Archive for July 24th, 2008

For those of you who have not read the previous 1,021,947 editions, you may just have to wait for my Book of Specific Ignorance.

While looking at photographs taken this month in Glacier Bay, Alaska, I was told that at one time maybe only a couple of hundred years ago, this bay did not exist, that what is now water was solid glaciers.

That stimulated me to do some exhausting research on The Google and I found this link after maybe 15 seconds.

I must have studied it for about a minute or two and think I learned that when John Muir visited in the 1870s the glacier that bears his name was about 200 feet high and was calving even then. It is now tiny.

Naturally it is hard to not think of today’s “settled science” on greenhouse gases. Kind of like the Iraq war is “settled”.

I love nature and while hiking in national forests, stay on hiking trails most of the time except to, you know, and I try to pickup more trash than I bring in but I do drive a gasoline fueled car and heat my home with ground based energy because it is the most convenient and cheapest I know about. This may sound like a lot of you out there in the hypocrisphere but I am pretty sure most of you want the earth to remain friendly to our way of life, as I do.

Why then do I not know whether mankind is causing global warming or what we are going to do to move away from otherwise polluting and politically charged energy sources?

Oil companies want to drill oil because that is their business, so they promote oil. And we all use their product in many ways, even though we do have alternatives, although not necessarily convenient or cheap ones.

Similarly, solar companies promote solar energy, wind companies promote wind energy, bio fuels companies, well you get the point. I say let them at it. If one or more of them produces inconvenient and uncompetitive products let them eat cake, if they can still afford it. And if they make a profit, more power to them.

What pun?

So why is it that, while I really do not know much about greenhouse gases, I am by the day growing more anxious about the various unsavory consequences of our energy situation now and in the future.

Why is it that the climate change movement seems more like a political movement and an economic opportunity for those who scare and offer help? I am studying how to live off the grid because I want off. Beside being afraid, I feel guilty and I don’t like that. Do you like it when you are criticized by those who pollute more than you do?

And the green movement seems like a new style and design environment, much of which I think is cool. I buy green, love those new bamboo shirts, they hardly wrinkle.

While I still do not know the answer, actually having trouble remembering the question, I do know that partisan politics and greedy capitalism come in a lot of guises. Thank goodness for ubiquitous greedy capitalism. With the right amount of regulation, it is the best reflection of nature that man can create. Or woman.

I wouldn’t call the article Tom Miller wrote journalism at its worst, but it’s certainly reckless and it’s certainly terrible.

If I talk too much about this I’ll become enraged and lose out on sleep. Also, Beijing Boyce has completely circled the wagon and far out-reported the original author of the article. That said, allow me just two thoughts:

1. If you publish an inflammatory story, you should at least have the decency to not use a headline as ludicrous as “Authorities order bars not to serve black people.” No one would even need to read the article to jump to a website like MediaTakeOut and start tossing out “chink,” “well i stop eat chinese food from now on!!!!!” and “DAMN! I JUST HOPE JAPAN IZ A LOT MORE CIVIL TOWARDS ANY AND ALL BLACK PEOPLE”.

I hope you’re happy with what you’ve incited, Tom Miller and SCMP editors, this in a country that’s been friendlier to African nations than most others.

2. Co-Ed Magazine is a piece of shit, and this is the most moronic thing I’ve ever read. If I ever meet Andrew from Hunter College, I would have a difficult time — so help me somebody — holding back punches.

Also, I know sports blogs like Deadspin and With Leather are just for humor, but do the writers there have to make asses of themselves? I now sort of — and I can’t believe I’m saying this, considering — see why Buzz Bissinger was so mad at them. (Will Leitch, come back to Deadspin, please.)

3. Okay, I’m worked up… might as well throw in another penny…

From Beijing Boyce:

- Most interesting, two people working at one bar had different perspectives on the terminology used by the police. One said the police used “black” in reference to skin color; while the other said it was used in terms of bad elements (the Chinese character for “black” is part of a phrase used to describe criminals).

I believe it takes a 2nd grader’s command of the Chinese language to understand that 黑 can refer to “criminal.”

Other reactions:

• Time: “The paper also suggested that ‘not all bars in the [area] had been ordered to refuse black customers,’ contrary to the original claim that all bars had been asked to discriminate against black people.’”
• The Humanaught: “…a number of others have jumped to the call and found no evidence that supports the SCMP article.”
• Granite Studio, via Peking Duck: “YJ checked out the rumor with some people “in the know,” looks like the SCMP pulled this at random off of some BBS. Rumor: BUSTED.”
• Blogging for China: “For this post, I just want to point out an interesting quote Tom Miller managed to extract from an unnamed black British national: ‘Chinese people are prejudiced, but I would have hoped that the government would set a better example as it debuts on the world stage.’” (And a longer post here.)
• Beijing Olympic Games 2008: “This report in the South Morning China Post is probably one of the less researched stories and paints Beijing and China in a particularly bad light.”
• World Affairs Board: “But to believe a report like that, you must be borderline retard or a hater, or both”
• GeoExPat: “Not entirely accurate it seems.”
• Because we have to complete the circle… Beijing Boyce: “Apparently the policy is so secret that the police are keeping it from all but a few bar owners who can be trusted to reveal it to foreign journalists.”

