Oh, I wish we could call a "do over"

Poll shows 7 of the 8 newly elected GOP govs would lose in a "do over" now that the voters see what they bought.  Where's the return desk?  I just hate this thing, it's more abrasive than I thought it would be!

I honestly thought this would happen.  Bob Dylan said, "you gotta serve somebody", and these guys appear to be doing a good job for the top 10% of the nations income earners.

your money is going to wind and heat

Mileage sucks:
Gas burning car engines explode fuel vapor to push the piston to turn the crank, shaft, wheel.  75% of heat off each explosion goes not to push the piston, but into the engine mass, moving out through the radiator.  Not a very successful use of heat, or your expensive fuel.  Keep the car tuned up, know what you are buying, some new engines are better now, hybrid and electric may fit a few of us.

In slow, stop and go traffic, about 90% of your fuel is used to accelerate the car, then in a few car lengths or a few blocks, you throw it all away as heat in the brakes.  Regenerative coasting and braking can harvest about 50% of this for later use.  Look for this in a new car if your shopping.  What can we learn from this tiny bit of info?  Weight of the car matters, lighter is better, and don't drive to the stop sign, I am amazed at the number of drivers maintaining 40 mpg until braking hard is the only choice.

In faster driving with few stops the cost in fuel is mostly to keep it rolling.  The main problem here is wind resistance, aerodynamics.  Here most the energy is going to swirl a tube of air behind the car.  The cross section, the total area of the car in front view determines the drag.  It can be mitigated by round corners and smooth lines, tight seams, clean slick surfaces, but the issue remains, the  wider & taller the car the greater the drag.  Narrow, low, long, beats fat, tall.

Rolling resistance is the smaller but an important contributor.  Tire tread & construction, bearings, drive train mechanical drain, road surface.  Drive the smooth road if equal distance, get the car greased, buy low rolling resistance tires if your going to keep the car for the tires life.

Faster X 8.  As a general rule most cars increase fuel consumption 8 times to double the speed.  40 to 80 isn't cheap.

Conclusion, Lighter, smaller, slower, fewer miles, more money in your pocket.

Burning hydrocarbons has driven CO2 pollution to record levels in 2010.  The volume of CO2 is higher than had been predicted.  Note: Global Warming Model Predictions if found to be in error, are almost always in error to our disadvantage, growing worse faster, always.

The research was released last weekend at a world conference.  CO2 is the main culprit in rising temperatures, caused by; burning coal 44% of it, oil 36%, natural gas near 20%.   Methane is just behind as a source, currently mostly from animal gas, but as the tundra thaws it may become the most common.  Water vapor is also a greenhouse gas, with warming and thawing we get more and warmer water surface for evaporation, thus more of it as well.

And we see pollution causes stupidity, Palin yesterday said of pollution, "I love the smell of emissions", and the house committee on pollution suspended it's look into these dangers and instead turned to increasing oil profits to "guarantee our security".

CO2 might (so far tests have not been very good at it and almost all are stopped) be able to be caught and pumped under ground.  But burning fossil fuel and catch it, even at 100% effective, would not reduce what we already released over the past 150 years.  The only possible way to do it, if you could catch it all for sequestration is burn trees.  Plant huge forests of trees, they are the only fast way to absorb CO2, convert power plants to burn wood and catch the shit.  You got a better idea?

Supreme Court and Obama agrees on one

A week or two ago the Supreme Court let an Arizona law stand that punished employers for hiring illegals.  The funders of the far right and the Chamber went into fits.  Hiring Mexicans and jipping them out of benefits and sometimes wages was just another profit center, a way to generate huge profits for the local franchise all the while funding racist and the gullible into a scapegoating froth.   Ouch, focus on the market not the supply and you cut it off, can you say "regional manager going to jail"?
Today I see it was made public that months ago Obama directed the Justice department to focus more on franchise and plant manager, regional manager, foreman, and less on the dishwasher and hotel maid and fruit picker, roofer.  If the manager of the slaughter house and paving company are facing jail time, word in Mexico will soon be no job there.

For the record, last year the Obama adm. deported about as many illegals as the Bush adm. did in any 4 year period.  Isn't this what most people wanted?  Instead you get Palin and Fox wringing their hands with lies about how little he is doing on the border.

Last Mountain, see it

Years of mergers and buy-outs have delivered to the market place ever larger and more parasitic corporations who cannot care about the community or the nation. Their only responsibility is to profit and the stock holders and board. They are godless entities in the Biblical sense, parasites, moneychangers in the temple. Their market democracy imperative is two-fold; profit and influence. Their interest does not even extend to the financial security of the nation, or the well being of the community, in fact they are often in conflict with it. They will do everything they can to hide and keep their money separate from the common good of the nation they feed on.

