tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post114922322584712577..comments2024-02-28T14:41:47.313-07:00Comments on Flares into Darkness: Everything Old is New Againambisinistralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03836786826294202405noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149311744491835292006-06-02T23:15:00.000-06:002006-06-02T23:15:00.000-06:00» Iowahawk Releases May Income Statement from The ...» <A HREF="http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2006/06/the_two_minutes.html" REL="nofollow">Iowahawk</A> Releases May Income Statement from The New Editor<BR/>POSSIBLE FLAW IN BUSINESS MODEL DETECTED (Scroll down) May Page Views ........................ 170,419 Revenues Tip Jar Pity ....................... $10.00 Google ads ......................... $2.19 [Read More]buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149310588709390892006-06-02T22:56:00.000-06:002006-06-02T22:56:00.000-06:00Adding to the humor is the fact that China, India,...Adding to the humor is the fact that China, India, and Brazil aren't even included, have no "targets". These three vast economies (which you'll note are also situated upon the same globe as the USA) are joined by a Russia whose vast empty Siberia is Kyoto-assigned "carbon credits" which the Czar intends to sell for cold hard cash. <BR/><BR/>So, even if there WAS a mankind-caused crisis, and the USA decides to "be nice" and closes shop and disappears, we're STILL gonna be screwed <I>anyway</I> by the original premise, just not quite as quickly, presumably. IOW, we don't die suddenly, we die slowly. Yippee! <BR/><BR/>Wot a load o crap, huh?buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149306382172332362006-06-02T21:46:00.000-06:002006-06-02T21:46:00.000-06:00That's where the bet fails the laugh test - put th...That's where the bet fails the laugh test - put the economy on the come line for what return? No one can be surprised at comsymps willingness to sacrifice the little people - or any people - in a bid for power but there isn't a populace in the world ignorant enough to sacrifice their current material status to the watermelon's Gaia in exchange for an unknown.<BR/><BR/>That's what makes Kyoto a giggle - kind of like the UN only it hasn't killed anybody - yet.Rick Ballardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082425215912372067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149289529580196172006-06-02T17:05:00.000-06:002006-06-02T17:05:00.000-06:00There's a possible, a speculative, victim to ignor...There's a possible, a speculative, victim to ignoring Kyoto: the climate, at the margins. <BR/><BR/>OTOH, there is a <I>certain</I> victim to adopting it: those at the bottom of the economic ladder, especially those just beginning to enter the global market. Here you're talking not about trimming the industrial nation's net worths, you're talking about taking food off poor people's tables. In return for what quite likely amounts to a "command performance", a show of fealty to the western liberal elites.buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149288897399192152006-06-02T16:54:00.000-06:002006-06-02T16:54:00.000-06:00Barry—Why would I want to do that? Personally, I ...Barry—<BR/><BR/>Why would I want to do that? Personally, I think Plato made Atlantis up, but I did once upon a time read the dialogues, in translation of course. True words.lonerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13329414340481290010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149288124567073972006-06-02T16:42:00.000-06:002006-06-02T16:42:00.000-06:00Simon,Extinction of species by global warming? Tha...Simon,<BR/><BR/>Extinction of species by global warming? That's a new one. And there is hardly only one opinion about the <A HREF="http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=NjAxNzZjNTU4OGIyZWYxYTgwMzZhOTFiNmYwZTUyZmU=." REL="nofollow">polar ice caps</A>. They "devoted their lives" to understanding science? That is about as breathless as Scarlett O'Hara. I guess devotion equals truth, eh?<BR/><BR/>Loner, You can read Peter James' book on the <A HREF="http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/james/" REL="nofollow">Atlantis mystery</A> if you want to leanr a bit more about the allusion I made.<BR/><BR/>I am not suggesting that Gore is disingenuous. He has been interested in this for a long time. But the preacher-like zeal is hardly reassuring, nor is the attempt to toss every bit of bad weather into the global warming basket, when there is very good reason to doubt that.<BR/><BR/>We have previously been told to seriously cut down on fossil fuels. First it was due to pollution (of which you spoke). Various regulations and technological developments have lessened pollution, but we don not consume less fossil fuels-we consume way more. So less oil wasn't a solution. Developed countries pollute less, not more. Economic development appears to be key in lessening pollution.<BR/><BR/>Second we were told that the world was running out of oil, so we must conserve more. Again that was wrong. There are plenty of reserves and we consume more. Continued technological development is the best chance to find better fuels over time. There are problems with fossil fuels, just as there are problems burning wood to heat food. I would be astonished to find a fuel for which there will be no side effects. Choking off economic development (a la Kyoto) is a peculiar way to pollute less.Barry Dauphinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15808109325931309525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149284534514675502006-06-02T15:42:00.000-06:002006-06-02T15:42:00.000-06:00Rick--That Naomi crack hits home. I cannot forget ...Rick--That Naomi crack hits home. I cannot forget that stupidity.It always reminded me of the stuff in Bonfire of the Vanities..You know people so rich they hired specialists at $500/hr to toss their pillows decoratively on their sofas.