Saturday, February 04, 2012

100 Tories revolt over wind farms

100 Tories revolt over wind farms - Telegraph
“In these financially straitened times, we think it is unwise to make consumers pay, through taxpayer subsidy, for inefficient and intermittent energy production that typifies onshore wind turbines,” they say.
The MPs want the savings spread between other “reliable” forms of renewable energy production.

You Should Find the Anti-Komen Backlash Disgusting, Even If You’re Pro-Choice

You Should Find the Anti-Komen Backlash Disgusting, Even If You’re Pro-Choice - By Daniel Foster - The Corner - National Review Online
"You know, I’m not a big fan of Komen’s brandification of breast cancer, I dislike seeing pink ribbons plastered over everything, and I think Planned Parenthood is real swell, abortions and all.
So I’m not especially inclined to come to Komen’s aid.
But I’ll be damned if this doesn’t look a bit like PP throwing it’s weight around, knocking a few pieces of china off the shelves, sending a message to its other donors: “Nice foundation you got there. Wouldn’t want anything to, you know, happen to it.”

The Wrath of the Abortion Movement Unleashed on Komen

Articles: The Wrath of the Abortion Movement Unleashed on Komen
But Komen did not completely cut Planned Parenthood out of current funding or exclude Planned Parenthood from future funding.
Nor did they reverse the original decision and decide to re-fund Planned Parenthood in the future.

They merely reversed their decision in favor of considering Planned Parenthood's eligibility for future grants.

The Komen foundation is rightfully concerned that Planned Parenthood is the focus of federal and state investigations for financial irregularities, fraud, sex trafficking, failure to comply with laws requiring reporting minor's sexual abuse and parental notification for abortion, as well as substandard medical care.

The extreme liberal backlash is out of proportion to Komen's largely symbolic $600,000 grant to Planned Parenthood.
This is a relatively trivial amount when compared to Planned Parenthood's billion dollar budget.
The Komen grant allows Planned Parenthood to pretend that it is an authentic women's health care provider and immunizes the organization from the reality that the organization is mainly about abortions.
Planned Parenthood provided 332,278 abortions in 2009, about one-quarter of those performed in the USA.

Why French Parents Are Superior

Why French Parents Are Superior by Pamela Druckerman - WSJ.com
Could it be that teaching children how to delay gratification—as middle-class French parents do—actually makes them calmer and more resilient?
Might this partly explain why middle-class American kids, who are in general more used to getting what they want right away, so often fall apart under stress?

Global warming: James Delingpole claims green zealots are destroying the planet

Global warming: James Delingpole claims green zealots are destroying the planet Mail Online
The turning point towards some semblance of sanity in the great climate war came in November 2009 with the leak of the notorious Climategate emails from the University of East Anglia.
What these showed is that the so-called ‘consensus’ science behind Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) — ie the theory that man-made CO2 is causing our planet to heat up in a dangerous, unprecedented fashion — simply cannot be trusted....
But if anthropogenic warming is not the threat environmentalists would have us believe, why do so many people believe it is?
And how come so many disparate groups — from the hair-shirt anti-capitalist activists of Greenpeace and Friends Of The Earth to the executives of big corporations, to politicians of every hue from Gordon Brown to David Cameron to scientists at NASA and the UEA — are working together to promote this pernicious myth?
The short answer is ‘follow the money’.
Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at the UEA which was at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ scandal, for example, was given £13.7 million in grants for his department’s research work; the environmental non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace came on board because scaremongering helps them raise revenue.

Rosy jobs report a ruse

Rosy jobs report a ruse - NYPOST.com
A loss of jobs that isn’t as bad as expected turns into a job gain.
Does that mean there really are 243,000 new jobs out there?
Absolutely not.
Let’s say there are rumors in your company that 300 people are going to be laid off.
Instead, management decides to fire just 200.
Two hundred people, of course, have lost their jobs.
But, adjusting it for expectations, 100 people didn’t get fired.
Using this analogy, the government would say that, on an expectation-adjusted basis, 100 jobs were created.

Taxpayer Costs For Average State Employee Increased From $79K in 2001 to $95K in 2011

Taxpayer Costs For Average State Employee Increased From $79K in 2001 to $95K in 2011 [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
Taxpayer Costs For Average State Employee Increased From $79K in 2001 to $95K in 2011Dems claims state employees 'gave back' $500 million in concessions — facts say otherwise

Michigan Democrats can vote in presidential primary and caucus, party says

Michigan Democrats can vote in presidential primary and caucus, party says MLive.com

Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'

My Way News - Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'
"I don't like African-American.
It denotes something else to me than who I am," said Smith, whose parents are from Mississippi and North Carolina.
"I can't recall any of them telling me anything about Africa.
They told me a whole lot about where they grew up in Macomb County and Shelby, N.C."