Hold em by their lapels and ride'm

Organic Wine:
If you are a wine buyer look for it, ask for it.  I like an organic Reisling from Oregon, and I have had a few different reds from Calif and one from South America.  The prices are right in there with the standard wines, all over the place. 60 years ago most all were organic.  I ask my dealer why he didn't bunch them together, he said they sell better mixed with other wine, otherwise some people think it's yukey poo.
Organic Beer:
My favorite beer is the Fat Tire beers from Colorado.  They use less water making beer than any brewery in the nation, they also use wind energy and give bikes to employees if they will ride them to work.  One of their 10 kinds is an organic beer with orange peel flavor, real good, same price as their other beers.

Organic does not always cost more, it's better for you, for the land, for the farmers/pickers, and it fucks the Koch's out of their fertilizer money and the chemical companies out of their's too, so there. phtttttttttt.  Shop like your fucking a rich guy!

Oil companies + business friendly courts + eminent domain = land rights trampled

Corporate pipeline operators have more rights and the final say over property they covet than the families who own the farms or the American Indians who hunted it for eons, and this will soon be demonstrated again for those who do not believe it.

Shoot the hostages

1) Eric Cantor is holding up funds for tornado relief in Missouri, a red state, until the money can be moved from programs the GOP do not like, no new taxes folks, just cuts, those bible thumpers in Joplin will still vote Reichwing "by God cause bless yer heart we growed up playing on waste heaps from the lead mines that weave underground below our homes and we can't think no other way".
2) Kansas concerned gas sales were falling hurting tax revenue and oil men, raised the speed limit to 75 in order to kill more of us and burn 6% more fuel.
3) The GOP in Congress is writing a law to halt the Pentagons transition from oil to alternative fuels and sources, the most expensive part of fighting in Afghanistan is fuel convoys, I'm not making this shit up folks they are writing a bill.
4) Texas moved 4 billion $ from education to a 28 mile hiway project south of Dallas, let them kids lay blacktop, we don't need no education, but we do need to have more lanes to burn our hydrocarbons in.

The yellow fringe meets the right fringe

Just got off the phone with a business acquaintance, a foaming at the mouth tea bagger.  He told me of his latest brain storm about what was wrong with America and the restorative needed.
New voting laws, oh yea, only people who own property and pay income tax can vote.  Sorry Sarge, and Scratch, you hit only one of the two, that apartment ain't gonna cut it as owning property with this bunch.   He kept talking about "those people" and the "them".  ""Those people" go for politicians that give them health care, so we get governments that pay attention to the poor."  I love to hear where he's going but I butted in and said "that's not true in Kansas, people who cater to the underdog have not won elections the GOP dominates in Topeka, and almost every county and city government in the state, we are giving tax breaks to corporations like mad and we cut school lunches for poor kids, home nursing for the handicapped and elderly, legal aid, medicade, police and fire departments, reduced the number of places to vote in "those people's" neighborhoods."  He started laughing, "yea we are making progress in Kansas, but these voting ideas have to be considered".  I encouraged him to work on it full time.

We want to move when we retire if things stay like this.  I hate this fucking place.

I need to ask him some time if things got bad, if he had no money and his grandkids were starving would he steal to feed them?  Would it be moral to let them die?  Would it be acceptable to steal or rob to keep them alive?

prepare for your rape ladies like men do for flat tires

Kansas just passed a law that insurance companies cannot pay for abortions in general policies, only through a single subject policy, an abortion policy.  You have to ask for and pay separately for an abortion policy, which so far as I know does not exist in the industry.

However, one pro-choice Republican, state Rep. Barbara Bollier, feared that Republicans were cutting off “a way for women to cover the cost of terminating pregnancies” — particularly when they’re unintended. During the House debate, she “questioned whether women would buy abortion-only policies long before they have crisis or unwanted pregnancies or are rape victims.” But state Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R) was ready with a shocking retort. DeGraaf said women should plan ahead for situations such as rape because, after all, “I have a spare tire on my car“:

During the House’s debate, Rep. Pete DeGraaf, a Mulvane Republican who supports the bill, told [Bollier]: “We do need to plan ahead, don’t we, in life?”
Bollier asked him, “And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with a pregnancy?”
DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, “I have spare tire on my car.”
“I also have life insurance,” he added. “I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for.”

