The dumbest global warming argument. EVER!

Living 5/7ths of my life up North, I have the opportunity to be exposed to the Green Bay media. Last night there was a short feature on the TV news about some "environmental" group's new study that concludes that global warming will hurt the Green Bay Packers home field advantage. The news release is here, and says.

Unfortunately for Packer fans, winter temperatures are on the rise at Lambeau and in other cold weather teams’ cities across the country, potentially threatening the home field advantage that these teams have historically enjoyed.

Just how dumb is this report? Let me count the ways.

1. It was -15F in Green Bay on the morning that this report was released. That's -26 for those of you speaking Celsius. Embrace the warmth of global climate change.

2. What cold-field advantage? The Packers cannot win in really cold weather. You may recall a professional football contest with the Giants of New York played way back on January 20, 2008. If the game time temperature had been 20 to 25 degrees warmer, a certain native Mississippian would have had a significantly better performance.

Nota bene - The members of Wisconsin Environment are definitely members of the Lambert Field crowd. They have no interest in sports in general or the Packers in particular. Otherwise they wouldn't have rubbed my nose in this steaming football non sequitur just 10 days after a heart breaking loss. These people think that if they invoke the Packers name, it will cause all us redneck rubes to join their misguided cause.

3. Does the 5 degree Fahrenheit temperature rise that is projected for the next century really matter? A 5 degree temperature is not noticeably different from a 0 degree temperature on a football field. They are both freaking cold.

4. Similar to my report last night, this group is manipulating data. Two statistical fallacies are used as the basis for their report. They use an incomplete data set, conveniently going back only as far as 1971. What story would the complete meteorological record going back to the 1800's tell? They also cherry-pick reporting periods, comparing an 8-year period against a prior 30-year period. To be statistically valid they need to compare the latest 8-year period against all previous 8-year averages.

So tell me again why warm is bad?

This report demonstrates that the global warming fascists* are becoming desperate. They must think people are idiots and they use these silly scare tactics as their last refuge. Global warming has become a religion to these nut cases, and anything that they can use to further their cause is fair game, regardless of the facts. Even cold weather is a sign that the planet is warming, in their minds.

Warm is good. The polar bears like it. It saves human lives all over this Earth. And it means more touchdown passes and less interceptions for Brett Favre.



* I chose this word carefully. Thank you Jonah.

Euphemism of the day

20 immigration fugitives arrested Green Bay

A three-day sweep by federal immigration agents resulted in the arrest of 20 immigrants who have ignored orders for their deportation.

Officials said Wednesday the arrests were made in Brown, Door, Kenosha, Outagamie, Sheboygan and Winnebago counties, and they involved fugitives from El Salvador, Honduras, Jordan, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua and Yugoslavia.

The 12 agents from the Milwaukee office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department worked in three-man teams to apprehend those being sought over a three-day period starting last Friday. Some had criminal records.

Brown County Sheriff Dennis Kocken called the arrests "a positive step."

I saw this story reported on Green Bay's WBAY-2 News on Wednesday.

The news reader starter her report with something like: "A three-day sweep by federal agents resulted in the arrest of 20 nationals who had outstanding fugitive warrants."

Nationals. Did I hear that right? I sure did, because she used it again in the report. In the context it was used, I was able to conclude:

Nationals = Undocumented Guest Workers = Illegal Aliens

Be sure to note this in your thesaurus.

Random primary thoughts

Giuliani Endorsement

Rudy's endorsement of McCain was actually made several weeks ago when he stayed in the Florida race despite polling as an also-ran.

Using the MSM conventional wisdom of a 2 to 1 Romney:McCain break for Giuliani voters, Rudy's 15% in Florida would have made the race a 41%-41% dead-heat. Today's public endorsement of McCain explains why Rudy stayed in the Florida primary. He was playing the spoiler.

Election Quiz

I took the 2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz a few weeks ago with these results.

