Why They Call it Dope

Our heavily indoctrinated, propagandized and, possibly, perpetually stoned local pot advocates are, once again, spewing their nonsense in the SP&T reader forum (which, virtually nobody reads anymore).

So, it is time, once again, to remind them of some “inconvenient truths”:

1) Click here and understand how others pay the ultimate price for your narcissistic indulgences.

Even if you buy it “home grown”, you are still willfully part of a culture that results in the mass murder of innocents. There is NO EXCUSE and you CANNOT escape your personal culpability in this slaughter. And, FOR WHAT?

2) Pot? Harmless? Not even close!

Each of the following quotes is derived from peer reviewed science on the subject of so-called Medical Marijuana. EVERY quote was published by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, which is a branch of the National Academies.

Click here for the IOM "about" page.

Click here for the source of the quotes below.

I always select the first quote as being particularly relevant to those attempting to advocate for pot:

"The most obvious behavioral abnormality displayed by someone under the influence of marijuana is difficulty in carrying on an intelligible conversation"

"A study of experienced airplane pilots showed that even 24 hours after a single marijuana cigarette their performance on flight simulator tests was impaired. Before the tests, however, they told the study investigators that they were sure their performance would be unaffected."

Can we say "fat soluble = perpetually stoned (and, in denial)"?

"Cognitive impairments associated with acutely administered marijuana limit the activities that people would be able to do safely or productively. For example, no one under the influence of marijuana or THC should drive a vehicle or operate potentially dangerous equipment."

"Tolerance to most of the effects of marijuana can develop rapidly after only a few doses"

"Tolerance to large doses has been found to persist in experimental animals for long periods after cessation of drug use"

"A distinctive marijuana and THC withdrawal syndrome has been identified"

"The symptoms of marijuana withdrawal include restlessness, irritability, mild agitation, insomnia, sleep EEG disturbance, nausea, and cramping (Table 3.2). In addition to those symptoms, two recent studies noted several more. A group of adolescents under treatment for conduct disorders also reported fatigue and illusions or hallucinations after marijuana abstinence"

"The withdrawal syndrome is pronounced, and the behavior of the animals becomes hyperactive and disorganized"

"4.2% of the general population were dependent on marijuana at some time"

"4.4% of adults have, at one time, met the criteria for marijuana dependence"

"7.3% of 1,201 adolescents and young adults in suburban New Jersey at some time met the criteria for marijuana dependence"

"About 83% of those [adolescents previously diagnosed as dependent on at least one substance (including nicotine and alcohol)] who had used marijuana at least six times went on to develop marijuana dependence"

"Anxiety and paranoia are the most common acute adverse reactions; others include panic, depression, dysphoria, depersonalization, delusions, illusions, and hallucinations"

"there is reasonable evidence that heavy cannabis use, and perhaps acute use in sensitive individuals, can produce an acute psychosis in which confusion, amnesia, delusions, hallucinations, anxiety, agitation and hypomanic symptoms predominate"

"There are clinical reports of marijuana-induced psychosis-like states (schizophrenia-like, depression, and/or mania) lasting for a week or more"

"The scientific literature indicates general agreement that heavy marijuana use can precipitate schizophrenic episodes "

"people with schizophrenia or with a family history of schizophrenia are likely to be at greater risk for adverse psychiatric effects from the use of cannabinoids"

"Given a cigarette of comparable weight, as much as four times the amount of tar can be deposited in the lungs of marijuana smokers as in the lungs of tobacco smokers"

"The gas and tar phases of marijuana and tobacco smoke contain many of the same compounds. Furthermore, the tar phase of marijuana smoke contains higher concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), such as the carcinogen benzopyrene. The higher content of carcinogenic PAHs in marijuana tar and the greater deposition of this tar in the lung might act in conjunction to amplify the exposure of a marijuana smoker to carcinogens. For those reasons the carcinogenicity of marijuana smoke is an important concern."

"Reports indicate an unexpectedly large proportion of marijuana users among people with lung cancer and cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract--that is, the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus--that occur before the age of 45. Respiratory tract cancers associated with heavy tobacco and alcohol consumption are not usually seen before the age of 60,"

"cellular and molecular studies have provided strong evidence that marijuana smoke is carcinogenic."

Uncle Joe's Leftist Tripe

In his latest example of Leftist tripe, Joe Roberts wonders out loud if the recession is responsible for nobody buying so-called “Affordable Housing”.

Hey! Joe! Click here and read the link. Was the economy in recession in 2006?

MORON!

The Dishonesty of Steve Lewis

Quoting Steve Lewis via SP&T:

“Surveys show that most citizens agree with supporting affordable housing.”

Click the image & read the rest:

Past surveys have shown that a slim majority favor the CONCEPT of so-called “Affordable Housing”, but ONLY if it costs them NOTHING (and it NEVER DOES)!

So, as the community faces yet ANOTHER tyrannical proposition (contrary to our CLEARLY expressed will) to TAX us into housing cost oblivion, Mr. Lewis is UTTERLY DISHONEST in implying that a majority of the community supports his Socialist INSANITY!

Before I was banned for life from commenting at the SP&T web site, Mr. Lewis KNEW that he could NEVER get away with such utter dishonesty without being challenged. But, now that Boyer has chased off virtually ALL Conservative commentators, Socialist MORONS like Mr. Lewis are, for the most part, free to spread their deceptions at will and without challenge.

Here in The People’s Socialist Republic of Steamboat Springs, the insanity never ends!

Click here for a related post.

The Mythical Scarcity of Land

Quoting SP&T:

“YVHA board member Catherine Carson noted the scarcity of land in the Yampa Valley and said one benefit of inclusionary zoning is that it captures real property.”

Click the image & read the rest:

There IS NO SCARCITY OF LAND in Routt County! There is ONLY political contrivance to create an ARTIFICIAL scarcity of land by making that land UNAVAILABLE for development.

What we have are competing values:
Affordable Housing vs. Open Space.
Growth vs. Small Town.

Despite all the fantasies which our local Socialist utopians endlessly indulge in, we CANNOT have it both ways! PICK ONE!