<BR/><BR/>I simply can't wrap my head around the fact that seemingly sentient people actually voted for Gore or Kerry.cfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06415260679597997353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149283593636099692006-06-02T15:26:00.000-06:002006-06-02T15:26:00.000-06:00Watched a recent Nat'l Geographic show on the Waco...Watched a recent Nat'l Geographic show on the Waco debacle. Clinton--after he had loosed Reno to pointlessly incinerate 80 (albeit idiotic) people--was shown in a press conference saying, more or less, "Mistakes were made, and I feel bad over it". Then *poof* on to the next display under the Big Tent at the Carnival of Therapy, in the Flatlands of the Two Dimensions.buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149282253279090342006-06-02T15:04:00.000-06:002006-06-02T15:04:00.000-06:00Sensing that to his public the important thing is ...Sensing that to his public the important thing is the sermon and not the actual doing was Bill Clinton's genius. And Gore's lack thereof.Skookumchukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16069553196217619229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149282003029559372006-06-02T15:00:00.000-06:002006-06-02T15:00:00.000-06:00I don't think Algore I, Supreme Pontiff of the Cul...I don't think Algore I, Supreme Pontiff of the Cult of the Watermelon and Protector of the Sacred Bong, is going to like that, Buddy.Rick Ballardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082425215912372067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149281339009222842006-06-02T14:48:00.000-06:002006-06-02T14:48:00.000-06:00Al Gore<A HREF="http://www.cfyc.com/images/Keys%202002/one%20man%20band.jpg" REL="nofollow">Al Gore</A>buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149280871614359762006-06-02T14:41:00.000-06:002006-06-02T14:41:00.000-06:00You're right. These things are visionary revelatio...You're right. These things are visionary revelations, and to dispute them is to be reactionary--heretical. So, we masses live waiting for whoever the hell is next to decide that those weird thoughts must a revelatory vision experience (since otherwise they'd just be weird thoughts).buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149279198913444842006-06-02T14:13:00.000-06:002006-06-02T14:13:00.000-06:00Acutally, Buddy, that's who I was thinking about.T...Acutally, Buddy, that's who I was thinking about.<BR/><BR/>The essential issue is that for those people who listen to people like Gore, ritual is everything. Articulating their feelings of apocalyptic doom and guilt for our undeserved wealth and of somehow atoning for our sins or of simply, passivly accepting our fate is the important thing. The meaning, the collective ecstatic experience, is in the discourse and the ritual. Not in the actual doing.<BR/><BR/>Because the Devil is in the details of the doing.Skookumchukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16069553196217619229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149278350857869432006-06-02T13:59:00.000-06:002006-06-02T13:59:00.000-06:00Remember the prestigious 70s colloquium of scienti...Remember the prestigious 70s colloquium of scientists, the Club of Rome, which "proved" that Europe was <I>over</I>populated and on the doorstep of starvation?buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149277455052744012006-06-02T13:44:00.000-06:002006-06-02T13:44:00.000-06:00Barry:Very well done.They are suggesting that solu...Barry:<BR/><BR/>Very well done.<BR/><BR/><I>They are suggesting that solutions should be top-down in nature, that is central planning by those few, knowledgeable and beneficent ones who can decide for us.</I><BR/><BR/>Easier to do in the past when you could hope via revolution to monopolize all meme creation and transmission. Much tougher to do when you don't. As a prerequisite, they would need to put the toothpaste back in the tube. And that will be tough to do.<BR/><BR/>Then there are the practical effects of their policies. Imagine if, just as an example, the Carter Administration had taken seriously those apocalyptic projections that the planet would run out of copper, to take one example, by 2000, or whenever it was. It may have been 1980, actually. And we had embarked on some megabillion dollar Manhattan Project to find substitutes for copper. Only to find that the planet has copper coming out of our ears. Just a few of those, with the attendant human suffering that these sorts of centrally planned projects entail, would be enough to quiet the hellfire and brimstone crowd for some time to come.Skookumchukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16069553196217619229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149275644662067592006-06-02T13:14:00.000-06:002006-06-02T13:14:00.000-06:00'Peers, de gustibus non est disputandum (i done th...'Peers, de gustibus non est disputandum (i done that without 'search', too!).<BR/><BR/>Knuck, that paricular crusade was put together by one Stephen of Cloyes (Al Gore wasn't born yet). I wonder if that's where the word "cloying" came from?buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149274001662447852006-06-02T12:46:00.000-06:002006-06-02T12:46:00.000-06:00What happens when the fuel to that engine is off l...<I>What happens when the fuel to that engine is off limits?</I><BR/><BR/>-if the stores ran empty, how long do you figure before the riots start? 2 hours? 24? 36?<BR/><BR/>-What the greens tend not to grasp is that consumer society is a form of order, a means of recycling and hence deferring the destructive potential of desires, without which many people today would have no idea how to live with each other in peace, order and good government. We would return to an era of brutal wars, and not simply because there is no system but some kind of free market capitalism that can hope to feed six billion.<BR/><BR/>None of which is to argue that it isn't a good thing for people, on an individual basis, to explore forms of self-discipline that would allow them, among other things, not to be all-consuming pigs. Some big consumers really are offensive, aren't they?truepeershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16401984575637492845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149271982539411012006-06-02T12:13:00.000-06:002006-06-02T12:13:00.000-06:00Yes, let's!