GWIX: The Hot New Climate Index

After consulting with our research department, I've fine tuned my GWIX: Global Warming Insanity indeX. From this point forward, I will use the google news search as the basis for the index, rather than the generic google search. Also, I have created a ratio between global warming and global cooling stories and this number, rounded to two decimal places, will be the actual "index." If the GWIX goes down, it would indicate that the disparity between warming and cooling stories is decreasing.

On Nov. 11, 2008 the index and raw data were:

GWIX: 6.74

Global warming stories: 24,955

Global cooling stories: 3,705

Hydrogen Super Highway $7 million billion; Gas $1.99/gal

How smart/lucky (choose one) are Pam and I? Smart/lucky (choose one) enough to move to Tennessee where the Republicans actually gained control of the state legislature from the Democrats while the rest of the country was marching leftward in lock step to the Obamamantra. Consider this: Republicans took both houses of the state legislature for the first time in 140 years. Read all about it.

However, there would have certainly been plusses to staying in California. First, we could say we were part of the biggest state budget deficit ever. Woot, makin' history! Second, we could truly enjoy driving up and down Schwarzenegger's imaginary hydrogen-fuel highway. Third, we could enjoy the biannual "odds are 50-50 that California will suffer a devastating earthquake within the next 30 years. Starting now!" newspaper story.

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I can't believe another newspaper publishes a story just to get me all upset! According to the Law Vegas Sun, paranoia is on the rise. The good news? Paranoia isn't just for schizophrenics anymore!

Two former students of mine have started writing their own blogs. Nice work guys! Check them out: Kristen is here and you can find Joe's here. I don't know if they learned anything from me, but at least I didn't kill their caustic wit. Kristen's comments about the high esteem current college students have for Jimmy Carter (the 11th worst president on one highly-regarded list) is more than worth the click.

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Well, we finally know who the "winners" are with the "Pickens Plan." Ad agencies and the television networks. Despite all of Pickens' hot air, there wasn't enough to make his massive wind project economical so he has quietly canned the whole thing. And by the way, what happened to all the people who were wringing their hands over the obscene oil company profits when oil prices were spiking? Remember the charges about market manipulation? Where's your manipulation now? Gas here is under two bucks a gallon. I won't even comment about the Democrats' plan to reinstate the ban on offshore drilling the second Obama is sworn in...

No. I will comment on that. Obama and his party were all for increased offshore drilling when people were about to riot in the streets over gas prices, but now that offshore exploration and drilling would just be the prudent thing to do to be ready for future energy demands, they can the idea. Hmmm, do ya think their energy "policy" bears any relationship to what is best for the nation...?

Let's Call Africa Africa!

I'm still backing Sarah Palin for the 2012 presidential race, even though she apparently thinks Africa is a country.

Let me tell you this, I've been teaching school for several years now and I promise you that despite the best efforts of our geography teachers about 87 percent of US high school grads share Palin's belief that Africa is a country.

I think it's time we just declare Africa a country and be done with this issue. We already have South Africa, right? Certainly if there is a country called South Africa, there must be a country called plain old Africa. After all, we have a state called West Virginia and nobody would think for even a fleeting moment that Virginia was anything other than a state itself.

No one can keep track of those oddly named countries that make up most of continental Africa anyway. From what I gather they all pretty much share the same problems of disease, corruption, and economic chaos.

Further, the label "African American" would make a lot more sense. Us white guys don't get called a "European American." We get labels like "Irish American" or "Italian American." Give the whole continent that generic country name of "Africa" and, bam, problem solved.

And finally, this one little change would instantly make our high school grads just that much smarter.

Only trying to be helpful.

Save the Auto Makers!

News item: In a letter to Hank Paulson, treasury secretary, sent on Saturday, Nov. 9, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,Speaker of the House, wrote: “We left the meetings convinced that our nation’s automobile industry - the heart of our manufacturing sector - and the jobs of tens of thousands of Americans are at risk." Then they begged that some of the $700 billion earmarked to fix the credit crunch be siphoned off to the auto industry.