DeGraaf’s belief that women should plan and prepare for their own rape is more than groan-worthy, it’s woefully out-of-touch. As Jezebel’s Margaret Hartmann notes, DeGraaf is basically telling sexual assault victims that “the state isn’t AAA” so a Kansas woman is responsible for the consequences of her attacker. And by comparing it to life insurance, DeGraaf goes further to insinuate that rape is as inevitable as death.

Email Pete, thank him for telling the nation that in Kansas the fun is over, get raped, make the best of it. Oh, keep it civil.

pete.degraaf@house.ks.gov

First the Pentagon sides with Global Warming, now it's insurance.

Insurance companies acknowledge global warming in unusual ways, for example they determined it is going to cost you money.
The industry is predicting an immediate uptick in losses due to the onset of harsher weather conditions.   Swiss Re, and other major reinsurers are notifying major customers of a 65% rate increases within the next few years.  They suggested Gulf Coast cities could be left without insurance all together, or have policy defined so narrow as to be of limited value.
Expect your homeowners, car, or crop insurance to be pummeled by modifications exempting this that and the other, higher prices, and quicker cancellations for any squabble or multiple claims.
The environment controls the economy, the environment is not something you visit on the weekend.  The city of Joplin Missouri was hammered last night by a huge tornado, a backwater city, it may never be as strong as it was, bankruptcy courts will fill the next 2 years, more poor on the way.

GOP is burning Texas

The Republicans nationwide are cutting budgets, no matter who or how it hurts.  They rule with a no compromise attitude, one solution fits all, cut services, education, safety.  As a Texas drought delivers wildfires from New Mexico to I35, the GOP controlled house proposes cutting millions from the agency that fights wildfires.  Well, I am starting to see some value in letting Texas burn, but this is insanity.
At the federal level the public safety is also of little interest, already done a GOP spending bill slashed $700 million from NOAA's budget to forecast and track hurricanes.  Well, most the old South states are Republican controlled now, so, maybe it has an upside.   Beware gulf water temps are up and the windy season starting soon.

SUMMER READING LIST

The Spirit Level, Richard G. Wilkinson
Merchants of Doubt, Oreskes
The Rise And Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamod
Ape House, Sarah Gruen

Modest goals.  Simian overtones.

Hey! Yea you asshole, your car and TV are dissolving my oyster’s shell, knock it off.

Hard to see how over fishing kills lions isn’t it?  And it’s hard to see how driving to the store or work stunts starfish or melts crab shells.  How wasting energy kills coral reefs, the nursery of the tropical oceans.

Acid!  You’re fucking it up with your acid.  See numb nuts, acid is an eventual product of  CO2, which you make by flaming your hydrocarbons.

CO2 in the air is so dense now, it is being forced by the atmosphere into the sea water, truthfully water always absorbs some CO2, but now it's more.   CO2 reacts with water and a bunch of scientific left wing liberal chemical shit happens that Texans object to and the water releases hydrogen ions.  That ion crap, that stuff acidifies the water, meaning it lowers PH, becomes vinegar like, sort of.  Now some more voodoo science and hydrogen ties up carbonate ions and coverts them to bicarbonate ions.  If you took science from any atheist teacher pretending this shit is not up for a creationist supply sider’s argument, then you may remember this process, it’s high school, or 101, I forgot it and had to reread it yesterday.  Anywho…..sha zam, your acid eats away calcium in sea creatures, or in some bizarre cases like cuddle fish, it actually makes their hard parts grow faster and brittle.

Hey ride a bike, take a bus.  Leave the lobsters alone.

Think about the lions, I bet you figure it out.

Ok guys, keep this to your self, now sneak in there real careful like.

Now the weather is comfortable, even hot some days, time to sneak in to the water heater and turn it down,  just a little bit.  Don't tell the wife, most females like water that would scald feathers off a chicken, or set the hair on a hog if you know about that old exercise.  A few years ago I told my wife proudly I was saving a few dollars this summer lowering the water temp.  No way that worked, she couldn't get it warm enough once she knew, I had to turn it up to stop the harping, I think I had to set it higher than it had been before.  Now for the last 10 years I do it and keep my mouth shut, she never noticed.  For sure we saved a few dollars running the hot water tank lower and the radiant residue heat was less in the house too.  This fall put it back.
I bet I will save enough to buy a good bottle of wine, anyhow one day I will, all the time imagining I'm getting it at the expense of the gas company.

