the people it supports.

An open letter to Governor Palin

2008-09-02T13:50:00.000-06:00

Dear Governor Palin,

Congratulations on your pick to be the next Vice-President of the United States. You are the first "real person" I've seen in politics since I can't remember when.

I'm sorry to hear that your daughter has to grow up faster than what you'd wished for her. At least you and your husband will be there to help her and her new husband adjust to life as parents - even if it's by long distance. The enthusiastic help of grandparents will also be a major help to your daughter - I'm glad they're willing. I'm also very happy that the father both acknowledges the child, and wants to fill the role of father and husband. Too many young ladies today don't have that kind of essential support.

I know how it feels when your daughter tells you she's pregnant. We went through that 20+ years ago. It's rough on everyone in the family, but working it out together can be extremely rewarding.

I'm also proud of you for your love and care to your Downs-Syndrome son. Having reared a disabled child, we know how hard it is. Our son was inflicted with severe brain damage as a child, before we adopted him. You can't help but love them, but sometimes the demands seem overwhelming. I think you have the right stuff, and the right support group, to handle the many problems you and your son will face in life.

Give my highest regards to Track, and tell him I wish him nothing but good as he helps defend this nation against its enemies. As a military veteran, I know how rough military service, especially foreign service, can be for young people away from home the first time.

I, and my wife, will pray for you as you go through this Convention, and through the grueling political campaign ahead of you. I know the Left will do anything and everything to keep you from getting your message out. Know also that their doing this is a sign of their desperation. Stay strong, and keep forging ahead. I firmly believe you will be victorious in the end.

By the way, I am NOT a Republican, but an Independent.

Our sincerest Regards,

Hammering Russia for Hammering Georgia

2008-08-14T17:11:00.001-06:00

What the United States can do

.

Charles Krauthammer had an interesting article at Town Hall today about the same subject. While I agree somewhat to what Charles has written, I find it doesn't go far enough. Here are Prof. Krauthammer's. proposals:

We are not without resources. There are a range of measures to be deployed if Russia does not live up to its cease-fire commitments:

1. Suspend the NATO-Russia Council established in 2002 to help bring Russia closer to the West. Make clear that dissolution will follow suspension. The council gives Russia a seat at the NATO table. Message: Invading neighboring democracies forfeits the seat.

2. Bar Russian entry to the World Trade Organization.

3. Dissolve the G-8. Putin's dictatorial presence long made it a farce but no one wanted to upset the bear by expelling it. No need to. The seven democracies simply withdraw. Then immediately announce the reconstitution of the original G-7.

4. Announce a U.S.-European boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi. To do otherwise would be obscene. Sochi is 15 miles from Abkhazia, the other Georgian province just invaded by Russia. The Games will become a riveting contest between the Russian, Belarusian and Jamaican bobsled teams.

The most crucial and unconditional measure, however, is this: Reaffirm support for the Saakashvili government and declare that its removal by the Russians would lead to recognition of a government-in-exile. This would instantly be understood as providing us the legal basis for supplying and supporting a Georgian resistance to any Russian-installed regime.

These are all fairly good steps, though not strong enough. We should immediately work with our allies to freeze Russia's ability to actively participate in EVERY international organization they and we belong to. When they veto that resolution in the United Nations, we simply pull out of the United Nations completely, leaving it a hollow shell of dictators and tyrants, capable of doing nothing.

Instead of boycotting the 2014 winter olympics, we should render Russia's membership in the Olympic Games null and void, with the ability to reconsider in 20 or 30 years.

Place a 100% tariff on ALL Russian goods, services, or raw materials. This will make them so expensive they won't have any buyers, even China.

Build a new pipeline from Iraq through Turkey to the Mediterranean. This will really put a crimp in Russia's shorts, as it will open up a new path for oil to flow that Russia will have a hard time controlling. Assist the Turks and Iraq in controlling the PKK, the Russian tool on the Turkey/Iraq border.

Agree to assist every nation in NATO to upgrade their armed forces, and to create a "resistance army" should Russia attack them.

Return to the Moon in force - not to militarize it, but to ensure that no other nation does (especially Russia and China).

Reduce Russia's ability to influence European decisions by helping Europe reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas. Do that by expanding production in the United States, especially of natural gas, to the point where there is a surplus that can be exported to Western Europe. Increase domestic production of electricity from nuclear energy, renewable energy, and clean coal, and reduce the use of natural gas to generate electricity. Reducing our demand for imported energy would allow more oil and natural gas to be diverted to European countries.

Rebuild our military to 16 Army divisions, 6 Marine divisions, and whatever Air and Navy assets are needed to support them. Our reduction in force following the collapse of the Soviet Union gave the world the idea that the United States was weak and an easy mark. Georgia is paying part of the price for that draw-down. Rebuilding will take time, but it's necessary.

Teddy Roosevelt had the right idea: in order to get people to listen to you, speak softly, and carry a big stick - larger than the one they have. Unsupported words accomplish nothing.

A Signal of What to Expect

2008-08-11T18:40:00.002-06:00

Both John McCain and Barrack Obama have weighed in on the troubles in the Republic of Georgia, and it doesn't take a genius to determine which person would be the best leader in such a situation.

McCain came right out and said that the Russian invasion of Georgia would have "significant consequences" for Russia. Short of actually bombing Russia into the past, there isn't much that the United States can do militarily. McCain knows that, both from a military and from a congressional viewpoint. He also knows that there are indirect ways to curb Russia short of all-out war. He knows how to push, and where to push. There ARE a few things - military things - that can be done, but those are best left unmentioned - either in this blog or from the lips of either contender. John McCain knows that. I doubt Barrack Obama could even come up with the same kind of ideas.

Barrack Obama has done what he does best - talk. Not only has he talked, he's pushed for a solution that is based strictly on talking. Diplomats encourage matters be handled by talks, because that's all they know or understand. Talk by itself is worthless: it requires some form of power behind the talk to ensure that talks happen, and that they achieve some results. Somehow, Obama believes that if we all get together and talk the issue out, things will be peachy keen. Neville Chamberlain tried that with Adolph Hitler. We all know how THAT turned out. On the other hand, John Kennedy used both diplomacy and military force, called Russia's bluff in 1962 over missiles in Cuba, and Russia backed down.

I'll still have to wait and see what happens, but I doubt that any amount of rhetoric will cause Russia to pull out of Georgia. Russia MUST be made to pay for their blatant aggression, but there are more ways to achieve that than military confrontation. It's going to have to take a serious counter-threat - such as the banning of all Russian-made products in Europe and the United States, ejecting Russia from the Group of 8 (and maybe replacing them with India?), or some equally effective economic and/or political activity - to get Russia to back down. Without the ability to confront Russia militarily, collateral action is all that's possible, but it still can cause the Bear to feel some severe pain.

Why the Democrats are Stupid

2008-08-07T12:21:00.002-06:00

Amanda Carpenter, Town Hall's political correspondent, has a great article today, Pelosi Reacts to GOP House Protest. It opens with:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) issued a curt retort to House Republicans staging a week-long protest against her decision to unceremoniously adjourn the House last week.

“While a very small band of your colleagues remain on the House floor to discuss gas prices, their constituents deserve to know why their representatives in Congress have failed to support serious, responsible proposals,” she wrote in a letter to GOP Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (Ohio.).

“We cannot drill our way out of this problem,” she said.

This is a typical Democratic Party straw man. The Republicans don't want to "drill our way out of this problem", although one aspect of what they do want to do is to drill. It's only one of a host of recommendations made in the current energy bill Nancy Pelosi is afraid to bring to a vote.

The Republicans are pushing for a broad, inclusive energy bill that includes a mix of expanded conventional energy production, new development, research into alternative energy applications, and much more. On this issue, the Democrats are out of touch with the rest of the nation, and are doing their best to push this country into a major recession - possibly into a depression as great as the Great Depresssion - also brought on by a Democrat.

There is no outlook for a drop in demand for oil and gas over the next 50 years. That means that unless there is more oil brought to the market, the price will continue to rise. If the United States were to enact a truly comprehensive energy bill that contained virtually every option available to us, it would have an IMMEDIATE effect on the oil market by telling the world that supply WILL increase - maybe not in the immediate future, but soon. That would automatically drop the price of oil as much as $30-$50 a barrel. That would provide the majority of Americans with much-needed relief from the current high cost of energy. In the meantime, this nation could begin to do the many other things that will eventually reduce or end our dependence upon oil - especially foreign oil.

What things are needed in a comprehensive energy bill? Here's MY laundry list:

Remove the obstacles to drilling for domestic oil within the Continental United States, both on land and offshore.

Repair and upgrade the energy infrastructure of the United States, including pipelines to transmit oil and gas, rail and road transportation infrastructure, and transmission lines to transmit local surplus electrical production to areas that need it.

Design, build, and bring online 150 new, safer 2000MW nuclear power plants, and upgrade existing ones. At least a third of those should be fast breeder reactors that produce as much fuel as they consume.

Design, build, and bring online 200 additional 1500MW coal-fired power plants to provide additional capacity while we're waiting for those nuclear plants to come online, and to use during peak demand.

Increase research into biofuels, especially into feedstocks that don't include grains that are normally grown for human and livestock consumption.

Increase research into other alternative energy sources, specifically wind, solar, tides, geothermal, and hydrogen. Require an in-depth cost/benefit evaluation of any alternative energy source. Such evaluations should include the impact of implementing alternative energy programs, and the positive AND negative effects that implementation has on the energy market, on the environment, and on the people.

Bring online any energy source (especially alternative energy sources) that is commercially feasible, and connect the sources to the expanded and modernized national power grid.

REQUIRE oil and gas companies to upgrade, modernize, and expand current domestic oil refineries, and build at least 20 new ones across the nation.

Pass legislation that limits "environmental" lawsuits, and force "environmental" groups to post bond equal to the potential lost investment their lawsuits cost energy production companies.

REQUIRE THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) TO PROVE, scientifically, that their limits and restrictions are necessary (not "potentially" necessary) for the preservation of species, and to limit damage to the environment.

Require a complete cost/benefit analysis of ALL energy legislation passed into law, all regulations imposed by any government agency (at any level), and all "supporting" laws and regulations, determine the success or failure of those laws and regulations in achieving the goals set by them, and evaluate their costs/benefits to the nation, its people, and its security. Eliminate, combine, re-write, or replace those that provide limited or no practical benefit to the nation and its people as a whole.

Increase coal production, both for export and for domestic use.

Allow increased exploration, development, and transportation of nuclear power plant fuel stocks.

Nancy Pelosi's "we can't drill ourselves out of this problem" is a smokescreen for doing nothing. Doing nothing is no longer a viable option.

Taking the vacation I can't afford to...

2008-08-05T20:49:00.002-06:00

Congress adjourned last week, and the Democrats especially left town in a hurry for their five-week August vacation. A strange thing happened, though - about 40 Republicans stayed. They said something about not leaving until the work was done. I can understand that! Many times when I was on active duty in the Air Force, we "stayed until the work was done". Sometimes, that was days, not hours. That was what the job was all about - doing what had to be done. Apparently the Democrats don't believe that.