The county refuses to allow the development of subdivisions and the city refuses to expand the urban boundary. THAT is what creates the ILLUSION of “the scarcity of land”.

Inclusionary zoning is just pretty language to disguise the Marxist utopian FANTASY that uneducated 20-somethings working a service sector job in a ski town have an ENTITLEMENT to own a million dollar home right next door to those who have actually worked for, sacrificed for and EARNED that PRIVILIGE!

Here in The People’s Socialist Republic of Steamboat Springs, the insanity never ends!

Click here for a related post.

Higher Housing Costs = More Affordable Housing?

Quoting SP&T:

“An alternative method to fund local affordable housing is gaining support… Board members of the Yampa Valley Housing Authority agreed Thursday to support the concept of a real estate transfer tax [essentially a sales tax on real estate transactions] to fund affordable housing”

Click the image & read the rest:

Once again, our local Socialists (and developers seeking to free themselves from the insane shackles these idiots previous imposed upon them) are trying to tell us that increasing the cost of purchasing a home can actually make housing more “affordable”.

The bureaucrats at the tyrannically imposed Socialist Housing Authority are simply seeking to save their own illegitimate salaries. Nobody else will benefit. Everybody else will suffer. Housing prices will go even higher. And, the very tiny minority who are fool enough to purchase so-called “Affordable Housing” will remain the biggest victims of all.

Here in The People’s Socialist Republic of Steamboat Springs, the insanity never ends!

Click here for a related post.

Douglas on Rolan

Quoting Rob Douglas on our soon to be former city Finance Director:

“Rolan has a history of departing on short notice and after a brief tenure — as she did before arriving in the Yampa Valley. As this newspaper has reported, ‘Rolan left a previous job with the city of Columbia, S.C., under similarly vague circumstances’”

What Mr. Douglas fails to mention is that, but for my own “reporting”, it is questionable whether SP&T would have ever known about, much less publicized, any of the information in the press reports surrounding Ms. Rolan’s previous employment history.

In the comments section of this SP&T puff piece, my comments have been purged along with every other comment I ever offered on the SP&T website. However, there remains telltale evidence that I was the one who first alerted this community to this issue.

Quoting the commentator known as “ijustlookhi”:

“thanks sbvor for doing the papers job and at least googling some info!

This is ridiculous! Pilot should be ashamed at how shallow this article is….lets see how you handle it from here.

She seems like a terrible hire and I do want to know more particulars.”

In that same comments section, the poster known as “SteamboatsConscience”, in a rare instance of agreeing with me, also quoted one of the links which I dredged up in researching Ms. Rolan’s background.

Was our former City Manager aware of this employment history when he hired Ms. Rolan?

Why did SP&T only report on this employment history AFTER they got taken to the woodshed by their own readers?

Shame on SP&T (as usual)!

Memo to Boyer

Memo to Boyer (editor of our local rag):

If your so-called newspaper (and your so-called “profession”) was more competent, more honest, more balanced, more trustworthy and showed more integrity, maybe more people would be more willing to talk to you.

Hmm, just a thought. But, by all means, you keep on looking anywhere but in the mirror.

Click the image (of Goebbels) & read
Boyer’s latest clueless musings:

Waltzing on The Titanic

Click here for a post from my primary blog that is also relevant to this local blog.

Boyer Does Not Get it and Never Will

Brent Boyer, the editor of our local rag, does not get it and never will.

In his latest failed attempt to defend against the obvious bias of his paper, Boyer once again trots out the utterly irrelevant fact that he publishes commentaries from both sides. WHO CARES?

Earth to Boyer! It ain’t about the commentary page! It’s about what you purport to be “straight news”. Like virtually all of the propaganda that passes for journalism today, your “straight news” is loaded with Far Left opinion and flatly untrue Far Left propaganda.

This is never more obvious than when you “report” on Socialist Housing.

It was quite obvious in your “reporting” on the Pine Beetle Infestation.

You did it with respect to the economy (more than once). Even if the NBER later declares the economy was in recession at the time of that story, what your “reporter” did will have STILL amounted to the stealth embedding of OPINION inside “straight news” (and that is NEVER acceptable)!

Click here and read what one of your own has to say on the subject of embedding opinion within “straight news”.

Click here and here and read the TRUTH from two of the last honest “journalists” left on the freaking planet!

Nationally, the overt bias in this election cycle was SO over the top that even SNL and Dan Rather could no longer deny it!

Click the image (of Goebbels) and read
Boyer’s latest failed attempt to defend his paper:

P.S.) Brent, it is also about your having driven --- I believe deliberately --- virtually all Conservative commentators from your Reader Forum. Hey! Brent! How’s your click rate lately? Down 50%? Or is it more than that?

Central Planning Never Works

Didn’t anybody ever tell our local idiots that Central Planning (be it housing or any other market) NEVER WORKS?

Have these idiots learned NOTHING from the current housing debacle?

The Marxist agenda of the Democrats made housing beyond one’s means the next frontier in their never ending Entitlement fantasy. Nationwide, that fantasy blew up in OUR face and dragged down the entire global economy.

And now WE get to pay the piper (through yet another Marxist “solution”). And, yes, this time a Republican President (who is NOT a Conservative) saddled us with this particular Nanny State stupidity.

These idiots NEVER LEARN! Whether we’re talking about the failure of Soviet Central Planning or the 100 million people who were murdered for the cause, these idiots ALWAYS remain convinced that the ideology (Marxism) is good and only the most recent implementation was bad. The worst part is that most of them seem oblivious to the FACT that they are pursuing a blatantly Marxist agenda. After two or more generations of Marxist indoctrination in our Socialist “education” system, they simply believe they are doing “good”.

When government bureaucrats craft “solutions”, they ALWAYS make matters worse! And, they are ALWAYS too ignorant and too arrogant to see the truth of their folly!

Here we go again!

Click the image & read the latest on our
own ongoing Marxist housing debacle:

Are we Still Funding the YVHA?

Quoting SP&T:

“The Steamboat Springs City Council reluctantly voted Tuesday night to raise water and sewer rates by 50 percent next year.”

