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I had some reservations about the movie mostly because many of the reviews I had been reading had negative comments about the script/plot. I heard about how the script singles out Corporate White humanity as the embodiment of evil while the good Gaea worshipping druids all sported racial characteristics not normally associated with your typical WASP...

People it's a freaking movie! It's - a - freaking - movie! This is Dances With Wolves on Rigel 9; The same plot updated to fit a sci-fi/fantasy world. Since there is an antagonist needed for the plot line they chose greedy white corporate drones backed up by ex-marine mercs; that works. The protagonist is a non-technological native civilization that's in tune with the spiritual Gaean earth mother; that works too. It's like Al Gore made a Disney movie with tall skinny blue people and set the whole thing in a fluorescent rain forest illuminated by black lights. It's a pothead's dream. This movie borrows from many things that came before it, there are snatches of Aliens, tough Latino marine chicks, construction robots updated for combat, Sigourney Weaver,  Dances With Wolves, Running Silent, The Matrix you name it, Cameron has lifted a bit from here and there. There is an ecological undertone to the plot. So what? It's not like we hadn't seen that before how many times? The scenario of an ecological cataclysm isn't exactly a new plot line even if you are freshly loaded up with self righteous loathing for greens after the recent climate farce in Copenhagen. I swear some people would object the a story about Atlantis claiming it was "eco propaganda" or something equally stupid. My advice to the people who are hung up on the plot is get over it; take two suck pills and don't bother me again.

The movie is visually stunning. Period. It may be groundbreaking; It's certainly a thing of beauty to watch and my impression is that it's as stunning today as Star Wars was in 1977; that's 32 years of technology applied in one magnificent 2 hour and 40 minute flick. See it in 3D at a theater, don't wait for the DVD.

I had two criticisms for the movie, and they are both nits. The 3D glasses were not that comfortable fitted over my eyeglasses. In parts of the movie there are near field objects that are out of focus. Perhaps because I wasn't totally comfortable with the glasses over glasses feel I found myself fatigued by attempting to pull those objects into focus and for the first 1/2 hour or so I thought I was going to get a headache; I got over it and just relaxed and went with the flow.

The movie is visually stunning. If this is even close to your thing go see it.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Bob Hope one of the greats!

They passed it

The senate passed the health care bill in a totally partisan vote, 60-39.

With the public overwhelmingly against this bill we have a government in willful revolt against the people.

The angy mob

I've been giving some thought to where we are in the US today. Disgusted with George Bush the electorate ushered in a Democrat super-majority in 2008 not realizing just how ill advised that decision would be. The Democrats decided that they had a mandate to run amok, at least until 2010, and have decided to bet the farm on making some changes they believe will be permanent changes, even if they lose their majority. First out of the barrel they paid off their supporters with massive pork in the stimulus bill. It appears that the spending in Democrat districts is almost 2:1 over spending in Republican districts. Not only is that unfair, it's criminal.

Party Affiliation

For our analysis, we looked at the 435 congressional districts in the United States plus the District of Columbia, but excluded Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and foreign stimulus recipients, such as Canada. The average number of awards per district is 128, and the average dollar amount awarded per district is $355,103,891.

There are 177 districts represented by Republicans and 259 represented by Democrats.  On average, Democratic districts received 1.6 times more awards than Republican ones. The average number of awards per Republican district is 94, while the average number of awards per Democratic district is 152.

Democratic districts also received 1.89 times more stimulus dollars than Republican districts. The average dollars awarded per Republican district is $232,047,857, while the average dollars awarded per Democratic district is $439,200,100. In total, Democratic districts received 73.47 percent of the total stimulus funds awarded. In terms of numbers of awards, Republican districts received 29.77 percent of the total, while Democratic districts received 70.22 percent.

Despite the nearly $1 trillion dollars spent on the stimulus unemployment continues to rise and real unemployment is closing on 20% in most of the country while poorer states face even higher unemployment.


The deficit is ballooning out of control, so much so that the normally passive voters are becoming increasingly nervous about Government spending. We took to the streets this summer to protest and our elected majority and their lapdog press called them terrorists, used crude sexual remarks to insult them and accused them of being ignorant redneck hicks. Yet the tea party protesters were a cross section of people of all races, religions and political persuasions. By summers end, most Democrat politicians hid from their constituents or held sham "town hall" events where the audience was screened for troublemakers. Others refused to discuss these topics, insulted their constituents to their face and in general demonstrated that ideology trumps representation. Republicans were by no means exempt from criticism, and the national Republican Party attempting in a most ham handed way to capitalize on the tea party movement only to find that they aren't any more popular with tea partiers than democrats. In fact many previously reliable republican voters believe that it was the Republican's out of control spending spree during the Bush administration that is responsible for the Obama presidency and democrat supermajority in congress. Republicans continue to trash blindly in the wilderness because they haven't yet internalized the message and they remain leaderless and mostly without a clue, a strategy or a plan more involved than a conservative 'purity' test dreamed up by people who still haven't come to grips with the issue. 


At the same time the Imperial President hasn't stopped his campaign; relying on campaign trail rhetoric he's busy blaming everything on Bush; we grow ever weary of this nonsense, at some point Barack it's your economy, it's your war, it's your job to make the decisions and be accountable for the results. 
But Barry has plenty of time to jet about, with his lame attempt to sway the Olympic committee, with yet another chorus of "I" from the man who has done nothing more than flit from one job after another that was handed to him effortlessly while taking credit for his audacious hope. The public is bored with the endless speeches about how "I Barack Obama" did this or that wonderous thing when you haven't done much of anything. They grow angry at the continuous world apology tour, the bashing of the country you represent, while kissing the ass of our enemies. We object to the unaccountable Czars taking command of the government, the continuous race baiting, name calling and bald faced lies offered up in an attempt to silence criticism. We're bored with the medias fascination with the trivial while they ignore what's important. The parade of radicals in high level jobs is a clear indication that this President intends to make major changes, permanent changes to the political landscape of the US with or without the consent of the governed.