Right now, gas in Colorado Springs is around $3.79 a gallon, depending on where you buy it. I know from past experience that if it's $3.79 here, it'll be $3.89 in Trinidad, Colorado, and anywhere from $3.80 to $4.15 between there and Dallas. The high cost of gasoline has raised the price of everything else along my route (I-25 to Raton, NM, US 64/87 from Raton to Clayton, NM, US87 from Clayton to Dalhart, TX, US287 from Dalhart to Decatur, TX, US 380 from Decatur to Greenville, Tx, US69 from Greenville to I-20, and I-20 to Ruston, LA, where my father-in-law lives). Total miles: about 1100 one way, 2200 round trip. Since my wife and I are both in our 60's, we don't push it. It usally takes us two days to make the trip. Our 1996 Dodge Caravan (fully paid for) gets about 23 miles per gallon on the highway, a little less on some of the local highways we drive. That means we'd have to buy at least 95 gallons of gas to make the round trip, plus whatever visiting we'd do once we got to where we were going. At an average price of $4 a gallon, that's $380. Add in another $200 for food, another $250 for lodging, and the cost of just getting there and back is over $800.

I get an Air Force retirement check, VA disability (70%), and Social Security. That's pretty fixed. My local bills haven't been fixed, and the $1500 we'd set aside to go to Louisiana this August/September for the annual family reunion had to go elsewhere. I'm staying home this year, even though we have something special we want to share with the family. We just can't afford to make the trip.

What's that got to do with Congress taking a vacation? A lot! The reason my bills have been so high is because the cost of a barrel of oil has shot up from $65-$70 a barrel to $120-$145 a barrel. Just about everything in most towns in the United States is delivered by truck or train. Both use oil products. If it costs more to move products, the price goes up. That goes for gasoline, food, and just about everything else. The linens in most motels are picked up and returned by laundry trucks, or washed locally. They require hot water, which is heated mostly by natural gas, whose price has gone up along with oil.

People who bid on commodities hoping to sell them at a higher price later and make a profit have seen that there's a greater demand for oil and gas than there's a supply. The old law of supply and demand has kicked in, and the price of oil and gas has doubled in less than a year. The people in the US have reacted, driving less. The price came down $.10 to $.20 a gallon, but that's about all it's going to drop from conservation. The only way prices are going to go down to the $2/gallon range (or less) is for there to be a major increase in production. There's little hope for increased production elsewhere - not with the people who control that oil becoming addicted to the higher prices. About the only place that production can be increased in such a way as to lower prices is to drill locally - along the US coasts, in Alaska, in untapped formations in the lower 48 and in Canada. Two things that stand in the way of that happening are the Democratically-controlled Congress, and several thousands of pages of unnecessarily stringent environmental regulations backed by lawsuit after lawsuit brought by the majority of "environmental groups" in the United States and Canada to delay, to increase costs, and to hamper any hope of energy independence for this nation.

There is legislation that was brought before Congress this year to ease the restrictions, open up areas known to contain large quantities of oil and gas to development, and to move the United States forward toward energy independence - or at least to reduce the level of dependence (and the cost) that we're currently held hostage to. The Democratic leadership, instead of bringing this legislation to the floor, discussing it, and voting on it, decided to stonewall the legislation and go on vacation.

It's time to hold those accountable who stall, sabotage, and subvert the will of the people for greater energy independence. It's time to hold those accountable who make it impossible for people like me to take a vacation, while they run off with work left undone. If I'd done that in the Air Force, I'd probably have been court-martialed. The least we can do for those that put pleasure before the work they're paid to do is to fire them. It's very easy - instead of voting for the Democratic candidate, choose someone else - anyone else. Unless they're a member of the "Green" party, they can't do any worse at the job than Representative Nany Pelosi, who uses her power and position to stiff the rest of us, or Senator Harry Reid, who is just as feckless about obeying the oath of office he's repeated enough times to know it by heart.

NOTE: Republican Representative John Bohner has created a live-action blog where you can post your comments for the Republicans remaining in DC to read. Check it out, and share your ideas.

Speaker Pelosi, tear down the stonewall

2008-08-04T17:50:00.002-06:00

The Democrats in Congress, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid in particular, have built a wall of refusal and denial against drilling in the United States and its territorial waters. While President Bush has revoked an executive order against offshore drilling and tapping other areas, Nancy Pelosi has refused to allow a bill to drill in offshore areas of the United States come before the entire house for a vote. Why? Because she knows it will pass.

My own senator, Ken Salazar, says he is against tapping Colorado's oil shale, regardless of what the price of gasoline rises to, even $10/gallon. Maybe the senator doesn't have to worry about paying $50 to fill the tank every week, but those that live here in Colorado certainly do. Those of us like me, who are on a fixed income, are paying the price for Sen. Salazar's conscience. Thanks a lot, Senator.

It's not just the price of gasoline that's going up. Anything that has to be shipped more than a mile has gone up in price, mostly because the price of gasoline and other petroleum-based fuels (almost all of them) has made shipping more costly. Add to it the stupidity of turning food into ethanol to burn, and you've got a price spiral that is hurting everyone but the very rich. Why is all this happening? Look no farther than Congress and the nation's "green" brigades.

We need to build 70 additional nuclear power plants in this country, but there hasn't been one approved in 35 years. The "environmentalists" have used every trick, legal and illegal, to prevent approval, construction, and operation of additional nuclear plants economical suicide, even though nuclear power is the cleanest, and the safest form of generating electricity we have.

This nation need at LEAST ten additional oil refineries, and virtually every single older refinery needs to be upgraded. Approval can take 30 years and billions of dollars in legal fees, if it's granted at all. Why? Mainly because Congress, through the Environmental Protection Agency makes it all but impossible to do so. Why would Congress do that? Because they are bought and paid for by the major "environmental" groups.

We have the largest proven coal reserves in the world, yet getting another coal-fired power plant built requires jumping through so many hoops Barnum and Bailey Circus couldn't outdo it. Today's technology has all but eliminated harmful emissions, yet the "green" team does everything possible to keep new plants from being approved and/or built. The entire "global climate change" bruhaha is a scam to keep the United States from expanding its electric energy base. Al Gore's "inconvenient truth" is nothing but an irresponsible lie.

It's time Congress is called to task and those that support keeping us dependent on foreign oil, that refuse to allow the United States to develop its own resources, that force the price of expansion of nuclear power, oil refineries, and clean-coal power plants so high they become impossible to build, and keep the prices high to "force us to conserve" are thrown out of office. It's also time for the Executive branch of the government to curtail the corruption of power blatant among so many bureaucratic functions, especially the EPA.

I won't hold my breath...

Another Timmy Update

2008-07-06T17:24:00.002-06:00

We went to court on Tuesday, July 1, for a hearing and disposition of Timmy's case. We were given permanent custody of Timmy at the hearing, and George and Elaine, Timmy's "other" grandparents, were given bi-weekly visitation rights. We can now make some long-term plans for Timmy's care and development, get him enrolled in DEERS, and do some other things. Timmy's hearing capped five days of almost non-stop action with us, and we're finally getting to the point where we've recovered.

June 28th was our second annual 497th Reconnaissance Technical Group Springs Fling at the Air Force Academy. I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time - I know I did, until my back started acting up. I think Charles Sakai is already planning next year's extravaganza.

Mike Prahl, a long-time and close friend, visited us, part for the Fling and part to do some serious stamp trading and catching up. Our picnic Saturday had an unexpected twist for him - he met a fellow Church member from Wiesbaden he hadn't seen in decades.

497 RTG Reunion in two weeks!

2008-06-14T15:41:00.002-06:00

We just finished up the last planning meeting before the second annual 497th Reconnaissance Technical Group's Colorado Springs reunion earlier this afternoon. Everything seems to be well in hand for Saturday, June 28th, at the Air Force Academy picnic area. I've promised to bring my copy of the 497th RTG "A Look Back - 30 Years on the Rhine" booklet and medallion. There will be lots of food, probably some photos, and good times with good friends. Anyone associated with the 497th, or any member of any Recce-Tech, is invited to attend. I'll be looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces.

Let's talk Congressional Reform

2008-05-26T17:21:00.001-06:00

Both parties are under fire for the way they're conducting what is supposed to be the Nation's business, but what has become nothing but a partisan "Gotcha" game. It's time for our duly elected representatives to put their childishness behind them, and prove to us they're actually adults.

There's a lot Congress can do. Changing the weather isn't one of them. There is little doubt now that those that push "anthropogenic global warming" have little in the way of facts to back their claims. There are growing mounds of evidence that water vapor, the sun, and a dozen other factors play a greater role in global climate change than anything mankind has been able to do. Yet Congress, after being petitioned by 31,000 degreed scientists, continue to push to correct a non-problem. It's time to stop the nonsense.

The oil market is going crazy. Demand has finally outstripped available supply. Yet the United States sits on billions of barrels of oil that isn't being tapped, because a few people are against it, supposedly for environmental reasons. The "Environmentalists" constantly scream about "polluting unspoiled natural beauty", while the rest of us are screaming about $4/gallon gas. It's time to tell the environmentalists to shove it, and begin exploiting the resources we have. There are plenty of protections in place that have proven their usefulness in minimizing ecological damage, and no good reason NOT to open up these areas for production.

We also need to build at least five new refineries in the United States, as well as upgrade, expand, and modernize the ones we already have. Those refineries need to be built close to where the people are, to cut down on transport costs and the potential for spills that would endanger the environment. The same people that don't want us drilling for new oil also don't want us to build new refineries. How did such a small minority gain so much power, and why is Congress surrendering to them? Maybe the rest of us need to get organized and start putting our own pressure on Congress.

Americans are a mobile nation. Congress has taken a giant step in trying to curtail our mobility. Most Americans are going to be angry unless this self-inflicted injury is set to right. Most Americans are also intelligent enough to point the finger at the true culprit, not the "greedy oil companies" who make about a quarter as much as the government gets on each gallon of gas.

The ethanol nonsense is an excellent example of the law of unintended consequences. By mandating (and subsidizing) that a certain amount of ethanol be distilled and added to gasoline, Congress has had a major hand in raising food prices for the rest of us. While I'd love to see the demise of high-fructose corn syrup being added to everything, whether it's needed or not, that's just a small part of the problem with burning food. Corn is both a food for people to eat in itself, and is used as feed for beef, poultry, hogs, and dozens of other animals that end up as meat on our table. In fact, the entire farm subsidy fiasco is long overdue for a major overhaul, if it isn't ended completely.

Congress is also trying desperately to force another defeat upon the American military, simply because of their unreasonable hatred for George Bush and everything connected to him. The lies told about this administration would have everyone in Congress with noses twelve feet long, if they had the same response to telling untruths as Pinocchio did. When the history of this era is written by totally unbiased historians fifty or seventy-five years from now, it will be Congress, not the President that will be painted in the most unflattering terms. In this Internet age, it's virtually impossible to rewrite the present and get away with it. Too many people have the ability to confront and challenge those who will try to shade the truth in their favor.