If ANYBODY on the City Council would like to be reelected, they had better make sure they ELIMINATE funding for the Yampa Valley [totalitarian Socialist] Housing Authority!

The last we heard:

“The two governments [city and county] plan to contribute $80,000 apiece [to YVHA] in 2009.”

We’re watching! We’ve thrown the bums out before and we will DAMN SURE do it again!

The Importance of Being (Earnestly) Ken Brenner

With apologies to Oscar Wilde …

Quoting Ken Brenner (via SP&T) on losing his home county:

“you assume people know who you are, and they don’t”

Actually, Ken, the reason you lost your home county is because we DO know who you are (perhaps better than you do). Wake up and smell the coffee! We’ve been telling you that you would lose your home county ever since you announced.

Did you really think we would forget your tyrannical reign so quickly? Did you think you could impose your Socialist Housing agenda on us without consequence? Just because SP&T was totally in the tank for you and your Socialist agenda does not mean the rest of us were.

Forget about politics! Go back to being a masseuse!

Disband the Housing Authority - NOW!

Quoting SP&T:

“At a Thursday meeting of the Housing Authority’s board of directors, two schools of thought emerged regarding a strategy for 2009. One was a major reorganization of the Housing Authority that would cut its operations to a bare minimum and save money. Others felt the authority should ‘go for broke’ and do as much as possible in 2009 in hopes that the organization would prove its worth to Routt County voters, who might provide it a dedicated funding source, in turn, at next year’s ballot box.”

Click the image & read the rest:


“Routt County voters” “might provide it a dedicated funding source”???

Just HOW delusional ARE you so-called “Liberals”???

How STUPID do you think we are?

Which part of NO followed by HELL NO do you TYRANTS not understand? How many MORE expletives would precede the NEXT no vote? Must we throw the “F Bomb”? Is THAT what you understand?

The current national housing debacle was caused by PRECISELY this idiotic so-called “Affordable Housing” movement! It is now time for you to turn out the lights and shutdown your operations before one of us gets mad enough to SUE your sorry butts!

Come on! Even Rob Douglas can understand THIS ONE!


Shut it down! NOW!
Click here and here to learn more.

Mark Udall - $10 Million Elk Bridge - WSJ

Mark Udall’s $10 Million Elk Bridge:


Quoting The Wall Street Journal:

“The [$10 Million] bridge to nowhere works fine -- if all the elk know where the crossing is.”

“One thing… Mr. Udall can't do, however, is restyle himself as a conservative for state-wide voters. He's the four-term Representative from the Boulder area, the state's hotbed of trendy liberalism.”

Click the image & read the rest:


The Democratic Congress is already on a spending binge that we cannot afford.
And, it is a mathematical certainty that we CANNOT tax our way out of this!

Defeat Mark Udall!

Socialist Housing - Just Say NO!

Rob Douglas has finally published something I can whole heartedly endorse.

Quoting Rob Douglas:

“Arguably, the same issues that require the next administration in Washington to rethink the promotion of homeownership — given the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — require our local governments in Routt County to rethink how aggressively they promote affordable housing.”

“Perhaps, before we repeat similar mistakes here in the valley, we should retreat from the knee-jerk social engineering government policies surrounding local housing development and ask the same question now before our nation’s leaders, but with a local twist.

How aggressively should our local governments promote affordable housing?

Arguably, government should play no role in promoting affordable housing.”

Click the image & read the rest:

Click here to read the WSJ article cited by Mr. Douglas

The first steps in implementing this change [we need] would be to:

1) Defund and disband the utterly illegitimate and tyrannically imposed Yampa Valley [Socialist] Housing Authority.

2) Repeal the so-called “Inclusionary Zoning” ordinance.

3) Revoke ALL existing deed restrictions (dating back at least to the 1990’s) which relate to so-called “Affordable Housing”.

4) Get serious about ALLOWING developers to develop market rate rental apartments everywhere within a 50 mile radius of Steamboat Springs. This, of course, will require the cooperation of multiple local governments.

5) Consider improvements to public transportation within a 50 mile radius of Steamboat Springs. But, given how sparsely existing public transportation is utilized, I have some doubts as to how many people would actually use it.

Click here to learn how Socialist Housing
was tyrannically imposed on Steamboat Springs.

Click here to learn more about the
root cause of the current housing mess.

Socialist Housing and Politicians

Dr. Perry sums it up very nicely.
Click the image & read about “Affordable Housing”:

Click here to learn how Socialist Housing was
tyrannically imposed on Steamboat Springs.
P.S.) Nationally, the tyrannical Socialist Housing agenda is
what caused our current global financial mess!

Swiftboat Propaganda From The Left

Here is another quote from the commentator known as Jason Krueger:

“[McCain’s] ‘integrity’ was further sacrificed when he supported the ‘swift boat’ lies against a fellow service member, John Kerry”

Much like the vicious lies about Palin, this utterly unsubstantiated assertion is popping up all over the net.

1) McCain strongly denounced the swift boat ads. I happen to think he was wrong to do so.

2) To the best of my knowledge, McCain has NEVER “supported” any assertions from “Swift Vets and POWs for Truth”. I defy ANYONE to prove he EVER has!

3) I defy ANYONE to prove even ONE lie anywhere in ANY of the assertions from “Swift Vets and POWs for Truth”! Their web site is found here.

4) Kerry’s own words, recorded for posterity and replayed in this ad are what ultimately torpedoed Kerry. What is SHOCKING and DISGUSTING is that Kerry got as many votes as he did.

5) I’m guessing this sort of brazenly false Leftist propaganda is what SP&T was looking to promote when they successfully sought to rid their site of most of the Conservative commentators.

Jason Krueger's Regurgitated Propaganda

On September 16, 2008 at 8:57 p.m., the commentator known as Jason Krueger refers us to this web page as “evidence” that “Bush lied”. On that page, the very first piece of “evidence” reads:

“On August 26, 2002, in an address to the national convention of the Veteran of Foreign Wars, Cheney flatly declared: ‘Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.’ ”

1) There is no question as to the extreme bias of Jason’s source. But, bias alone (real OR imaginary) is never a sufficient rebuttal (except in the “minds” of so-called “Liberals”). So, let’s proceed.