Congressional deafness on the topic of health care is just another in a series of assaults on the voting populace. The Senate health care bill is a joke, it's a massive subsidy of the insurance industry with millions of new customers delivered by legislative fiat at the point of a gun. It's a metric crapload of new taxes; taxes that don't impact the unions or the congress, just the unwashed masses of taxpaying voters. This is oligarchy in action, the creation of a fascist economy that benefits the industries who pay their campaign costs. Imperial Senate majority leader Harry Reid put a nice tidbit in the health care bill, one that insures that the 'death panels' will NEVER go away!





The health care bill is so bad that it required the bribery of a number of Senators to get a vote for cloture, bribery of those Senators with our money! Yet I'm a white supremacist for opposing the bill. 





The global warming scam continues unabated, despite Obama's promises ideology trumps science and we're all going to pay for carbon indulgences so Al Gore can cash in while the prototype undemocratic world government is born via the hopenhagen agreements. Once again pollution can be abated by allowing the undeveloped world the ability to shake down the first, that's the science of wealth redistribution. 


At every turn thinking voters are lied to, insulted, called names, classified as extreme racists and potential terrorists and ignored by the imperial congress that knows better how to spend our tax dollars and the tax dollars of our children and grandchildren, yet most of these politicians have never made a payroll, worked in a manufacturing job, or managed a successful business of any kind. 


So yes we're angry, we're damn angry and getting angrier by the day, but not only are we angry because our elected reps refuse to hear us, call us names, but because they berate us for the audacity of wanting to be heard. 


We're angry and we vote. I'm betting we're going to vote that anger in record numbers in 2010. 

Iowahawk does "It's a wonderful bill!"

Iowahawk is one of the funniest guys on the net and always a pleasure to read. This one is no exception.

Scene 14: Christmas Eve, inside Bedford Falls Town Hall. Senator George Bailey confronts an angry mob of constituents protesting his vote on the new health care bill.

MAN #1 

Come on Bailey, you can't hide forever! Let us in!

WOMAN #1 

Yeah, what is this mandatory insurance nonsense? Stop cowering behind that podium George! We want answers!

crowd erupts into shouting

GEORGE BAILEY

Now now now, everybody calm down, see? If you'll, well, see, just let me explain...

MAN #2

You should've explained these death panels before we elected you! Let's get 'em!

WOMAN #2 (shaking pitchfork)

Yeah! 

MAN #3

Hey, pipe down youse mugs, let the man talk. It'll be 15 minutes before the tar is hot enough to pour. Out with it Bailey!

GEORGE BAILEY

Well well, thank you for that Pete. Now folks, see, you just gotta understand how Washington works. Remember how you, you sent me there to bring back free things to Bedford Falls, like free heath care and jobs and that new George S. Bailey retractable midnight basketball court for the high school gym? 

MAN #4

Hey Bailey, do know how many kids drowned at the prom last year from that stupid thing?  

GEORGE BAILEY

Well, now now now, Clem, sure a few kids drowned. But look at all the jobs it created down at the Potter Retractable Basketball Floor factory. And that's my point. Now, see, down in Washington there's a whole Senate full of regular guys like you and you, and me, and we represent thousands of places just like Bedford Falls. And all of those places want their own jobs and healthcare and retractable basketball courts. And it turns out all of this costs money, so we have to get, well, revenues...

WOMAN #3

You mean taxes?

GEORGE BAILEY

Well, yeah, Helen, if that's how you want to put it. See, we put all those revenues in a, a, a, big pile there in Washington, and then we start making deals and such, to make sure we can all bring some home. Sometimes we run out, and have to make up for it with other fees...

MAN #2

You mean taxes? Why don't you get it from Old Man Potter?

WOMAN #2

Yeah! Get it from Potter!

GEORGE BAILEY

Now, now, I hate old man Potter just as much as the rest of you. Maybe more. He lives in that cold old mansion up there on Beacon Hill, while you're getting laid off and trying to make ends meet. It just isn't right, and that's why I organized the big ACORN march against him last year. But I'm telling you, even if we confiscated every penny he has, we couldn't pay for your free universal health care. That's why we have to charge you for some of it, and make sure you don't use too much. But don't worry, I sent my top trade representative Uncle Billy over to China to get a payday loan for the rest.

WOMAN #5

But won't we have to pay them back?

GEORGE BAILEY

Well, Marge, yeah, technically, but only until you're all dead. After that it'll just be your kids.

MAN #4

Stop your malarkey, Bailey! Keep your ridiculous health care bill. We want our money back!

CROWD

Yeah! Give it back!

GEORGE BAILEY

Now now now, Clem, let's take it easy there. Sure it's your money. And yours, Violet. And yours too, Reverend Larson. It's everybody's money, and belongs to everybody. Especially me because I'm a Senator. We need that money to make the deals to make the legislation to make sure you get the things you want. Now if you'll all be patient, I'm sure that Uncle Billy will be getting back from Peking any time now...

MAN #1

I've heard enough of this! Let's get 'em!

CROWD

Yeah!

MAN #2

Tar's ready!

GEORGE BAILEY

Gulp!

George runs flailing through the snowy streets of Bedford Falls, the torch-weilding mob in hot pursuit

Read the rest at the link above...