Well before either party has held their formal caucus to announce their presidential candidates and the platform those candidates will run on, one fact stands clear - the Democrats are bound and determined to raise taxes. They try to hide the fact by saying they only plan to raise taxes "on the rich", but they intend to soak us all. They intend to ensure that the "Bush tax cut" will expire, generating one of the largest tax hikes on the American citizen that has ever been imposed. They also plan to tax anything else they can find a way to tax. This will trigger the biggest recession this nation will have seen since the 1930's - something else a Democratic president mucked up. That last president was "rescued" by a world war. The sitting president when those tax hikes kick in will be a dead duck, no matter who he is. So may Congress. That kind of a blow to the US economy may be the trigger event that sees Congress tarred and feathered, and run out of Washington on a rail. Americans rebelled once before because of an unjust tax system. We have every right to do it again.

There are countless other places the Congress has helped set us up for a whopping loss of purchasing power and income. Something is going to have to be done about the solvency of Social Security, and it's going to have to be done soon. In fact, all the "entitlement" programs that have been created are about to overwhelm the government that created them, and refused to properly manage them. No matter what Congress does, and even moreso if it does nothing, the American people are going to get VERY angry at the shortsightedness of our politicians. Voting them out of office may be the most gentle and least used method angry Americans may employ.

This may be the last free-spending congress to be elected. Most Americans are also frustrated and angry with another pet fiasco of politicians - the "earmark". These are items the congresscritter slips into bills to benefit their district, and frequently their major campaign contributors. The rest of us would call these by their true name - bribes. You have to be a pretty p-poor Representative or Senator if you have to bribe your constituency to re-elect you. Whatever use earmarks are applied to, the practice needs to end - immediately.

Congress has pointed fingers at President George Bush, calling him the worst president ever, based on very low opinion poll results. Those same results show Congress' rating to be half that of the President's. What does that make them - the worst Congress ever? Maybe not the worst, but in my opinion, they're certainly in the bottom ten!

Energy prices may lead to another Revolution

2008-04-30T13:33:00.003-06:00

I filled up the gas tank yesterday - $51 for 14+ gallons of gas. Last summer, I could fill the tank for $30 or less. Some people are saying demand has increased far faster than supply, driving up the price of an ever-scarcer commodity. Others are blaming the increase on the falling value of the dollar in world trade. Still others are blaming "greedy oil companies" for making"outrageous" profits, of OPEC keeping a lid on production to drive up prices, and the US filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve reservoir. While all those factors contribute to what's going on today, it's actually much more complex than any of this.

It's true that demand has increased significantly. It's also true that there have been some major discoveries recently that, if brought online, would greatly increase supply, and offset the increased demand. There have been new oil and gas fields
discovered in Brazil, Chad, Sudan, Siberia and the Gulf of Mexico. It's going to take from five to ten years for those fields to come fully online, however. In the meantime, oil and gas prices are going to remain relatively high. Here are some of the reasons output cannot immediately grow to meet demand:

. Oil and gas production in many areas are threatened by war or political unrest. There is a growing revolution in southern Nigeria that has significantly reduced production from that African nation. The situation for nations around the Persian Gulf is in a constant boil, with war in Iraq and terrorism or the threat of terrorism affecting most of those nations, and Iran's attempt to change the Persian Gulf into an Iranian-controlled lake. Most of the petroleum reserves in Chad and Sudan are in the Darfur region, currently the scene of genocidal murder. The situation in Angola and several other West African nations isn't very attractive to foreign investment - investment that is essential to develop the oilfields there. Venezuela's behavior - confiscating or forcing out foreign investment - has resulted in a net decline in overall output. Iran is just one of several countries that has put off maintenance for immediate profit. That, too, has resulted in a decline in production.

. China and India are rapidly modernizing. This is taking a larger and larger amount of energy, much of which comes from oil and gas. At the same time, neither of these nations has a significant enough internal source of oil and gas, forcing them to import it from elsewhere. With a virtually stagnant output, the increasing demand is pushing prices higher.

. The US dollar has long been the "currency of choice" for oil and gas deals. The US dollar has significantly lost value over the last couple of years relative to currencies from other nations, especially the Euro. That, too, has contributed to the rising cost of all commodities imported into the United States, especially oil.

. There are only a few economically sensible alternatives to oil and gas, and most of those are under-utilized. Nuclear energy could replace some of the use of oil and gas in the production of electricity. Solar,wind, biomass, tidal and geothermal energy production can help, but only to a limited degree. These "alternative energy" options just aren't economically feasible - and frequently aren't even mechanically possible. Making electricity cheap enough to replace oil and gas home heating would help with the overall program, but only to a small degree.

. "Greedy oil companies" make far less profit on oil and gas than the Federal or State governments takes in taxes, and even less than what it costs in regulatory over-kill to produce useful products. Government intervention is far more of a problem than it's a help.

. The high cost of environmental activism significantly adds to the plight of the "common people". Environmental activism has kept the United States from building a single new refinery, adding a new nuclear power plant, opening new oilfields to production, increasing and modernizing the delivery network for oil and gas, and instituting many, many other possible solutions to the current problem. At the same time, they have successfully diverted tens of billions of dollars into uneconomical, impractical, and downright harmful "alternative energy solutions" that will never be more than minor contributers to satisfying our energy needs.
. "NIMBYism" is alive and well, and also significantly contributing to today's energy crunch. "Not in my back yard" means "not in my town/county/state" for a lot of people. It keeps the United States from drilling for oil and gas in many locations in the Gulf of Mexico, from building nuclear power plants where they're most needed, from building or modernizing refineries, and more.

I doubt the United States could ever be totally "energy independent". We have too many links to Canada and Mexico, and a very high demand. At the same time, we could greatly reduce our dependency with a little bit of common sense.

. We need to open up known reserves for production. That includes the coal reserves in the hastily and ill-advised Escallante/Grand Staircase "national monument", oil and gas fields in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge, the Naval Petroleum reserve, the Gulf Coast, and offshore on both the Atlantic and Pacific coast, developing what geothermal production areas we have, and updating and expanding the national energy distribution networks.

. We need to build at least six new refineries, and upgrade and enhance the capabilities of at least 2/3 of existing ones.

. We need to increase the percentage of electricity generated by nuclear power to where it accounts for 25% of our electrical output. France gets almost half of its electricity from nuclear power production. I'm sure we could easily reach a goal of 25% within ten years.

. We need to review ALL government rules and regulations regarding energy, keeping those that are beneficial and getting rid of those that aren't.

. We need to look at our environmental track record, see what works to both support our energy development and protect our wildlife resources, and scrap the rest.

. Eliminate "alternatives" that cost more than they'll ever be worth. The money to support these "alternatives" could better be used to study ways to make both energy production and energy use more efficient and cost-effective.

. Put an end, once and for all time, the stupidity of "Anthropomorphic" or "catastrophic" "Global Warming", and the destructive forces inherent in "addressing" this non-problem. We don't know enough about how the complex interplay between sun, water, wind and land affect overall weather patterns, or what contributes to changes. Until we do, it's impractical to implement costly and dangerous "remedies" that may cause more harm than help. At the same time, increase the study of atmospheric sciences so that real data, instead of misleading, "cherry-picked", or downright fraudulent "data" (hockey stick, anyone?) is used to make sensible, cost-effective, and workable decisions about the future.

There IS an energy crunch. A lot of it is self-inflicted, not only for us, but for the entire world. The way to make it through that crunch is to implement what will help, and quit trying to strangle or destroy the means of eliminating that crunch. This needs to be the top priority of every lawmaker in the United States, not cosmetic band-aids that do no good. If gas gets to even $5 a gallon, a lot of people are going to be very upset. It didn't take much to bring about the American Revolution of 1776. High energy prices could well be the trigger for another one.

Junk email.

2008-04-06T12:14:00.000-06:00

Sigh...

Seventy-five percent or more of my email is SPAM that gets by my SPAM filter. A lot of it comes from spam-bots digging email addresses from this and other websites where my email address is posted. This is a bleg - please stop.

I'm 60+ years old, physically disabled with a bad back and other problems, and don't need a job. I'm not looking to "strike it rich", and I don't play the lottery (If you don't play, you can't win, so all that crap about I've won this or that is just bunk). I retired from the Air Force after 26 years' service. That means I have the best socialized medicine in the United States, that my prescriptions cost me either nothing or a very small co-pay, and I don't need to "shop in Canada" for them.

I've been happily married to the same woman for 42 years, and don't need a date, dating service, or "horny girls" from ANYWHERE. I'm perfectly capable of having sex as often as I can physically perform, and don't need Viagra or drugs for "erectile disfunction". I have a separate, unpublished email address for Paypal, Yahoo, my bank account, and anything else I do on the Internet, and it's SECURE through a very nice security system. I don't sell anything on eBay, and only buy from a half-dozen dealers whom I know well and are happy with.

I've been working with computers since 1966, and am Internet-savvy enough to not fall for any of the Nigerian scams or their derivatives. If you want to send me money, make it a check payable to me: my mailing address can be found on my website. If you're someone who has a legitimate reason to get in touch with me, make sure you list it in the "Subject" line of your email, otherwise I'll delete it.

For the rest of you, just STOP.

The Stupidity at Berkeley

2008-02-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

The City Council of Berkeley, California, has voted to ban the Marine Recruiting Station from the city because the Marines refuse to enlist gays. It's immaterial that the local recruiting office has no say over the matter, or that there are ample, excellent reasons to NOT enlist active, open gay men and lesbian women into the military. The City Council of Berkeley believes it knows how this nation should be run, and demands that IT, not the Constitution, nor the Congress, or even the President, should have a say in the matter. Nor do they care whether non-gay men and women are interested in joining the Marines. The City Council has SPOKEN, and MUST be obeyed.

The military is one of several functions that are given to the Federal Government in the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8, clearly states that "The Congress shall have the power

(12) To raise and support armies...
(13) To provide and maintain a navy;
(14) To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

I don't see anything in there about needing the permission of the City of Berkeley to do any of these things.

"Collective punishment" is a catch-word for the looney left, yet the City of Berkeley is collectively punishing the Marine Corps for the decisions made by the Congress, the President, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Berkeley has no authority to determine what federal offices will open in their jurisdiction. Six (seven?) of nine members of the Berkeley city council have decided they know better how to run the US military, and are attempting to "wag the dog" by passing a binding resolution demanding the city attorney look into ways of expelling the Marine Corps recruiters from their fair city.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, has taken it upon himself to present a bill to Congress to remove all earmarks (illegal spending, under any circumstances, since 99% of it is never PASSED by Congress, as the Constitution requires) to the City of Berkeley and any non-federal functions or facilities within that City. This is getting extreme howls from both the City of Berkeley and its congressional representatives. The City Council of Berleley seems to believe they have the option of "opting out" of any federal responsibilities they may have, while still sucking on the pork tit.

I explained to my children long ago that they have the option of doing whatever they choose. They also have the concurrent responsibility of accepting any consequences that go with those choices. There are three kinds of consequences - positive consequences (you do exceptionally well at work, and get a promotion), neutral consequences (you run a red light in the middle of the night, and no one sees you), or negative consequences (you put your hand on a hot stove, and burn it). If you commit a crime, you are (usually, except in the Liberal world) going to receive consequences. If you do something stupid, there may be grave consequences.

