GLOBAL WARMING STOPPED 15 YEARS AGO, YET WE ARE ALL SCREWED

That chart is what global warming looks like folks.  Non-existent for the last 15+ years.  Zero. Nada.  Zilch.  (Before that, in the '70's, it was all about the "Coming Ice Age" and where did that go?)  All the while the developing world has been cranking up carbon use for manufacturing.  And in the meantime?  We have energy starvation policies stuffed down our throats.  And a President, last night in the debate, going on and on about "Green Jobs," which are either non-existent also...or are causing bankruptcy eruptions all over the place.  Not to mention the dire straights he is putting people in with regard to the energy they need to survive. 

Excuse the unladylike word in my title, but the entire Al Gorebasm insanity is causing nothing but draconian, opportunistic, tyrannical thievery and controls over our very daily lives to the point of stark raving global madness.  You have been sold down the proverbial river.  Sent over the cliff. Robbed blind.  And screwed...totally.   Americans are supposed to be smarter than this.  I want to believe Americans are smarter than this.  But every day, in America, bureaucrats, planners, non-profits, corporations, and politicians are spending their time, and energy, and your money, to capture you...not carbon, but you.....into their schemes of control.  None of that has one whit to do with some conjured up fiction that you are causing the global temperatures to rise.  You aren't.  You never did.  But they won't let a little thing like the truth stop them from their central control of your energy use.

Some food for thought:

German Consumers Pay Big Price for Government's Energy Mistakes @ Al FIN

"Industries are already leaving Germany, and more will soon follow. The loss of energy and jobs will damage the German economy almost as much as the exploding cost of new infrastructure required to deal with the intermittent unreliables. And the cost -- THE COST!!! Hundreds of thousands of lower class workers in Germany already cannot afford to pay their skyrocketing power bills. That number will only grow larger."

From the Telegraph - UK

"The shift to renewable energy is also taking a toll on family budgets. On Monday Germany's electrical grid operators announced that a special tax levied on consumers to finance subsidies for green energy would increase by almost 50 per cent." 

 The EU is going straight down the road to serfdom....again, I might add.  (Note Spain's 17%+ unemployment after converting to a "Green" economy.  Throw in a little Greece, Italy, and the rest...and what do you have?)  How many times in history have European nations been sucked into the central planning models of either Monarchs or Dictators.  I thought we fought and won a revolution to get out of that mold of ignorance. 

Hat Tip to: Townhall Finance

"Remember last summer- and the summer before that, and the summer before that- when droughts and tornadoes were pinned to global warming by a compliant media? Or when we were told that 100 million people would die in the next twenty minutes, or twenty years- is there really a difference?- because of global warming? And that of course women and children would bear the brunt of those deaths? Or last year when we were told about the wave of Polar Bear cannibals terrorizing the animal kingdom in the great white north?"

Too bad Candy Crowley never got to the Global Warming issue in the debate.  Too bad....

If Romney and Ryan have the facts on this, we might be saved from the economic devastation that Europe is facing right now.  God bless them both.  

Paul Ryan's speech - "Get off the path to European failures."

KNOW THY ENEMY - OBAMA and ENERGY POLICIES

The Obama administration wasted billions of dollars on supposed "Green" or "Clean" energy stimulus programs.  States and utility companies took the bait.  The economy and consumers took the hit.  The nation suffers.   It is as if a suicide pact has been made, only you and I didn't agree to it.

 A case in point would be Maine.  From Watts Up With That

 On September 26, 2012, the Maine Heritage Policy Center and Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research released a study which found that Maine’s current Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) Law, which mandates the minimum and maximum amount of energy consumers must purchase from various sources, will raise the cost of electricity in Maine by 8% in 2017. This 8% increase amounts to approximately $145 million in statewide consumption costs, and would cost Maine approximately 995 jobs, $85 million in real disposable income, decrease investment in the state by $11 million, and increase the average household electricity bill by $80 per year.

North Carolina also has an insane law requiring a percentage of so-called  "renewable energy" usage in our State.  Multiply this across each State in America doing this and imagine the damage to our economy from Obama's energy policies.  From The Manhattan Institute"

"Motivated by a desire to reduce carbon emissions, and in the absence of federal action to do so, 29 states (and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) have required utility companies to deliver specified minimum amounts of electricity from "renewable" sources, including wind and solar power."

"There is growing evidence that the costs may be too high—that the price tag for purchasing renewable energy, and for building new transmission lines to deliver it, may not only outweigh any environmental benefits but may also be detrimental to the economy, costing jobs rather than adding them. "

How did this happen?  Obama handed out stimulus money.  New York Times 2009

“It’s an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years,” said Mr. Obama, who also promised that the bill would help “transform the way we use energy.”

The text of the bill is posted by the House Appropriations Committee here. This detailed summary is particularly helpful.
The provisions include:
* A large sum for energy efficiency, including $5 billion for low-income weatherization programs; over $6 billion in grants for state and local governments; and several billion to modernize federal buildings, with a particular emphasis on energy efficiency.
* $11 billion for “smart grid” investments.
* $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects (otherwise known as “clean coal”).
* $2 billion for research into batteries for electric cars.
* $500 million to help workers train for “green jobs.”
* A three-year extension of the “production tax credit” for wind energy (as well as a tax credit extension for biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and some hydropower projects).
* The option, available to many developers, of turning their tax credits into direct cash, with the government underwriting 30 percent of a project’s cost

 

The Democrat Governor Perdue (of "suspend the elections" fame) came up with an executive order for Offshore Wind Power.  Evidently, the "executive order" disease is not just in the White House.

"Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) signed an executive order to create the Offshore Wind Economic Development Task Force, in conjunction with her veto of Senate Bill 709, which would have pushed the development of offshore oil and gas, as well as onshore gas fracking."