A Senate so corrupt CBS notices?

If CBS notices the stench of corruption the smell must be really foul.

The cloud mystery

It's fairly long but you can get the theory from this first clip. The theory is that cosmic rays, both from the sun and the galaxy create aerosols that allow the formation of low clouds. Low clouds reflect more of the sun's energy back to space and the earth cools. A correlation between the earth's galactic position, and the climate over eons provides anecdotal evidence in support for the theory. Experimental results simulating cosmic rays to see how they effect aerosol creation supports the theory. It took these scientists years to get their study published because it didn't fit the narrative of AWG.  Here's the money quote (from part 2)

"the whole climate community really hated the idea that sun should have a major impact on climate; that was seen as a disaster."




This is a fantastic video.

It's not often you see all 4 in the air

In early 1979 my squadron took a 4 plane flight from NAS Miramar in San Diego to NAS Whidbey Island in Seattle. I took this shot out the flight tech window of the lead aircraft

4 aircraft is the entire squadron and seeing all 4 flying together was a rare sight.

One of the things that always upset me was that sometime after I separated I somehow lost my squadron ballcap.  I have a friend who is currently a Chief serving with an F-18 outfit who sent me a surprise gift, a new hat, a pic of the E2-C with the new 8 bladed props and a challenge coin.

That's blogger central right there. 

 

I need to get a decent scan of the aircraft pic. Thanks Crash for sending me this.

While I'm on a WW2 roll.....

My father passed away much too young and my family was devastated by it; I think it hit me particularly hard because, like so many boys, my father was the indestructible hero of my childhood, a retired USAF pilot, a veteran of Vietnam, the family provider who never failed to clothe and feed us, the smartest man I ever knew even if I didn't recognize that until my late 20's. A few years later my mother decided to remarry; she married a man who I didn't warm up to, he seem to be the used car or insurance salesman type, overly enthusiastic, pushy, obnoxious and who knows what else. His marriage to my mother took place as I was going through a separation and eventual divorce and he decided that he'd give me the benefit of his experience. That didn't go real well for either of us, words were said. Over the years I began to appreciate that he was good for my mother and since that's all that matters he and I began to warm up a bit. One Easter he mentioned his service in the USN, as a signalman 2nd on an LST in the WW2 Pacific. Like many veterans of any war, he hadn't talked about the war much. I managed to get him to tell me the "name" of his ship; it didn't have a name just a number LST-221. I had pressed him to tell me about it but he was reluctant, he did share a story with me that I'll try to reconstruct here.

I can remember one day I was on the bridge and we were carrying a load of bombs. We were unrepping those bombs to the USS Hancock. It was a beautiful day and I remarked to the Captain how beautiful the clouds were. The Captain turn to me and said "Goddammit Covert those are war clouds! Don't you ever call them beautiful again". 

That story stuck with me. For the next Christmas I decided to see if I could find about about LST-221. I searched the internet and what I found was this picture, a picture of that day in the Pacific taken from the deck of the USS Hancock.

I also found this picture was in a book about LST's. I gave Jim that book as a Christmas gift and when he opened the package I told him to turn to the page with the picture. Then I said "do you remember telling me about that day?", the look on his face told me that our relationship would be different from that day on.

Thanks for your service Jim!

Here is another pic of LST-221 loading men and equipment during a practice landing in New Guinea.

The Pacific

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are following up their hit Band of Brothers with another HBO miniseries The Pacific. This will tell the tale of the First Marines island hopping campaign in the war against Japan. You can see the trailers here:

http://www.hbo.com/events/pacific/video.html

This is a must see in my opinion, Band of Brothers was an awesome accomplishment; a tribute to the men who fought the long and nasty campaign in Europe, I expect that The Pacific will do the same for those men who fought their way up the beaches and through the jungles of island after island in the Pacific.

The first episode of The Pacific is scheduled to air on March 14, 2010

disclaimer: Dear FTC morons, HBO didn't pay me for this go away.

Gray Eagles

I'm an aviation enthusiast, I grew up watching my father roar into the air in a B-47 in the 50's and 60's; I was an aircrew man in the USN.  I've always admired the fighter pilot who strapped on his aircraft and went out and faced single combat; pitting their training, skill and luck against an enemy just as determined to perform his duty.
 
As the "greatest generation" of WW2 veterans slips away from us it's heartwarming to see us return to their extraordinary lives and take one last look at the trials they faced as young men and women. This film is visually stunning and emotionally wrenching; I haven't the words to express how much this moved me.

Here we have a short film showing a WW2 Mustang pilot reunited with his aircraft after 60 years. I can't embed it, you'll have to go here to watch it. I recommend full screen if your pc can handle it.

http://www.asb.tv/videos/view.php?v=1bf99434&br=500

The magic of technology

I admit it, I'm a technology geek. Human inventiveness raised us up from primitive hunter gatherer status to what we have today, and unlike the druids of the left I like modern civilization, it's not perfect but it's better for a greater percentage of humanity than what came before. One of the cool things about the internet, and this digital age is that the traditional gatekeepers to accomplishment are falling by the wayside as people of talent have new avenues to demonstrate their abilities. The gent who made this short video landed a huge hollywood contract; the classic rags to riches tale, it doesn't get any better than this. While the music isn't exactly my cup of tea the video does a great job of demonstrating his raw talent.