2) Was Cheney accurately quoted? Yes.

3) As merely one of many examples, did Jason and his source both miss this report from the Philadelphia Inquirer? How about this report from the New York Sun?

4) Is Jason unaware that, of the 17 UN Security Council Resolutions on Iraq which were issued over a period of 12 years, 14 of them dealt directly with WMD?

5) Is Jason unaware that UNSCR 1441 essentially told Saddam (paraphrasing):

“Better hide the WMD, The United States will be invading 30 days from today”

6) Is Jason unaware that the U.N. gave Saddam that heads up on 11/8/02 and we did not actually invade until 3/20/03? No wonder we have not found most of the WMD which the United Nations KNEW was there! That WMD was in Syria long before we invaded!

7) Is Jason unaware that, in July of 2004, the BIPARTISAN Senate Select Committee on Intelligence UNANIMOUSLY concluded:

“The Central Intelligence Agency reasonably and objectively assessed in Iraqi Support for Terrorism that the most problematic area of contact between Iraq and al-Qaida were the reports of training in the use of non-conventional weapons, specifically, chemical and biological weapons”

Chapter XII, Page 346, Conclusion 94

In other words, Saddam trained al Qaeda in the use of biological and chemical WMD.

8) Is Jason unaware that the BIPARTISAN 9/11 Commission reported that Bin Laden was offered “a safe haven in Iraq” (and even Bill Clinton knew it)?

Quoting The Bi-Partisan 9/11 Report:

“Iraqi officials offered Bin Ladin a safe haven in Iraq”
Page 66

“Saddam Hussein wanted bin Laden in Baghdad”
Page 134

In other words Saddam wanted to give al Qaeda precisely the same state sponsorship that led to 9/11.

Any source which alleges to have 935 examples of “false statements” and begins the list with “evidence” which is as demonstrably specious as this one is not worth another nanosecond of my time or anybody else’s time.

This nonsense from Jason is PATHETIC PABULUM blindly consumed by naïve little children!

Click here and here to learn more.

Media Driven Drivel From KielyJ

Quoting the commentator known as KielyJ:

“However the US has 3% of the world’s fossil fuels resources and uses 25 %. US oil production peaked in 1973.We can drill everywhere the creative imagination of the Republicans can think of and it will not change the situation we are in”

This proves:

1) KielyJ gets his/her disinformation from enormously dishonest and deceptive television ads (see that link to fully debunk this snippet of KielyJ drivel).

2) SP&T has successfully censored intelligent commentary from Conservatives who do not trust SP&T with their identity any further than they could throw the SP&T building.

3) About the only (unchallenged) commentary we now see at the SP&T site is the sort of hopelessly mindless media driven drivel we see here from KielyJ.

I could spend all day every day debunking the pabulum that now passes for commentary on the SP&T website. But, my guess is that virtually nobody reads it anymore anyway. So, why bother?

Mr. Ross - Catch a Clue!

Regarding this offering from Tom Ross (who does far better when he avoids politics):

1) Mr. Ross, if you are truly naïve enough to believe that a government directed “Greening of America” will revitalize our economy, I HIGHLY recommend some FAR better reading!

There are plenty of good ideas out there. But, as we learned from the Ethanol debacle, the LAST thing we need is for government bureaucrats to predetermine winners and losers through utterly corrupt and completely counterproductive GIANT subsidies at a time when the big spending Dems are already driving us into the poor house!

2) I’m not impressed by the Pulitzer Prize:

Winning The Pulitzer, much like winning the Nobel Peace Prize, is often little more than certain evidence that the subject is an accomplished propagandist for the Far Left:

A) Walter Duranty won one (and, apparently, The Old York Times is still proud of that).

B) Maureen Dowd won one (and, shockingly, is still carried by The Old York Times even after she blatantly, deliberately and unapologetically distorted the words of a wartime President to suggest the polar opposite of what he said).

3) Hot?

According to purely political propagandists? Of course. With “more than $US50 billion” and counting doled out already, there are plenty (“journalists” included) who, in my view, are willing to sell their soul to get a slice of that pie.

According to peer reviewed science? Nope.

4) Flat?

Well, we are living in a time of a global economy. But, that’s nothing new.

5) Crowded?

Come on! When will the hysteria mongers, posing as “journalists”, give up on that old meme?

Socialist Housing, Tyrannically Imposed

These are the facts regarding how Socialist Housing was tyrannically imposed on an unwilling majority in Steamboat Springs:

2002 - The People Say NO!
Quoting the 2002 survey of Steamboat Springs residents:

“Only 27 percent of respondents stated they would pay additional taxes to support more housing”

Note: That survey used to reside on the city web site. We can only wonder why it has been deleted. Fortunately, an internet archive site preserved it for us (even if our city government did not).

2003 - The Politicians Ignore the People & Impose Their Tyranny
Our elected officials HAD to know this new entity would require tax payer funding when, quoting this article:

“In November 2003, Routt County and the city of Steamboat Springs signed an agreement forming the Yampa Valley Housing Authority [WITHOUT putting it to a vote]”

2005 - The People MORE Emphatically Reiterate NO!
By 2005, according to page 43 of this survey of Steamboat Springs residents, the "willingness to pay" in order to "help develop affordable housing" had DROPPED and now ranged from 17.7% to 27.4%:

2006 - The Politicians Impose Their Tyranny to an even GREATER EXTENT
Our totalitarian Socialist "leaders" REPEATEDLY defied the CLEARLY and REPEATEDLY expressed will of "we, the people" and fed this ATROCITY ever LARGER sums of money which we CLEARLY told them we did NOT want to give them!