Stupidity is on top of the world

Sarge over at One Angry Zebra has harped on the competition over the Arctic Sea for months.  Frankly I thought he was correct but over-reacting, it wasn't likely to become a series of incidents like the cold war, ships ramming one another, subs bumping, hasty coffee house meetings of diplomats scheming how to keep their countries leaders under control, from lurching into hostilities.

Well, Assange, if thats the spelling, the Wiki-Leak guy comes to Sarge's rescue, in that Sarge was right.  Wiki-Leak has let go a series of cables that show we are already involved in skullduggery and low level threats, and not alone, Russia is in the middle of it, and appears, I say appears because these things are never clear, to be getting quickly verbally aggressive.   A number of meetings have involved threats and tirades by Russian military claiming they will not be defeated on these issues.  Russia is claiming large swaths of the Arctic as their territory, far out and near other nations who as expected do not agree.  Russian subs are scattering markers on the sea floor, as if as Spanish landing in the new world, throwing down a marker solves it.

At stake, shipping lanes, deep water oil, fisheries, perhaps deep water mining.  The players are Russia, Canada, US, Denmark and Norway as primary players, secondary are Greenland (administered by Denmark), Sweden and Finland.

Why now?  Global warming.  The ice pack is getting thinner, and smaller, fast, very fast.  If we could halt this thawing of the ice, then it wouldn't much matter, most this issue will fade.  If it continues then anything is possible, the seas fished out, ships moving about, oil rigs and spills the norm, and yes the arming of the Arctic coasts and the sea.  More oil on the market when we should be moving off it.  How can anyone deny global warming based on what is going on here, and what better reason to halt it, halt the madness.

umm, salmon

I have never fished for salmon, never seen in person bears catching them.  But I love them.  I love watching video about them.  I love eating salmon.  A week or two ago I and the wife watched a PBS special on them, and since I have been reading.  There are many kinds, and they migrate from saltwater upstream to spawn at different times of the year according to the species, some go a hell of a long way, as far as the mountain brooks in Idaho.  They are in trouble, some could be wiped out like we did the sturgeon on the east coast, there are no sturgeon runs in the Carolinas, no New York or Boston caviar, gone, the way of the passenger pigeon and the eastern woodland buffalo.  Welcome to the Anthropocene.

The flounder was fished out, the population collapsed and has not again dominated the "grand bank" with it's tons of buttery flavors.  There is resumption of limited fishing in limited locations, but most the stock of the most plentiful table fish on the east coast is struggling, competition from interlopers and reduced feed stocks hold the population low.

Salmon stocks are falling, one high inland spawning creeks report finding 3 salmon last year, 30 years ago the water boiled with thousands dying in their one spawning orgy in life.  Millions of dollars are spent in some areas hatching and raising salmon, but they keep them for weeks even months before release, at this point they have "learned" to be fed and no survival skills.  When released the death rate is hugh.  Wild salmon normally get to the ocean by facing upstream and letting the flow take them.  NOw they must swim through damed up lakes and slow moving straightened dredged boating channels, the free ride is gone, they must expend energy getting to salt water, more die.  Millions die going through generator turbines, the pressure and turbulance in these tunnels kill 98%.  The lucky few find the water ladder, and some are actually trapped at dams and put in trucks and ships and delivered to the ocean at a cost of more millions.

Now they are in the ocean for a few years, some survive and it's time to go back, but their gps says go to the hatchery, not to the higher mountain streams.  A few do somehow go on, but the return is small, plus the dams block some, and at the dams they bunch up before moving in waves into the water ladders, sea lions have discovered this and swim a hundred miles to stay at the spillway and catch the stalled mass of fish.  It's amazing, but some make it and the species still survives, barely.

There is a hugh movement to take down dams, and many were removed, and some more planned, better ladders are being ask for but time will tell.  Upstream years ago army corps of engineering decided to straighten creeks in some farm land, now there is a movement to put back the meanders and bends and rocks and plant trees to shade/cool the water, where this is doen the benefit is seen within a few years, higher survival rate, more fish returning, better water conditions.

Though the population is under stress, I say eat wild salmon if you eat any at all.  It is better for you than farmed they have shown this, and it is better for the oceans.  Farmed fish in general, is fed mostly a diet of ground up fish.  There is an industry out there dragging nets catching things we don't normally eat, but are the food stocks of those fish we do eat.  The waste is hugh.  The oceans food fish stocks are being starved down in some areas by this practice, and we wasting fuel to do it. It is not sustainable, it's a race to the last fillet.