Apologies

I've been lax, not updating. Two things were going on, first I know I'm getting a few hits on this blog, and can't reasonably expect more but I was getting discouraged by the lack of comments, but I've recently received some feedback through a friend that says I do have a few readers. Second I've been caught up in pure disgust at the current state of reality; We have an arrogant and out of control President who when confronted with a skeptical and angry public treats us like an unruly dog that won't heel. He just attempted to lecture the entire world in Copenhagen and came off looking like an arrogant and pithy fool. The press carries his water most of the time, though cracks in the facade are starting to show. We have the collapse of climate change science, buried in total fraud and yet our leaders seem hell bent on using climate change as an excuse to tighten their control over all of us while redistributing the west's gold to the 'underdeveloped world'.  Kafka has nothing on reality.

Expect a major update soon, I can't wish this all away.

Gore runs for cover

Run Al run, your scam is unwinding

Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday abruptly canceled a Dec. 16 personal appearance that was to be staged during the United Nations' Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which begins next week.

As described in The Washington Times' Inside the Beltway column Tuesday, the multimedia public event to promote Mr. Gore's new book, "Our Choice," included $1,209 VIP tickets that granted the holder a photo opportunity with Mr. Gore and a "light snack."

Berlingkse Media, a Danish group coordinating ticket sales and publicity for the event, said that "great annoyance" was a factor in the cancellation, along with unforeseen changes in Mr. Gore's program for the climate summit. The decision affected 3,000 ticket holders.

"We have had a clear-cut agreement, and it is unusual with great disappointment that we have to announce that Al Gore cancels. We had a huge expectation for the event. . . . We do not yet know the detailed reasons for the cancellation," said Lisbeth Knudsen, CEO of Berlingske Media, in a statement posted by the company.

No content with selling carbon indulgences he actually wanted $1,209.00 for his fanbase to get a photo op?
What a maroon!

NASA hiding climate data?

How much longer can the US media refuse to cover this story in full?

The fight over global warming science is about to cross the Atlantic with a U.S. researcher poised to sue NASA, demanding release of the same kind of climate data that has landed a leading British center in hot water over charges it skewed its data.

Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said NASA has refused for two years to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act that would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and would explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data going as far back as the 1930s.

"I assume that what is there is highly damaging," Mr. Horner said. "These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this."

The numbers matter. Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed that data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for first, with 1934 slightly cooler.

Yeah it's the famous Jim Hansen, already forced to correct his data when it was challenged. Now they're back to massaging it again all the while refusing to share the data with people interested in doing a bit of honest peer review. And what does Hansen have to say about it?

James Hansen, one of the world's foremost climatologists, told the Guardian today that he believes the Copenhagen talks are flawed to the point where failure of the talks may be the best way forward.

"The approach that is being talked about is so fundamentally wrong that it would be better to reassess," Hansen said.

Don't fret warmists, Hansen hasn't suddenly decided to turn over an honest leaf, it's just that he thinks cap and trade is a mistake and just wants a tax on all carbon. Yet another politician on a fund raiser for global wealth redistribution and unfraid to make absurd comparisons to slavery or in deference to Godin's law, the Nazis. Practically every kid over 12 knows the argument is over once the Nazi references fly, I guess that's too simplistic for a NASA scientist who is busy correcting his data over and over again.

Just so we are clear on who Hansen is listen to his former supervisor:

Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist, Dr. John S. Theon, the former supervisor of James Hansen, NASA's vocal man-made global warming fear soothsayer, has now publicly declared himself a skeptic and declared that Hansen "embarrassed NASA" with his alarming climate claims and said Hansen was "was never muzzled." Theon joins the rapidly growing ranks of international scientists abandoning the promotion of man-made global warming fears. …


"Hansen was never muzzled even though he violated NASA's official agency position on climate forecasting (i.e., we did not know enough to forecast climate change or mankind's effect on it). Hansen thus embarrassed NASA by coming out with his claims of global warming in 1988 in his testimony before Congress," Theon wrote.

Hansen, when not correcting data, has called for prison terms for warming skeptics. Clearly James is in need of medication and counseling. Send him out for regrooving...
Now lest you think these NASA scientist guys couldn't be crooks

A former top climate scientist who had become of one the scientific world's most cited authorities on the human effect on Earth's atmosphere was sentenced to probation Tuesday after pleading guilty to steering lucrative no-bid contracts to his wife's company.

It's hard to tell how they fit into the AWG research scandal from their nearly useless website but this is an interesting statement "Animated Earth also develops short movies that explain earth science processes and complement Earth Today".  If you're willing to dig furthur you could watch the short film created for the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (home of James Hansen global warming hysteric); it's at the bottom and is labelled UARS. Interestingly it deals with the ozone hole, which as I recall was getting smaller, no bigger, no smaller, err not a problem anymore now that we can't use CFCs right (despite the film clip claim). I guess they haven't decided just yet what the ozone hole is doing OR why.

For the most part the general public has afforded science a measure of trust they don't give politicians, businesses, entertainers or lawyers. Until the fraud exposed by the hack of the CRU files is fully exposed and investigated people are far less likely to want to just take scientists at their word, or allow politicians to create expensive life altering legislation based on fraudulent nonsense presented as peer reviewed science.

If you've lost Jon Stewart...

...you've lost

Criminals

Acorn again...a new wrap up.



And now there's a whistleblower, one who approached the NY Times only to find that the Times was unwilling to expose the fraud that would have threatened the eleciton of the candidate they endorsed, Obama.

ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief offers stunning revelations regarding the nation's largest radical left organization, where our Community Activist in Chief cut his teeth. The supposedly nonpartisan organization has been illegally pouring taxpayer money into Democrat causes, letting $millions disappear, and renting out goons for intimidation campaigns, while the New York Times deliberately looks the other way.

