Unintended consequences--livestock production

Or was it? New laws in Europe regarding the caging of chickens might destroy the industry and remove a valuable food source from the table.

How to destroy an industry

"Are EU consumers to be deprived of eggs based on the misplaced perceptions of flock wellbeing by extremists intent on destroying established intensive livestock production? Will EU consumers be supplied with eggs from countries with a lower cost of production from cages or cage free systems or even eggs labeled as "cage free or free range" but derived from conventional cages? Either way consumers will be deprived of the nutritional value of eggs or will be required to pay more for their purchases.

We should carefully monitor events in the "old world" and be careful not to emulate the folly of the EU in our industry."

Brr it's cold

Yesterday was the first day of winter, and although we haven't had the snow that the east coast and midwest have experienced, I think my blood has thinned. I checked and still have plenty of fat layers. When browsing my site meter today I found someone looking at this, apparently I had linked to it in the past. Looks mighty good today. Even the prices didn't blow me away. And I don't even like Florida! Time to put on my heavy coat and mittens and go to the coffee shop.

The w.c. is from 7 years ago--you can tell we're all from Indiana and Ohio by the amount of clothing and the umbrellas--and it was a hot day.

New words, familiar sound

Last week when our young Haitian friends were visiting and we were sitting in traffic waiting to get into the Zoo, Frandy and Zeke sang "O Holy Night" for us in French. Here's a treat if you like language--the Christmas album, of Jana Mashonee singing ten traditional carols in different Native American languages – “O Holy Night” in Navajo, “Silent Night” in Arapaho, “Winter Wonderland” in Ojibwe, “Joy to the World” in Chiricahua Apache, etc.



Jana’s website You can hear her new album. In addition to providing all the vocals and piano, Jana wrote and co-produced the album. I think she was on Fox this morning if I got the dates right, although I'm not sure it was local or national. Which ever, I missed it.

For native youth, through her organization Jana's Kids, “Jana addresses the issues of cultural pride and identity, motivation and ambition, education, alcohol, tobacco and drug awareness, and gang association. She proactively involves her audiences in this extraordinary interactive presentation. Music, lecture, questions, answers, and demonstrations are the main components of this educational, entertaining, and motivational program.”

What makes the leftists unhappy about Obama

Although they don't seem to mind his spending trillions for more socialism, it's his spending it and getting the same ol' same ol' that ties their shorts in a knot.

"Somehow the president has managed to turn a base of new and progressive voters he himself energized like no one else could in 2008 into the likely stay-at-home voters of 2010, souring an entire generation of young people to the political process. It isn't hard for them to see that the winners seem to be the same no matter who the voters select (Wall Street, big oil, big Pharma, the insurance industry). In fact, the president's leadership style, combined with the Democratic Congress's penchant for making its sausage in public and producing new and usually more tasteless recipes every day, has had a very high toll far from the left: smack in the center of the political spectrum."

I had that spotted in 2007. Even with strings to a puppet master, it's hard to get an empty suit to dance. Although unlike Drew Westen at Huff'npoof, I think he's still way left of center. I still think he's a marxist; it's just that he had a few ethical, smart and patriotic Democrats in his own party that he hasn't knocked over yet or bribed into silece. And Drew--Joe Wilson still did and said the right thing, "You lie." Only now you libs know it too.

The peacemakers

This is Shane. I don't know him--just came across an item about him. He's going to talk to youth. Notice the ear stud, head bandana/scarf holding back the long hair, and scruffy but endearing face. The outfit hasn't changed in 40-50 years, much. He's a professional peacemaker going here and there. Willowcreek, Iraq, Calcutta. The usual. We need a few peacemakers in a suit and tie, or at least a button down oxford, khaki slacks/dress jeans and loafers. Someone who doesn't dress the part. They are needed first in families, church councils, schools, board rooms, cafeteria lines, muffler shops, prisons, factories, twitter, Facebook and Blogger, and the halls of congress. Then when they are sufficiently battle scarred and wise, send them into other war zones. The exciting thing about peace seminars and radical faith workshops is, you get to hang with people who think just like you do.

Academe's bias against white males

Any parent who would pay to send a kid, male or female, into this hell hole should be charged with wallet abuse.