In case you are clueless as to why this is going on and who is driving this unconscionable madness, a commenter on Watts Up With That helped me out with the list of quotes below.  Read them and KNOW YOUR ENEMY.

* “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” – Obama, POTUS

* “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe” – Steven Chu, Obama’s Energy secretary

* “A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States” – John Holdren, Obama’s Science Czar

* “Isn’t the only hope for this planet the total collapse of industrial civilization? Is it not our responsibility to ensure that this collapse happens?” – Maurice Strong, UNEP Director

* “My goal is to destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness… returning throughout the world.” – David Foreman, Earth First co-founder

* “In my opinion, these CEOs of fossil energy companies should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature.” James Hansen, NASA Goddard

* “We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work.” Gene Hashmi, Greenpeace communications director 

* “We have wished, we ecofreaks, for a disaster… to bomb us into the stone age, where we might live like Indians with our localism, our gardens, our homemade religion.” – Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalogue

* “In the history of mankind we witness Nature’s desperate struggle against an error of her own evolution…. If there were a button I could press, I would sacrifice myself without hesitating if it meant millions of people would die,” Finnish environmentalist Pentti Linkola

THE BIG GREEN DRAGON

The other day I had a rare experience of meeting with our DC Representative.  (Republican)  As with the norm, these things are short.  He gave our local Tea Party board just under an hour to meet with him.  He brought two staffers.  There were three of us from the board.  He's looking for support for the Nov. election, running against a left-wing looney who lives on Kool-ade.  I did my homework.  I took notes with me.  I tried to hit some issues I thought were critical to us.

Backing up for a second....I happen to have known and watched this young man for a long time.  He went to school with my son and daughter.  He was locally known in the early days as a firebrand conservative. Was a nice young man.  Now he is around 37 or 38 yrs. old.  Still young, but has been in this political arena his entire adult life.  Now he is a career politician.  

During this interview, he rather off-handedly said to me, "I want to get us off oil."  This was in the middle of my telling him I was not happy about the Smart Grid and Smart Meter incentives, grants, and federal force taking away our choices on energy.  I was so taken aback that I didn't know quite what to say for a minute...and then the conversation was flying all over the place with the others at the table and the moment fled.  I remember thinking to myself, "What was that?"  And then I thought, "That is too large of an issue to even try to approach in this short venue."  So I followed up and emailed him later.  There has been no reply.  Which is also typical.  I rarely hear back from elected officials these days.  

So getting off oil?  I have no idea where that came from or what possessed him to say such an idiotic thing.  I suspect the Republicans and Democrats in Congress are both going in the same direction of green energy.  And I suspect this is due to the heavy lobbying by green environmentalists and the green energy corporations funding campaigns to skew the money their direction.  I see it happening all around us locally, i.e. the two parties moving toward "sustainable" hell. 

What on earth is causing people to move in a direction that is so completely detrimental to our national sovereignty, our economic health, and our freedoms?  A "Green Dragon?"  Seems so.

I just read two articles proving the idiocy and economic damage caused by this green energy insanity.  One article is from Britain.  The other is from Germany.  

First from Britain, is THIS one.   Snippet here:

 "The Government’s ideological obsession with wind power is inflicting ever greater damage on Britain, driving up our energy bills and ruining our countryside. Brutalist, expensive and inefficient, wind farms are nothing more than vast monuments to political vanity. They contribute little to our electricity supply, yet they cost us all a fortune."

Then Germany chimes in:

"The public discussion about Germany’s green energy transition has taken a new direction. The rise of electricity prices in Germany is suddenly no longer blamed on the billions spent for building solar and wind farms, biomass plants and power grids.
Now it is “the industry” which is being blamed for its lobbying which has resulted in a variety of financial reliefs, compensations and tax exemptions and for abandoning the ‘community solidarity’ of this ‘national effort."

Back in the states, also at Junk Science, came this from Nevada:

"As U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prepares to host his fifth annual National Clean Energy Summit on Aug. 7, a Nevada Journal examination of Nevada’s renewable energy sector shows that over $1.3 billion in federal funds funneled into geothermal, solar and wind projects since 2009 has yielded and is projected to yield just 288 permanent, full-time jobs. That’s an initial cost of over $4.6 million per job."

Whoa....$4.6 million per job?  That is a lot of kilowatt hours for some folks who could use them.  Divvy that up and imagine what great things could be done if that money had stayed in the private sector.

I don't know about you, but I'm seeing the handwriting on the wall.  When a former firebrand conservative comes home to talk with his constituency and casually states he wants to "get us off oil," I have to conclude that a very large Green Dragon has threatened, cajoled, bribed, extorted, and breathed some heavy duty Global Warming fire on some formerly sane people.

And since that is likely the case, and there is no great substitute candidate for whom to vote, I'm feeling the breath of that Dragon on the back of my neck.  Maybe that is why people think there is Global Warming when there actually isn't.  It can get very hot in hell with Dragons hanging around. 

"PARDON ME BOY, IS THAT THE CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO?"

(Above is the oh, so charming, but politically incorrect, song from You Tube.)

I think trains are cool, although I find them intimidating.  When I was a child a train track ran just a few feet from my Dad's tire store, situated a block from Main Street. As a little girl, when I heard the whistle, I'd go out outside to the front of the store and stand there, feel the ground move, my hair blowing from the passing machines on the track. I'd count the cars. I'd wave at the engineers and the guy who manned the caboose. They smiled and waved back. I'd go back in and report to my Dad how many cars, as if the information was very important.  Huge and powerful, a mighty sight for a little child.  

Anthony Watts, over at WattsUpWithThat, reports on  "renewable" energy and the latest development in ......the steam engine.  Yes, you read that right.  The steam engine.  Dreaming of bygone eras...it sounds so charming.  