Quoting this article:

"In 2004, each entity gave $35,000; in 2005, $50,000; and in 2006, $60,000"

2007 - The People Throw the Bums Out!
Quoting this article:

“Challengers convincingly beat [ALL] council incumbents”

Towny Anderson was quoted to say:

“We tackled issues that hadn’t been tackled. … Arguably, you could say we got ahead of the community”

That is arrogant, self-righteous Socialist speak for “we know better than you and, in time, you will see that we were right”. No, Clowny, you were WRONG!

2008 - The Tyranny Grows Even LARGER (New Names, Same Old $#%@)
Quoting this article:

"the Yampa Valley Housing Authority... 2008 operating fund... includes $105,000 from the city of Steamboat Springs and $80,000 from Routt County"

The worst of it is that this Socialist Housing Program (like all that preceded it) is demonstrably destructive for everybody (with the possible exception of the parasitic bureaucrats who “earn” an income through this program). The greatest harm, as always, is done to the very people the program purports to “assist”. But, that is a topic for another day.

And, such is the tyranny of so-called “Liberals”.

The “divine right of self-righteous groups” indeed!

Housing Bubble? Not in Colorado!

3/3/09 - The chart was updated to reflect the latest data.

Housing Bubble? Where?
California? Yes. Florida? Yes. Elsewhere? Mostly No. Colorado? NO!
Click The Image to Enlarge And View The Source:
Click here to further put Colorado housing into proper perspective.
More examples found here.
Hat Tip to Carpe Diem.

Helmsman Rebuttal, Part II

Quoting “Helmsman”:

“George Bush — as the mounting evidence is showing — duped the Congress and the American people into a war that has so far left over 4,000 of our kids dead, for no good reason”

This is just too ignorant to take seriously (except, of course, in the case of those who blindly accept what so-called “journalists” tell them).

Just read the post and all the associated links.

If you read all that and still believe the “Bush Lied” meme, then you are simply beyond help.

Helmsman Rebuttal

Quoting “Helmsman”:

“The Clinton administration left George W. Bush with the largest budget surplus in the history of the Republic. George Bush will leave the next President with the largest budget deficit in the history of the Republic. It's not silly to call that malfeasance.”

I would not defend Bush 43 as a fiscal Conservative. He did, after all, sign into law the largest expansion of Entitlements since LBJ.

But, those who regurgitate such shallow propaganda fail to understand the fundamental facts.

It is intuitively obvious that Medicare & Medicaid (both signed into law in 1965) are what sent this country on a path to never ending deficit spending.

Prior to those new Entitlements (excepting for World War II, which is not covered in this database), only two recessions produced ANY deficit spending. Subsequent to LBJ’s 1965 Entitlement binge, deficit spending became the ever expanding norm.

Click the image to enlarge and view the source:


The only significant exception to this new norm (mid 1997 to mid 2001) was brought about by the single largest speculative bubble ever known to humanity (the dot.com bubble). Clinton was the unwitting beneficiary of unprecedented revenues from day traders paying a small fortune in short term capital gains taxes.

Click the image to enlarge this chart of the NASDAQ bubble:

Click here to reproduce the above chart.
Select a custom time frame from 1/2/92 to 10/17/2002.

Clinton also benefited from serving the last 6 of his 8 years under a fiscally Conservative Congress dominated by Republicans in both houses. Aside from that, Clinton realized some additional savings by gutting our military (another area where Bush 43 had to pay the piper).

Defense spending as a percentage of GDP, click the chart to learn more:


2000 through mid 2003 witnessed substantial decreases in “Net Government Saving”.

Click the image to enlarge and view the source:


These deficits were exacerbated by:

1) The years long deflating of the NASDAQ bubble.

2) The terrorist attacks of 9/11/01.

3) The associated recession.

But, the real underlying culprit was the 800 lb. Gorilla that President Bush tried to address and which Congress was too cowardly to take on (Entitlement Reform). Whoever wins in November will inherit the same problem and, absent sweeping Entitlement reform, will produce similar deficits.

Clinton was not some economic genius who magically created giant surpluses from giant deficits (or wine from water). Clinton and crew were the unwitting beneficiaries of the single largest speculative bubble in the entire history of humanity. His surpluses were entirely a function of the giant capital gains taxes being paid by day traders full of “irrational exuberance”.

Bush 43 was merely the poor sap who got to pay the piper and suffer the hangover once the party was over.

Oh, and about all those jobs created under the Clinton administration…
Most of those jobs were as illusory as the “new economy” “new paradigm” where “eyeballs” on your web site replaced any need for profits. And, Bush 43, again, was the poor sap who paid that piper as well. The sock puppet is the only employee from Pets.com that still has a job created under Clinton. And Pets.com is a good example in microcosm for the fate of a large chunk of the purely illusory jobs created during the Clinton years.

Now that the party is over, we’re right back where we started from. We’re drowning in Entitlement spending. It WILL kill the goose that laid the golden egg:

Click the image to view the source:

Or, click here and read the CBO report.

Worse still, history PROVES we CANNOT tax our way out of this problem.

Think higher tax rates produce higher tax revenues?
Read about the (well proven) Laffer Curve & think again!
Click the image & read the facts:


Obama is promising MASSIVE new Entitlements at a time when it is a mathematical CERTAINTY that existing Entitlements are utterly unsustainable and WILL KILL US!

Silly is as Silly Does

Quoting Steven Hofman:

“Mr. Lawrence owes his readers a trace more
thought and research before he puts silliness in print”

I wonder…
Has Mr. Hofman mistaken SP&T for a serious newspaper?

SP&T is, in my view, just a cheap propaganda rag pimping for the so-called “Liberal” agenda.
As far as I can tell, they don’t even pretend to be anything else.

But, kudos to Mr. Hofman for taking the “Socialist Position & Trash” to task!

The Steamboat Forum

When I attempt to so much as visit (not attempt to log into) The Steamboat Forum I now get the following message:

“You have been permanently banned from this board.
Please contact the Board Administrator for more information.
Reason given for ban: trolling
A ban has been issued on your IP address.”

I am no longer allowed to so much as read the forum. Geez! In my view, The Steamboat Forum makes SP&T look downright Libertarian!