At the heart of the Democratic Party's political-environmental-economic philosophy is the notion that the internal combustion engine is the mechanical Anti-Christ, threatening the very survival of mankind. How ironic then, that with Barack Obama about ready to take over the helm, the Democratic leaders of Congress are sweating bullets worrying about the fortunes of the big three automakers. If they really want to save the auto industry, they should break the unions and throw out excessive regulatory obligations they have saddled the auto industry with the last 30 years.

Of course, if this were Republicans rallying to save the Big Three, it would just be another piece of evidence that the GOP is in the pocket of Korporate Amerika. A person more cynical than I would suspect that the Democrats want to save the auto industry in 2008 just so they can destroy it with the mandatory manufacture of electric cars in 2010.

Warming vs Cooling

Sitting around on Saturday afternoon, decided to do a google search. Here are the results:

global warming = 44,800,000 hits
global cooling = 4,340,000 hits

Date: 11/8/08

About a 10-to-1 ration in favor of warming. Let's check this out every so often and see how long it takes the world of popular culture to catch on to the fact that we're in a cooling cycle now.

Reach across the aisle and get your hand cut off

Journalists everywhere are falling over themselves praising the successful campaign of Barack Obama. And it certainly was a well run campaign. But why aren't any charging that he virtually purchased the office of the presidency? When Republicans outspend Democrats there is always an undercurrent that their victories are tainted by their big spending.

Obama outspent McCain three-to-one (I'm hearing 4-1 and 5-1 now). Do you think he would have won had he spent the same amount as McCain? It's a good question. Further,  it came to light near the end of the campaign that many donations to the Obama campaign are untraceable and, frankly, suspect due to the abuse of those charge cards that can be loaded with funds. Not illegal, but a huge loophole in the law. Anyone surprised that politicians would write a law and leave such a huge loophole?

But above all, isn't it poetic justice that McCain sealed his own destiny in 2002 when he ushered the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform through Congress? Being an old navy man, I think McCain is in a perfect position to appreciate the old adage of being "hoisted by one's own petard."

I just hope Republicans see how little there is to gain politically by "reaching across the aisle." In this election a very moderate Republican with a long history of working with Democrats was trounced by the second most liberal Democrat in the Senate. In addition, they paid the price for caving in on all the legislation that virtually eliminated any reasonable voter eligibility requirements. Who knows how much fraud there was in this election, but  who cares? Apparently no one. Until the Republicans learn to play hardball in the same league as the Democrats, they are dead in the water. If you can't control the country's borders, you don't have a proper country. If you can't control who votes, you don't have a legitimate government.

Republicans need to understand they will always be severely criticized by the press. Just get used to it. Cut them off when necessary. Obama had no problem kicking his critics in the press off his campaign plane.

I join all the Obama supporters in their joy of having a black man as president. In that respect this is truly a historic day. I just wish it woulda been a black conservative...

Jefferson and Madison Endorse McCain

On an earlier blog I poked fun at Barack Obama because of his shameless "tax cut" that is really nothing more than an attempt to buy votes. In recent days he has really ratcheted up the sales pitch on television and with his online "calculator." I wonder how far ahead in the polls he would be if he wasn't able to outspend John McCain about 3-to-1...

It's interesting that just at the same time Obama is calling his tax hike on the so-called rich "neighborly," new information on his relatives is coming to light. It seems that some of his African immigrant relatives are living in various levels of extreme poverty not too far from Harvard where Obama became the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review.

If neighborliness is a desirable character attribute, it seems that helping his impoverished relatives would have been a good place to start. The problem with contemporary liberals is they want to do all sorts of "good deeds" with other people's money. Let's take a short walk down memory lane:

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."
James Madison

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, part of the vast right-wing conspiracy! Who woulda thunk it?