Archive for November, 2007

Podcasting

Published on November 26, 2007 in Blog. 0 Comments

I realize I do not have intense blog traffic, but the idea of podcasting fascinates me. I intake several sources of news and have an opinion on most of it. I think something exciting about having your own commentary on something is that it forces you to research and decide what you want to say. With school I am probably not going to find the time, but it is something to think about in the future I guess. In addition to my proposed presidential experience expose, I would like to take a look at where we people get their news from and immerse myself in those different views for a week. It would be interesting to see how these different sources and lifestyles affect one’s perspective on the world.

Good luck on finals!

Weather Channel Founder Calls Global Warming a Scam

Published on November 9, 2007 in News. 0 Comments

The Article:

By John Coleman

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmentally conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minute documentary segment.

I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe a me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.

I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious. As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped. The sky is not falling. And, natural cycles and drifts in climate are as much if not more responsible for any climate changes underway. I strongly believe that the next twenty years are equally as likely to see a cooling trend as they are to see a warming trend.

Quarters

Published on November 8, 2007 in Life, Northwestern and School. 2 Comments

Well, these past few weeks have taught me that the quarter system is brutally efficient. As soon as you get the feeling school work is going to let up they time it so that it is starting again. I have now realized that when I reach the point that I am taking a sigh of relief, that is the point when I should start worrying again. Of course it would be possible to have a semester sat up just as intense, but I have not experienced it in practice yet. I think a compromise between the quarter and semester system would be great because there is a lot of wasted time in a semester.

Anyway this post is just meant to be a quick update not a critique of education. I am on the Mock Trial team and it is interesting because I have not done this activity since Junior High. It is certainly a change from debate. I am also in the Triathlon Club. Unfortonuately Mock Trial has been keeping me busy, so I have not improved in shape that much. Doing another Tri would be a lot of fun though!

Snow?

Published on November 7, 2007 in Chicago and Weather. 0 Comments

“Special Weather Statement

COOK- INCLUDING THE CITY OF…CHICAGO 1118 PM CST WED NOV 7 2007

A QUICK BURST OF SNOW WILL QUICKLY MOVE THROUGH COOK COUNTY THROUGH MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. LITTLE TO NO ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED OUT OF THIS SNOW…BUT VISIBILITIES MAY BRIEFLY BE REDUCED IN THE HEAVIEST AREAS OF THE SNOW SQUALL. AFTER THIS BAND MOVES THROUGH…A LINGERING FLURRY MAY BE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING HOURS.”

International Law Prevents Planning of Defense?

Published on November 1, 2007 in News and Politics. 0 Comments

As I watch more of this debate, expect more commentary.

Kucinich:

The problem is, these policies of preemption license a war. Preemption, by virtue of international law, is illegal. Our president has already violated international law. The war in Iraq is illegal. Even planning for the war against Iran is illegal.

Okay then…if this is true (which I have no idea if it is) why are we participating in such international institutions?

He continues:

I want to know when this Democratic Congress is going to stand up for the Constitution and hold the president accountable with Article II, Section 4: an impeachment act. I think that our democracy is in peril.

How about we start with the War Powers Act?

Colbert Denied Primary Entry in South Carolina

Published on November 1, 2007 in News and Politics. 0 Comments

Link

It may be the shortest U.S. 2008 presidential campaign yet — comedian Stephen Colbert’s requests to be on the South Carolina Democratic and Republican primary ballots were rejected on Thursday.

We shall see how he proceeds. I wish him all the best! The book his hilarious, perhaps I will write a review.

Plan B (Not the Pill)

Published on November 1, 2007 in News and Politics. 0 Comments

Sorry, but all of the sudden I have gotten hung up on this Iran thing. From the previous post you can tell I need to do more research (and think the politicians do too), but while watching the 10/30/2007 Democratic Debate I could not help, but wonder why would we not make a Plan B?

The Transcript

Obama:

Now, there may come a point where those measures have been exhausted and Iran is on the verge of obtaining a nuclear weapon, where we have to consider other options, but we shouldn’t talk about those options now when we haven’t tried what would be a much more effective approach.

I grant you that I would not like to see our policymakers spending most of their time talking about military action, but should we not consider it? Bush has gotten lambasted for not having a contingency plan in Iraq. That is fair how can we be paying all of these advisers and filling the coffers of government departments and not have a Plan B? How could we go to war and have NO ONE advising the President think that this could happen and draw a plan up for it? It is beyond me how we pay for these people to perform like this.

