Warming? Cooling? Whatever is convenient

The BBC News reports that not only has global warming disappeared to be replaced by global cooling, but that this cooling trend will continue for some time.

This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

Why so truthful all of the sudden? It's hard to know the motive. Perhaps the bald-faced lies perpetuated by the rabid global-warming crowd were finally so obviously at odds with reality that cooler heads (pardon the pun) decided that if any vestige of the human-caused climate catastrophe crowd were to survive, it would have to be admitted that climate change was at very least not confined to warming trends and rising sea levels.

I personally am rather confused by the warming catastrophe crowd, considering some of them seemed to be convinced that by tomorrow morning the Atlantic might very well be lapping at our thresholds, while others were simultaneously predicting an apocalypse so slow in coming that we might well be living on other planets before it arrives.

Meanwhile, evidently it was getting colder all the time...
Now record cold temperatures are being seen all over.

We should note, however, that while climate change skeptics see this cooling as justification for their skepticism of inexorably rising global temperatures, true believers' faith in the heat death of the world by our own hands continues unabated:

In addition, say Met Office scientists, temperatures have never increased in a straight line, and there will always be periods of slower warming, or even temporary cooling.

What is crucial, they say, is the long-term trend in global temperatures. And that, according to the Met office data, is clearly up.

Yes, thus spoke the oracle: Centuries-long ice ages may interfere, as in the past, but at some day in the hypothetical future, it will get hotter than it is now. Other scientists agree:

Professor Latif is based at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University in Germany and is one of the world's top climate modellers.

But he makes it clear that he has not become a sceptic; he believes that this cooling will be temporary, before the overwhelming force of man-made global warming reasserts itself.

Notice the language here. Does anyone not realize that this has taken on all the artifices of a religious institution? Dr. Latif, worried that he might be perceived as a nonbeliever in Warming, clarifies that despite the scientific data stating otherwise, he is not a skeptic! Yes, we must have faith that the heat is coming. Ignore the cooling trend. Just believe. Sooner or later a heating trend will re-emerge, then we can start all this up again.

Meanwhile, the American people are less and less convinced; polls show that significantly fewer Americans are worried that Florida will go the way of the Siberian land bridge any time soon...

The new poll found that only 57 percent of Americans believe there is “solid evidence” for the existence of global warming, compared to 71 percent in April 2008.

Additionally, the poll shows that the percentage of Americans who believe global warming is caused by human activity has dropped from 47 percent last year to 36 percent today.

One can only hope this means we'll hear less hysteria about carbon footprints and other such nonsense related to carbon dioxide levels, which have never been causally linked to warming anyway. But "Cap-and-Trade" is already here, and something tells me that more of the same taxes are coming whether facts or the American people back them up or not. It's not a question of reality or democracy anymore. As President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus (currently being sidelined in the EU for being a disagreeist) has pointed out, global climate change politics is just a power-play.

So should we sit idly by and watch our freedoms be taken for whatever trendy excuse the religio-scientific backers of the liberal pan-bureaucracy may contrive? We already have been. And that realization is by far the most frightening thing I'll encounter this halloween...

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Did Rome resist falling? Or beg for it?

So as anyone informed enough to be reading this is no doubt aware of by now, the global warming energy bill has narrowly made it through the house. This is basically the equivalent of voting to steer the Titanic towards another iceberg after the first collision, on the grounds that this one will plug the hole left by the last one.

Democrats narrowly passed historic climate and energy legislation Friday evening that would transform the country’s economy and industrial landscape.

Oh yes. They will be transformed. Flip back through our archives to a few months ago, and you'll see an article about the decay of Detroit, and how the wild is creeping back in. Our industry is packing up and moving to China. Don't blame the Chinese; industry is no longer welcome here.

“It has been an incredible six months, to go from a point where no one believed we could pass this legislation to a point now where we can begin to say that we are going to send president Obama to Copenhagen in December as the leader of the of the world on climate change,” said Markey, referring to world climate talks scheduled this winter.

A great honor, to be sure. Attempting to stake the heart of your country's infrastructure in exchange for a chance to sit at the table with the cool kids is clearly a win-win scenario for Democrats.

Ayn Rand simply called these type of people "looters", and she was right in that respect. We had achieved unparalleled prosperity and standards of living, NOT by wealth hoarded at the expense of other nations, but by CREATING wealth. Now, with barely contained excitement, they inform us that our standards of living are going to fall. ("Finally!", they sigh. "These canaglia... the rabble who need us, they have lived like fattened calves for too long. We, the elite, the inheritors of the age of enlightenment, should be given the money, to spend as it ought to be spent. The rest should live as the rest of the world lives.")