Suffice to say, I could not more strongly disagree with both the ban and the reason given. This ban boiled down to a dispute over the circumstances under which I would or would not be allowed to post a link to my blog as a means of substantiating (or making) my point. I was abiding by the Admin ruling while discussing and debating the issue when, out of nowhere, came the ban.

But, it’s no great loss.

Mr./Ms. Admin:
Rest assured, I will never again attempt to reregister at your site (although it would be easy enough to do). Your board, your rules. You have that right. And I have lost any desire I ever had to participate in your forum.

Richard Levy & Baghdad Bob

Quoting Richard Levy (August 24, 2008 at 8:40 p.m.):

“I can believe that when Steamboat residents completed their surveys, ‘Affordable Housing’ may not have been their top concern . Residents may be comfortable because our community has made remarkable strides in addressing this issue.”

Hmm, I wonder why Baghdad Bob comes to mind? Maybe because Socialist Housing in Steamboat was tyrannically imposed on a quantifiably unwilling majority and has been, as always, an abysmal failure? I will document all that later. For now…

Click the image & read the rest:

Steve Lewis Strikes Again

Quoting Steve Lewis:

“Please consider either stopping it [Conservative commentary]
or placing some standard on their tripe.”

Click the image
& read the quote in context:

Click here for the source of the image.
Mr. Lewis, you and your ilk have already succeeded in driving virtually all Conservative commentators out of the SP&T Reader Forum. As the previous link notes, you and your ilk encouraged the virtual book burning of every bit of community dialog I ever contributed to the SP&T Reader Forum. If you drum Conservatives out of letter to the editor pages, what’s next?

Where will your politically motivated (and astonishingly hypocritical) censorship end?

8/18/08 Update:
Steve Lewis further reveals what makes him happy:

“I like the new blog… It looks like the main difference with ‘less’ anonymous participation is the once conservative majority has bailed?”

Anybody surprised at what makes Mr. Lewis happy? I’m not!

First, there is no longer ANY “anonymous participation”!
SP&T now DEMANDS that ALL posters reveal their identity to THEM!

UPDATE: As of 2/20/2012, SP&T now requires all commenters to reveal their true identity to every emotionally unstable political extremist with access to a computer.

Second, a DRAMATIC reduction in the number of Conservative posters is PRECISELY what I predicted would happen and PRECISELY what I asserted was the primary goal of the far, far, FAR LEFT SP&T!

If ANYBODY finds it surprising that only ONE conservative poster (thus far) was naïve enough to trust SP&T with their identity, they must not understand the true nature of the FAR LEFT!

Tacit Admission Without a Formal Correction?

1/30/09 Update:

1) On 12/11/08, the NBER declared a recession began in December, 2007.

2) This declaration was very controversial.

3) In my opinion, this was a declaration driven more by political considerations than economic considerations. I don’t dispute that we are now in a recession. I dispute when it began.

4) Anyone who thinks this controversial declaration from the NBER vindicates the “journalistic sins” I describe below does not understand the first thing about journalistic standards (which no longer exist).

End of update.

Last March, SP&T committed the journalistic “sin” of embedding opinion inside “straight news” by describing:

“The recession of the national economy”

Today, SP&T seems to have backed off of that assertion and now describes a:

“weakened economy”

Is this a tacit admission that SP&T was out of line last March? If so, why not admit the mistake and publish the correction? As far as I can tell, SP&T has not yet done so.

The data suggest that it is currently objectively and quantitatively accurate to describe a “weakened economy”. The same data suggest that it is a virtual certainty that the economy was NOT in a recession at the time that SP&T declared, in a “straight news” entry, that it was.

Does SP&T intend to wait until the NBER declares the next recession before admitting their mistake? Will they even admit it then?

Again, the primary journalistic “sin” was the stealth embedding of opinion inside “straight news”. That alone warranted the printing of a correction. The data increasingly suggest that a correction may now be needed for having printed a blatant falsehood!

The longer SP&T delays, the greater will be the tarnish on (in my view) their already soiled reputation.

Oh, did I mention that SP&T banned me from their Reader Forum (apparently for the “thought crime” of daring to challenge their editor on this topic)?

Click the image and read my original commentary:

Remember, the cover-up is always worse than the crime!
The professional thing to do would be to admit the mistake.

Pollution from Coal Fired Power Plants

Quoting Steve Lewis:

“Coal pollution is causing asthma related illnesses
in cities and acid rain in forests.”

Let’s fact check that assertion.

Yes, the EPA identifies SO2, NO2 and Particulate Matter as
coal related pollutants contributing to both asthma and acid rain.

But, the following EPA chart shows that SO2, NO2 and PM
are FAR below the National Standards and are
DROPPING LIKE A ROCK!
Click here for the entire report.
Click the image to enlarge:

These pollutants have dropped substantially even as
the amount of coal consumed for electricity generation has increased.
Click the image to enlarge:

I personally created and uploaded the above chart.
The data used in the above chart are found in
this spreadsheet (Summary Statistics for the United States)
downloaded from this page.

And, there is a regulatory program in place
which promises to further reduce these pollutants.

Coal is BY FAR our most economical way to generate electricity.
This is becoming more true with every passing year.
Click the image to enlarge:

I personally created and uploaded the above chart.
The data used in the above chart are found in
this spreadsheet (Summary Statistics for the United States)
downloaded from this page.

The United States has TREMENDOUS Coal Reserves.
Click the image to enlarge:

I personally created and uploaded the above chart.
The data used in the above chart are found in
this spreadsheet (International Data, Coal, Reserves)
downloaded from this page.

The truly “smart” idea is to CONTINUE the
remarkable progress in clean coal technologies.

Click the image and read about ongoing
advances in clean coal technologies:


We should, however, abandon the absurdly expensive and utterly unnecessary efforts to sequester CO2. Anyone who does not yet understand why, should click the next image and thereby begin their deprogramming process.

Worried about Climate Change? Don’t!
Click the image and learn the facts as described by
directly cited peer reviewed science, IPCC Scientists and more:

To blindly embrace “a totalitarian political religion” which requires us to abandon all
hydrocarbon based energy sources is FAR from being a “smart” approach (as Steve Lewis alleges)!