By the same token it seems to me that we should be prepared to take evasive military action against Iran. This is dangerous because just preparing can be interpreted as an act of war, but this is not a peaceful utopia we live in. We have a ridiculous number of nuclear arms, so if that is not something one can interpret as a potential act of war, I do not know what is. I think just the prospect of organizing a Plan B, the thing that Bush is criticized for not doing in Iraq is essential here. It would be foolish not to even consider it until all other options are exhausted. Lets actually consider every option and proceed with the least risky first, but have the extreme in the back of our minds just in case.

At least in this case Hillary was more reasonable:

I also think when you go to the table to negotiate with an adversarial regime, you need both carrots and sticks.

Lesson of the day: If you wake up in the morning and realize you have made a mistake, have a backup plan!

Diplomacy

Published on November 1, 2007 in News and Politics. 0 Comments

How come politicians can just say diplomacy to ignore potential threats and empirical evidence? I do not like wars any more than the next rational person, but just saying talking to countries that threaten us will work because you are going to do it more than anyone previously does not solve the problem. I wish either side of this sort of issue would historically address what works. I am not going to take the time right now to look at who says what, what the real threat is, what has happened in the past, and what this leads us to do now, but I think it would be interesting.

Next time someone says they are going to use diplomacy to deal with Iran, North Korea, et cetera I am going to ask when has such diplomacy worked? I would even accept an answer in a situation that was in better circumstances. I think we can see from Iraq that our liberating power has erroded and war probably is not the best choice. If we would have asked for empirical evidence before this, would we still have attacked?

It is the 21st Centruy, can we not think of something new? The rest of the world is sure throwing us for a loop, especially the parts that do not like us. I suggest we step up to the challenge not by saying the Iraq War was stupid and Bush is the devil, but by finding truly genuine and creative solutions to new problems.

I do not think humanity is pro-war, but is it possibly anti-peace?

Hillary and the Debate

Published on November 1, 2007 in News and Politics. 0 Comments

Well, for those of you following the political mess that is the campaigns that feel like they have been running forever, you may have saw or certainly heard about Tuesday’s Democratic debate.

Since she has been the front runner for some time, her rivals are starting to go on the offensive.

The campaigns of both Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, running in second and third place in most surveys, hinted that their candidates would come out swinging. The two candidates didn’t disappoint: Both hammered Mrs. Clinton for her stances on Iraq and Iran, Social Security and other issues.

I am not certain I fully follow this logic though

Her fighting spirit was all the more impressive because so many of the positions she was defending were virtually indefensible.

Thank you, New York Times for that gem. At least the article saves face by acknowledging how poorly this appears in a debate

Clinton needs to ration her obfuscations. Otherwise, she risks looking as silly as she did at the end of the debate…

and:

But you would have to be a very, very committed Hillaryite to be comfortable listening to two solid hours of dodging and weaving on everything from her vote on the Iran resolution to her husband’s attempt to keep records of their White House communications secret until after 2012.

Will this even have an impact though? I tend to agree with NYT article, if you read it, that Obama and Edwards do not stand to capitalize on this much. I think if they did they would have done so by now. What is fueling Hillary forward? Why is she the front runner now? I think these are interesting questions to answer and while on face may seem simple, I think the underlying answers would be fascinating. Perhaps, the political atmosphere is just in her favor. Perhaps, her political machine is the most well oiled. Perhaps, Bill is giving her a few pointers?

n the 1990s, “Clintonesque” became a by-word for political double-speak. We even became, briefly, a nation of deconstructionists when President Bill Clinton mused on the meaning of “is.”

Such existential questions seemed to be in the past. But with another Clinton running as if she’s all but a sure thing for the White House, Clintonesque is once again becoming a politically relevant adjective. In Tuesday night’s Democratic Presidential debate, the moderators and Hillary Clinton’s fellow panelists took pains to pin her down on one question after another, without notable success. The junior Senator from New York seems increasingly to have adopted her husband’s political methods, minus the savoir-faire. The result is that it’s impossible to know what she believes about anything.

Regardless, this election will be interesting (when it finally comes). This early campaigning albeit ridiculous, probably is not going anywhere anytime soon. In the mean time, let us ask ourselves what are the Republicans doing?

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