Berkeley wants to live in a consequence-free world. No such thing exists.

ABM - "Anybody but McCain"

2008-01-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

My favored political candidate, Fred Thompson, has dropped out of the race. So have the two people I was most likely to support if Thompson quit - Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo. Now I'm stuck with choosing among a field of "lessers" - McCain, Romney, Huckabee, Guilliani, Paul, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards.

Forget the Democrats. There hasn't been a Democratic contender I'd be willing to vote for in the last four Presidential elections. I'm not too happy with the Republican candidates, either. In a time when we need a Madison, Lincoln, or Truman, we get McCain, Romney, and Clinton II. What a trio of buffoons.

I'll probably end up voting for one of them - the lesser of two bad choices, as I've had to do in all but a couple of elections since I first cast a ballot 42 years ago. The lesser of two bad choices is still a bad choice. We can only hope that it won't be so horrible a choice we'll have to resort to force to undo the mistakes that person makes. That brings us to John McCain.

McCain has proven over and over that he is the "candidate of mistakes" - McCain/Feingold, immigration, judges, tax cuts, and a half-dozen other major issues where he's been on the wrong side. If there's an option, I'd prefer Romney over McCain, and any Republican over either Clinton or Edwards. I don't have a good feeling about Barrack Obama, either, but I don't know enough to weigh his negatives, other than he's an idiot on foreign policy, and not too sharp on domestic policy.

This nation has failed, over the last decade or two, to attract and support top-level political leadership, especially for President. I fear we will face some truly difficult times ahead because of that failure.

"A German's point of view on Islam"

2008-01-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

I received this from a friend of mine two days ago, and wondered if I should post it. After careful consideration, I decided I could not NOT post it and be true to my own beliefs. I wish I had a link, but so far I haven't been able to find one.

by Dr. Emanual Tanay, Psychiatrist

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War ll owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

'Very few people were true Nazis 'he said,'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.

It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the 'peaceful majority', the 'silent majority', is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China 's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War ll was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this - think about it - and send it on.

This is all over the Internet, but I can't find a source for the original information - the original German quote. Dr. Tanay is indeed a noted psychiatrist, and even won a very prestigious award in 1984.

In the beginning, God...

2008-01-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Genesis 1:
1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Thus begins the saga of how God created the universe, and all that is within it. What few Christians, and almost all non-Christians, refuse to admit is that God DID create ALL the universe, and all that is within it. That means many different things that few today acknowledge, but that Solomon understood and admitted to in Ecclesiastes.

3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
3:15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

8:17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

I don't consider myself a wise man, but I do consider myself a child of God. I have asked God to explain to me what is true, and right. I feel I have received an answer, which I will put forth here. I don't expect or require that any man agree with me, but to ponder, and ask God if this is right and true, and listen for God's answer.

Two problems exist: the first is that Mankind assumes that the times referred to in Genesis are Man-time, instead of understanding that it is God-time, which is something quite different; and the second is that there is little difference between what we call "religion" and what we call "science". Let me try to explain what I mean by these.

God is Eternal. He has no beginning, and no end. Also, as Solomon so wisely stated, for God, all things are NOW (literally, "That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been;"). God-time, then, cannot be related to Man-time. For God, a second could be equal to half of eternity for Man, or half of eternity could be equal to a second. We all need to understand that, and understand that God works SOLELY on God-time.

When God dictated the Bible to man, he did it to pre-industrial, almost pre-agricultural nomadic herders. If God had tried to explain to them particle physics, the Big Bang, and quantum mechanics, guess how far He'd have gotten. Instead, He used terms that the authors could understand, and could relate to others. "Fundamentalist Christians" demand, however, that we equate the works of Genesis not in God-time, but in Man-time. The patent absurdity of this is found in Genesis itself, where planets and moons were not created until the fourth day.

God created the entire universe. That also means that instead of chaos, His creation is an ORDERLY universe that obeys the "natural" laws He created to operate in it. This brings us to point two above, that "religion" and "science" are but two sides of the same coin. "Religion" attempts to establish "who" and "why" the universe was created, while "science" tries to discover "what", "where", "when", and "how". Neither should (or can) distract from the other, for both magnify the glory of God's creation. The more details we learn about the events that led to our presence here today only go to prove what Solomon said: "Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.".

No single scientist, no group of scientists, can know ALL that God has created in this universe. There will always be things that bedazle and amaze us, and pique our interest to learn more. Our knowledge shouldn't cause us to reject God, but to understand more fully His omnipotence - and attention to detail. Nor should anything Man learns force us to "choose between God and Science", because both are one: God created ALL "scientific principles" when He created the universe. Just because we learned about God first, and we're a bit slow picking up the physical manifestations of His handiwork shouldn't detract from the fact that they are His creations.

Nor should scientific explanations of our world's past cause us to be forced to choose between God and Man: the universe is probably 16.5 billion Man-years old, and that doesn't change the fact that it was created by God in six God-days. The two have nothing in common. One is a measure of how WE, the inhabitants of this piece of real estate, measure time: the other is how God defines the processes of His actions. Remember again Solomon's words: "and God requireth that which is past.". The history of our universe, and our planet, are "required by God".

Everything God does has a progression. Nothing was created before its time. Everything built toward where we are today. There would be no oil or coal for man to use if God hadn't created it over a long period of time, beginning millions and millions of years ago. The more we learn about our universe, the more we see an orderly progression from very minute sub-atomic particles to very complex systems including billions of galaxies. This is all the handiwork of God, and the more we know about them, the greater should be the awe of His magnificence.

A Timmy Update: December

2007-12-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Timmy is still with us, and will remain with us at least until February 20th, 2008. He's still about six months behind in most of his development, but is improving every day. His vocabulary has grown to about 600 words, although he won't always say more than two or three at a time. This worries me a bit, because that's a symptom we saw in our son Joe, who also suffered from brain damage done before he was adopted. Hopefully we'll have him in Head Start after the first of the year, and the competition will encourage him to talk more.

The last information we received from the courts indicated that Timmy will either be returned to his birth mom, or will be placed permanently in our care. That decision will be made no later than May 8th, 2008. So far, no other placements are being considered. Rose has satisfied some of the court-ordered requirements, but not all of them. She still refuses to believe that Timmy was deliberately injured. I would encourage any of you who read this to pray that the courts will make the best choice for Timmy, regardless of what anyone else wishes - including us.

Having Timmy has been a blessing for my wife and me. It's encouraged us to become more involved with the world, instead of withdrawn, as we had been before. Regardless of the court outcome in Timmy's case, Jean and I plan to work with a few agencies in the city to continue our involvement with children that need a safe place while the courts decide their future.

Back in February, I prayed to God to give us a mission that wouldn't involve any of the local churches. I want to tithe to God, but not to some local church that's going to use it for their benefit, not the benefit of God. I was willing to give both time and money to whatever cause God asked us to contribute to. Within a month, we had Timmy. God answers prayers, but in His Own way, and in His Own time. Timmy i with us on a "kinship" placement, which means we're considered of a member of his extended family, although there's no real relationship other than friendship between Rose and our youngest daughter, Anna. It also means that we don't get paid for providing foster care for Timmy. Taking care of this beautiful, wonderful little boy has been worth anything it might have cost us, and we're thankful to have him!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Life is hectic when you're a parent, and the past two months have been even more hectic than average. Before we get distracted with the Christmas shopping, getting the tree up, wrapping presents, cooking, and all the other myriad ways of preparing for Christmas, we want to stop and wish all our friends a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

497th Reconnaissance Technical Group 2008 Reunion

2007-10-26T15:21:00.000-06:00

Those of us who are both alumni of the 497th and live in Colorado - and enjoyed the 2007 reunion - have decided that a reunion next year, in 2008, is a great idea. Charles Sakai is in charge of planning the event. You can also leave comments here, and I will forward them to Charles. We hope to have an even greater attendance than last year.

Immigration and "reform"

2007-10-26T13:42:00.000-06:00

I have a neighbor that is in the United States legally - in fact, I think he's a citizen. I don't see him often - he must work 20 hours out of every 24. He lives with his family and two other families in a house less than a block from me. He has a great job, makes a good living, and is a good neighbor. I believe the other people living with him are part of his extended family. I have no idea whether they're here legally or not, and don't much care. They are productive, assimilating into the neighborhood, have great families, and are better neighbors than some I have.

That's not true of all immigrants, whether they're legal or not. Quite a number of them are criminals, others have an "entitled" attitude towards federal largess, and still others believe they can "retake" the southwestern United States for Mexico. None of this type of "immigration" is good for the United States or its citizens. A good case for calling it an invasion, rather than immigration, can be made, especially by those who back La Raza and other separatist groups. Granting these people amnesty, regardless of what it's called, would be a disaster.

There are other illegal immigrants entering the United States with even more dangerous intentions. The number of "other than Mexican" illegals being caught is steadily rising. Many of these are from the Middle East, and have harmful intent for the citizens of the United States. Others belong to drug gangs and other harmful elements like MS-13. We have enough criminals of our own, we don't need to be importing them from elsewhere.

Congress - mostly the Democratic Party - keeps wanting to repeat the mistake of the 1980s, when all illegals were given blanket amnesty, and the 1990s, when Bill Clinton "legalized" hundreds of thousands of illegals with little or not checking of their background or intent. Neither of these did anything to stop the flow of illegals into the United States - quite the opposite. The next group also expects - actually demands - equal treatment. It's time to stop repeating what failed before, and create a truly EFFECTIVE immigration policy.

The first thing Congress needs to do is to cut off the flow of illegals. Many say a fence won't work, but it's done wonders for Israel, and it's cut the flow of illegals to a trickle where fences exist. It would be expensive, but far less so than the costs of illegal immigrants continuing to flow into the United States.

The second thing that is required is to force all illegals in the United States to register with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Failure to register will be unappealable grounds for immediate eviction if discovered. Give the illegals 90 days to go to the Post Office, fill out a postcard form, and register. Aliens who register then have one year to prove that they are an asset to the United States. I discussed such an option here in April, 2006. It's time to implement it.

The third thing that needs to be done is to pass a law that states that anyone knowingly employing an illegal alien, or failing to actively pursue guaranteeing someone they hire is in the United States legally and permitted to work, forfeits their business to the Federal Government, who will then auction it off to the highest bidder. That will be sufficient incentive for businesses NOT to hire illegals. Many people may be hurt by such actions, but if enough feel the pain, hiring illegals will end.

Fourth, the United States needs to nullify the "anchor baby" laws. Only children of people in the United States legally may be considered for citizenship. That will do more to end the flood of illegals.

Finally, the United States should enact federal legislation that states that any illegal alien caught committing a crime in the United States will be forever banned from US citizenship, and that their full sentence MUST be served prior to their being deported. At least half that sentence should be forced labor maintaining the fence between the United States and Mexico, and between the United States and Canada. Yes, we need fences in both locations, although Canadians aren't anywhere the problem that Latin Americans are. The biggest reason for a fence between the United States and Canada is the flow of undocumented third-nation immigrants, especially those from the Middle East and other nations hostile to the United States.