80% John McCain
78% Mitt Romney
70% Mike Huckabee
69% Fred Thompson
68% Tom Tancredo
63% Rudy Giuliani
56% Bill Richardson
54% Ron Paul
48% Barack Obama
46% Hillary Clinton
46% Chris Dodd
46% John Edwards
35% Joe Biden
34% Mike Gravel
28% Dennis Kucinich

I guess this means I should be pleased with the McCain win in Florida. But I suspect this quiz is based on campaign promises, not voting records. I also believe that John McCain is too damn old for this or any other job this side of Walmart greeter or golf course starter. Retire already.

I am an admitted ageist.

The Kerry Milestone

John Edwards drops out today leaving either a woman or a minority as the Democratic Presidential candidate. This is an awakening for the identity politics base of the Democrats. I think it will be decades before another white male is the Democratic Presidential Nominee.

McCain through Rose Colored Glasses

If McCain truly does appeal to independent and moderate voters in the general election, he may have long enough coattails to be a strong help to Republican Senate and House candidates. Is there a falacy with this argument?

Minus 10 Fahrenheit - not a good day for this stuff

From Planet Gore earlier today.

Acknowledging that temperatures in the past decade have not reached, let alone surpassed, their 60-year high reached in 1998 (which still lags behind 1934), “Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the U.N. Panel that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, said he would look into the apparent temperature plateau so far this century,” from Reuters.

Pachauri goes on to say.

"One would really have to see on the basis of some analysis what this really represents," he told Reuters, adding "are there natural factors compensating?" for increases in greenhouse gases from human activities.

He added that skeptics about a human role in climate change delighted in hints that temperatures might not be rising. "There are some people who would want to find every single excuse to say that this is all hogwash," he said.

Shut up already, you a-hole. This winter's weather reminds me of walking to class in the 1970's, it is brutally cold. I am getting damn tired of these so-called scientists who are manipulating data and ignoring reality. Digging into the the Reuters link, I find another clown using common statistical manipulations.

Underscoring an underlying rise in temperatures, British forecaster Phil Jones said 2001-07, with an average of 0.44 Celsius above the 1961-90 world average of 14 degrees, was 0.21 degree warmer than the corresponding values for 1991-2000.

Mr. Jones is cherry picking data and using a very limited data set. To make a fair comparison, he needs to: 1) compare similar time periods, the 7-years from 2001 to 2007 to all other rolling 7-year periods; 2) look at the entire historic meteorological record, including the record high 1930's; and 3) provide the uncertainty associated with these world averages, there are too many measurement differences for there to not be huge margins of error with these values - you'll end up with a statistical tie.

The need of these global warming alarmists to use statistical tricks underscores the weakness of their arguments. They should stick with their emotional appeals, that is the strongest part of their position.

Business just became more dangerous for Milwaukee's armed robbers

Something is missing in the JSOnline articles about the shooting death of SAB Miller executive, Vic Milford. Check here, here, and here.

Did you get it? There is no description of the assailants. Nothing on height, weight, race or ethnicity. Nada.

The Journal-Sentinel's Special Editor in Charge of Ethnic News Cleansing must not work weekends. This is the one of the early NewsWatch reports from Saturday.

A 42-year-old man was shot and killed early today after being robbed outside of a bar, Milwaukee police said. According to Capt. Michael Young: The man and two or three women were walking from a bar to the man's car in the 200 block of W. Walker St. about 1:10 a.m. today. As they reached the car, they were approached by two men, one of whom was carrying a handgun. The victim handed over his wallet and was shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police would not reveal the victim's identity, where he was wounded or how many times he was shot. The suspects were described as Hispanic males, in their mid-20s to early 30s, both about 5-feet-4-inches to 5-feet-7-inches tall and 140 to 160 pounds.

I wonder if Tom Kerschner still has a job. At the very least, I know there will be a letter in his personnel file and an extended session in the Diversity Reeducation Gulag.

Now to my headline. There is a long-standing paradigm for armed robbery business transactions in the United States. If the victim hands over his money, wallet and other valuables without a fight or other resistance; the armed robber will not shoot him. This social contract serves both the victim's and the armed robber's interests. The victim escapes with his life for only the small cost of the valuables he carries. For the robber, this agreement helps speed the transaction and minimizes the risk of the victim resisting with deadly force.