ACORN and Project Vote are the same organization. MonCrief drew a paycheck from Project Vote, but was given an ACORN email address. Via Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, her testimony before Congress covers the following:
• November 2007 — Project Vote contacted by Obama presidential campaign

• Project Vote received Obama donor list from Obama campaign

• Project Vote solicited Obama donors to pay for voter registration and to "get out the vote"

• Project Vote received donor lists from other Democratic and labor union sources: John Kerry campaign, [Hillary] Clinton campaign, Barack Obama campaign, Democratic National Committee, America Coming Together ("ACT")

• Project Vote development plan was to "approach maxed out presidential donors" and allegedly use the funds raised for voter registration drives

• ACORN "employees" were paid through Project Vote for partisan campaign activities, such as telling voters “don't vote for Albert Wynn (sic) or vote for this person”

There some serious violations of Federal election law listed above and there is more read it all and consider how the election of 2008 may have been stolen through illegal contributions, racketeering and vote fraud.

Since Acorn, the SEIU and the Democrats cannot be seperated what they've done is pull off a coup. It is time for anyone who cares to contact all their representatives and demand a special prosecutor, demand that ACORN be defunded and demand that everyone involved be investigated, prosecuted and punished.

Botch after botch

Such a juicy scandal!

- "But what are all those monthly files? DON'T KNOW, UNDOCUMENTED. Wherever I look, there are data files, no info about what they are other than their names. And that's useless ..." (Page 17)
- "It's botch after botch after botch." (18)
- "The biggest immediate problem was the loss of an hour's edits to the program, when the network died ... no explanation from anyone, I hope it's not a return to last year's troubles ... This surely is the worst project I've ever attempted. Eeeek." (31)
- "Oh, GOD, if I could start this project again and actually argue the case for junking the inherited program suite." (37)
- "... this should all have been rewritten from scratch a year ago!" (45)
- "Am I the first person to attempt to get the CRU databases in working order?!!" (47)
- "As far as I can see, this renders the (weather) station counts totally meaningless." (57)
- "COBAR AIRPORT AWS (data from an Australian weather station) cannot start in 1962, it didn't open until 1993!" (71)
- "What the hell is supposed to happen here? Oh yeah -- there is no 'supposed,' I can make it up. So I have : - )" (98)
- "You can't imagine what this has cost me -- to actually allow the operator to assign false WMO (World Meteorological Organization) codes!! But what else is there in such situations? Especially when dealing with a 'Master' database of dubious provenance ..." (98)
- "So with a somewhat cynical shrug, I added the nuclear option -- to match every WMO possible, and turn the rest into new stations ... In other words what CRU usually do. It will allow bad databases to pass unnoticed, and good databases to become bad ..." (98-9)
- "OH F--- THIS. It's Sunday evening, I've worked all weekend, and just when I thought it was done, I'm hitting yet another problem that's based on the hopeless state of our databases." (241).
- "This whole project is SUCH A MESS ..." (266)

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/lorrie_goldstein/2009/11/29/11967916-sun.html

Better yet they threw much of their original data away!

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

Is this the biggest scientific scandal of the modern world? In the meantime the US press is turfing the story and claiming that the leak proves AWG is real! What audacity!

...and Commander Zero is headed to Copenhagen to sign away our future for these bullshit lies....

We need debates like this in the US

nice shot!

Goodbye earth!

This is about money and power. Your money. Their power.

Succinct isn't it? 

If you're wondering how the robot-like march of the world's politicians towards Copenhagen can possibly continue in the face of the scientific scandal dubbed "climategate," it's because Big Government, Big Business and Big Green don't give a s*** about "the science."

They never have.

That pretty well sums it up. In a revenue shortage never underestimate the power of politicians to sign on to anything that allows them to increase revenues.

Dr. Ball's interesting comments on the AWG fraud

Listen and weep Al!

The warm list - everything blamed on global warming

I suppose all of this is fake too...

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

Read it and reflect that the media has reported that everything that happens is caused by global warming.

The scandal grows unabated

This time it's New Zealand. The raw data and the official data disagree, and surprise, surprise, surprise the official data show warming that DOES NOT EXIST.

UPDATE 15:49 NZDT - NIWA's news release in response to this story appears to have been delayed, and according to a radio news report a few minutes ago Rodney Hide, leader of the minority Act Party and a minister in the National Government, is now calling on his Cabinet colleague, Climate Change Minister Nick Smith, to "please explain" [normal transmission now resumes]

The New Zealand Government's chief climate advisory unit NIWA is under fire for allegedly massaging raw climate data to show a global warming trend that wasn't there.

The scandal breaks as fears grow worldwide that corruption of climate science is not confined to just Britain's CRU climate research centre.

Here's the paper that set this round off..... http://www.climatescience.org.nz/images/PDFs/global_warming_nz2.pdf

Over in global warming's corner we see more lies, more deception. Is this more Dan Ratheresk "fake but accurate" nonsense? Is it possible for the left to learn from their mistakes? I hope not.

Moar burning stupidity

Nothing like mindless propaganda in order to make your point!

Screw Science I have an agenda!

Back about the time I got out of the US Navy and returned to New England there was a threat to the environment that was a daily staple of the news, the threat of acid rain. We were told acid rain would strip the mountains of the northeast of trees within 20 years; the forest was dying we must act now! While government regulation moved to clean up the heavy sulfur emissions that primarily originated in the older coal burning power plants of the midwest that effort was eventually stalled as congress after congress 'grandfathered' those plants and the pollution continued unabated. Over time news coverage of acid rain disappeared. Small wonder since it has been nearly 30 years and I can tell you not only are the forests intact, they are thriving.