Why the official 8.3 percent unemployment rate is a phony number—and what it means for Obama’s reelection

Why the official 8.3 percent unemployment rate is a phony number—and what it means for Obama’s reelection « The Enterprise Blog
Then there’s the broader, U-6 measure of unemployment which includes the discouraged plus part-timers who wish they had full time work.
That unemployment rate is still a sky-high 15.1 percent.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Why Are the Chinese Buying Record Quantities of Gold?

Why Are the Chinese Buying Record Quantities of Gold? - Forbes
“people inside China seem to be losing faith in the Chinese growth story that we’ve been hearing so much about for the past few years.”

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Sugar should be regulated like alcohol, tobacco, commentary says

Sugar should be regulated like alcohol, tobacco, commentary says - HealthPop - CBS News

Why wind won't work

Why wind won't work Australian Climate Madness
Wind farms are expensive, inefficient and ugly.
And that’s just their good points.

Do Wind and Solar Work?

Do Wind and Solar Work? Power Line
Everyone knows that wind and solar energy are inefficient sources of energy compared to fossil fuels.
But, as the Science and Environmental Policy Project points out in the current The Week That Was, the extent to which “green” energy actually works is surprisingly opaque:

White House Panic: Gruesome 2012 Economic Forecast Could Doom Obama

White House Panic: Gruesome 2012 Economic Forecast Could Doom Obama - Guy Benson
If the CBO estimate is correct, it would mean that the United States recorded a deficit of more than $1 trillion for every year of Obama’s first term. The deficit was $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010 and $1.3 trillion in 2011.
The largest deficit recorded before that was $458 billion in 2008.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Controller: State to run out of cash in March without action

Capitol Alert: Controller: State to run out of cash in March without action
California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing

'Birthday Tax' Unveiled in Lansing

'Birthday Tax' Unveiled in Lansing [Mackinac Center]
Legislation been introduced that reportedly would extract more than $1 billion from motorists through a new state fuel tax and a huge increase in the vehicle registration tax.
The latter, paid each year on a car owner’s birthday, would increase 67 percent on average according to The Detroit News.

» Carbon Nation - Big Government

» Carbon Nation - Big Government
About the movie, "Carbon Nartion", tonight (Tue. Jan. 31 at MCC)-comments from the article:

"Our goal should be to move from a carbon based to a nuclear based with hydrogen gas for all of our other needs. We will not get there by wasting time plugging in our cars or putting up wind mills and solar panels.

They just don't have the stones to do the job.

I've been in some very serious manufacturing plants. Not the cooks tour. The down and dirty kind. It takes raw power to make our factories hum. To tinker with this is suicide. If we want to do it on the margin to make some citizens feel less guilt and they want to pay for it. Fine. But to think we can base our economy on it is nuts.

If we can build a miniaturized nuclear reactor.
Put it to sea.
Have it dive down thousands of feet, and travel 90+ miles per hour, and do so silently.
Don't tell me we can't develop nuclear power on land and use that clean power to make hydrogen gas, and pipe that gas to stations for filling up our cars in the distant future.
The electric car is stupid.
It will end up being an environmental disaster.
Do you have any idea what it takes to manufacture a high capacity battery?
Holy cow!
Talk about environmental suicide.

I wish the Pipedream was true. It's a lie. Brought to you by the same political party that thought the federal government could run a medical insurance system while simultaneously running a pension system. Why would I let these people run a taco stand, even under a close supervision of the biggest mexican SOB I could find to make sure the feds made the taco just right.

They killed the light bulb. Now they are going to kill the country."

Income Inequality Is Lower Now Than It Was Under Clinton

TaxProf Blog: Tax Foundation: Income Inequality Is Lower Now Than It Was Under Clinton
As a result, it is not evident that the Bush tax cuts in either the top marginal rate or capital gains rate had any long-term effect on inequality.
If anything, they appear to have reduced inequality.

Dems' Plan: Scale Back Select Corporate Tax Credits They Already Voted For

Dems' Plan: Scale Back Select Corporate Tax Credits They Already Voted For [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
A new proposal announced state Senate Democrats would use saving generated by eliminating “ineffective tax loopholes” to pay for the college tuition of Michigan students.
However, these same “ineffective tax loopholes” for particular businesses include ones that the Michigan Senate Democrats have overwhelmingly voted for over the past several years.