"You might think that a university whose students were victims of the most notorious fraudulent rape claim in recent history, and whose professors -- 88 of them -- signed an ad implicitly presuming guilt, and whose president came close to doing the same would have learned some lessons.

The facts are otherwise. They also suggest that Duke University's ugly abuse in 2006 and 2007 of its now-exonerated lacrosse players -- white males accused by a black stripper and hounded by a mob hewing to political correctness -- reflects a disregard of due process and a bias against white males that infect much of academia.

In September, far from taking pains to protect its students from false rape charges, Duke adopted a revised "sexual misconduct" policy that makes a mockery of due process and may well foster more false rape charges by rigging the disciplinary rules against the accused.

Meanwhile, none of the 88 guilt-presuming professors has publicly apologized. (Duke's president, Richard Brodhead, did -- but too little and too late.) Many of the faculty signers -- a majority of whom are white -- have expressed pride in their rush to judgment. None was dismissed, demoted, or publicly rebuked. Two were glorified this month in Duke's in-house organ as pioneers of "diversity," with no reference to their roles in signing the ad. Three others have won prestigious positions at Cornell, Vanderbilt, and the University of Chicago." The rot at Duke

The bios and photos of those 88 should be tacked on public bulletin boards along with the faces of other identity theft criminals.

Need a bowl game printout?

All on one page. Save a twig.

Ohio State Buckeyes are in the Rose Bowl playing the Oregon Ducks. Bucks vs. Ducks. But if they were playing Oregon State, we could say OSU vs. OSU!

A very teary Christmas

This song always makes me teary, not cheery:

I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light beams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

It makes me think of all the promises I've heard in my life time (or made), only to have them dashed. And yet, every time I hear it, whether Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Josh Groban or the local high school choir, I'm lulled into believing--yes, this year the promise will be kept. I make it all the way to the last line with the beautiful words, and find out it was all a dream. I assure you, you have the job; we'll get together soon; I'll stop by just as soon as. . . ; I'll never take another drink, I promise; she is doing so well she'll be discharged from the hospital Tuesday; look this present is for you; congratulations you're pregnant; you can't miss it; I'll always love you, and so on.

But I still love the song.

When the globe was really hot

From 600 to 200 BC there was a cold period, followed by a warming, called Roman Warming, from 200 BC to about 600 AD. You know what's neat about that? God used it for the spread of the Gospel! Then from 600 AD to 900 AD there was another cold period, and we call that the Dark Ages, probably because it's difficult for science, technology and learning to flourish when you're so cold you have to migrate, and the crops won't grow so you spend all your time looking for food and fighting off bigger people with better horses and spears from warmer climates.

But, looky here, more "global warming" before the industrial age and sooty smoke stacks and coal mines--the Medieval Warming period from 900 AD to 1300 AD, followed by the Little Ice Age, which went right up to about 1850--around the time people began to notice it was getting warm again. It's "normal" I suppose for humans to be so self-centered that they believe their own life time is the way it's supposed to be, but we've had far more cooling periods than warming, so look out! And other warming periods have been longer and hotter than this one.

The Chinese have even better records for this--notice how similar the warming periods are (note the line going up around 1000 AD). Don't take my word for it. Hundreds and hundreds of studies from ice, sedement, tree rings, tree lines, fossils, etc., show that warming and cooling are natural cycles for the earth, and for humans to survive, warming is definitely better than cooling. Read earth's own story free of political scam and hands out for higher taxes in Unstoppable global warming by S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery (rev. ed. 2008, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). Or for a summary of studies on the medieval warm period, read it here at Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.

Stop the hot air of Cap and Trade Plunder. Tell your senators and congressional representative, NO.

Perspective of an immigrant

"When I came to America in 1980 and experienced life in this country, I thought it was fortunate that those living in the USSR did not know how unfortunate they were.

Now in 2009, I realize how unfortunate it is that many Americans do not understand how fortunate they are. They vote to give government more and more power without understanding the consequences." Read Svetlana's article here.

Laughing at the left

'Taint funny, though. Just a few examples here.

"They believe we can spend our way out of debt.