In the mid 1970's we were warned about the world ending environmental catastrophe, caused by man's reckless disregard for the environment, the coming ice age spurred on by the use of aerosol spray deodorants and similar products. Yet that too slipped from public view as it failed to engage the imagination of the ignorant masses. Acid rain and global cooling were replaced by global warming. I believed, lord knows I believed! As an outdoorsman, an avid fly fisherman in pursuit of cold water species I saw in global warming the demise of my sport. I identified every lousy fishing season with global warming AND acid rain AND the ozone hole. I set out to read as much as I possibly could about global warming to better educate myself on the implications. The problem was the more I read the more I detected a troubling trend. Those who believed that humans were causing warming were adamant that "the science" was settled. Red flag! Anytime a scientist claims the 'science is settled' it's a sure sign he's no longer a scientist he's become a true believer. They were shrill in denouncing those scientists that disagreed. In that shrillness I began to detect themes, themes that began to look more like a propaganda campaign than science. The scientists who questioned the theory seemed to be advocating scientific method, those who endorsed the theory seemed to produce studies but it became apparent that they were refusing to share their raw data; defeating any possibility of substantial peer review. The media picked up the cry. Then the UN endorsed global warming hysteria. Yet we knew the very models that were being used to predict a grim future for humanity were simplistic and unable to predict the known past. I discovered the little ice age, the medieval warm period and other things that had been glossed over by team warming. The most troubling thing was that the solution to global warming advocated by those who claim it was real and caused by humans was no less than a surrender of individual freedom and a massive wealth transfer from the richer developed west to the poorer undeveloped world, with people like Al Gore selling carbon indulgences and skimming a percentage of the trade all while using their credibility to help sell the hyperbole.

I've read with increasing fascination, how the global warming hysterics have found themselves in a bit of a pickle. This article is well worth the read because it covers the salient points of the scandal and doesn't sugar coat the implications of the fraud.

For years, the left has spun the debate over global warming in the starkest Manichean terms. Those who disagree with the scientific and policy orthodoxy have been maligned as greedy capitalists bent on raping the earth of its natural resources for cheap material gain; they have been cast as the benighted enemies of reason itself. Efforts to publicly challenge the science behind global warming have too often resulted in professional and political character assassination. To be skeptical about the fashionable scientific and policy platform aggressively advocated by the mainstream media and self-indulgently championed by the Hollywood elite is nothing less than an “assault on reason,” to borrow Al Gore’s hyperbolic rhetoric. In predictably technocratic fashion, the left has claimed its own peculiar position as the only scientifically legitimate one—everything else reduces to craven interest, manifest dishonesty, or antiquarian faith.

However, maintaining this self-serving narrative just got a lot harder. In the last few days, the cause of climate alarmism took a big hit when more than a thousand e-mails exchanged by scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climactic Research Unit (CRU) suddenly surfaced online. These e-mails were published by the computer hackers who apparently stole them, a crime that should be investigated and prosecuted. But notwithstanding the e-mails’ route to publication, their actual content is extraordinary. These behind-the-scenes discussions among leading global-warming exponents are remarkable both in their candor and in their sheer contempt for scientific objectivity. There can be little doubt after even a casual perusal that the scientific case for global warming and the policy that springs from it are based upon a volatile combination of political ideology, unapologetic mendacity, and simmering contempt for even the best-intentioned disagreement. Especially in anticipation of the major climate summit taking place in Copenhagen next month, the significance of this explosive disclosure is hard to underestimate. According to climatologist Patrick J. Michaels, “This is not a smoking gun; this is a mushroom cloud.”

A couple of other interesting takes on this from PJM
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/climategate-alarmism-is-underpinned-by-fraud-pjm-exclusive/
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/deconstructing-climategates-smoking-gun-email/

The entire facade is deconstructing, Al Gore's investments in carbon indulgences look self serving, his Nobel is as meaningless as Obama's. These people are criminals who distorted science in order to sell one of the largest wealth transfer schemes in history but I expect the majority of the media who apparently signed on for the effort will continue in their attempts to turf the story.

The stupid, it burns

yet more nonsensical propaganda from the civilization hating environmentalists

Al Gore scientific imbecil

Conan: Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …
Al: Yeah, yeah.

Conan: and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that's generated from the core of the earth …

Al: Yeah.

Conan: … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?

Al: It definitely is, and it's a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, 'cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …

several million degrees? WTF? This is the guy who is busy telling us how all that satanic CO2 is going to destroy the planet and he can't tell the difference between our temperate planet and the center of the frigging sun!

How bad is this recession?

Hit the link and watch unemployment rates change...

 http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Lindsey Graham owns Eric Holder

Yet another how stupid do you think we all are moment?



What a tool.

What's really involved in meeting those pesky carbon targets

I'm not a huge believer that humans have caused significant warming. The more I read the less I believe it. I do believe that we should attempt to keep it clean while we're here. Dumping tons of CO2 into the atmosphere isn't as big an issue as some of the other stuff we dump into the air, ground and water but I'm ok with moving to the post carbon energy phase because I believe that's where we will eventually end up. I'm a huge fan of a technological future. Problem is wind, solar and hydro aren't well postitioned to take up the slack if we suddenly decide to shutdown all the fossile fuel driven power plants, in fact they are so poorly positioned to cover the demand that I've often thought that the goal of the environmentalists pushing for action and results NOW is for us to all starve and freeze to death in the dark.

mosey on over and check out this article for a reality check

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Build-more-nukes-or-head-back-to-the-Dark-Ages-70308337.html

How stupid do they think we are?