Know this. Those who now guide our country's progress hate America's success, as they hate all success that allows decent people to live in prosperity and order their own lives as they see fit.
If they must bring this entire nation to its knees in order to gain total control over your lives, they will do so. It could be rather quickly inferred that this is exactly what is going on.

Now they have succeeded in passing "the largest tax increase in American history under the guise of climate change", in the words of Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.).

The ins and outs of the mythology of green energy and job creation are straightforward enough (the bottom line: this legislation is going to hurt nearly everything it touches...), and we can outline those in another entry.

Right now, I am curious to hear any reactions you may have. I feel as if this great ship of state has been hijacked by enemies far more dangerous than any external terrorist threat.

Terrorists would be no more a national threat to a strong, free America than horseflies on a summer day at the pool. But in this weakened, divided, apologetic America, that publishes to the terrorists its interrogation techniques and does their PR work for them in advance, that cannot seem to rebuild what they destroy, or even muster the cultural strength to displace the radical culture which spawned them, to an America that now gives away its freedom to men who promise security and peace if only, if only we will let them make our decisions for us, in that America, the terrorists do not even need to "win". America as she has been is rapidly ceasing to exist, and what America is becoming will be no threat to evil.

Rome did not fall at the hands of the barbarians who sacked her, Rome fell from within.
The barbarians merely knocked over the tottering, decaying structure whose time had passed.

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In a handbasket, part I

Respected readers,

Due to the plethora of near-apocalyptic news being circulated on a daily basis, we could cover this kind of story in every single posting here, and still not come close to total coverage.

However, despite the ongoing chaos and upheaval of current world power structures, for most of us, life continues more or less as usual. I do firmly expect the madness at the higher levels of our government and other world governments to trickle down and cause problems for us in the near future, which is one of the reasons that I urge you all to find ways to let your voices be heard and push back against Washington's encroachment into every sector of public life.

But, this kind of thing can be exhausting to read. I know it's exhausting to write about.
So, I have decided that I will start a once-or-twice weekly article series called "In a handbasket".

In these articles, I will link to and briefly describe several stories that describe how idiots in positions of leadership are bringing about the apocalypse. Thus, I can bring these stories to your attention, but not focus on them to the point that this becomes one of those blogs you feel you need to be wearing tinfoil on your head to read.

That being said, we will move on to today's stories:

1. Environmental Apocalypse: Obama looks into climate engineering.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."

Aka, screwing with a system we don't understand, to the point that we might actually succeed in damaging it beyond repair, unlike previous paltry contributions such as anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays would be a stupid idea almost to the level of trying to change our orbit around the sun.

2. Economic Apocalypse
(aka, John Galt-ian Apocalypse): The French want to lock up their bosses.

"Sarkozy's government is worried that locking up bosses could presage greater violence as the sense of injustice grows with rising unemployment. François Fillon, the Prime Minister, says that he will not tolerate more "hostage taking".

But in France, there is violence and violence, as all students of history know. Two years ago exactly, a certain presidential candidate took the side of angry fishermen who had smashed up their port. "When you resort to violence it is because you are desperate, because you feel condemned to economic death," he told them. "I will never put the anger of fishermen who do not want to die on the same level as the gratuitous violence of thugs." That was N. Sarkozy" [emphasis as in the original article]

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand has the world grinding to a halt as those who consume begin to turn on those who produce, first via social and legislative persecution, then finally with organized violence. (Meanwhile, the last producers begin to purposefully withdraw themselves as an act of moral principle) Amusingly, she underestimated how long it would take for the violence to begin, a la G20.

3. Apocalypse by using "Death Star lasers" to recreate a miniature sun

The National Ignition Facility has already test-fired all 192 giant lasers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California as part of this effort. The lasers will eventually focus their power on compressing and heating a single, pea-sized fuel capsule to more than 180 million degrees Fahrenheit in order to trigger thermonuclear fusion.

Ironically, it appears this last one is by far the safest... though somehow it seems like it will take a while for said fusion to provide enough low cost energy to reimburse the cost of 192 giant lasers and assembly of a special massive test chamber.
But hey, nearly free energy would fix the economy, massively reduce world poverty, and provide the opportunity for an unprecedented expansion in personal freedom.
Which is why it will never, ever be allowed to happen.

So, there's your apocalyptic stories for today, tune in next time to see if Al Gore has invented Skynet.


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