They believe people who have never run a business can run a business better than people who have spent their whole lives running businesses.

They believe that teenage girls who aren't allowed to get even minor cosmetic surgery without a parent's permission should nevertheless be able to procure an abortion without a parent's permission.

They believe it is unconstitutional for a legislature to mention Jesus but perfectly okay to mention Allah.

They believe explicit words in the Constitution protecting contracts, and gun ownership rights, and property rights against government seizure, are to be ignored; but that wholly invented "rights" that cannot be found in any words of the Constitution, but that merely "extend" from "emanations" from "penumbras" of other judicially created "rights," are somehow sacrosanct and essential parts of the Constitution."

No, not funny. And he goes on and on.

Nelson caves

"Sen. Ben Nelson has said he would support the health care bill, all but ensuring that Sen. Harry Reid will be able to secure the 60 votes he needs to set up final passage on Christmas Eve." American Spectator

Blackmail, corruption, bribery (he also gets more Medicaid money), deceit, lies, Chicago thugery, and God know what else--oh yes, no Christmas recess if you don't fall in line. Well, at least the air force base is safe. What a backbone.

Update: There is a rally in Omaha, Nebraska Sunday Dec. 20 demanding Senator Nelson switch his vote back to NO. The rally will be held at the Omaha Music Hall, 17th and Capitol. Doors open at 2 PM. Rally starts at 3 PM. Other participants besides Mike Huckabee will include Congressman Terry, Auditor Foley, Senators McCoy, Fulton, Krist, Price and Lautenbaugh.

Are we at the end of a natural warming period

There are two strong memories from my childhood: the snow was very deep and we were at war most of the time. I was born at the end of a warming blip that had existed during most of the the lifetime of my parents (1916-1940) which was part of a larger trend that began around 1850 after a cold period of several centuries. Whereas their formative years contained memories of dust storms, shriveled crops and nights so hot in Illinois they couldn't breathe, I remember giant snow drifts and winters that seemed to last forever followed by warm, idyllic and pleasant summers. Of course, I was shorter then, so it wasn't that tough to say it was up to my waist. However, another warming blip began in the 1970s, and I can remember driving to Illinois in the winter with our children and not seeing a snowflake. I still remember the summer of 1988--it was so dry and hot in Ohio, the Bruces broke down and bought an air conditioner for our Columbus house, and took a lake cruise to get out of the heat of Lakeside. Now things seem to be getting cooler again with lots of ragged, wild weather around the edges. I wouldn't even think of driving to Illinois in the winter now--the last five years where I grew up have been brutal with deep snow. Here in temperate mid-Ohio we muddle through gray winters as we always have with one or two blizzards a year and then weeks of melting snow drifts. This morning I woke up to the sound of snow plows, but didn't recognize the noise. We may get 2-4" as the northeast is pummeled.

The other memory--that of war--is a reminder that we need to be vigilant. Hitler was marching through Poland (Polenfeldzug) when I was born. I believe our President was trying to work out some sort of "accord." During my youth and right up to the collapse of the USSR, some version of socialism has been the enemy of our republican form of government--either the National Socialism of Hitler, or the Communism of Lenin/Stalin/Mao--both of which chewed up most of Europe and Asia. The other, centuries old absolute loyalty to a monarch, was Japan, now a democracy. This is another thing that is cyclical. Our ignorance and forgetfulness. Socialism doesn't need armored tanks anymore.

Sports and Greed

Recent events in science, politics, national security and the economy have caused many of us to completely lose faith in our so called “free and independent press,” because broadcast and print journalists carried the water for Obama in 2007-2008, downplayed the pinholes in the expanding housing bubble when there was still time to do something, research institutions and gatekeepers of the peer review sources manipulated data and blacklisted colleagues for the sake of government grants and personal gain in science, and cable, new media “fact checkers” and news aggregators played up every mistake of the military during the Bush years while ignoring the big picture with an end result of helping our enemies. The final straw has been the Tiger Woods story, at least for me. Yesterday I was reading How Tiger Protected his Image, in the WSJ. As I tried to work my way through the convoluted, complex story of Tiger’s deal with Golf Digest, I stumbled over many other media sources--Conde Nast, Tiger Woods’ own foundation, American Media, Inc., The National Enquirer, Men’s Fitness, News of the World, News Corp., Woods’ handlers, representatives, photographers, Laveley & Singer law firm in LA, spokespeople, editors, Media Industry Newsletter, and finally (but not the first) the hapless, untipped waitress in the church parking lot and her family.