Salmon restoration is going on along the west coast, there are many NGO's, and sportsmen clubs and hobby clubs working on this.  Nature had a method very efficient to deliver our salmon, we have hosed it up.  If you live on the west coast, maybe you want to consider finding on line one of these clubs or organizations and help prevent another sturgeon.

Poor Bangladesh, an astonishing number of homes on solar.

How far behind will the US fall in transitioning to a new economy and new energy technologies?   Compared to many nations we are already looking like the past, even Bangladesh now has 870,000 homes on solar power.  Most are not on a grid but stand independent. Sure at most they run 3 lights a TV a radio a phone charger, but a few have multiple panels and also run more.  
The point is, this is possible, and it is secure against hackers or utility failure and air pollution, and the electric cost is zero for 20 or 30 years.  Imagine a home, or business, knowing it's energy costs are flat for decades at a time, with this knowledge you can make accurate financial plans.

Newt must not be a Fox candidate or they would never run this.

Who is Fox news golden one? Certainly they intend to highlight Newt as an oaf.

Obama's gift to oil, don't like it one bit, no sir.

I think the Prez made a big mistake opening up more drilling off shore and in Alaska.  I think he did it because he knows the public is so stupid they think it will help.

It will help, help continue our race to a greenhouse gas CO2 spawned climate change.  And no Texan or Alaska oil man or rough neck is going to vote for him due to this, they hate him and we know why.

There is no shortage of oil, we actually grew from standard of 26 day reserve to almost 30 during the price hike.  Tanks were thrown up all over to store the extra.  Oil pumping is up since Obama took office, you would think it's the opposite to listen to the oil companies shills. The speculators and the market drove up the price for one reason, the market does not work any more because it is manipulated by the oil corporations and futures traders.  Our market economy is out of control, hedge funds, speculators,  the system operates to rob the public, you, it is not safe, it does not serve small investors, or the nation, not any longer.  Also..............we are at peak oil, meaning the easy stuff is being pumped, whats left is hard to get at, expensive, extremely deep, dangerous seas and frozen shores.  Since it is expensive and risky the oil companies WILL get more tax breaks for doing this.  This is another case of us using up our kids reserves, and in a dirty way.  Bringing more oil to market prolongs our use of a dying transportation technology, were making buggy whips when the spark plug is about to go out of use.  Innovation will not come to the US if we stay with old technology and fight change.  It was an environmental error he made.

Huckabee not running, not for Prez anyhow

I thing thumper Huck is running for VP, let someone else beat their brains out, the old chubster may not be able to run at that pace.  And the Donald, Donnie boy, he never was running once he saw the press was going to hammer him, thin skinned with a comb over that couldn't stand up to the joke it was a fox on his head, took me a few days to get the second meaning.  So that leaves some weaklings, and some clowns, bat shit crazy Michelle Bachmannnnnnn will probably make a run, magic underwear man is the best of the best, he may make it, Paul, again with the Texas college kids as his base, he will hit the magic underwear man hard.  But, ole Huck, he made the smooth move of the day, I think he is the vp pick of any and all, unless he loses to a token black, that would be something huh?

I got a D in algebra, even so I got a date with the Nipplemeyer twins, skinny dipping in a creek, found the value of "Y2"

Kansas new education budget (again) cuts foreign language teachers

Don't see the movie Water for Elephants

 

The Pope says get behind this, the environment isn't just a place to go on weekends

Workshop on Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene 
(2-4 April 2011)
We call on all people and nations to recognise the serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and by changes in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other land uses. We appeal to all nations to develop and implement, without delay, effective and fair policies to reduce the causes and impacts of climate change on communities and ecosystems, including mountain glaciers and their watersheds, aware that we all live in the same home. By acting now, in the spirit of common but differentiated responsibility, we accept our duty to one another and to the stewardship of a planet blessed with the gift of life. We are committed to ensuring that all inhabitants of this planet receive their daily bread, fresh air to breathe and clean water to drink as we are aware that, if we want justice and peace, we must protect the habitat that sustains us. The believers among us ask God to grant us this wish.
...............
Forgive me for I have lifted, lifted this off the Popes own english version website.  Now if God didn't believe in man caused global warming, this wouldn't be published.

Want to cut the budget, start with corporate welfare

CEO's of some oil and gas companies made as much as 13 million last year, each, even the poor ones and the VP's made multiple millions.  The Navy seals that took out Bin Laden made $55,000 tops last year.  This doesn't seem fair.

$182,000, or die in the ditch like the Grapes of Wrath dude.

If the GOP can kill or wound Medicare as they plan to, you may not have enough money.  If you are 54 years old (or less) you need an additional $182,000 saved for health care when you retire.  Those vouchers you hear about, those are 182k short of what your going to need.