$644,000 Bill To Be Paid After Mayor’s Meltdown

Howard Dean assured Denver taxpayers they wouldn’t be on the hook for one cent due

to the Democratic National Convention to be held there next month.

Turns out since March, staffers working on the Democratic National Convention have been using the city of Denver’s tax-free gas pumps to fill up their cars for personal and business use - and using its carwashes to the tune of $644,000 so far.

A dispute about this prompted city officials Tuesday to promise that the local host committee will reimburse the city at a market rate for gas - and pay state and federal taxes on the fuel. “It was never the intent of the city not to properly charge the Democrats for the fuel or its taxes,” said Katherine Archuleta, mayoral liaison to the convention.

When Denver’s Mayor was cornered about his city’s largess to a political party he said, “The Republicans are doing the same thing in Minneapolis.” City officials and the GOP stopped short of calling him a liar but did say that is absolutely untrue.

A new survey shows a five-point lead by Barack Obama over John McCain wiped out over the past few weeks among Colorado voters. Obama tour has not produced any bounce in the polls in America and his “Ich bin ein Beginner” in Berlin is generally being panned as substantively lacking. Fox/Opinion Dynamics and Resmussen polls released Thursday have the race tied.

If this [Iranian] regime becomes nuclear, that we (Israel) will have to act because for us that is a question for the survival of our Jewish civilization

Natan Sharansky, former Soviet dissident who spent more than a decade in the communist Gulag now an Israeli citizen told Newsmax. com editor Ruddy “It is very alarming for me the way Senator Obama voted, the way he spoke about his desire to negotiate with Ahmadinejad, and the way some of his advisers think.” Sharansky a former Knesset member and deputy prime minister also told Ruddy,” if this [Iranian] regime becomes nuclear, that we (Israel) will have to act because for us that is a question for the survival of our Jewish civilization.” Sharansky’s comments carry great weight here and for policy-makers in the West. Though he resigned from the Knesset as a stalwart Likud backer in 2006, he has remained active in the political debate.

Sharansky is dubious of Obama saying, “He is definitely a big concern for me. Reflecting how many others feel he said Obama has “a little record or almost no record, while the one who he is competing with is McCain, and we know for sure his principles.” Natan also said “If Iran will not change, Israel will have to act. I think it will be very tragic if Israel has to act alone.”

The survival of the West depends on democracy, Sharansky argues. In his best-selling book, “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.” Sharansky believes democracy does not mean unlimited freedom overnight, especially for states that have no history of democratic institutions (such as Iraq. Instead, he argues for the gradual development of democratic institutions which takes time and patience.

Looking out at the world, he says “our enemies look so dangerous because they have a strong will.” This means they have beliefs they are ready to die for. “The free world, if it does not have values for which people are ready to die, will be powerless, its people decadent. It will be doomed to failure.”

Saransky laments weakened faith and patriotism in Europe and elsewhere. When describing Europe Sharansky paraphrases, John Lenons song “Imagine”as a place where there is no hell and no paradise, no borders, no nations, in a world where there is nothing to die for. He calls Europe a tragedy, but he says of America, “in general, its society is still healthy” underscoring the need for stalwart leadership.

His argument is “if you don’t stand for something- you’ll fall for anything.”

Iran to have nuke late next year or early 2010.

Fifteen thousand UK, French and US sailors took part in a joint training exercise to practicing blockading Iran’s Gulf ports to prevent refined oil products from entering the nation as a result of intensified sanctions. Iran has no refining capacity of its own so a blockade would effectively strangle its domestic economy bringing it to an abrupt halt. The emerging consensus is that Iran “will miss an opportunity” to accept the package of incentives offered it a week ago in Geneva in exchange for ending its effort to assemble a nuclear weapon.

The British prime minister said this week during a visit to Israel that here is agreement on such sanctions. France also affirmed it would participate in the blockade.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert estimated this week that Iran will assemble a nuclear weapon by late next year or early 2010.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state TV Wednesday, July 23: “The Iranian nation… will not retreat one iota in the face of oppressing powers.” He pledged to continue Iran’s nuclear program.

U. S. main stream media have ignored the story.