And no, this isn’t just a story about sex, or even possible redemption, which for some reason many Christian writers are playing up. It’s a story about a systemic problem--greed. When his wife or babies test positive for an STD, then maybe we can say it’s about infidelity and sex, but in the meantime, the sports and information industries have some explaining to do their values.

Obama has led us off the cliff

We've all been wondering--why are they doing this to us?

"This week the president told the nation that we are "on the precipice" of passing historic health care legislation. He could not have chosen a better word, because that's what a majority of readers -- and the American public -- believe: that we're about to plunge into a health care system that is more expensive and offers lower-quality care than what we have now." Byron York

HT Murray

Why I believe in global warming

"The Earth has recently been warming. This is beyond doubt. It has warmed slowly and erratically for a total of about 0.8 degrees C since 1850. It had one surge of warming from 1850 to 1870 and another from 1916 to 1940. The official thermometers suggest the net warming since 1940 is only about 0.3 degrees C. If we correct the thermometer records for the effects of growing urban heat islands, for widespread intensification of land use, and for the recently documented cooling of the Antarctic continent over the past thirty years, the net warming since 1940 would be even less.

Physical evidence from around the world tells us that human-emitted CO2 has played only a minor role in the planet's recent temperature increases. Instead, the mild warming seems to be mostly due to the natural 1,500-year climate cycle (plus or minus 500 years) that goes back at least one million years." (p. 6, Singer and Avery, 2008)

You don't have to read very far into the book Unstoppable Global Warming to see how much and how long we've been manipulated to be fearful and loathing of a natural cycle, or how politicians on the right and left both could take advantage of this. It's not a long book; you don't have to give up believing in global warming. An open mind is all you need--and just a suspicion that man doesn't control the climate but that he does have the capability and technology to relieve the suffering, poverty and pollution he has caused.

Read it for yourself. I'd hate to think Americans are repeating the story of the Vikings who sailed from Iceland to Greenland around 985 finding green pastures and a wonderful, productive land to colonize, only to be starved and frozen out 400 years later when the weather patterns changed, as they had been doing regularly. Now we have technology and science on our side. Or do we?

Let's consider the motivation of the AGW scare mongers. The big three of all ages comes to mind: wealth, power and religion.


Welcome home from the Global Warming conference, Mr. President.

How the government can make you an outlaw

Wendy Williams of Massachusetts writes in the Wall Street Journal

My husband retired from IBM about a decade ago, and as we aren't old enough for Medicare we still buy our health insurance through the company. But IBM, with its typical courtesy, informed us recently that we will be fined by the state.

Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we would have to pay $1,000 each year to the state.

My husband's response was muted; I was shaking mad. We hadn't imposed our health-care costs on anyone else, yet we were being fined ("taxed" was the word the letter used).

We've spent much of our lives putting away what money we could for retirement. We always intended to be self-sufficient. We've paid off the mortgage on our home, don't carry credit-card debt, and have savings in case of an emergency. We also have a regular monthly income of about $3,000, which includes an IBM pension. My husband, 61, earns a little money on the side, sometimes working as an electronics consultant on renewable energy projects. I'm 58 and make some money writing science books. We are not wealthy, but we aren't a risk of becoming a burden on society either. How did we become outlaws?

Read more how what was supposed to save the middle class from the costs of the uninsured ended up costing every one more and offering less. But then, have you ever known the state or federal government to take over a private industry and then save you money? Wendy concludes, "The mandate in Massachusetts was sold as something that wouldn't penalize people like my husband and me. But those political promises were only good for as long as it took to get the mandate enacted into law." And that's exactly what will happen with Obamacare, which at this time, no one even knows how it reads or what it is, not even the sponsors. "Getterdone--we'll hope 'n change it later" is Reid and Pelosi's motto.

HT Bob C.