The rules must be different where these perpetrators come from. Their rules go something like: the robber takes the money from the cooperative victim, then shoots him dead. If this becomes the norm in the U.S., suddenly we will have no reason to cooperate with the armed robber. Grab for the gun, stall for time, or run for your life, these are all logically preferable options to placidly handing over your cash and waiting to die.

And if, by chance, you have a loaded handgun on your person, blast the assailant before he knows it is coming.

Like in the Old West, a six-gun holstered on your hip provides for a fast draw. Be sure to prominently display that pistol to avoid concealed carry charges.

WWFBD? PIG Party Edition

From that moment in the seventies ... until my fight was finally successful, Wisconsin was a corrupted state, governed not by the people but by a group of private and corporate interests. They secured control of the old Republican party organization - the party with the splendid history - and while its orators outwardly dwelt upon the glories of the past and inspired the people with the fervor of patriotic loyalty, these corporation interests were bribing, bossing and thieving within. The machine organization of the Democratic party was as subservient to the railroads and other corporations as the Republican machine, and mastery of legislation was thus rendered complete through all these years.

Robert M. La Follette, 1911

Government corruption, a Wisconsin tradition.

Government corruption, The Wisconsin Idea?

I must have missed that show

Steve Jagler writes:

"There are no doubt countless times when Belling exposes himself as a loud-mouth buffoon, a bully, and this is just another one of those times. His venom spews forth, whether he's denigrating Hispanics, African-Americans, women or anyone who dares to disagree with him."

I'm guessing that Mark Belling will ignore that defamation. And that his attorney won't.

H/T: Mr. Sykes

WWFBD?

Art in a coffee cup

Click here for more images.

UPDATE:

And click here to see how it is done. Thanks to commenter chrisk.

Snowmobile or surfboard?

Some things just aren't right. There was a snowmobile in the parking lot at work this morning.

Later in the day, I found this link at the NEI Nuclear Notes blog.

The dialogue on the pros and cons of holding Hawaii’s first Constitutional Convention in 30 years has not yet mentioned one critical reason for having a convention: The need to repeal the prohibition on nuclear power in Hawaii that the 1978 Con-Con established. We need to do this before spiralling oil prices devastate Hawaii‘s economy.

The 1978 Convention added Article XI, Section 8 to the State Constitution: “No nuclear fission power plant shall be constructed or radioactive material disposed of in the State without the prior approval by a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature.”

Oh yeah!

I'll be looking for work at the Banzai Pipeline Nuclear Power Station if that amendment is repealed.

Political Commentary

Like it or not, it is time to smell the coffee.

Backyard brick pizza oven

Okay, it isn't brick, it is ceramic.

I am learning to use my Big Green Egg for wood fired baking. I'm not a fan of the hype and cliquishness that goes with the BGE, but it is very effective for baking. It heats up fast a holds a steady 500 degree temperature even in freezing weather.



Bad news for Pizzeria Piccola, my family now likes my wood fired pizza better.

Good point Mark, but your premise is absolutely wrong

On his Friday show, Belling blubbered on & on (and on & on, it starts 4-1/2 minutes into the file) about how the Body Worlds exhibit does not depict any dead unborn children to avoid confronting pro-abortionists with the humanity of a dead fetus.

My wife and daughter had been to the exhibit in Chicago and immediately pointed out Belling's ignorance, there are numerous fetuses in the exhibit, including one shown in it's deceased mother's womb. Today's MJS tells the same story about the Milwaukee exhibit.

But the sound of soft crying did sometimes drift from the exhibit's prenatal development section, which is curtained off from the rest of "Body Worlds." The section displays, among other exhibits, dead fetuses and a woman, eight months pregnant, with her belly cut away.

Jan Krueger of Mequon, who brought family members from as far away as Indiana with her to the show, stood in front of a case showing a fetus about the same age as a baby she had once lost, and she began to cry. But family hugs soon ended the tears and replaced them with a smile.

"I'm an old-time Catholic, and this is very emotional for me. But this is wonderful to see. Living beings are such a special thing," Krueger said.

I'll be listening carefully on Monday for Belling to correct himself. After all, he often claims that he is the only individual in the local or national media to publicly correct his mistakes.