Then, and only then, can this nation consider the "illegal alien" problem under control.

The Verdict is In on the Jena 6 case

2007-10-26T12:52:00.000-06:00

Apparently, the case of the Jena 6 is another in a long line of journalistic malpractices by "major media", as attested to by this detailed analysis by someone who both lives there and has enough common sense to look at ALL the evidence.

I grew up in the little town of Tioga, about 30 miles from Jena. I played sports against the Jena high school teams, and had friends and relatives throughout that part of Louisiana. As a young boy growing up in the 1950's and early 60's, there wasn't a better place in the world to explore and learn.

Most people think of Louisiana as being full of crazy Cajuns that live on bayous and go barefoot year round. Actually, the area is far more diverse than that. The area north of the Red River is home to many different cultures. The town of Jena itself is named after the German city of the same name. There's another town, Kolin, about 30 miles from Jena, that was settled by Bohemians. There are areas settled by descendants of Polish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, and French (not Cajun) settlers, as well as Native Americans and others. There are large numbers of blacks throughout the areas, although there are only a few areas where they're in the majority. There was a lot of "diversity" in the population long before the 1964 Civil Rights act was passed.

The media's categorization of the area, and the event, devoid of any of this background information, is a disservice to the people of Jena, the state of Louisiana, and all civic-minded Americans. It's also another in a long line of self-perpetuated "truths" that show the American major media as being more interested in creating a story than in reporting one.

Items in the news...

2007-10-24T11:58:00.000-06:00

There's lots of things going on right now that don't warrant a whole post, but do deserve a comment or two. I'll try to cover all the things I've been reading lately that deserve such treatment.

Fluorescent light bulbs

The "distinguished" Senator from Colorado, Ken Salazar, is pushing the use of fluorescent light bulbs in homes to reduce "greenhouse gas emissions". My wife and I have switched to fluorescent light bulbs in about 2/3 of the lighting in our home, not to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but to cut our electric bill. We estimate we save about $.30/month per bulb. If the average bulb actually lasted the 60 months they're advertised to, we'd save about $13.25 per bulb($.30/mo x 60mo - difference in cost - about $4.75/bulb). Unfortunately, most fluorescent bulbs DON'T last 60 months, but only last about 30 months - cutting the savings in half. Also, there's a problem with burned-out fluorescent bulbs - they contain toxic materials that end up in a land-fill, and eventually into the soil. We still use them, but I wonder if the actual savings is all that spectacular. I guess it depends on how much you pay for electricity, and how many lights you leave on all day.

Wildfires in California

Once again, the combination of Santa Anna winds and stupid people have ganged up on southern California, causing misery for a half-million people. Some of it could be prevented, but at a very large cost. Eventually, however, the cost is going to be less than the cost of constantly rebuilding in the path of danger.

We have a similar problem here in Colorado - we have several million acres of trees that are a monster forest fire waiting to happen. The trees need to be thinned, beetle-killed trees need to be removed, and a lot of the underbrush needs to be plowed under. Unfortunately, a lot of "environmentalists" don't want ANYTHING done. They want Colorado's mountains to "remain in an unspoiled state". That's utterly impossible, but some people who are gung-ho to "preserve nature" know absolutely nothing about the subject. In reality, things change, and change constantly. There is no standing still. Trees grow, mature, and die; they're attacked by disease, insects, and an ever-changing environment; water is taken out of the western slope watershed and piped to a thirsty Front Range with a population of more than 4 million people, most of whom want bluegrass lawns in a semi-desert.

Teddy Roosevelt created the National Forest system to ensure the continuity of the nation's lumber industry, yet today "environmentalists" have all but killed that industry through legislation, lawsuits, and intimidation. A vibrant, CONTROLLED lumber industry could do a lot to restore our forests to more healthy, fire-resistant, and economically sustainable resources. Locking things up forever is both arrogant and stupid. It's time it stopped. Building homes in fire-prone areas without adequate safeguards, and expecting the "insurance industry" (I.E., the average insured, regardless of where they live,) to bail out destroyed communities, is also arrogant and stupid. Insanity is sometimes defined as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. We have over 50 years of history telling us that doing some things bring bad results. Maybe we need to do a few things differently, at least on an experimental basis, to see if we really can make a difference.

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies are the National League champions, and will meet the Boston Red Socks in the World Series. In order to get where they are today, the Rockies won 21 of their last 22 games. We'll see if the Red Socks, or a week's inactivity, have made any difference in how the Rockies play. Whether they win or not, it's good to see the Rockies, a franchise that's only been in existence for 15 years, at the top of the heap. It's also fun to watch many of the former Colorado Springs Sky Sox players in action in the major leagues. May the best team win (the Rockies, of course)!

Politics - Yuck!

This election cycle's early start, the crowded field, and the fact that the Republicans aren't fielding their Vice President, has made for a wide-open, no-holds-barred dogfight for the nomination. Some of it's already gotten VERY dirty. Sometimes I wonder how politicians can survive in all that slime they constantly fling at one another. Some of the candidates are beginning to drop by the wayside, either due to poor performance, or more frequently, lack of money. Again we see a Clinton running for the Presidency, and again we see tainted campaign contributions. There's a pattern here, and I hope the nation can see it. We've also seen that McCain-Feingold has done nothing to remove corporate money from the campaign, or done anything else it was touted as doing. It's a bad law, a bad precedent, and needs to be repealed. The Supreme Court's failure to declare the entire thing unconstitutional just goes to prove how badly the courts have become politicized over the past 75 years or so.

It's going to be hard for this Independent voter to make a choice this year. There doesn't appear to be a truly outstanding candidate from either party. A third-party candidacy would probably screw up things even greater than they currently are. So far, there's not a single candidate that meets even my minimum criteria for president.

The War

It only takes one side, one incident to trigger a war. World War I was triggered by a lone Serb assassinating Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. World War II was triggered by the Treaty of Versailles, and Hitler's unilateral repudiation of the truly disgusting treaty. Failure of the West to stand up to Hitler early led to a cataclysm that killed more than 60 million people. But people forget.

The West (not just the United States, but all non-Islamic societies) have been at war for the past 35 years. Yasser Arafat declared war against the West, and attacked targets throughout the Middle East, as early as the late 1960's. The abduction and killing of Jewish athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics was just one in a series of events that saw Islamists (mostly Arabs) attacking Western civilization. The assassination of an American diplomat in Sudan, the killing of American citizens during aircraft hijackings, the destruction of American foreign assets throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe, and the killing of American citizens by "terrorists" has continued to this day.

These are acts of war. It doesn't matter that they're being conducted by "non-state" entities, they remain acts of war. They are sanctioned, supplied, financed, and assisted by a half-dozen Islamic states through out the Islamic world. Refusing to accept that we're at war is just as insane as refusing to accept that your brakes need replacing, and driving 200 miles every day on an Interstate highway. Sooner or later, each will result in someone's death.

We used to know how to wage war. That was before the lawyers got involved. Too many people think they can talk away the problems. That worked so well with Hitler and Tojo, with Ho Chi Minh, with Fidel Castro, and today with Osama bin Laden, Amadinijad, and Hugo Chavez. It takes at least two people to make an agreement, but only one to wage war. Talking has failed to achieve any lasting results. It's time to go back to a process that worked - destroying your enemy's ability to fight against you.

People talk about how "stupid" George Bush is, and how badly he's handled the war. Wars are always full of surprises. We seem to have adjusted, and the war is heading in the right direction. As for the "stupidity" of attacking Iraq, anyone who says that doesn't know much about military history. Establishing a secure base in the midst of your enemies is one sure-fire way of ensuring you're going to be the victor. A secure base of operations in Iraq would provide ideal placement to take on Iran, Syria, an aggressive and degenerating Turkey, Saudi Arabia (the source of more than half the funding for terrorism), and with bases in Afghanistan, a rapidly degenerating Pakistan. The war we're currently involved in will last five or six generations. I wonder if the current United States will be able to survive five or six more YEARS of fighting.

A lot of people have tried to compare the war against state-sponsored terrorism with the Cold War. The main difference is that there will be far more dead bodies from the current war than people who died in the Cold War. For the uninitiated, more than 80,000 people died in the service of this nation during the Cold War, and that doesn't include Korea or Vietnam. Many died in training, others died in accidents, and a few died in operating against an aggressive, determined enemy. Few are known to anyone but their families.

Not much time to catch up!

2007-09-05T14:27:00.000-06:00

I had hoped that things would have settled down a bit in our life by this time of the year, but it's not working that way. Timmy has speech therapy on Mondays, physical and occupational therapy on Wednesdays, visits with his biological mother twice a week, and visits with his maternal grandparents every other Sunday. Two-year-olds don't give you much time to get anything done, however, other than taking care of them. There haven't been any long, quiet moments to create blog posts, or much of anything else, for that matter.

Other than running us ragged, Timmy is doing great in just about every area.

497 RTG Reunion, Colorado Springs

2007-07-07T13:00:00.000-06:00

UPDATED Apr 14, 2007
Updated Jun 14, 2007 - attendees only.
Updated Jun 16, 2007 - FINAL UPDATE - See bottom of post.

I'm going to keep this at the top of my weblog until July 7th, 2007, for everyone's information. This will save everyone's bandwidth, reduce the strain on the 497RTG Yahoo group list, and have the information readily available to anyone wishing to look at it. Please leave any comments, suggestions, recommendations, and other information you wish to share in the comments section of this article. I will update this post each time something changes, but will not change the date. It will remain at the top of my weblong until July 7, 2007.

This is an update, based on all the information that we've gathered over the past several weeks, working toward our summer reunion. I've deleted all extraneous material to cut down on bandwidth.

The first planning committee meeting was held Jan 13, 2007, at the Village Inn Restuarant, Academy Blvd. and Palmer Park Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO. Charles Sakai and I were the only ones present. We need at least three to five more members. Tentative membership in the planning committee has been extended to Dale Hutchinson, Joyce Donaldson (accepted), and Martha North. We've also invited Debbie Barnes to join us. We went over the following information:

Date & Time of the reunion meeting: June 30, 2007, from 9AM until 9PM. The Academy picnic area has been selected, and is only open from 9AM to 9PM. We MUST leave by 9PM. There are gates, and they get locked.

Eligibility: Former members and dependents of those assigned to the 497th Reconnaissance Technical Group, Schierstein, Germany, between 1952 and 1992, members of the two satellite squadrons at Ramstein and RAF Alconbury, UK, members of the computer squadron at Schierstein that supported us, and honored guests (selected by former RTG members). I have issued a special invitation to CMSgt Groves, a local retiree, who was a part of the unit at its founding.

Location: US Air Force Academy Picnic Pavlion #3. The Pavilion is opposite the road to the USAF Academy hospital (I.E., to the east), and just past the first curve, on the left. If entering from the North Gate, turn left at the crossroad leading to the Hospital, go about 100 yards around a shallow curve, and immediately turn left again into the pavilion parking lot. Entering from the South Gate, go past the football stadium to the next intersection, turn right, go about 100 yards around a shallow curve, and immediately turn left into the pavilion parking lot. There are spaces for about 100 cars in the lot.