Click here to learn more.

Global Weirding? Seriously?

It is refreshing to see Mr. Wallace acknowledge:
“The absence of absolute scientific proof that
human activity is changing the climate”.
It’s a start.

Click the image and read the rest of
the latest letter to the editor from
William Wallace:

“overwhelming evidence and credible scientific opinion”?
Where? From whom? The Purely Political IPCC? James Hansen? So-called “journalists”? Don’t make me laugh!

“Scientific Certainty Argumentation Method”?
Mr. Wallace, with a false air of authority, asserts that:

“Henry is employing a tactic that the literature calls the Scientific Certainty Argumentation Method — SCAM for short”

A Google search is pretty revealing as regards the level of authority this SCAM allegation carries.

The Precautionary Principle
As the peer reviewed scientific evidence against any catastrophic human caused warming continues to pile up, alarmists, including Mr. Wallace, are increasing turning to “The Precautionary Principle” as their new rationale for promoting drastically destructive measures.

The new argument is essentially this:
Okay, the peer reviewed science increasingly does not support the fear mongering (and never has). But, IF it WERE true, it would be really, really bad. So, we need to take all these drastically destructive measures just to be on the safe side.

First, we know, with increasing certainty, that we could burn all the hydrocarbons on the entire planet and never suffer any meaningful consequences from atmospheric CO2. If anything, the very slight additional warming would be a net positive for virtually all living things.

Second, The Precautionary Principle was applied with respect to DDT. The result was that about 35 million Africans died needlessly from Malaria. More recently, the World Health Organization has FINALLY understood the serious mistake and has lifted the DDT ban.

For more on DDT, click here and here. To begin to understand the parallels between the consequences of DDT hysteria and the consequences of Global Warming hysteria, click here.

In an effort to bolster his Precautionary Principle argument, Mr. Wallace mentions hurricane Katrina. Well, here are some “inconvenient” United States hurricane facts:

1) Deadliest US Hurricane - Galveston, 1900

2) Most Intense US Hurricane - Florida Keys, 1935

3) Decade with the most “major” US hurricanes - 1941-1950, 10

4) Most “major” US hurricanes in a single year - 1950, 8

Furthermore, quoting this source, describing yet another leading alarmist who is coming around to the side of reason (emphasis mine):

“One of the most influential scientists behind the theory that global warming has intensified recent hurricane activity says he will reconsider his stand.

The hurricane expert, Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, unveiled a novel technique for predicting future hurricane activity this week. The new work suggests that, even in a dramatically warming world [IF that were to happen], hurricane frequency and intensity may not substantially rise during the next two centuries.”

The published study can be found here.

The Temperature Data
Mr. Wallace questions the temperature trends asserted by Dr. Savage to have occurred since 1998 and 2001.

The accuracy of each assertion from Dr. Savage can be verified here. From that link, readers can easily trace the data back to the original source.

Current mean temperatures are further put into context in this post.

Atmospheric CO2 is put into context here.

The Credentials of the Skeptics
The credentials of the most notable 32,000 skeptics can be found right here.

If Mr. Wallace suffers from the delusion that all scientists listed as having participated in any given IPCC report are in agreement with what the IPCC politicians publish, he should watch these videos featuring interviews with former lead authors for the IPCC.

Paul Hawken & “global weirding”?
It is ironic that Mr. Wallace questions the credentials of climate skeptics and then cites Paul Hawken as someone he finds credible.

In his own biography, Mr. Hawken mentions absolutely nothing about any formal education.

A brief search for what Paul’s education might be revealed only this from Wikipedia:

“At age 20, he moved to Boston to study macrobiotic philosophy under Michio and Aveline Kushi.”

So, Hawken is representative of the credentials Mr. Wallace requires in order to embrace something like Mr. Hawken’s “global weirding” religion? Somehow, I am not surprised!

Isn’t “global weirding” nothing more than what the planet has experienced for billions of years?

GIMMIE A BREAK!
Click here to learn more.

Is Strobe Talbott a Climate Expert?

SP&T alleges (without quotes) that Clintonista Strobe Talbott said:

“Only quick, decisive action can prevent carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere
from reaching a tipping point where climate change is irreversible”

Click the image and read the story:

REALLY?

The following chart was copied directly from Geocarb III (page 20, as Adobe Acrobat sees it). Geocarb III was originally published in the American Journal of Science, Vol. 301, February 2001, P.182-204.

Click the image to enlarge:

Note that both Geocarb III and the older Geocarb II are graphed.

The raw data from Geocarb III are found in this file downloaded from this NOAA page.

According to Geocarb III, “RCO2” is:

“the ratio of mass of CO2 in the atmosphere at time t divided by the mass at present”

In plain language, the above chart shows how many times higher than today CO2 was how many millions of years ago.

According to the above chart from Geocarb III, past CO2 levels have been at LEAST 11 times higher than today (more likely 26 times higher than today). Why did this mythical “tipping point” not occur then?

If we continue on our present course, by 2100 we MIGHT wind up with an RCO2 of 2 (twice the pre-industrial level of CO2). We are currently at an RCO2 of about 1.28 (28% increase relative to pre-industrial levels).

According to the above chart from Geocarb III, about 460 million years ago (during the late Ordovician), CO2 levels were at LEAST 8 times higher than today (RCO2 of 8). And yet, at that very same time, quoting this source:

“the Ordovician ended in a brief (300-500 ky), but severe, ice age… As a natural consequence, a good deal of attention has been focused on the causes of the Ordovician Ice Age. In fact, it is not easy to see how an ice age could have occurred. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are believed to have been 8 to 20 times their current values.”

Actually, as the Geocarb III chart clearly shows, the CO2 levels at the time of the Ordovician Ice Age were more like 8 to 30 times (or MORE) their current values!

There is, by the way, very broad agreement that a severe ice age took place about 460 million years ago in the late Ordovician.

In the previous link, readers will find various assertions that this contradiction has been resolved. But, any application of critical thinking proves those assertions to be pure bunk! Any way you slice it, you STILL wind up with a severe Ice Age taking place when CO2 levels were at LEAST 8 times higher than today!