Here is Anthony's take on bio-coal used for "renewable energy:"  

"Here’s the strange part, they are converting an oil burning locomotive to run “biocoal”, and somehow they magically think the production process and the burning of it won’t produce any net CO2, saying the process is “carbon neutral”.  I think they’ve left out some parts, like the energy needed to produce and transport the biocoal fuel in the first place. Excerpts from the MSNBC story: 
A steam train built in 1937 is getting a makeover that will turn it into a “higher-speed” locomotive that runs on biocoal, a coal-like fuel made with woody plant material.
When finished, the train will be able chug along existing tracks at speeds up to 130 miles per hour without contributing to the greenhouse gas pollution blamed for global warming."

 The comments below that story are priceless, by the way.

The "renewable energy" used to fire up this steam engine is bio-coal made from........trees.  North Carolina has committed itself to a percentage of "renewable energy" by such and such a date.  To that end, our State has made deals with the energy sector and the enviromentalist lobbies to create biomass energy.  The problem with that is North Carolina's abundance of trees is named as a source for this "renewable energy."  Trees are a fabulous renewable resource.  The durable products we receive from trees are many and useful, furniture and paper being two of them.  But those two industries have been vilified for years for using trees to create their products from trees. So now we find that environmentalists who have complained for years about the use of trees for industries of durable goods are, all of sudden, just fine with burning up trees for "renewable energy?"  What goes on here?

From the News and Observer 

State regulators today resolved one of the more nettlesome conundrums of green energy: Do forests and tree farms count as a renewable energy resource?
The N.C. Utilities Commission said that they do, clearing the way for power companies to harvest entire trees for wood chips to be used as a fuel in power plants. Wood and other biomass are expected to supply much of the alternative fuel that in the coming decades will offset the state's heavy reliance on coal and nuclear power to generate electricity.
Duke Energy, the state's biggest power company, is already blending wood chips with coal to meet its green energy mandates under the state's 2007 energy law, which requires power companies to shift to alternative energy sources.
"This decision by the commission further reinforces that biomass, including woody biomass derived from whole trees, is a viable renewable resource for North Carolina," said Duke spokesman Jason Walls.

Read more here: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/business/state-whole-trees-count-as-renewable-fuel#storylink=cpy

Anthony Watts and the comments on his post proceed to explain how this bio-coal does nothing to reduce energy use.  It takes energy to produce bio-coal, just like wind turbines take more energy to create than the energy they eventually produce.  There is a downside to production of bio-coal.  The trade off would be taking a living tree which provides a carbon sink to the atmosphere and then turning it into an energy source.  Is this energy source any more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels? 

Supply Problem:

" The Tennessee Valley Authority—a government-owned power utility—has been conducting biomass/coal cofiring tests for the past several decades, and also has an interest in torrefied pellets. Unfortunately, it has run into the same problem as UNC. “There doesn’t seem to be enough material, or supply,” says Daryl Williams, head of renewable energy at TVA. “We needed a couple thousand tons for test burns at our plant in north Alabama, and we had a few vendors promising that, but when it came down to it they couldn’t provide it.”

My layman's view is that this is much more finite resource than any fossil fuel.  There is only so much dead wood laying around to be gathered up.  Once the dead wood is used up, in North Carolina there is nothing on the books inhibiting the harvesting of live whole trees to create bio-coal.  Which makes me wonder where the environmentalists go from there.  After they've successfully eliminated natural gas, then oil, and coal, and wind, solar and bio-coal turn out to be insufficient, what happens then?

 Are some people so caught up in their own propaganda on "renewable energy," that they can't see the forest for the trees?  Seriously. 

Side notes:  I've read quite a few positive articles on bio-coal, but find the information more hype for something unproven.  It isn't going to be the elixir of the Gods for fuel starvation policies.  Bio-coal might make some sense when made from only scrap tree material or forest clean up methods.  However, as I read further, I find that bio-coal costs 3 times more than bituminous coal  That would mean either major subsidies or excessive energy prices for consumers.  The article cites using downed trees from Hurricane Katrina, for instance.  (Hurricane Hugo debris ended up being used for land reformation projects, filling in revines, creating more useable land space.)  How often do hurricanes happen?  There is no mention of transporting the downed tree material, no mention of the energy used to create bio-coal briquettes, no mention of any reduction of CO2, etc. Also, no mention of the reclamation of land that coal companies have been held to for decades.  

 

Other Sources:

Sierra Club energy policies

Duke Energy Caves to Environmental Pressure Groups
EPA killing the coal industry deliberately

DEVOLUTION BY DESIGN - DE-INDUSTRIALIZATION BY GREEN-EYED MONSTERS

“Today’s debate about global warming is essentially a debate about freedom. The environmentalists would like to mastermind each and every possible (and impossible) aspect of our lives.”

Vaclav Klaus
Blue Planet in Green Shackles

I wonder how it happened that some people woke up one day and decided that using energy to power our lives is a bad thing. That is what has happened. I sit here with the lights on, in my climate controlled house, typing away on my computer while my clothes washer is running, and wondering why some people think energy starvation is a good policy. I have never been anything but grateful for abundant and critical energy supplies. Those same people who despise energy will never do without light and heat and hot water or a car to take them somewhere. Yet they demonize energy sources and usage as if the masses are the blood suckers of the world for having affordable energy. The technocrats have figured out how to syphon buckets of money from the masses in so many ways for using energy, my head spins from trying to count them. Are we headed for the dark ages on purpose?

First, what do you call punishing people (with higher prices) for using energy while at the same time refusing to maintain and increase the energy infrastructure? Energy starvation. And what do you call it when you figure out how to profit from misery? Diabolical.

The American energy grid is not being expanded. It is being designed into something else; a device for controlling users of power and massively reducing the power available. Germany could be a lesson in what not to do, but our leadership is not listening nor caring about the consequences of energy starvation policies.