UPDATE: Belling apparently came through with a correction, although the podcast missed the start of the segment. I give him credit for living up to his claim.

Ice Bowl Mojo, Deja Vu

Will another discarded N.Y. Giants running back make the difference in The Ice Bowl, Part Deux?

Forty years apart, Chuck Mercein and Ryan Grant were each late additions to the Packers roster. Each started their training camps with the Giants.

Prediction, the cold will be a bigger factor than most pundits predict. The game will be decided on a late score:

Packers 21
Giants 17

My favorite new blog

I learned of Wisconsinology from Tom McMahon's Sunday linkfest. Wisconsinology has a load of Cheesehead trivia and many tales of famous people with Wisconsin links.

I am hoping to read about you there.

I might join this protest

I just read this excerpt of the Liberal Fascism book at the Liberal Fascism blog.

Charles Van Hise, Roosevelt’s close adviser, was more emphatic. “He who thinks not of himself primarily, but of his race, and of its future, is the new patriot,” explained Van Hise, the founder of the American conservation movement and president of the University of Wisconsin during its glory days as the premier training ground for American progressives. Van Hise summarized the American Progressive attitude toward eugenics well when he explained: “We know enough about agriculture so that the agricultural production of the country could be doubled if the knowledge were applies; we know enough about disease so that if the knowledge were utilized, infectious and contagious diseases would be substantially destroyed in the United States within a score of years; we know enough about eugenics so that if the knowledge were applied, the defective classes would disappear within a generation.”

Leave it to Jonah Goldberg, a conservative author, to give Madison's present day progressives a reason to demand the renaming of this building. We'd all still be oblivious to the racism of Van Hise without Goldberg's research.

Another week of this

Thank you New York Giants.

Opposite angles, identical humiliation

Favre lies down on the job

From the awesome photo gallery featuring pictures from Benny Sieu, Tom Lynn, Rick Wood and Mark Hoffman at JSOnline.



Atari Bigby introduces himself to a national TV audience. From the Seattle P-I photo gallery.

Reliving my adolesence

In my teenage years, among my favorite features of MAD magazine were the song parodies. MAD would take a popular song and write topical new lyrics to go with it.

Unlike MAD, I'm starting with an obscure song from the cult band, They Might be Giants. I blogged a live version of James K. Polk earlier this week. The version below looks like someone's high school history project.



In the spirit of William Gaines and Alfred E. Neuman, I present my lyrics for Al A. Gore.

In 2008, the Democrats were split
The three nominees for the presidential candidate
Were Hillary Clinton, an Ex co-president and a pro-abortionist
John Edwards, a Socialist
Obama, a black man with no experience
From Nashville in a Gulfstream flying up
He was Al A. Gore, Eco-Savior of the Earth

Austere, severe, he held few people dear
His oratory bored most folks to tears
The factions soon agreed
He's just the man we need
To bring about victory
Fulfill our carbon-free destiny
And give back the land the Mexicans command
And when the votes were cast the winner was
Mister Al A. Gore, Eco-Savior of the Earth

In four short years he met his every goal
He ceded the whole southwest to Mexico
Made sure the smokestacks fell
And made the English health plan a U.S. priority
He nationalized our economy
Having done all this he sought no second term
But precious few have mourned the passing of
Mister Al A. Gore, our 44th president
Green Hickory, Eco-Savior of the Earth

I am looking forward to hearing Weird Al's performance of my lyrics for this TMBG hit.

Amazing human trick

I can't get enough of this young man's performance.



He has a great voice, too.

H/T - Althouse.

That is not logical, Captain.

Earlier this week Jay Nordlinger dissected Mike Huckabee's attack on Mitt Romney on a grammatical, philosophical, and moral basis.

I know that a lot of people — anti-Romneyites — are fired up by that line of Huckabee’s: “People are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them more of the guy they work with rather than the guy that laid them off.” Apparently, he was alluding to Romney. And I find Huckabee’s one of the most depressing lines I have heard in ages — depressing from every point of view.

First, grammatical: They say Bush can’t talk? I thought Huckabee was supposed to be silver-tongued.