Lets see, didn't we learn a few days ago 9% official unemployed, 16% estimated real unemployed number, of the working public 40% have low paying jobs.  So...........whats the big deal at 54 you have 8 years to save 182k.  Oh, wait they are moving the retirement age up so that's good news you have more than 10 years, plenty of time.  What's that?  Your company keeps getting sold and resold, no raise with one, the next cut wages, the next cut benefits, your spouse lost their job and took something they really didn't want, if the car breaks down that's the end of that job, busses don't go down there.

Social security if the GOP gets there way will be turned over to Wall Street and the Bankers, thats good news too don't you think?

You, Mr and Mrs America, can take care of your money better than some government bureaucrat, it's your money.  So, lets look around.  My parents, your uncle, the guy down the street paid into these programs, and now they are getting the assistance they expected.  Now, do you know of anyone in the family or neighborhood who got hosed in the stock market, a bum property development scheme, an ostrich farm, a second mortgage on the home, fraud, or a trip to Nevada?

The GOP has the best salesmen in the world without an exception anywhere, ever.  They have  convinced the public to fear and hate a system that has never screwed anyone out of their retirement.  The GOP's success is visible, much of the public is begging, demanding, to risk fucking up their retirement and throw it away,  irretrievable,  into a market so complex even the brokers can't tell you what some of these instruments are and who they are buying them from.

182k, thats just what you need to go along with the vouchers, if you qualify for vouchers.  You also need to get up every morning and nurse an ulcer when you see your stock went down, or your banker is in jail, or when you finally understand the quartly statement and see the service fees are eating up the principle even as the market goes down, oh shit maybe we should sell short, a coverd short, or a naked put,  what is a naked put, lets by futures, that sounds like a money maker, damn, FDIC doesn't cover corporate bonds do they, lets do it on line surely the hackers won't find steal our account.  Good fucking luck if you let these pricks do this to America.  Before it's all done shoplifting seniors will be the norm.

Oh, funny as hell, the tea baggers, mostly they are already retired, they are the ones who really want these changes, changes that for the most part won't touch them, in fact many of them will be dead before it kicks in.  Hard for me to imagine why they want to do this, and if it's a good deal make it immediate across the board.  Send the sonofabitch a voucher tomorrow, and with their final social security check include the phone number of a gold broker, after all they have been harping on the price of gold as harbinger of things to come the last few years, if they are not expert on it by now then fuck them.

Denmark #1, China #2, US #17

Clean tech producers, meaning the overall impact on the economy, with focus on the export or licensing,  innovations and ideas going into use, the manufacturing of clean tech products, and the installation of same.

Denmark is the king, little Denmark.  Good for them, those vikings and pretty blonde bike riders deserve our admiration.  3.1% of their GDP is from this.

China is second, and more interesting than the billions they are investing on clean energy and clean products is their amusement with the global warming debate centered mainly in the United States.  For China they accept it, and spend no time on it.  They see it as a market and are puzzled that industry and business in the US rather than competing for it are for the most part trying to block it.  China's intent is to dominate the market for clean energy, it is a new industry and the traditional energy companies are not entering into it.  While some of us cry about ice melting,  Fox and friends cry about the lies of scientist, China is making solar panels and wind mills for themselves and the rest of the world.  Although they are still building coal fired power plants, they actually plan to phase them out in the not so distant future.

Example of what we are doing in the US, Friday the state of Kansas a Republican controlled government set a large portion of the eastern 1/3 of the state off limits for wind energy.  The Koch family owns hugh swaths of grass land in this region and fight all forms of alternative energy, they fear the environmental damage of wind mills.  I have a tiny share of a small oil well in that area, the oil leaks out around the holding tanks into the creek, Koch Industries has a pick up service to transport the oil, they are the buyer, they write my little check, about $70 every 3 months, but they fear a wind mill will damage the earth, and the state government they own agreed. 3 weeks ago the state increased the speed limit on the highways after it was reported the sale of gasoline had decreased, driving faster uses more oil, sha-zam, thats our goal.   The US is #17, for now!