Energy Starvation Policy in Germany
"Energy prices are rising and the risk of power outages is growing. But the urgently needed expansion of the grid, as well as the development of replacement power plants and renewable energy sources is progressing very slowly. A growing number of economic experts, business executives and union leaders are putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of Merkel's coalition, which pairs her conservatives with the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP). The government, they say, has expedited de-industrialization."

"The price of electricity is moving in only one direction: steeply up. For the Krefeld plant, the cost of a kilowatt hour of electricity has tripled since 2000."

"And there is no end in sight. When Merkel's new energy policy was introduced last year, says plant manager Behmenburg, planning for the future became virtually impossible. Behmenburg says that it is impossible now to know what will happen to the supply situation and the price of electricity in the coming years."

The entire article from Al Fin is a good read for anyone concerned about what lies ahead for our future.

Today, first thing this morning, I heard an abomination coming from the mouth of Art Laffer who said, to my disgust and shock, that we should start taxing carbon." For God's sake. I can't help but wonder who got to Art Laffer on that one. He's lost his mind or his moral compass....or both. I could not believe my ears. Who has promised him boatloads of money for selling his soul? This comes at the same time, Senator Inhofe has declared Cap & Trade dead forever. (Well, maybe Congress will not approve it, but it is being done anyway through totalitarian federal agencies.) So, one man tells us we can stop worrying about taxing carbon at the same time another one, who is supposed to be a Reagan conservative economist, comes out and says we should tax carbon?

Whiplash.

We are heading down a very dangerous path. Green energy is a killer. The higher energy prices due to these starvation policies, the worse economic shape we will be in, more unemployment will come, costs for basic necessities will squeeze more people into poverty. And this is supposed to be saving the planet? For whom?

Green is the color of death. Death of economies. Death of peoples who will not be able to afford energy. Death of industrialization, therefore jobs. Death of affordable goods. Death of affordable services. Death of freedom of mobility.

All by design.

Similar topic: Why Smart Meters Might Be a Dumb Idea" from Consumer Reports I have to say there is no "might" about it. They are a VERY dumb idea.

THE GIANT SUCKING SOUND OF OBAMA'S GREEN STIMULUS JOBS

Way back, when the marketplace ran things, products were tested and tested before given prime time exposure in the world of commercial sales. Otherwise, you ended up like the Delorian, bankrupted and the poster child for excessive investment in a product no one could buy. Or maybe the Edsel is a better analogy. Either way, they were expensive commercial flops, each for their own reasons. But way back when, the investors took the hit. It was their risk and their opportunity to succeed or fail.

Today, it is the taxpayer taking the hit. Somehow, the green lobbyists have convinced politicians that citizens must collectively pay the cost of products to satisfy the false insanity of Anthropogenic Global Warming. Bad enough that the science was completely off the charts wrong. But then to soak the public by pushing technology and products based on that false assumption is criminal. We get to pay for light bulbs no one wants, smart grids no one wants, ID chips in recycle bins no one wants, windmills no one wants, solar panels too expensive for most people to buy, lousy paints without lead which encourage mold, toilets that don't flush well, storm water fees for what, I don't know, greenways a very few people use, light rail costing taxpayers 500 times what each ride should cost, bike lanes for under 1.5% of commuters, gasoline blends with ethanol that wrecks engines, etc.

Obama has to be a hopeless stooge for the green globalist lobbyists, or he saw the opportunity to soak the American people for any reason and jumped onto the Global Warming Green Jobs idea like a tick on a dog. I'm betting it is the latter. Any excuse will do when your objective is to economically rape the most successful country in the history of the world. Putting communist Van Jones in charge of the Green Jobs program when it was first announced is just a little hint, don't you think? What does a communist have to do with green anything? Think about it.

It isn't about green anything. It's all about redistribution, social justice, diversity, collectivism, "shared sacrifice" as Obama puts it. He'll make us all pay, alright.

From AL FIN "Many of Obama's expensive green stimulus programs cost $1 million to $2 million per job -- mainly "hands-off" make-work administrative jobs, rather than the entry-level practical jobs as promised."

That is the same thing that put the unemployment rate in Spain over 17%, i.e. the extravagant costs of green jobs put other private sector jobs out of business.... because to force the green jobs onto everyone, you have to regulate the previously normal jobs out of existence. Just like the Obama administration is doing to the coal industry. He may add 58 jobs here and 700 jobs there, but at the same time he is putting tens of thousands out of work. Maybe he thinks green jobs are a loss leader, only in his case he adds a few green jobs and then adds thousands to the unemployment lines. He leads us down the garden path, and we all lose our shirts. But it's all for our own good, he would tell you.

"Something unexpected happened on the way to the Garden of Eden. Despite massive spending and stimulus, the green jobs revolution fizzled. Wind energy failed to meet expectations, as did solar. Electric vehicles were not ready for prime time, because electrical storage batteries are still 3 breakthroughs away from being up to the task. And the "smart power grid" is proving to be one more way that government and malicious hackers can monitor private activity, and shut it down."

Obama has sucked the life out of the economy from the energy sector, to the housing sector, to the manufacturing sector, to the auto industry, to the food supplies, to everything he has touched. He has tried to label all of these fiscally draining procedures, "Green." Green homes, green cars, green energy, green manufacturing, green foods. (This is giving the color green a bad name, if you ask me. None of us will ever want to even hear the word green as this keeps going.)

Years ago it was funny to hear Ross Perot use that phrase about "the giant sucking sound." Today it isn't so funny when you see what Obama's giant green sucking machine has done to the American economy. You can only do so much sucking before you suck the life out of everything. 15 mos. to go, folks.

AL FIN on the Return to Eden

THREE DAYS WITHOUT POWER - OBAMA'S ENERGY STARVATION PLAN

Some years ago I was without electricity, water, and phone service for about three weeks due to Hurricane Hugo. It was one of those experiences one doesn't forget. I was much younger then with teenagers in the house who chipped in to help chop up the multitudes of trees we had down in the yard. The whole neighborhood at that time was abuzz with chain saws and good will to help everyone. It was an "event."