EPA targets wrong enemy

We've known for half a century or more that our biggest health problems are self induced--misused sexuality, legal drugs we take voluntarily like cigarettes and alcohol, and overeating. Our personal habits are difficult for the government to control, although it does take a regulatory stance, primarily through taxes, when companies make huge profits from our bad behavior (the diet industry is huge, the "health food" industry massive, smoking cessation remedies are covered by government health plans with little proof they work, big pharma has made a fortune from AIDS and STDs. Now EPA is going after those evil toxins, not for our health, but to kill more industries and put more people out of work.

Despite the ongoing epidemics of cigarette-related disease, novel influenza and obesity, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is focusing on a very different set of purported health risks: deadly toxins and chemicals in "our bodies." This effort will do nothing to promote public health while raising needless anxiety and spurring expensive, useless regulation and litigation. . .

Administrator Jackson's program is amazingly unscientific--even for the EPA. Since the EPA addresses "risks" that are too small to be measured, and thus not amenable to quantification, they have resorted to ignoring benefits [of chemicals] and assessing only hazards. . .

Even the American Chemistry Council has signed on to EPA's new crusade--squirming to avoid the heavy penalties for non-compliance. Too bad ACC thereby implies that its member companies' products have been poisoning our kids all these years. That isn't the case; nonetheless they now want to be perceived as very sorry, eager to mend their ways and thankful for the EPA's help.

Full story at Forbes.com

What has been accomplished at Hopenchangen?

First, and most importantly, it's another stage for our President who holds the record for a president spending the most time outside the country. I think because he really dislikes America.

Second, an opportunity for Kleptocracies to rattle their sabres.


Third, an excuse to burn fossil fuel and make huge carbon footprints before they outlaw jets, automobiles, and speaking out, all of which emit huge amounts of CO2.

Fourth, a fun time for marxist/socialist/progressive protesters, who all thought their grandparents had all the fun in the 1960s and a free night in jail.

Fifth, Hugo Chavez got a megaphone for Karl Marx.

Sixth, Glenn Beck got to joke about how to pronounce Copenhagen, driving Media Matters crazy because those people are humorless.

Seventh, yet another pulpit for the non-debater, Al "The science is settled" Gore.

Eighth, chance for greenies to attack a polar bear.



Ninth, not to forget why this happened, it showed how bankrupt, silly and meaningless all the climate change hoopla really is, and that it's just another wealth transfer to the pockets of dictators while keeping the poor in desperate poverty in third world countries.

Tenth, and finally, Hopenchangen, by showing the violence and thieving motives of the left really made the tea party people who have been meeting around the country planning to take their country back look even more sensible, well-behaved, strong, intelligent and patriotic.

Our Christmas gift, a new TV

Maybe I'll just put a bow on the new Town and Country minivan we bought 3 weeks ago. We've started (a bit late) researching a 32" flat screen TV for the living room, and by the time our daughter got done explaining LED, LCD and plasma screens, HD, USB ports, resolutions, etc. plus the costs of the various box options from Time-Warner, our eyes had glazed over and our enthusiasm for today's shopping trip to Best Buy had waned. Any suggestions? So far we've compared (on line) Vizio, Sony, Insignia, and Panasonic. The living room set is ca. 1994, the family room ca. 1985. I truly doubt that we can expect that type of longevity from the new models. And you know what? With wearing glasses I hate and falling asleep in the middle of the programs, I'm not sure it matters. Also, we've been told by the cable company that our wiring is bad, but that we have to hire someone to redo it.

I'll accept recommendations and cautions, but no scolding for being lazy slugs who don't like to shop.

Update: We looked at all of them and selected the Sony Bravio 32L5000 and bought the 4 year extended warranty, which usually we don't. However, the life expectancy of today's models aren't even close to our old "fat" models--we have 3 TVs of various sizes from the 1980s, and one from the early 90s. The clerk said 6-8 years for this one. They'll fix it if one or two pixels go bad whereas the company warranty requires much more. We've been less fortunate with the VCR and disc players. We rarely use them and they seem to be a waste of time for us (one was actually stolen in a home burglary in the mid-80s) and then the technology changes. And we still have to call our daughter for instructions each time we turn it on.