Activities: The majority of the activities will be getting re-acquainted with other former members of the 497th Reconnaissance Technical Group. Additional activities will include cooking and eating. If anyone wishes to suggest other activities, please feel free to do so in Comments. Ideas that are accepted will be posted in this location. UPDATE: We will have horseshoes, a volleyball (the site has a net), and a soccer ball for the kids interested in soccer. I have a horseshoe set, and will bring it. Martha North is also threatening to bring water balloons. We're open to suggestions for other activities.

I will try to set up a tour of the Academy as part of the afternoon's entertainment. The MWR office is not helpful in this suggestion, but we will continue to work on it. I will also try to create a set of links to activities available in the Colorado Springs area for anyone coming from out of town and planning to stay more than Saturday. Activities for small children and teens who will be totally bored by the chatter of all the "old geezers" are especially solicited.

Food: The food available at most 497RTG 4th of July picnics included bratwursts, hamburgers, hot dogs, and whatever members thought to bring. We will try to recreate that atmosphere. I've made arrangements with the people at Sara's Sausages, Palmer Lake, CO, to buy 30 pounds of German Sausage/Bratwurst from them at $2.50/lb (I'll pay for these). I'll pick them up Jun 28th, and keep them until the reunion. We'll also need to buy hamburger patties, hot dogs, brotchen/rolls, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, salt, pepper, charcoal & lighter, paper plates, napkins/paper towels, paper cups, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, chips and crackers, and whatever else people want for the picnic. I've talked my wife into making a large bowl of potato salad (enough for 8-12 people). Please let me know if you are willing to contribute something for the picnic, or donate funds to cover expenses. I will try to establish general costs and post them here as soon as possible. We also need local people to volunteer to keep these things at their homes until the day of the picnic.

Sam's Club has an excellent product (18 hamburger patties, 80% sirloin, for about $9/pkg). They also have rolls, buns, etc. Jean and I are members, and will be happy to purchase whatever is needed on behalf of the group.

Drinks: We want to have a variety of drinks, to satisfy everyone's taste. We will try to provide water, sodas, coffee, tea, kool-aid, and any other non-alcoholic beverage that anyone wishes. Those wishing alcoholic beverages should make arrangements to either bring their own, or to purchase them locally. We need to double-check any local restrictions on the consumption of alcoholic beverages at the Academy Pavilion. Anyone volunteering to provide non-alcoholic beverages should email me with what you are volunteering to provide, and in what quantity.

Accommodations: I've been talking to about a half-dozen hotels/motels about providing discount accommodations to those attending the reunion. I know that at least twelve people are
coming from outside Colorado. I do NOT know how long any of you plan to remain in the local area. I need that information. I've gotten some tentative offers of a standard 10% discount offered to active duty military, but many of these depend on having information and reservations in advance. I will post a list of hotels/motels and costs soon. UPDATE: There is an extensive campground at the Air Force Academy, near the pavilion where we're having the reunion. Reservations are first-come, first-served. There is space for tent camping, for RVs, and for other types of campers. Call MWR, 719-333-4753, between 9AM and 6PM, local time (Mountain Daylight Time).

Volunteers: We need between twelve and sixteen volunteers (either individuals or families) for the following:

* Set-up: Getting everything to the site, put down paper tablecloths, start cooking fires, spread out food, get drinks prepared, and whatever else has to be done. Joyce has volunteered to chair a setup committee. We need a few folks to volunteer to help her in setting up. This will involve putting tablecloths on the tables, putting out coffee and drink cups, silverware, paper plates, and whatever else we need to do for everyone to have a good time.

* Cooking: I would like at least three cooks per shift, and three shifts of cooks so no one is stuck with the detail during the entire reunion. There are two 3' x 5' grills at the pavilion, and 12 tables. Bratwursts take about 20 minutes to cook through, hamburger patties about 15 minutes, and hot dogs 6-8 minutes. Depending on how many people attend, and how much they eat, cooking could go on from about 10:30 until late in the afternoon.

* Clean-up: The Academy requires us to clean up after ourselves, or face an additional charge. They didn't say what that additional charge would be, but others have said it's in the range of $50-$100. We'll need four or five people to ensure that all the trash we generate is cleaned up and deposited where it belongs. I will provide trash bags.

Publicity: I'll do my best to get free publicity of the reunion as much as possible. That includes something in the Colorado Springs Gazette, possibly in each of the three local base newspapers, and anywhere else where I think the information will reach former 497RTG personnel.

We also need someone to try to get publicity of the event in Denver, also, as well as anywhere there might be a large group of former 497th members (Offutt? Beale? Langley? Washington, DC?) who might wish to attend. We need to start promoting the event NOW.

Attendance: I have commitments from the people listed below. If you plan to come, and your name isn't on the list, please email me as soon as possible at mweather@citystar.com. If you're coming, not active duty or retired, I'll also need to know that so I can forward your name to the USAFA Security Police. This will reduce any hassle getting on the Academy. The list below is alphabetical.

Ben Acre
Debbie Barnes
Mike & Bonnie Bekisz
Bill & Becky Cordell
Joyce Donaldson
Herb Flanders
Eileen Gleason
Jerry & Kay Heck
Chad & Rachel Howard
Jeff Hodson
Dale Hutchinson
Christina Knight
Tom Konzel
Richard Lang
Tim Meuret
Martha North
Charles Sakai
Brian & Marie Taylor
Mike & Jean Weatherford

Several others have emailed me, but I haven't gotten this list updated yet. I'll try to do that in the next couple of weeks. I especially need to know who will be coming from the local area. Don't get upset if your name isn't on the list. I haven't gotten the spreadsheet from Martha North with everyone she has listed, and you have another chance to submit your name in the comments to this entry.

Funding: I've agreed to pay for the bratwurst and several other items, but can't afford to fund the entire reunion. We will calculate an estimated total cost and accept donations toward meeting those costs after the next planning committee meeting.

Planning Committee Meetings:
The planning committee will hold regular meetings on the second Saturday of the month through May to discuss the status of the upcoming reunion. Meetings will be held at the Palmer Park Village Inn unless otherwise noted. Any additional meetings will be posted on the 497RTG Yahoo group site.

Contact
Mike Weatherford, mweather@citystar.com, 719-597-0128, 1715 Clemson Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80909.
Charles Sakai
Martha North
Joyce Donaldson
Debbie Barnes - kfoopooh@yahoo.com
497RTG@yahoogroups.com

The Academy may be open to all visitors this summer, depending on how things go. If not, we will have to have an attendance list at least a week in advance for those that do not have a current, valid US military ID card. I'll try to keep everyone informed on this.

I think everyone is planning on bringing a camera. I know I will, Joyce will, and Charles will. We want to have access to as many photos as possible, so we can post them online for others who weren't able to attend to enjoy. It'll also help remind all of us who we're talking to and about to have a mug shot to refresh the memory.

Here are some of the expenses we need to cover:

Item	Cost	paid
Pavilion Reservation	$35.00	Mike W
Set-up costs
Plastic tablecloths (10)
Paper plates (200)		Debbie B
Styrofoam cups for hot drinks (50-60)
Plastic cups for cold drinks (100)		Debbie B
Plastic silverware (200 sets)		Debbie B
Charcoal (2-3 bags)
Lighter
Matches
Coffee pot (rental?)
Napkins
Paper Towels (3 rolls)		Debbie B


Food
Bratwurst (120)	$75.00	Mike W
Hamburger patties (60)
Hot Dogs (60)		Debbie B
Potato Salad	$ .00	donated
Hot dog buns (60)		Debbie B
Hamburger buns (60)
Sliced cheese
Dill pickles
Lettuce
Tomato
Mayonnaise (1 lg jar)
Mustard (1 lg jar)
German-style mustard (2 sm jars)		Mike W
Salt/Pepper (4 packaged sets)
Brotchen/Rolls (100+)
Relish?
Vegetable tray?
Chips, etc.


Drinks
Coffee
Tea
Sodas
Bottled water
Kool-aid
Other?


Clean-up
Garbage sacks		Mike W
Paper towels (see "Setup")		Debbie B
Spray cleaner		Mike W
Something to clean grills

Several people have agreed to supply part of the requirements for things like chips, sodas, etc. If you're willing to add to the list, please let me know.

If anyone has any suggestions to this list, please email me with your suggestion, its approximate cost, and whether you wish to provide the issue. I'll try to go back through all the emails for prior suggestions.
======================================================
Final Update:

Everything is set for the 30th. Jean and I will begin shopping this week, and make final purchases around the 27th or 28th. I've got two cooks lined up, and I hope more volunteer once they arrive. Charles Sakai and Debbie Barnes have been outstanding in their assistance, so please let them know how much you appreciate their hard work.

It looks like we'll have between 40 and 60 people show up on the 30th, counting wives, children, and other guests. That's a great turnout, and I hope everyone has a good time. If you know someone who's unaware of the reunion, or haven't yet made up their minds to attend, this would be a great time to contact them.

We WILL have to submit a list of names to the Security Police, but that's all they want. The list can be suplemented at any time up through the 28th. If for some reason you decide to come after that, just tell the gate guards you're there to attend the 497th RTG Reunion. You shouldn't have any trouble at either the north or south gate.

One thing that's become very obvious is the need for some type of "official" 497RTG Alumni Association. We could have gotten extra discounts from many places with official letterhead, and gotten much better coverage from local media. This is something to think about, and perhaps discuss at the reunion.

Update on Timmy

2007-06-16T22:02:00.000-06:00

For all of those who have been following this saga, it's time for an update.

Timmy is doing fine! He's grown at least two inches in height, put on six pounds, and outgrown his shoes. He's adding at least one new word a day to his vocabulary, sometimes two or three. He's speaking in two- and three-word sentences, where before he used only a single word. His attention span has improved from two to five minutes to where he can now sit still and watch a movie for 30 minutes at a time without becoming fidgety. He LOVES to play outside, and we actually have a lawn for him to play on this year, thanks to late spring rains. We've bought him a few toys that he'll have to grow into, but that's happening faster than anyone, including us, expected. I've even gotten him to fish.

This doesn't mean the developmental delays that were detected back in April are completely gone. There are still problems that Timmy has to overcome, but he's made up a lot of lost ground. He still has problems with gross-motor control and some fine-motor control, but he's improving. He still needs help in speech and language, and some psychological assistance to help him overcome some of his fears. He's improving daily, though, and is a joy to be around, even for these 60-something "new" parents.

There will not be any change in custody until at least the middle of November, if then. Scott Mann, the person who injured Timmy, has pleaded guilty in court, and will be sentenced in August. He's pushing for probation, the rest of us (excluding Timmy's mother, who still protects this POS) are hoping for at least a year of jail time.

That's it for now. I'll update this the next time something significant occurs.

A Timmy Update

2007-04-10T14:51:00.000-06:00

For any of you wondering about Timmy, I offer the following update:

He was tested by a specialist in child development, and found to be between two to six months developmentally delayed in just about every area - physical ability, talking, following directions, etc. Jean and I have worked with developmentally delayed children before (three of our previous six foster-children were developmentally delayed), so we know what needs to be done, and have started working on it. Timmy is also going to have physical therapy (gross-motor development), speech and language help, and some fine-motor development therapy.