Second, philosophical, or political, if you like: Huckabee expressed low populism, or “sheer demagoguery,” as Ronald Reagan used to say. Huckabee’s line could have come out of the mouth of John Edwards, or John Sweeney, or David Bonior. Is this what we want in the Republican party now? Why not have just one big Democratic party?

And third — oh, call it moral: It seems we’re now campaigning on the basis of what the other guy looks like. What do we say about how Huckabee looks? Frankly, I think I would have liked him better when he was fat — he might have been humbler.

Huckabee is even using the line in a political ad.



Nordlinger forgot to look at Huckabee's logic. Aside from my being unaware of any business Romney ran having to lay-off large numbers of employees, the argument that Huckabee makes compares two dissimilar things, a coworker at a job you kept and an employer for a job you lost. To work logically, his argument should be structured in one of these ways.

“People are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them of the guy they work with, not the guy who signs their paycheck.”

or

“People are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them of the guy they used to work with who got them fired, not the guy who laid them off.”

Neither of these statements is true, not even close. But each more closely reflects the reality of Huckabee and Romney, very, very closely.

In addition to being a dishonest demagogue, Huckabee must have flunked the logic section of the SAT.

Brokered convention

Tom McMahon posts today on the brokered Democratic convention of 1852, where Franklin Pierce was nominated on the 49th ballot. Contested conventions were common during the fight for abolition; in 1844 the Democrats were split. The three nominees for the presidential candidate were: Martin Van Buren, a former president and an abolitionist; James Buchanan, a moderate; Louis Cass, a general and expansionist. From Nashville came a dark horse riding up. He was James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump.

Austere, severe, he held few people dear; his oratory filled his foes with fear. The factions soon agreed he's just the man we need to bring about victory, fulfill our manifest destiny, and annex the land the Mexicans command. And when the votes were cast the winner was Mr. James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump.

In four short years he met his every goal. He seized the whole southwest from Mexico; made sure the tariffs fell; and made the English sell the Oregon territory. He built an independent treasury.

Having done all this he sought no second term, but precious few have mourned the passing of Mr. James K. Polk, our 11th president, young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump.

That might sound good set to music.

GPS revisited

I've had a chance to drive with my wife's Garmin c340 GPS and have to amend my previous comments.

The Good

• Estimated Arrival Time - This feature is surprisingly accurate, and is a great feature for calling ahead when meeting people or for making restaurant reservations.
• This unit provides actual speed in the map mode. A good way to check the calibration of your speedometer or for use on a boat.
• The Garmin does find some short cuts I didn't know about.

The Bad

• The Garmin is programmed with a preference for major highways. Interstate, US, and state highways are the preferred routes over local and county roads and highways, so it doesn't always pick the most efficient route.
• It is still a girlie device.
  

Speed Trap Pewaukee

Enhanced enforcement on Capitol Drive and Hwy 74 in Pewaukee today. I witnessed the City's Dodge Charger pull over 2 speeders this afternoon, and the sirens are still wailing tonight.

If you're coming out this way, watch your speed.

Winnie - Groundhog in Demand

No groundhog for Groundhog Day? Channel 12 didn't look hard enough.



Winnie, the resident groundhog at the Wildlife in Need Center, won't be at the Milwaukee County Zoo, but she is hosting her own Groundhog Day event at Friends of Nature in Menomonee Falls on February 2.

I understand that Daphne, WiN's muscovy duck, is available on February 2, if someone wants to start their own new tradition.

Donate to the Wildlife in Need Center here.

New Poll: Worst Case Scenario

If Iowa means anything, our choices on election day may be Obama (D), Huckabee (R), Paul (L), and Bloomberg (IND).

Hold your nose and vote.

UPDATE - 1/18/08:

Final Results

Huckabee	1 (14%)
Obama	4 (57%)
Bloomberg	0 (0%)
Paul	1 (14%)
Stay home	1 (14%)

Votes so far: 7
Poll closed

Not too early

I think we can award the 2007 Darwin to the jack at the SF Zoo who was killed by the tiger after antagonizing and shooting her with a slingshot. Ridding our gene pool of stupidity and cruelty in one slash of her claws. Well done.