<A HREF="http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/childrens_crusade/" REL="nofollow">Yes, let's!</A>buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149268074707610732006-06-02T11:07:00.000-06:002006-06-02T11:07:00.000-06:00Joseph Conrad tries to warn Al Gore (ht Maggie's F...Joseph Conrad tries to warn Al Gore (ht <A HREF="http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/3056-You-Can-Call-Me-Al-Call-Me-Al.html" REL="nofollow">Maggie's Farm</A>).buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149267387010440522006-06-02T10:56:00.000-06:002006-06-02T10:56:00.000-06:00Knuck,It's interesting to speculate that the story...Knuck,<BR/><BR/>It's interesting to speculate that the story of Atlantis, the epic of Gilgamesh and the story of Noah might all be describing a global warming event that occurred at the end of the last ice age. The bursting of a huge ice dam - or just an accelerating melt off of the glaciers.<BR/><BR/>Maybe antropogeneticist is actually the world's oldest profession?Rick Ballardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082425215912372067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149265611986766552006-06-02T10:26:00.000-06:002006-06-02T10:26:00.000-06:00KnuckleheadIt seems to me, sometimes, that they lo...Knucklehead<BR/><BR/><I>It seems to me, sometimes, that they long for some deep and shared misery.</I><BR/><BR/>I think that's called communism.Barry Dauphinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15808109325931309525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149265375768825112006-06-02T10:22:00.000-06:002006-06-02T10:22:00.000-06:00I'm a little leary on the Plato interpretation, bu...I'm a little leary on the Plato interpretation, but then it's Plato and these are dialogues with which I've spent little time so I'll defer except to quote from early in <I>Timaeus</I>: <I>There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes.</I><BR/><BR/>As to Gore, he has been consistant beyond belief (Bush-like even) in this since publication of his <I>Earth in the Balance</I> in 1992. Indeed, one of the few times during the 2000 Bush-Gore debates in which Gore and Bush engaged (as opposed to sticking to message and role) was toward the end of the debate moderated by Jim Lehrer when he said to Gore:<BR/><BR/><I>In your 1992 book you said, quote, "We must make the rescue of our environment the central organizing principle for civilization and there must be a wrenching transformation to save the planet." Do you still feel that way?</I><BR/><BR/>Gore's response began, "I do." <BR/><BR/>For myself, I'm all for the debate and for women and men attempting to do things to make the world a friendlier place in which to live, but then, I was out on the playgrounds and in the parks of Los Angeles during the '60s when on more than a few days eyes burned and breathing was a bit strained because of the quality of the air. I don't miss that aspect of those days.lonerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13329414340481290010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149264430950080342006-06-02T10:07:00.000-06:002006-06-02T10:07:00.000-06:00Simon, it's not that the globe isn't warming--it m...Simon, it's not that the globe isn't warming--it may well be, since it is always, according to all historical records, in flux.buddy larsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760847873026506988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149262545531340452006-06-02T09:35:00.000-06:002006-06-02T09:35:00.000-06:00"The principles of liberty enable people to achiev...<I>"The principles of liberty enable people to achieve and acquire wonderful things when power resides with the individual as much as possible. The new philosopher-kings appear to be on the verge of saying that individuals cannot be trusted; they are too tempted. They are suggesting that solutions should be top-down in nature, that is central planning by those few, knowledgeable and beneficent ones who can decide for us."</I><BR/><BR/>One might wonder if they had ever looked into the concept of hubris. Successful electoral politics depends upon accurate assessment of the ignorance of the electorate and the Al Gore Canute Corps appears to be shooting a bit high. Fear as a political tactic works best when the approaching disaster (say, a perceived possibility of a reduced SS check) is immediate. It also works best on geezers - and this isn't a 'geezer in ascendance' moment in political history.<BR/><BR/>Creating the illusion of scarcity in a moment of abundance is a tough row to hoe. If the cost of Gore, the global bore's 'fix' is presented correctly his decision to follow this path will rank with the hiring of Naomi Wolfe as a political advisor in terms of stupidity.<BR/><BR/>'Course a hellacious hurricane season (for which there is a very high probability) is going get him some good press.Rick Ballardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082425215912372067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1149256896696773782006-06-02T08:01:00.000-06:002006-06-02T08:01:00.000-06:00The Greek tie-in is really good. I had been thinki...The Greek tie-in is really good. I had been thinking Apocalypse Al an evangelist in the greatest of southern traditions, stumping for The Church of Gaia with an Old Testament take that you mention: repent and worship Her or She will destroy you. <BR/><BR/>Gore's new approach might resonate more with Red America than that of the elitist ('Episcopalian') environmentalists, especially given how Katrina smote the Big Easy recently. The enviro movement is such an odd fusion of anti-Americanism/materialism, animism, weather hysteria and feminism that it has been needing a better hook, such as old-timey preaching of hellfire and endtimes, to reach those turned off by New Age sensibilities and science-politics.Legacy Userhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09614828226990782178noreply@blogger.com