Right now, Timmy is in many ways a typical two-year-old - exploring everything, getting into mischief, and wanting to try everything, especially our patience. His mother visits about once a week for an hour or so, which is far less than we expected. He also sees his maternal grandparents occasionally, as well as his two maternal aunts and their children. He's learning about two new words every day, and uses them at the most unexpected - but appropriate - times. His latest words are "baby" and "socks". He's trying to count, but the numbers don't always follow in order. He's learning to be appropriate with our cats, but he's still having problems with my daughter's Labrador Retreiver puppy.

All in all, he appears to be a happy, normal child. We won't know if there's any permanent brain damage or developmental problems until he's been in a stable environment for at least three or four months, and has been re-evaluated for his progress (or lack of).

The Tragedy of Timmy

2007-03-19T14:03:00.000-06:00

My wife (64) and I (60) have agreed recently to be foster-parents for a young man, Timmy, age 2. Timmy was allegedly (it hasn't been proven in court yet) thrown head-first into a chair by his mother's boyfriend a couple of month ago, and was taken to the emergency room because he'd stopped breathing. Examinations at the time showed some brain damage, and bleeding behind his eyes. The boyfriend's story has changed a couple of times, but none of what he says contradicts the fact that Timmy's life was gravely endangered by physical child abuse. In the meantime, the mother lost custody of Timmy (supposedly temporarily, until she can receive some treatment herself, including parenting classes), and he was placed in foster-care. He was supposed to be placed with his fraternal grandfather, but that didn't work. We were next in line.

Why us? First, Timmy and his mother lived with us for almost six months when his mother got kicked out of an apartment she shared with another single mom. Secondly, Jean and I have been trained as therepeutic foster-parents by two different agencies, and have a 32-year old adopted son who is also brain-damaged. We know the signs, and what can be done to help.

Timmy's been with us for almost two weeks now, and we're beginning to see some subtle differences in his behavior - mostly positive signs that he's overcoming both the trauma of the injury, and the fear of the abusive behavior. He still has some neurological indications that he hasn't comletely recovered from his brain injuries, but he's doing much better.

Being a parent of a 2-year-old is fun at 20, nice at 30, possible at 40, and uncomfortable at 50. At 60, it's just plain crazy - unless it's for something like this. We'll survive, and Timmy will grow and recover in a safe, pleasant environment. Timmy takes a lot of time and energy, leaving less for all the other things we're doing, but we'll manage - God and Social Services willing!

I'll try to post updates from time to time - if I have the time to do it!

National Security - My Point of View

2007-03-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

We hear both sides of the political spectrum talk about "national security" on a daily basis, but it's hard to tell, listening to what they say, what they actually mean. Here's my take.

First of all, a bit of what national security isn't: it's not about "protecting the government". The words of the oath of allegience every member of our military takes says nothing about protecting the government, or swearing obedience to it. On the contrary, it says we'll "support and defend the Constitution" - the document that establishes the governing authority of the people, through election of representative government. Elected officials, appointed members of government, and just about anyone else that receives a federal government paycheck swears a similar oath.

Even there, there's an "escape clause". The Declaration of Independence, written to tell Britain we were big boys and no longer needed their supervision to govern ourselves, says:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of thes ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Our government was established to protect the rights of individuals by assuming certain responsibilities. These included, among many others, the security of our nation and its people, both from external threats and internal problems. The role of government has evolved over time, but still functions primarily to "secure the fundamental rights" of its citizens. Like most governments, it's grown and evolved, but not necessarily according to any overall, all-encompassing plan. It may be time to realign some of those diverse functions to better serve the nation and its inhabitants. This includes how we view national security, and how we organize for it as a nation.

National security, then, has to focus in two directions: protection from external enemies, and protection from internal threats. It also has to meet the "litmus test" of doing this while protecting the rights of the individual, and protecting the ability of other areas of government to function in providing this same protection.

The military has the primary objective of protecting us from external threats. Since frequently the only way to eliminate external threats is to go where the threat originates, an offensive capability is needed. At the same time, there's also a need for a defensive capability to stop attacks upon the nation and its citizens.

The military has to be a certain size to accomplish all its missions. Today's military doesn't seem to be quite big enough. We're having to rely on second-tier reserves (the National Guard and the various Active Reserves) to achieve many of today's missions. That's not an appropriate long-term use of such forces. Using these forces as we are is proof positive that the overall size of the military, to accomplish today's missions, needs to be larger. How much larger is debatable, but I would suggest 24 additional Brigade Combat Teams and the support personnel they will need. They should be divided between the Army (18 brigades) and the Marines (6 brigades), and between active and reserve/Guard forces. I would suggest that the 18 Army brigades include 12 active, three reserve, and three National Guard brigades; that the Marine brigades consist of four active and two reserve brigades.

A brigade consists of from 4000 to 8000 personnel, including their internal support. This will require an additional 96,000 to 192,000 military personnel to fully staff all 24 brigades. That can't be done overnight, but it's not impossible. I'm sure that with the proper incentives, the military could staff those positions in three to four years - the MINIMUM time it would also take to provide housing, equipment, and supplies for that kind of increase. The more likely scenario is that it would take four to ten years to fully staff all the active, reserve, and National Guard positions.

The military also plays a role in internal security, although that is a secondary role for most military units. We frequently hear of National Guard units being mobilized at the State or Federal level in response to national disasters. It would be appropriate, I believe, to include members of the Active Reserve Forces to also be included in some levels of disaster response. Today, that isn't usually possible.

There is also a need for a larger blue-water Navy, to include an additional carrier battle group and support fleet, and expanded air power. That includes combat aviation units, transport aircraft, and a replacement large-capacity non-nuclear bomber to replace the ancient B-52 fleet.

National security also requires the United States to control its borders. That means the capability to spot, identify, and stop people from entering the United States through other than normal means, as well as knowing what non-citizens are currently in the country, and where they are. We need a stronger, more secure border. If that means building a physical fence, we need to fund it, build it, and maintain it. If it means constant border surveillance using military equipment, we need to do that. Using drone surveillance craft such as the current Predator series for border surveillance would not only provide real-time training for reserve or National Guard unts, but would develop the degree of coordination and cooperation needed to react to a potentially catastrophic threat. It might be beneficial to recalibrate the role of the Border Patrol into something more along the lines of a land-based Coast Guard, including military-style discipline, command and control, and both offensive and defensive capabilities. More stringent control of the border by multiple assets that include the Border Patrol, Coast Guard, National Guard, Armed Forces Reserve, local law enforcement personnel, and others, can only increase the effectiveness in border security. We need national, state, and local laws that effect this cooperation.

In order to secure this nation from threats both external and internal, we need to know who's living in this country other than US citizens. Failing to control the border destroys that capability. A large number of the people who enter this country illegally are otherwise excellent candidates to become good citizens. There are a few who aren't, however. I have my own ideas about illegal aliens. I've stated some of them here, here, and here.

National security also hinges on two other important aspects of our lives - the economy, and education. Without a strong economy, it's difficult to build and maintain an adequate military force, and keep it strong by continuously exercising it. A soldier isn't battlefield proficient if he only gets to fire his weapon once a year, and never gets to participate in anything but local exercises. Marines have to practice opposed landings. Pilots have to practice the kind of combat they're going to be expected to perform in a wartime situation. That all takes money, and that requires a strong, vibrant economy. Government bureaucracies tend to grow and expand, whether there's a need for it or not. We need politicians that understand that there's a certain limit to government, that if exceeded, causes more problems than it's worth. We need limited but effective government for a strong economy. An over-bloated, ineffective government is actually a deterrent to national security.

The amount of information that a person really NEEDS to know to succeed in the American economy today is not so much more, as different, than what was needed thirty, fifty, or a hundred years ago. Yet certain basics are essential - the ability to read and write, to comprehend what one reads or hears, to be able to draw conclusions from new information, based on what we previously knew, and the ability to express those conclusions in a way others can understand them. A strong background in math and science is essential in today's technological society, yet is frequently given poor attention by schools. The military, today's industry, and just general citizenship requires a certain basic level of reading, writing, comprehension, and expression in a variety of disciplines. Failing to meet the necessary requirements in one area may not put a person at risk. Failure in two or more areas certainly will. We can't afford to have people in the military that have a sub-standard education. Neither can most industries.

The maintenance of national security, then, requires not only the ability to defend the country militarily, but also to secure its borders, protect it from non-citizens, maintain a strong economy, and educate future citizens capable of understanding the debate of how to deal with whatever threatens the security and safety of this nation's citizens.

"Parents" again.

2007-03-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

Jean and I will become "parents" again, this time for a 2-year-old. We've been approved to provide a home for a young man that's been the center of attention in a child-abuse case. Timmy has lived here before, with his mother, but this time he'll be our responsibility. We're looking forward to it.

Sixty is a bit old to become a parent again, but not too old to provide the kind of safe, secure home life abused children need. Pray for us - we're going to need it!

Another Year!

2007-02-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today is President's Day, but February 19th is ALWAYS special with me. Today marks my wife's and my 41st Anniversary as Mr. & Mrs. Old Patriot. We were married at the Air Force Academy chapel, here in Colorado Springs, on February 19th, 1966. It hasn't always been easy, but it's always been GOOD. I'm looking forward to another 40, at least.

What I want in a Presidential Candidate

2007-02-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

I've been looking over the growing field of presidential candidates, and find that it's hard to support any of them at the moment. There is so little "there", there. Maybe it's because it's still early, and maybe it's because these candidates just haven't had an opportunity to discover what most people want from a presidential candidate. I plan to remedy that by making MY wishes known, now.

First of all, I believe the greatest need this country has is for a strong program of national security. In my opinion, that means having a military that can defend us against aggression, and able to respond to attacks both on our soil and anywhere in the world our enemies might gather. That will require increasing the size, training, and equipment of the Armed Forces, primarily Army and Marines, and continuing the war against Islamic extremism. National security also means secure borders and a revised and strengthened immigration program. A strong economy, too, is necessary for national security, both now and in the long run. Education, too, plays a major role in national security. We need to return to an educational process that provides the best opportunities for the most people. Finally, we need to focus on national vulnerabilities (dependence upon foreign oil, raw materials, etc.) and how to reduce them.

Secondly, we need to reduce or eliminate deficit spending. This will require revisiting existing expenditures as well as any future commitments. Nothing should be "off the table" - from Medicare and Social Security to federal funding for education and crop subsidies. Raising taxes should be the ultimate last resort, after everything else has been done.

Thirdly, I believe we need to drastically reduce the size and scope of government. We need to eliminate wasteful and duplicate activities. We need to reconsider how the current executive branch of the government is organized, its size, and its missions and goals.

Finally, we need to return to the Constitutionally mandated roles for the Congressional, Executive, and Judicial branches of the government, and re-establish the checks and balances that have been so abused by all branches that they are virtually extinct.

These four things are of primary importance to me, and I will choose a presidential choice based upon how well a candidate expresses himself/herself on these issues.

I'll expand upon these comments in other articles to be posted later.