Two downsides, Tatiana was killed and the other slingshot snipers survived.

More ethanol madness

Despite their widespread carping about global warming, Smithsonian is one of my favorite magazines. In the November 2007 issue, Richard Conniff took a critical look at biofuels. Conniff makes a damning case against ethanol production in the US, but it is the abuse of the earth in pursuit of "clean energy" outside of the US that is astounding.

Other countries are also rapidly surrendering habitat to biofuel. In Indonesia and Malaysia, companies are bulldozing millions of acres of rain forest to produce biodiesel from oil palm, an imported species. The United Nations recently predicted that 98 percent of Indonesia's forests will be destroyed within the next 15 years, partly to grow palm oil. Many of the new plantations will be on the island of Borneo, a mother lode of biological diversity.

Apart from the effect on wildlife, critics say Indonesia's forests are one of the worst places to grow biofuels, because they stand on the world's richest concentration of peat, another nonrenewable fuel. When peat dries out or is burned to make way for a plantation, it releases huge quantities of carbon dioxide. Indonesia, despite its undeveloped economy, already ranks as the world's third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, after China and the United States. When you add the peat effect into the equation, according to the conservation group Wetlands International, Indonesian palm oil biodiesel is up to eight times worse for the environment than gasoline.

Oh, and one final irony. The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that because of the way U.S. biofuel laws are written, foreign tankers loaded with Indonesian biodiesel can stop briefly at an American port, blend in a splash of regular petroleum diesel and qualify for a U.S. subsidy on every gallon. It's called "splash and dash," because the tankers generally push on to Europe to collect additional subsidies there. All in the name of greener fuels.

Wow, you cannot make this stuff up.

In order to "save the planet" from global warming, use of a fuel is promoted that results in clear cutting rain forests, wiping out rare plant and animal species, and release of more carbon to the atmosphere than conventional fuels. And this biofuel is subsidized by US taxpayers, but is never even used here.

Thank you Al Gore.

I finally get it

Any more "Iowa" and I'm gonna let out this scream.



Rudy has it right. We should all ignore these self-important hicks.

Why should the future of our republic be in the hands of these backwards rubes?

Resolutions I can keep

1. Avoid the candy dish outside my office door.
2. Abstain from alcohol consumption (except for weekends, vacations and holidays).
3. Workout regularly, including any day I can get from the office to the gym by 6:00.

John Edwards - The Anti-Capitalist Candidate

Rich Lowry's syndicated column provides some eye-opening details of John Edwards' presidential campaign focus against "money-grubbing corporations."

His campaign pitch is a well-polished mailed fist aimed at the gut of the establishment, defined by Edwards as heartless, money-grubbing corporations.

“This corporate greed is killing the middle class, killing American jobs and it is stealing your children’s future,” Edwards tells a rapt crowd of a couple hundred people in the lobby of a high school here.

The reason we don’t have universal health coverage, according to Edwards, is “very simple” — the drug companies and insurance companies oppose it. In fact, everything is “very simple” to him. In his down-home Manichaean vision, dark corporate forces are responsible for everything he doesn’t like.

This is a worldview that doesn’t allow for legitimate differences of opinion. On the one side is “the glorification of corporate greed,” and on the other are the people willing to fight it — everyone in between is either a tool or a coward. Battle lines drawn, Edwards’s vision bristles with evocations of power. The people will have to wield the “sovereign power” of the country against corporations that will only “give their power away when we take their power away from them.”

This is scary stuff. We actually have a major party candidate openly touting Socialism on a National scale as his answer for the United States (a topic that is addressed in Jonah's new book).

I cannot speak for everyone, but I am counting on those obscene corporate profits to pay for my retirement. Edwards' wish to wipe-out or otherwise confiscate these profits will also wipe-out the plans of any American relying on something other than government hand-outs for retirement.

John Edwards financial ignorance is without bound. The fact that he has found buyers for his rhetoric in Iowa says something about those rubes.

Le Carte de Mort - 2007 Edition

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Huckleberry Dumbell at the Spring City Chronicle took the time that I didn't and completed the 2007 Milwaukee Carte de Mort.

My words of wisdom: Don't Go There.