Hotter world means lower grain production

Kansas and Oklahoma west of the I-35 corridor to the Rockies it's dry and sandpaper scratchy.  Texas is dry and on fire, the state that would secede to compete with Ethiopia now wants federal aid.  Wheat prices jumped 20 cents (to 7.76 bshl) last week with news of wheat conditions in Kansas and Russia.  40% of the wheat in Kansas is rated poor.  Russia has lowered it's estimates following last summers record temperatures and forecast for a hot spring.  I have a few acres of wheat, it looks good, but experts say the head is small, fewer berries in it.  Western parts of the state it has never been so bad.  Almost no rain for 2 years.  Some fields are bare, nothing germinated, nothing grew, others have only enough growing to slow the wind erosion.  Irrigated farm land prices are rocketing up.  In my area no new wells can be drilled, there is a limit to what can be mined, as it is the grandkids may not have any water.  I had 140'ish acres of irrigated corn the last few cycles this year I rotate to soybeans.

What's this mean for you?  Higher food prices.  The world competes for these grains, and with China leading the way, they can pay any price, and all you have to do to insure this is keep buying made in China.  Your pasta and bread will go up a little.  Your meats and dairy will go up a lot from higher grain prices and less forage (grasses and alfalfa)  The great pastures of the western states will be dirt fields by mid sumer, those cattle will have to be fed far more hay than normal and that will have to come from far away states or off irrigated land.  The national herd is shrinking, meaning ranchers are keeping fewer cows for breeding as the care and feeding for these will be tough for most, impossible for some.  Either way, this is a good time to get off meat, the savings is cash and cleaner heart tubes.

Additionally this accelerates the feed back loop of global warming.  Take the temperature 3 feet above  bare earth in the sunlight on a hot afternoon, then go into a lush green field of grass or wheat or wildflowers and duplicate the sample.  You will find a considerable variation, the field of dirt should be 10 to 15° F warmer.  Now expand the bare earth area to include significant portions of the central strip of states responsible for most the nations wheat, Texas to North Dakota.  This is what is meant by climate feed back loops; if it gets hot enough to kill the vegetation off the ground, then it can grow to a new high, driving other events, and so acceleration begets acceleration.  This is how the arctic ice is melting, the more it melts the blue water absorbs heat the tundra thaws, one event enables the next, until it all goes down the drain.  Oh, without water, nothing goes down the drain, my bad.

$90 million , a lobbyist frenzy for Paki-land

What does Pakistan do with the 2+ Billion dollars we give them each year?  Well since Bin Laden was found dozing at the gate of their West Point, they have been spending like hell, in Washington.
Lobbyist (many are ex-government people, even an ex senator or two) are suspected to have a 90 million budget for a panic effort to save Paki-land from the budget cuts the public wants to see.
So, who do you think will win this tug of war?   Foreign governments lobby (read blow and give money to) our congress, unseemly.

I can see a reason to continue the aid, a little of it, with strings attached.  Pakiland has no where to go, India is the giant next door they hate and fear and it's economy and power is growing.  Pakiland without foreign aid is a failed cripple of a nation in every way you can account for.  The Chinesedon't need them and probably don't want to support this basket of maggots.  Only the bombs they have could be marketable to Iran or a lunitic and that is where we need to play our cards correctly, get them in line or nab the bombs, or tell India where they are, they may one day deal with it.

Do something, do it well, and move on.

PT Barnum in disbelief at high consumer satisfaction with a product that will never exist.

   Clean coal projects shutting down, worldwide 3,200 carbon sequestration projects by governments, universities and industry were under way until recently.  45 of them were large, rated as full scale attempts to glean CO2 from fossil fuel power generation and stuff it below ground.  The testing so far is a colossal disappointment.  The equipment and infrastructure required is equal to the size of the power plant it services, much energy is required for it's operation, the cost is dear casting all the more attraction on renewables and conservation.  
   Of the 45 projects, 6 remain,  two sites in Norway and one each in the US, Netherlands, Canada and Algeria are still in operation, and only one of these is scrubbing coal smoke, the others are on natural gas.
  Industry knows now it will not deliver clean energy from fossil fuel.  But it will continue spending millions on nightly TV and weekly newspaper adds bragging of it's merits.  The myth is the only asset they have now, and it sells.

you're surplus to the economy, fuck off

Death panels, Reichwing style

From the people who scared you silly with the "Obama death panel" health care lies comes their sequel, "Financial Darwinism at the Hospital", subtitled "insufficient voucher system with wall street and insurance companies screwing you out of your health care savings account and funny as hell help for the rich and corporations and tax increase on some women".   This horror show might be coming soon, see it, live it, at a third world clinic near you.

OK, thats stupid, but think of what is going on.  The GOP worried you that Obama would decide your grandmother should die with his health care plan rather than spend the money to keep her going.  Doctors talking with the kids about a parents terminal condition and how many heroic efforts to save them are wise, they said was rationed health care, eugenics, death panels, next stop Treblinka.