More Climate Change Hysteria

2007-02-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press has provided two articles in two days on "global warming" that found their way to the front page of my local newspaper, the Colorado Springs Gazette. I always read everything I can about the subject of climate change, but these articles are reflections of most of what's written about the subject - ten years out of date and distorted. The only good thing to come out of all the "global warming" hysteria has been an increased interest in exactly what does cause climate variability. This increased interest has had a devastating effect on the case for catastrophic anthropogenic climate change.

The emphasis for this latest push to accept anthropogenic global warming stems from the latest Davos World Economic Forum and the upcoming release of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change 4th Assessment Report, due out Feb 2, 2007. Once again, the emphasis was on forcing the United States to adopt the Kyoto Protocols, which would seriously harm the US economy while doing nothing to change the climate. Politics once more triumphs over science, at least in Europe. There have also been a number of recent "hearings" about climate change before the United States Senate, featuring among others the "Union of Concerned Scientists". This "Union" has little scientific credibility since anyone who wishes can join by simply sending in the registration fee of $25. A number of detractors of the group have registered dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and even an automobile.

I've always been skeptical that a "greenhouse gas" that accounts for around four percent (4%) of the total could have such enormous effects on the entire climate cycle. I grew more skeptical when I discovered in my readings a true lack (until recently) of scientific study of the role water vapor, which accounts for 95% of ALL greenhouse gasses, plays in the climate scenario. The more I read, the more skeptical I became. Today, I cannot believe that carbon dioxide, or even a combination of carbon dioxide and other, non-water-vapor gasses, could have such a massive effect upon climate as the current Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts. Recent studies have shown that such skepticism is well-placed.

There is a growing preponderance of evidence that the vast majority, if not all, of the climate change of the last century, as well as climate change of the last 5000 years, has been the result of solar cycles: long-term cycles of ~1500 years, shorter-term cycles of ~85 and ~210 years, and the semi-regular 11-year sunspot cycle. These studies also show that there is far more taking place than just changes in luminosity or output; that there are also changes in magnetic field strength, for instance, that also affect weather by increasing or decreasing cloud cover.

In fact, increasing studies over the past 30 years have provided a wealth of new data that requires close inspection before decisions affecting six billion people are enacted. There is growing evidence that the earth's climate is far more complex than previously thought, and the models used to "prove" global warming are totally irrelevant to what's happening in the real world. Most of the studies prior to about 2002 fail to account for the newly-discovered importance of solar forcing, solar cycles, magnetic variance, and cosmic ray interaction on climate change.

While the majority of "scientists" attempt to force the idea that man is screwing up the environment, including causing massive global warming, the evidence continues to undermine that effort. The evidence continues to mount that climate temperatures are controlled by the sun, including short- and long-term variables in solar output, solar "wobble", changes in magnetic field strength, and a half-dozen other physical aspects. The hysteria over anthropogenic global warming is becoming more evident as nothing more than an attempted power grab by politicians, and a means for ensuring greater funding for "scientific research" to prove what many have already decided is fact - that climate change is all mankind's fault, and we're all going to die if we don't turn over everything to the "government".

UPDATE: Just found this article that may provide more insight into climate change, and the role water vapor plays in it. As with most recent scientific discoveries, it provided some unexpected answers.

NOTE: If you're going to reply to me about this article, I expect to see links to articles substantiating your point, or you will be ignored.

REFERENCES:
Solar-Powered Millennial-Scale Climatic Change
New Confirmation of Strong Solar Forcing of Climate
SOLAR ACTIVITY: A DOMINANT FACTOR IN CLIMATE DYNAMICS
NASA Study Finds Increasing Solar Trend That Can Change Climate
The Geologic Record and Climate Change
Solar links to climate change
Climate Impacts
Secular total solar irradiance trend during solar cycles 21-23 (pdf)
Under a variable sun (multi-part)
Of Sunspots, Volcanic Eruptions And Climate Change
Solar Research
Increased solar brightness and warming of the Earth since 1979
Phenomenological solar contribution to the 1900-2000 global surface warming (pdf)
THE ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING DOCTRINE
Mass Balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
Inconvenient Truths Indeed

The Democrats' true colors

2007-01-31T17:03:00.000-07:00

The election is over, the Democrats are in power both in the House and the Senate, and now the gloves are coming off. Each day highlights another aspect of Democratic "governance". Boiled down to its essential elements, it works out to a massive attempt to grab more power for the government, at the expence of the people.

Let's start with "global warming". It's becoming more and more evident that the sun plays a far greater role in influencing the temperature of the Earth than previously thought, and that solar cycles can explain 90% or more of any "global warming" that's taken place in the last 100 years. It's also evident that even global warming advocates accept that most of what they propose will do little or nothing to answer what they claim the problem "really is". Yet these same advocates want to shove us back into the cave, decimate 50% or more of the earth's population, and force the rest of us to live like savages. This is supposed to be "progress". The latest idiocy can be found by following Rep. Henry Waxman's investigative committee examining whether President Bush has "orchestrated (a) campaign to mislead the public about climate change". As if former VP Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" wasn't a massive attempt by climate change adherents to "mislead the public". The bad science, cherry-picking of data, and other excesses of Gore's movie have been published here. More and more studies point to the role of solar variables in climate change - here, here, and here.

The truth is, we're not sure, first, if - or how much - climate is changing; secondly, what's causing those changes; and thirdly, what man can do about it. The United States appears to be on the right track by contributing money to research seeking answers to these questions. Until we can answer those questions, anything we do can come back to bite us - hard. The Law of Unintended Consequences is alive and well.

Let's also look at the economy. Today's economy is strong, vibrant, and moving forward. the DOW is at an all-time high, unemployment is low and may dip even further, and the average take-home pay (adjusted for inflation) of America's work-force is higher than it's been in decades. Yet the first thing the Democrats chose to do was to raise the minimum wage by almost 25%. Sixty years of economic studies have shown that minimum wage laws have no effect on poverty, the chief "reason" given for enacting and expanding them. It's plain economic reality that some labor is only worth a given amount of compensation, regardless of where it's done, how it's done, or who does it. If the value of labor - the worth gained from it - is only $5 an hour, paying $7 an hour for that labor will result in a net loss of $2/hour, no matter how you try to gussy it up. All minimum wage laws do is to take the control of establishing what labor is worth away from the employer and put it in the hands of Congress. That's not the wisest economic move. Anyone who believes that economic policy should be set by Congress should read Thomas Sowell's series, "A Dangerous Obsession from Town Hall.

The Democrats are also harping a "new" idea of insisting that all increases in spending have to be "offset" by either cuts elsewhere, or higher taxes. Guess which option they prefer. The economic expansion of the last four years has been fueled by the tax cuts of 2002. Rescinding those tax cuts, or adding additional taxes, will result in a slow-down or even reversal of economic activity. This isn't a guess - we saw the results of tax cuts/tax increases in the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and BushII presidencies. Taxing something ALWAYS results in getting less of it, whether it's oil, butter, aircraft, or income. Raising taxes would be an economic disaster, yet it's one of the major issues of the current Democratic Congress.

The war against Islamic terrorism. Let's start by understanding a basic fact: the United States is at war, whether anyone wishes to acknowledge it or not. It's not a new war - the first "shots" were fired in the 1970's. It doesn't matter whether we've declared war against our enemies or not - they have declared war against us. The Democrats don't seem to be able to grasp this simple fact. They believe that we can "mollify" our enemies, and they will stop. There is nothing to suggest this is true, and everything to suggest it's false, including the history of the last 30+ years. We can continue to take the fight to our enemies, or they will bring that fight to us. Cutting out in the middle of a war may be politically expedient in some sectors of today's society, but it's not smart. The Democrats have apparently adopted "defeat" as a major policy plank - first in Vietnam, and now in Iraq. It will cost our government and its armed forces dearly if they succeed.

I could go on for pages, but it's obvious just from these examples that the Democrats are far more interested in emassing additional political power than they are in effectively governing the United States. I wish there was a better solution than supporting Republicans, who seem to have caught the same deadly disease.

Trying to dig out...

2007-01-31T16:35:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since my last post, and most of it hasn't been good.

We had a major fire here in Colorado Springs. A three-story, 135-unit apartment building was all but totally destroyed, even with over a hundred firefighters responding to the blaze. Bitter cold - lows in single digits and winds up to 25mph - made fighting the fire a nightmare. Even worse news came after the fire was extinguished - the fire was deliberately set (arson), and two people died. More than a hundred families lost everything they owned. Local residents and charity groups have pitched in to do what they can to help the victims. The fire was only eleven blocks south of our home.

Thursday or Friday of last week (everything has blended together in a confused hodge-podge) we learned that a little boy we've been taking care of was critically injured, and in the hospital. The mother's boyfriend has been charged with felony child abuse. Timmy, the little boy, is doing much better, but it's still too soon to know if there's any permanent damage or not. He's expected to go into foster-care with the mother's father today or tomorrow.

It snowed last Saturday (1/27), but there was only about an inch of accumulation. It's snowing today (1/31), and its supposed to snow more or less for the next four or five days. There is a drift over three feet deep on the south side of my house that hasn't melted at all in the past month. The new storms are supposed to add from two to twelve inches of new snow. We're supposed to have another week with highs in the low 30s or less, and lows in single digits. We get this type of weather every year, but it usually only happens a couple of times during the winter, for two or three days each. We've had colder weather, longer, this year than we've had in the 16+ years we've lived in Colorado. It's also been much wetter than normal, as my arthritis reminds me.

Hopefully things will now calm down a bit, and I can get back on track toward regular postings.

A unit worthy of respect

2007-01-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

As anyone who reads this blog can tell, I'm helping organize a reunion for the 497th Reconnaissance Technical Group for early summer, 2007. The 497th is an interesting unit - it was formed in 1952, and lasted until 1992. The majority of its functions were carried out in a small, walled compound in the village of Wiesbaden-Schierstein, and only a few locals knew it existed. Yet what happened within that compound had worldwide consequences. The 497th provided photographic/imagery support for all of US European Command. Most of its work was classified. There were a half-dozen satellite units and an equal number of 'associated' units that worked with the 497th, but which were not officially connected to the group in any way.

The Group provided intelligence information about Warsaw Pact forces and intentions, and helped support NATO operations in response to the 1956 Hungarian revolution, the 1969 Czechoslovakian invasion, terrorism (including the 1972 Munich Olympic debacle), several Arab/Israeli conflicts, the 1980 Iranian US hostage rescue, and humanitarian and disaster-relief missions from the northernmost tip of Norway to sub-Saharan Africa, and eastward to the Afghan/Pakistan border with Iran. That's a big chunk of land, and a big mission, but the 497th consistently contributed, and frequently exceeded expectations in all areas. It's a unit to be proud of, and one in which I have great pride in having served with.

Harbinger of good?

2007-01-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning aching in every joint in my body. My head was killing me, and I could hardly roll out of bed. This is usually a sign that a low-pressure front is moving through our area. There's no snow predicted, however, and the temperature is supposed to get up above 30F for the first time in over a week. Can my aches and pains be a sign that things are going to get BETTER? If it is, it'll be a first.