Does this mean they embezzled the money and are giving it to SEUI or ACORN?

How stupid are these people? I'd like to believe they're just incompetent but I keep hearing how smart the left is; legends in their own minds? I guess all these non-existent districts, and non-existent jobs are located in the famous extra 7 states? You know the 7 of 57 Obama hasn't visited yet?

For example, Recovery.gov shows 12 districts, using up more than $2.7 billion, in Washington, D.C, which only has one congressional district.

Recovery.gov also shows 2,893.9 jobs created with $194,537,372 in stimulus funding in New Hampshire’s 00 congressional district. But, there is no such thing.

The site also shows $1,471,518 going to New Hampshire’s 6th congressional district, $1,033,809 to the 4th congressional district and $124,774 to the 27th congressional district. In fact, New Hampshire only has two congressional districts; inviting confusion about where the money listed for the 00, 4th, 6th and 27th districts is going.

Criminals have taken over.

I hope this traitorous bitch rots in jail forever

Disbarred radical lawyer Lynne Stewart is going to jail - maybe for a lot longer than she thought.
An appeals court Tuesday upheld her conviction for smuggling messages to her jailed terrorist client and said she deserves more than the 28 months she got because she may have lied at her trial.
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/11/17/2009-11-17_conviction_of_disbarred_lawyer_lynne_stewart_upheld_for_smuggling_messages_to_ja.html
 
I hope she dies there. She should have been shot.

ObamaCare that expensive mistake waiting to happen

Not that the dean of the Harvard Medical School would known anything....

In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that, whatever its shape, the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will markedly accelerate national health-care spending rather than restrain it. Likewise, nearly all agree that the legislation would do little or nothing to improve quality or change health-care's dysfunctional delivery system. The system we have now promotes fragmented care and makes it more difficult than it should be to assess outcomes and patient satisfaction. The true costs of health care are disguised, competition based on price and quality are almost impossible, and patients lose their ability to be the ultimate judges of value.

Game, set, match. Sorry but I trust this person more than I trust Obama, the Congress, and that includes you Snowe and Collins or MSNBC, and the mindless losers writing stupid shit for a mind numbing and boring TV series.

Air Traffic Control - what you'll see this holiday season and why

This guy r0x

Bill Whittle goes to Gitmo

But you'll have to follow the link to see it. Do it!

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2704

Treason

From Col. Austin Bay

One word aptly describes Ft. Hood mass murderer Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan: traitor.

Traitor is a tough word. It doesn't smudge and squish. "Traitor" draws a hard line, one that sharply divides essential life-determining values and marks a defining personal choice between the profound and the profane.

Hasan's treason employed terrorist tactics. Sure, the lawyers can argue Hasan attacked soldiers, with civilians as incidental targets, and the assault occurred on a military post, but the tactics are those used by jihadis in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Indonesia and a score of other nations -- the armed killer entering an open facility and massacring unarmed men and women. 

 Wordsmiths can split hairs about Hasan's motives and what to call it. This works for me, but according to the some at the WSJ:

In fact, this was not a terrorist attack. By definition, terrorism targets noncombatants. When an irregular force like al Qaeda attacks a military target, such as the bombing of the USS Cole, that is more accurately termed guerrilla warfare. 

When our politically correct establishment creates an environment where soldiers on a military base are less well armed than the surrounding off base populace I think the whole 'non-combatant' part of the definition becomes less than moot.

In fact this is yet more proof that politically correct 'gun free zones' are an invitation to this type of killing spree, regardless of the motivation driving the shooter.

Political correctness is a losing bet, in or out of the military and our enemies, both foreign and domestic know this and use it to their advantage.

Why actually have a debate on health care is important

Given just how dysfunctional the US Congress is I'm willing to bet anything we create will take decades to be as efficient as the Canadians or the Brits system.

Veterans Day 2009

This is very cool.

as we edge closer to the dark side - remembering the victims of Communism

nom nom nom

Christmas Ale sighted!

Yummie!

noooooo

I have no idea where this came from but LOLWTFBBQ!

nice

This came from here

PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.”

“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]


“Criminal penalties
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses.  Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

Coercion is the better part of socialism. So they've mandated a minimum bill of $15,000 a year for health care coverage before a penalty tax kicks in, and if you can't afford both then you could be fined up to $250,000 and placed in jail for 5 years. 

Funny thing is I guarantee we won't see protests to release health care scofflaws from prison like we do to free mouthy black murdering SOBs like Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In the (near) future I guess we're all fated to be someone's bitch. 

I'm shocked I tell you, shocked!

Computers, records seized at ACORN offices in La.

NEW ORLEANS — Investigators are searching the New Orleans offices of the activist group ACORN in connection with embezzlement and tax fraud allegations.

Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said a warrant was obtained to seize computers, hard drives and other documents Friday. Caldwell said investigators will copy records and hard drives, then return them to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Thanks to ACORN's strong support from the Democrats of Congress that's OUR tax money these assholes are embezzling.

Can this White House be any more stupid?

"I will continue to say what I've said before. You hear in this debate, you hear analogies, you hear references to, you see pictures about and depictions of individuals that are truly stunning, and you hear it all the time. People -- imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11. Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler.

Hopefully we can get back to a discussion about the issues that are important in this country that we can do so without being personally disagreeable and set up comparisons to things that were so insidious in our history that anybody in any profession or walk of life would be well advised to compare nothing to those atrocities."

Nope I have a hard time believing people would do that

It seems to me we just spent the better part of two Presidencies watching the backers of the current resident of the white house do just that, over and over again, more pathetic and vile with each viewing. Go head Mr. Gibbs click that link and scroll through the pictures of your supporters. Self ownage is usually funny but this is pathetic. Mr. Gibbs you are a liar and a poor one at that.