The answer to this apparent contradiction is pretty simple. Once one looks past the propaganda and examines the peer reviewed science as published in the peer reviewed science journals (especially the most recent examples) it is glaringly obvious that CO2 is a very MINOR bit player among the various other forcing factors which drive Climate Change. And, it is glaringly obvious that there is no such “tipping point” where CO2 causes “runaway global warming”!

All of the above points are driven home more clearly by the following chart.
Click the image and learn more:

Again, the CO2 data in the above chart comes from Geocarb III (aka Berner, 2001)
and can be found in this file downloaded from this NOAA page.

The temperature data comes from The Paleomap Project by Dr. C.R. Scotese,
a PhD geologist at the University of Texas at Arlington.

When I followed the instructions contained in Geocarb III for translating RCO2 into ppm,
the chart which I created (using the Geocarb III data file downloaded from this NOAA page) showed the exact same pattern as the above chart, but it showed even higher levels of CO2 ppm than the above chart!

This so-called “tipping point” IS A PURELY FABRICATED ALARMIST FANTASY!

Click here to learn more.

Welcome to The Colorado Energy Boom!

Updated with the latest data on 3/29/09
Welcome to The [Accelerating] Colorado Energy Boom!
Click The Image to Enlarge & View The Source:
Now, if only we could get Congressional Dems to
ALLOW US to get to work on Colorado Oil Shale!

It appears as though Dems HATE to see Americans with JOBS!

Millions are out of work.
Yet Dems continue to bow to their religious cult
rather than create even MORE good paying jobs!

THROW THE BUMS OUT!

The Last Stand - Summary to Date

After two entries, my reading of the SP&T series titled “The Last Stand” confirms my prediction that SP&T would attempt to present the current Mountain Pine Beetle infestation as a glaring example of the allegedly unprecedented harm done by allegedly unprecedented Man Made Global Warming.

To summarize my critique to date of this series, I offer the following summary of “Inconvenient Truths”:

1) SP&T Assertion (emphasis mine):

“Throughout the continent, beetles are thriving in some altitudes and climes like never before because of higher temperatures.”

Inconvenient Truths:

A) Quoting NASA Goddard (home to Al Gore’s pal James Hansen):

“1934 is the warmest year in the contiguous states”

B) NCPA better describes what Hansen only grudgingly admits:

“Six of the top 10 hottest years occurred before 90 percent of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions during the last century occurred.”
(Note: I assume this applies only to “the contiguous states”)

C) Peer reviewed Ice Core Data suggest there were many, MANY times in the last 10,000 years (and beyond) which were warmer than today.

Notably, there was a period of AT LEAST 257 years (from 4,452 years ago to 4,295 years ago) when temperatures appear to have been consistently higher than today. (Any number higher than 0.2 in the rightmost column of this file indicates a temperature higher than the current mean temperature.) More details here.

2) SP&T Assertion (emphasis mine):

“mountain pine beetle will kill approximately 76 percent of mature lodgepole pine by 2015”

Inconvenient Truth (directly related to the first set of Inconvenient Truths):

Click the image to view a quote
from this source (page 3, Summary):

Click here for the rest of my observations on the SP&T series “The Last Stand”.

Click here for the primary arguments against Man Made Global Warming Hysteria.

It Depends on What The Meaning of "Never" is!

Updated & Revised on 8/3/08
This is Part II of my commentary on the SP&T series titled “The Last Stand”.
Part I of my commentary is found here.

Quoting Mr. Brandon Gee (with emphasis mine):

“Throughout the continent, beetles are thriving in some
altitudes and climes like never before because of higher temperatures.”

Never? Really?
Please, Mr. Gee, stop with the alarmist hyperbole!

Quoting NASA Goddard (home to Al Gore’s pal James Hansen):

“1934 is the warmest year in the contiguous states”

NCPA better describes what Hansen only grudgingly admits:

“Six of the top 10 hottest years occurred before 90 percent of the growth
in greenhouse gas emissions during the last century occurred.”

If you wonder why so-called “journalists” have not
told you that, then you need to read this book.

The Next Four Charts WILL FURTHER
Put This MYTH to Rest.

Click the image to enlarge:

Click the image to enlarge:

Click the image to enlarge:

Click the image to enlarge:

The data used in the above charts are found in:

Ice Core Data to more than 420,000 years ago:
this file downloaded from this page (Petit et al. 1999 to 3310m).

The past 41 years at the same location as the Ice Core studies (Vostok):
This page.

To verify that the reference point for the Vostok Ice Core study is -55.5C, click here,
then click on “click to view full summary”.

Today, the mean temperature at Vostok is -55.3C,
0.2C warmer than the mean at the time of the study (1999).

The Holocene is the name for the current interglacial warming period.

The interglacial warming period which immediately preceded
the Holocene is known as the Eemian.

Some 8,000 years ago, the temperature was 2.06C warmer than
the mean temperature at Vostok at the time of the study (1999)
and 2.04C warmer than the present mean of -55.3C.

But, we can see from the second chart that there were many, MANY times
in the last 10,000 years when the climate was apparently warmer than today!

In this file, ANY number in the rightmost column greater than 0.2 indicates
a temperature which is higher than the current mean.

We can see that the temperature at Vostok was higher than the current mean
as recently as 190 years ago!

The highest known temperature during the Eemian was 3.23C higher than
the mean temperature from 1999 and 3.21C higher than the present mean.

The bottom line?
Unless the Mountain Pine Beetle first appeared sometime
AFTER 1934, then “never” is NOT the correct word in this case!

Of course, we KNOW this is NOT the case!
AND, we also KNOW that this beetle did MORE DAMAGE in the 1930’s!

Click the image to view a quote
from this source (page 3, Summary):

Click here for a search on countless sources verifying
that the Eemian produced warmer temperatures than today.

Click here for a search on countless sources verifying
that the Eemian produced higher sea-levels than today.

P.S.) We are currently experiencing one of the
3 coldest Ice Ages in the last 600 million years!