This past week we had some small (?) tornadic "event" that took out the power lines to my area. We have underground services in my neighborhood, but the feeder lines to get the power here are above ground. A dozen power poles were snapped in half and the transformer connections were blown. Our power company worked nonstop / 24-7 / to restore the power.

The first night was 34 degrees. This time the neighborhood was abuzz with generators at some homes. For us it was a slip back into survival mode. This time we still had running water, so that was a life-saver. I have a fireplace and fortunately lots of firewood stacked up. Battery flashlights and radios and one antique oil lamp were our saviours. I also have a gas cooktop stove now that I didn't have before, so with a match we could light the stove and make coffee, tea, and cook dinner. From the worrisome situation of our refrigerator, I cooked the most vulnerable food first. We were able to buy ice from a grocery a few miles away, so we packed the fridge with bags of ice to save the majority of the food. All in all, we spent a lot of time creatively thinking about how to save food and create light at night and stay warm. We huddled around the oil lamp after dark, reading and talking to each other without the blare and distraction of TV. I can't say that was a hardship. In fact, that was a very nice consequence. My husband and I missed our computer communications a lot. Both of us use the computer for business..so there you are. Out of normal work time, but working on things we normally take for granted. No washer and dryer, no dishwasher, no electric coffeepot, no electric phones, no hair dryer, etc.

And when the power came back on yesterday, we gave a big sigh of relief and started putting all of the survival paraphernalia away again for another time. I still have to clean out the fireplace...waiting for the coals to completely cool down. I think I will spread them into the back woods for carbon feeding of the trees and green things back there.

What did I learn from this? Well, obviously, one lesson is how dependent we are on electricity. One thinks about energy starvation and what that really means. One thinks about which things one could do without if necessary. Survival mentality starts to creep in. It makes one want to buy some acres and grow one's own food. It makes one want to figure out how to get off the grid altogether. If I were thirty years old again, I know I would be giving that serious thought. But I am twice that now and can't imagine cleaning up after a cow and chickens to survive.

So dependence on an electrical power grid is the reality for us. Which is why Obama's energy starvation schemes are so troubling. The system is in place to assure us all of energy to produce and live. And for that, we produce more and live better than most countries in the world. Obama resents that. He despises America's success at providing energy for its citizens. He argues, with his obtuse and broken brain, it just isn't fair. Of course, he, himself, will not do without. Just the general population will suffer his consequences. A leader who wishes to impoverish and indenture servants to his insanity, Obama is the culmination of an idiocracy created entirely by leftists who wish to control every aspect of our lives to their benefit.

Useful idiots are there to help and implement his cause. So while I watched the power company employees work their tails off for three solid days to get our power back on, I thought about how Obama, the UN, and the idiots of socialism want to cut our power off while taking power for themselves, the power of control and the power of energy to go directly to them and out of our hands. It was a week for dichotomy, contradictions and....more contemplation on the insanity of the left. I wonder if we could figure out how to cut off the power to the White House until January 2013. We need to starve the beast..of energy, money, and power, so the beast cannot starve the rest of us.

Sources:
Obama's Energy Starvation Diet
Obama's Plan on Energy Starvation
Obama's Plan for Energy Starvation Suicide
WattsUpWithThat On Anthropogenic Global Warming - The Hoax

OBAMA WANTS "GREEN" PIE IN THE SKY, WANTS TO STUFF IT DOWN YOUR THROAT, AND BANKRUPT YOU TO BOOT

One of the main themes of Obama's SOTUS speech was his ad nauseum support for "green" energy (supposed) solutions to getting America out of buying foreign oil. If you honestly believe that "green" energies are going to fuel our country by any reliable or cost efficient manner, you might want to go soak your head. The best thing you can do is research the subject on your own and realize the POTUS is lying straight through his teeth.

If you are one of those who think if we stop buying foreign oil we will put all of the bad guys out of business, you might want to rethink that. China is the Middle East's Favorite Customer

"China is the largest importer of Middle Eastern oil, buying just over a tenth of the crude oil exported by Gulf states. It's also Iran's top customer, taking 23 percent of Tehran's oil."

If you are one of those who think "green" energy will create jobs in the United States, you might want to rethink that one, too.
Capitol Commentary.com
Obama's Green Energy Proposals Will Bankrupt America
"The 11 US-based wind farms that received cash grants from the US Treasury have imported 695 of the 982 wind turbines that are to be installed. Since the manufacture of turbines is by far the largest employment generator in wind energy, it is estimated to have created 4,500 jobs overseas – far in excess of the jobs created in the US from these grants. And in Spain, $30 billion has been spent using taxpayer monies on “green” jobs… those positions ended up costing $855,000.00 each."

If you are one of those who think we need to be so cool like the Europeans and take on their oh so enlightened view on saving the planet with "green" energy, you might want to check out just how that worked out for Spain.

From Heritage.org
"Spain is a country President Obama says the U.S. should replicate when it comes to energy policy, saying, “they’re making real investments in renewable energy.” But real investments aren’t necessarily good investments. Another IER-commissioned study coming out of King Juan Carlos University in Madrid by Gabriel Calzada found that, for every green job created, 2.2 jobs in other sectors have been destroyed. Furthermore, Spain’s government spent $758,471 to create each green job and used $36 billion in taxpayer money to invest in wind, solar, and mini-hydro from 2000-2008. The country’s unemployment rate is currently at 19.4%."