12 Dead at Fort Hood

Word cannot capture my anger and disgust at this cowardly attack. Once again the perpetrator is a convert to Islam. My sympathies and condolences go out to the families of all who were killed or injured. At times like this words are never enough.

Commander Zero begins his takeover - goodby civil rights and due process

Quite honestly I didn't think he'd be this bold

Among other things, according to the comments and leaked document, the special interest groups speculate the treaty would:

Require Internet Service Providers to monitor all consumers’ Internet communications, terminate their customers’ Internet connections based on rights holders’ repeat allegation of copyright infringement, and divulge the identity of alleged copyright infringers possibly without judicial process, threatening Internet users’ due process and privacy rights; and potentially make ISPs liable for their end users’ alleged infringing activity.

Interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials.

Criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing.

Interfere with legitimate parallel trade in goods, including the resale of brand-name pharmaceutical products.

Impose liability on manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), if those APIs are used to make counterfeits — a liability system that may make API manufacturers reluctant to sell to legal generic drug makers, and thereby significantly damage the functioning of the legal generic pharmaceutical industry.

Improperly criminalize acts not done for commercial purpose and with no public health consequences; and Improperly divert public resources into enforcement of private rights.

 Pelosi and Reid will ram this through as a rider on some must pass bill and that'll be the point where historians will be able to point to as the event that either destroyed the first amendment or started the 2nd civil war. And Pelosi and Reid will be enough help from the usual clueless republicans who like to think that 'history called them' to cast such an historic vote.

Sometimes being in IT really sux

long story short 

project a used a database for a conversion, project b started to use it for a second conversion

security wanted a's data cleaned up when they completed their project, was demanding status 

project managers, programmers etc all put their heads together approved a data deletion list and told me to execute

I reviewed it, asked some questions, checked with everyone a second time and got the green light

dropped the data

2 hours later the phone rings - "my shit is all gone, I still need that for project b"

I started the database restore from tape at 16:30PM 11/03 

at 04:33 the f'ing VPN dropped me while the restore was still active, thankfully oracle rman will resume a restore

it's still not done but based on my guestmate it should be done in about 2 hours, then I can get some sleep

I didn't think a backup that takes 5.5 hours to create would take 14-16 hours to restore, wtf pos crappy lan based pseudo-tape library system sux blue monkey balls

Election results - scoring myself

I predicted the following:

1. YES
2. NO
3. YES
4. NO
5. NO
6. YES
7. YES


As of right now this appears to be the results but 6 & 7 are still up in the air...


1. YES
2. NO
3. NO
4. NO
5. YES
6. YES
7. NO


I colored the ones I guessed correctly in green...43% isn't very good is it? 

Birth of a new ocean

No it's not California, you folk in Nevada don't own beachfronts yet...

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will eventually become a new ocean or sea, researchers now confirm.

The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005. Some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.

A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a new sea is in the region's future.

Very cool stuff and it's not because of global warming! At least not yet....

Election results

Looks like the Republicans will sweep Virginia.
Cristie is up over Corzine in NJ.
Hoffman held a lead in the polls in NY.

Watch for the spin from the White house; the casual comments that this election means nothing, but listen for the gnashing of teeth and for the rhetoric to become ever more shrill as moderate Democrats begin to distance themselves from the Obama/Pelosi/Reid train wreck.

Locally we had a much larger than expected turnout. Portland ran out of ballots. Bangor reported 50% of registered voters had voted by 6PM. That's a huge turnout for an off year election. It's early but it looks like the gay marriage law will stand.

I guess that whole new diplomacy thing isn't quite working out...

So here we are not quite a year into the new deal of diplomacy, Obama's open hand, Hillary's reset button, the worldwide and apparently never ending ass kissing apology tour and what do we have to show for it?

"The new president of the US ...[sent] messages repeatedly – verbal, written – [saying] come, let us turn the page, come let us create a new situation," Ayatollah Khamenei told a group of students. "Now eight months have passed [and] what we saw was opposite to what they have expressed in words.... The American government is a really arrogant power and the Iranian nation will not be deceived with its apparent reconciliatory behavior."

 Not a damn thing apparently. I know it's Bush's fault.

A tale of two Presidents

This is from Redstate

I’ve commented on this before at some length and it’s worthwhile to mention again here. George Bush would routinely reach out to families of the military who had had members killed in action. I personally know of families who received a call from the White House and who were brought to locations where the President was visiting on other business to meet with him. There was no fanfare. The families were taken to a large area and were briefed before the President’s arrival so they would know what to expect and that “the President is on a tight schedule and while he wants to spend time with each of you, he needs to leave at ‘X’…” In every instance, President Bush would come into the room, make a few short remarks and then meet with families. In every instance he would talk to individual family members about anything they wanted to talk about, he never rushed them and he stayed until the families suggested he should talk to someone else. There was always a White House photographer present to take pictures that were made available ONLY to the families. Repeat, O.N.L.Y. the families. The press was NEVER present. There was NEVER an announcement from the White House that the President was meeting with the families of the fallen nor were they ever recognized publicly at the event. Their privacy, and their loss, was always respected.

Which brings me to the self-serving bastard who occupies the White House today. He went to Dover. One might think it was to pay respect to the fallen coming home. Wrong. It was for a G*d damn photo op. He took the White House Press Corps with him and made his visit about him.

I didn't vote for Obama. I didn't think he represented anything that I would want in the Oval Office. I dislike him more every day.