Now they offer their plan which is to put US companies on equal footing with 3rd world nations by freeing them from any involvement with health care, instead through a yet to be explained voucher you go out and buy your own insurance, using this and your own self investment in the stock market with a medical savings account.  Sha-zam at last your free of group purchasing power, your on your own facing big insurance to ask for care and see for yourself the power of one against goliath.   At the same time they will make it impossible for insurance companies to cover abortion and remove the medical tax deduction of abortion as a medical expense, yes the GOP will tax a women in dire straits.   As for actually addressing medical costs and availability they don't.  The market will take care of it's self is their health care plan, with the exception they will block lawsuits, get the wrong foot amputated tough shit hop on the cheeks of your ass, don't blame the doctor.  As I have said many times casino's and Wall Street are not in business for everyone that shows up to hit the jackpot, the majority must lose, thats the rule, thats the truth, thats the secret most refuse to accept.  I can probably find more who doubt Buzz Aldren was on the moon than doubt they can make money in the stock market, and this is what the GOP is counting on, mass stupidity, and money from insurance lobbyist.
OK it's poorly written but I'm a bent at the moment, pissed, my congressmen's answering service is as far as I can get, while I know damn well he would take a call from an insurance lobbyist.

Think snipers in Iran, Syria, Ohio, youth and ideals the target

See Sarge's (One Angry Zebra) post today.  Kent state anniversary of national guard shooting students.  This is a cover band, with this rather raw edged version it fits the atmosphere of the era, the anger of the youth of America over a very polarizing war and the industry and politics that kept it going.  Tangle this all up with the civil rights issues, the baby boomers reaching puberty and it was a problem, and the government was over reacting time and time again, we saw it in the south, at the democratic convention in Chicago, at Kent state, Berkley, over and over the authority was misused, and the kids, as kids will do escalated it as well.

Pro-Natalist policy seems like a GOP fit

The US does not have a pro-natalist policy.  We have an aging population, shortages of talent looms in many fields, shortage of workers loom if the economy picks up.  Shortage of people paying for government obligations off all kinds is on the horizon.  The solution, one solution, increase the population either through increased birth rate, increased survival of children, or influx of population from outside sources.  To debate these three choices is not my purpose, but to consider one, or the lack of it.

The US does not have a pro-natalist policy.  This is a policy making it easier for expanding families to cope, and it combats the aging society troubles of which there are many.  What are the primary features that constitute such a policy:
*Paid time off from work for mothers, (sometimes fathers to) to be with the newborn.  This varies around the world from a few weeks to almost a year.  The mother must then be allowed to return to the job.
*Pre-natal and post-natal health care for those who need it.  This increases health of mother and baby, decreasing the death rates for both.  The US is now 3rd world status on this, Kansas is the lowest of the states for black infants.
*Early nutrition and education.  Takes different forms but often includes breakfast at schools and head start programs for the needy.
There are variations and degrees around the world, but those nations who bring these programs on board see healthier and better educated kids, fewer abortions, happier work force, and as is the focus here, higher birth/survival rate, a future for the nation.

What we see in the US is a total lack of this and the Republicans opposing it in every way, instead claiming hands off government survival of the fittest and control of reproductive rights will fix something, not sure what, they don't get very far into a pro-natalist discussion.  In fact they don't ever talk of it, instead the discussion is always about abortion and nanny state scare stories about feeding a Mexican at school for free, communism help help!
Any thoughts?

Lots of people employed making clean energy

The piece setting atop the red block is a nose hub for a 2.4 Mw wind turbine, the inside diameter of this piece is over 6 feet.  The 21,000 lb. piece mounts the three turbine blades to the generator turbine housing on the tower.  The company I work for machines these hubs on this $6 million machine.  This we do for one company, we also make a section of the center shaft of the turbine for another wind turbine builder.

Over the weekend a new study by European energy experts announced wind energy is now causing the price of all energy to go down in Texas, some other states, and in Europe.  This is on a direct collision course with coal and natural gas.  If alternatives undercut traditional sources those companies will cease to grow, at least in their current form.  The cost per Kw delivered in the overall make wind approximately the same with fossil fuel.  Up front costs are higher for wind (which I find hard to believe) but long term production costs are very low, almost free, and there's the damage to the economics of fossil fuel generated power, this is why Koch and many others are hammering the public with feel good adverts with the myth of clean fossil fuels.  Add to that the recent study showing the fossil fuel industry overstates how many people work for them, alternative energy seems to be a better employer, and healthier.