If you are one of those who think windfarms are just so "ducky" and will save our wildlife through our use of "green" energy, you might want to take a flyer into the real consequences by reading the article below.
Effects Of Windfarms On Wildlife - Avian Cuisinarts
"The avian mortality problem of wind power is different from bird mortality from stationary objects. As explained by the CEED Study, p. 2-15: 'Wind farms have been documented to act as both bait and executioner -- rodents taking shelter at the base of turbines multiply with the protection from raptors, while in turn their greater numbers attract more raptors to the farm."
"In one week the Sekano and Barracuda found 19 tawny vultures dead under a wind farm of 11 wind turbines in the Landmark Wheel area (Zaragoza, Spain). The Department of Environment was notified and the immediate closure of the park and a moratorium on the installation of wind farms has been requested ."

There is no "green" pie in the sky. There is zero truth to Obama's assertions that "green" energy will save America from anything. There is nothing but dead birds, higher unemployment, higher energy costs, and an even more bankrupt America at the end of this rainbow.

Pass the word along and wake up the zombies!

SAVE THE BIRDS AND U.S. - FROM WINDMILLS

First, random facts: The cause of most bird deaths in the U.S. is electrical wires. The second cause of bird deaths is.....CATS.

Now that would lead you to believe that I am for eliminating all electrical wires and....CATS. (Furry little murderers) This also might lead you to believe that I am for adding 50 g'zillion million solar panels in the desert and 50 trillion million giant windmills across the plains. But you would be wrong.

Growing up in Ohio, I witnessed controversies over clear-cutting and coal mining operations which devastated the forested hills. Scars on the landscape. Blights on our views. Devastation of habitats. That was then. Now mining operations have improved their methods. They are forbidden to pollute the waters. They are required to put the landscape back after gleaning our much needed fossil fuels. And though years have gone by, fossil fuels are still the best and preferred source of energy. I believe this will be the case until or unless some incredible technology allows us to create energy out of thin air. Energy has to come from some earthly substance. And it needs to come from a source that is abundant enough to fuel a lot of homes and industries. (assuming we will have any industries left in this country after the socialists get through with their diabolical efforts to shut us down)

Wind is the answer? As I have posted before on this subject, wind turbines take more energy to produce than they will ever create. Not only that, they take huge swaths of land. Not only that, they kill migratory birds and raptors because they are placed into landscapes that are on migratory paths, landscapes which have the wind to power eagles and hawks on their way.

From the Financial Post, June 30

"The sprawling $475-million Wolfe Island facility in Frontenac Township off the shores of Kingston, Ont., features 86 wind turbine generators capable of producing 197.8 MW at full capacity — which never occurs because wind is intermittent. The first of two monitoring reports to date, released in February, documented 45 bird fatalities and 45 bat fatalities during May 2009 and June 2009."

"Colliding with blades is hardly the only risk wind power poses to birds and bats. Researchers have also found that the construction of wind farms and associated infrastructure (e.g., buildings, roads and electrical transmission lines) renders wide swaths of habitat less suitable for birds.

"Wind farms also require large plots of open land — an estimated 2.5 acres per turbine, on average. As a result, a variety of wildlife also is affected."

Back to my thoughts here:
"There is nothing new under the sun," says the Bible (Ecclesiastes 1:9) and said my mother who liked to remind me of that passage often. The "Green" movement, which is actually Communist Red on the inside (AKA watermelons), would have you swallow the idea that being "green" means no wildlife will be adversely affected by their energy methods. They would like you to think they are creating some "new" and better way of living. Yet what they promote is no better. More to the point, their schemes are worse for all creatures great and small. They are creating a hostile environment for BOTH people and wildlife. (Witness mercury laden CFL's)

While all of us are seeing the tragedy of the pelicans and turtles in the Gulf of Mexico adversely affected by the BP oil spill, the gut reaction is to exclaim all oil is bad, all fossil fuels are evil, and the "Greenies" have been right all along to eliminate fossil fuels from our lives. This is nonsense of the highest degree. I suggest we must keep the facts in perspective and not react as impulsive children to do things that will make our lives worse and ALSO make things worse or just as bad for wildlife. God has allowed us fossil fuels to use for our benefit. Fossil fuels are not evil. However, some people are evil and will use emotions to unravel civilization. As God has told us, "There is nothing new under the sun."

By Dr. Richard Swier
"Do You Know How Many Birds Are Killed By Wind Turbines?"
By Dr. Richard Swier | 06/06/10 | 08:39 AM EDT

"I always love it when the main stream media shows pictures of birds covered in oil. On the front pages of major new papers and on TV we see the constant reminder of oil covered birds. It is the ultimate environmentalist's symbol of evil oil killing the innocent bird.

That is fine but do you know how many birds are killed each year by the environmentalists favorite clean energy alternatives - wind farms and wind turbines?

According to the St. Petersburg Times PolitiFact.com:

The latest independent reports estimate the number of birds killed by wind turbines at about 100,000 per year. That's according to a 2007 report from the National Research Council called "Environmental Impacts of Wind-Energy Projects."

The American Bird Conservancy estimated in 2003 that between 10,000 and 40,000 birds were killed each year at wind farms across the country, about 80 percent of which were songbirds and 10 percent birds of prey.

"With the increased capacity over the last seven years, we now estimate that 100,000 – 300,000 birds are killed by wind turbines each year," said Conservancy spokesman Robert Johns.

By our math, that comes to 274 to 822 birds a day killed by wind farms across the country. [Emphasis added]"

This statistic is surely a low estimate and will only increase exponentially as the turbines increase their visual and environmental blight on our landscapes. The only answer to this is to stop allowing them to be erected on our precious lands. Good luck with that as long as Obama kisses the sorry rears of his "green" benefactors.

Another great article on the devastation of birds by wind turbines here

BIO FUELS ARE WORSE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT - GREEN HELL

I wonder....should we tell the greenies what kind of hell they are producing? You know....those people who are indoctrinating our children about how fossil fuels are killing the planet and how Mommy and Daddy are very bad people for driving their mini-van in the carpool to school. Let's see..if a rainforest is decimated by idiots, does a person with a brain get to sentence them to life in the sahara without water. It's kind of like getting a hair cut. If it turns out badly, you can't have the barber put it back. The damage these idiots are doing to the planet in the name of "saving the planet" is enough to make me want to punish them severely....maybe 1000 years in the clinker, tie them up to one of those blades on the damn windmills for 100 years, or maybe stick them in a small room with a thousand broken compact fluorescent light bulbs. The problem is, you can lead an idiot to the truth, but you can't make them understand it.

So, today, after the last few months of revelations of fraud in the "Global Warming / Climate Change" scam, now we have the Brits explaining how bio-fuels are so much worse for the planet than fossil fuels. They have also found that prior studies on this were faked, twisted, manipulated, and generally full fledged lies in order to prop up the bio-fuel businesses. Gee...do ya think? How does that translate to Al Gore and his cute little carbon trading investments? I'll let you figure that out.

From the TIMES Online in the UK

"Most companies met part of their biofuel obligation by buying palm oil, one of the cheapest fuels but potentially the most damaging to the environment because of the carbon released when forest is burnt down to create plantations. Expansion of the industry has made Indonesia the third-largest CO2 emitter after China and the US. A litre of palm oil produced on land converted from Indonesian forest produces roughly three times as much CO2 as ordinary diesel."

And: Another article from the TIMES Online in the UK

"Clearing rainforest for biofuel plantations releases carbon stored in trees and soil. It takes up to 840 years for a palm oil plantation to soak up the carbon emitted when the rainforest it replaced was burnt. Biofuels are worse for the environment than fossil fuels.

News flash: Your SUV is not to blame for a fictional global disaster. But the environmentalistas are to blame for some very real environmental disasters. There has to be some Freudian psychology behind this, but there isn't an insane-asylum big enough to house this many idiots.

BIRD BRAINS IN CHARGE OF ENERGY POLICIES

I'm not about killing birds unless it happens to fulfill the need for food. (Actually I feel that way about most animals unless they are predators that kill us or our livestock.) I've written about this subject before, a few months ago. I have a real distaste for huge wind turbines that blight the landscapes and kill lots of birds. Wind turbines as a major source of energy is just a dumb idea that only idiots would buy into. For one thing, it takes more energy to build them than they create. (minor detail....ahem.) That fact, coupled with the fact that these behemoths kill thousands and thousands of migratory birds, is enough to send me into an apoplectic display of utmost frustration. If I were two years old again and out of control, I'd have a regular temper tantrum and be sent to my room crying. Since I can't do that, I really hope I can make some people see the light regarding this very stupid dive into "green" energy using wind turbines.

To bolster my argument today I found an article on the famously respected website called, "Junk Science." The article is written by Robert Bryce, Wall Street Journal. You can find the Junk Science link on my side bar to the right. Without further adieu, I give you more evidence that wind turbines should become quickly abandoned by our energy gurus and become a relic of the past....pronto!! And just in case you thought our government would prosecute laws uniformly and with justice for all, this article below will clue you in on how the "politically correct" schemes and schemers of the day get favoritism from the justice department. Oh, to be one of the pet projects of the power brokers.....I guess the birds are only protected from oil companies but not from GE's wind turbine industry, or maybe T.Boone Pickens' outfit. More turbines...more sliced and diced birds.

Headline:
Windmills Are Killing Our Birds - One standard for oil companies, another for green energy sources.

"On Aug. 13, ExxonMobil pleaded guilty in federal court to killing 85 birds that had come into contact with crude oil or other pollutants in uncovered tanks or waste-water facilities on its properties. The birds were protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which dates back to 1918. The company agreed to pay $600,000 in fines and fees.

ExxonMobil is hardly alone in running afoul of this law. Over the past two decades, federal officials have brought hundreds of similar cases against energy companies. In July, for example, the Oregon-based electric utility PacifiCorp paid $1.4 million in fines and restitution for killing 232 eagles in Wyoming over the past two years. The birds were electrocuted by poorly-designed power lines.

Yet there is one group of energy producers that are not being prosecuted for killing birds: wind-power companies. And wind-powered turbines are killing a vast number of birds every year.

A July 2008 study of the wind farm at Altamont Pass, Calif., estimated that its turbines kill an average of 80 golden eagles per year. The study, funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency, also estimated that about 10,000 birds—nearly all protected by the migratory bird act—are being whacked every year at Altamont.

Altamont's turbines, located about 30 miles east of Oakland, Calif., kill more than 100 times as many birds as Exxon's tanks, and they do so every year. But the Altamont Pass wind farm does not face the same threat of prosecution, even though the bird kills at Altamont have been repeatedly documented by biologists since the mid-1990s." (Robert Bryce, WSJ)

How General Electric Outens the Lights

Time was when General Electric was known as the company who made lives easier and lit up the country. They sponsored Mr. Wizard on TV. They were a huge success story and America benefited greatly from their innovations. When I was growing up there was a GE plant in my home town in Ohio. Some of my friends' parents worked there. One was a Research Engineer who was sent to Columbia to head up a research division and wound up murdered with his wife and two girls fleeing for their lives back to America. They were told by the police in Columbia to get the heck out of there fast. They never got answers to the mysterious murder and suffered from trauma from that event ever after. I was young and his daughters were my friends. We were all in shock. The family never saw saw the body. It was all very like an international spy novel or one of those movies that sends chills up your spine. One of the daughters, who was my closest friend at the time, had lasting emotional pain for years and years. To this day, there is no resolution to the event.

Those were my first impressions of GE. Sinister describes the image I have of GE today, in more ways than one. An American success story gone bad.

In case you are not aware of it, GE owns NBC and MSNBC. And in case you were locked in a closet all this past election season, those two news organizations were pushing Obama like ice cream on a hot summer's day. Every newscast was fawning all over Obama's supposed unmatched virtues. You would have thought that Obama was the Second Coming of Christ if you watched and listened to those channels. This continues today. Did you ever ask yourself why?

Timothy P. Carney reported in the Washington Post in March a revealing connection between Obama and GE. He wrote the following:

"GE — a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which advocates cap and trade — leads the push for greenhouse gas restrictions.

Reviewing their lobbying filings, you might think you were looking at Al Gore’s agenda. GE’s specific lobbying issues included the “Climate Stewardship Act,” “Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act,” “Global Warming Reduction Act,” “Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act,” “Low Carbon Economy Act,” and “Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.”
This isn’t altruism or public relations. GE has started a joint venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which invests in — and hopes to manage the trade in — greenhouse gas credits. But these investments and this trading floor are of basically no use and nearly no value without government restrictions on greenhouse gases.

Hence the lobbying, buttressed by generous campaign contributions: Employees and executives gave $1.35 million to politicians in the past election while GE’s political action committee shelled out $1.55 million. About 64 percent of this $2.9 million went to Democrats, with Obama easily the top recipient of GE money.

Obama’s budget includes the payoff, promising to start a multibillion-dollar greenhouse gas industry by 2012. In a letter this week, GE’S Immelt told shareholders that current events present an “opportunity of a lifetime,” because “capitalism will be ‘reset.’ ”

Immelt, GE CEO, wrote: “The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.”

In short, GE plans to get rich by being one of the government’s closest partners — which it has always been, thanks to its unmatched lobbying efforts.

When the lobbying fingerprints of GE and other well-connected firms are considered, it’s not hard to conclude that the policy that will finally emerge won’t be the one that is best for the planet and least bad for the economy, but the one that is best for General Electric."

It's interesting to me that the general public expressed a desire in this past election to "throw the bums out" and begin with a new slate of Presidential material which was supposed to be "Change" from the old special interest politics, but what got voted into office was the old special interest politics on steroids. In the case of GE, the company has positioned itself to rake in billions from soaking the public with not only tax dollars, carbon rebates, but also increases in energy prices bound to be through the roof. GE created a propaganda campaign on its own news media in order to convince you to vote for the guy promising to enrich GE. The planet is not going to notice the difference, but you and I will...to our detriment. GE has no sincere interest in caring for the environment. GE has caught the winds of a trend, bought and paid for government favors, and is already putting up windmills in China using our money while figuring out how to use our government to enslave you and enrich itself. American voters keep trading one corrupt political base for another. Like a circular argument, it just keeps going around and around. The only thing that changes is the crowd that reaps the whirlwind.

Now you know why MSNBC was in the tank for Obama. Do you care? Do you feel snookered? You should.

A Flight of Fantasy

"Mockingbird"
Available Painting
$550.00 (framed size 12X15)
Contact me to purchase.

USA TODAY
1/5/2005 3:23 PM


Wind turbines taking toll on birds of prey
By John Ritter, USA TODAY
ALTAMONT PASS, Calif. — "The big turbines that stretch for miles along these rolling, grassy hills have churned out clean, renewable electricity for two decades in one of the nation's first big wind-power projects.

But for just as long, massive fiberglass blades on the more than 4,000 windmills have been chopping up tens of thousands of birds that fly into them, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other raptors.

The size of the annual body count — conservatively put at 4,700 birds — is unique to this sprawling, 50-square-mile site in the Diablo Mountains between San Francisco and the agricultural Central Valley because it spans an international migratory bird route regulated by the federal government. The low mountains are home to the world's highest density of nesting golden eagles."


Here we are four years later and who is listening? The information above is not new. And it is ongoing. Meanwhile a whole lot of birds are biting the dust thanks to this insane push for "wind power." Not to mention the visual blight the turbines create. The so called 'environmentalists' have a huge hypocrisy problem. While they jump up and down and yell about "green" energy solutions, they are creating nothing more than fat bank accounts for themselves and their chosen few suppliers of this 'so called' "green" energy. They try to make you believe that they are on the side of wildlife and how the planet will collapse in short order if you don't buy into their schemes. The sorry thing is that they are stealing your taxes to support their very flawed agenda. By creating a false crisis, a lot of fat cat politicians and schemers are getting rich producing nothing of value from your hard work.

This Informative Article from the National Center for Policy Analysis

An excerpt here: "How many dead birds equal a dead fish equals an oil spill?" Ten thousand cumulative bird deaths from 1,731 MegaWatts of installed U.S. capacity is the equivalent of 4.4 million bird deaths across the entire capacity of the United States electric market (approximately 770 gigawatts). A 20 percent share of U.S. capacity, a figure that the American Wind Energy Association put forward some years ago in congressional hearings (see above), would equate to 880,000 cumulative bird deaths. Calculated on an average operating basis, the number would rise severalfold."

And this:

Other Environmental Drawbacks

"A distinct air emission problem of wind capacity is created when a new project is built where there is surplus electric generating capacity. Since large wind farms require thousands of tons of materials, virtually all of the air emissions associated with the electricity used to make these materials (such as cement or steel) must be counted against the air emissions "saved" once the farm comes on line and displaces fossil fuel-generated output. For example, a recently announced Zond wind farm of 40 to 45 effective megawatts is composed of 150 wind turbines weighing 35 tons each or just over 10 million pounds. The entire electricity requirement for these materials (cement, steel, fiberglass, etc.) must be estimated before assigning an air emission factor. To calculate a net emission savings, that factor must be subtracted from the air emission reduction once the wind project comes online."

The sad thing for me is twofold. First, I love birds. If I could grow wings, I would. Second, I know people who think they are friends of birds, who belong to "Bird Watching" organizations, yet who voted for this President and his "Green Energy" nonsense. I guess they don't realize it when they are at odds with their own goals and mindlessly vote for the "feel good" agenda. I wonder how the brain can disconnect from logical consequences. I am having a very hard time suffering these fools.