Sunday, March 28, 2010

"Inconvenient Questions" About Da "Inconvenient Truth".

By Lorrie Goldstein Toronto Sun.

Inconvenient questions:


The simple reality is none of the solutions proposed by global warmists actually work.


With the fourth global Earth Hour put to bed last night, today let’s ask some inconvenient questions of the global warmists. First, does the real-world failure of virtually all of your ideas ever give you a moment’s pause? From the fiasco in Copenhagen, to the collapse of the UN’s Kyoto accord, with its absurd, unrealistic, centrally-mandated, carbon dioxide-reduction diktats, mindful of the old Soviet Union? Does it never occur to you you’ve barked up the wrong tree rings?

What about the humiliation of Climategate?

The circumventing of freedom of information requests at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia? The growing controversy over the inaccuracy of those never-ending apocalyptic predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? Does the fact the earliest corporate boosters of Kyoto and carbon trading were the fraudsters at Enron never cause you to wake up in a cold sweat?

How about the fact your “allies” on cap-and-trade are the giant U.S. money houses that just finished wrecking the global economy, now looking to make another quick killing by brokering trading in highly speculative carbon credits, the European market for which, aside from doing nothing to cool the planet, is awash in multi-billion-dollar frauds?

Largely ineffective.

What about the 2002 report by Statistics Norway that Norway’s 1991 carbon tax has been largely ineffective in reducing emissions? Or last week’s story in the Times of London that the U.K.’s energy regulator has found many of Britain’s wind farms are a bust when it comes to delivering electricity? That, in the words of Michael Jefferson, professor of international business and sustainability and a former lead author of the IPCC: “Too many developments are underperforming. It’s because developers grossly exaggerate the potential. The subsidies make it viable for developers to put turbines on sites they would not touch if the money was not available.”

Gee. Hard to see that one coming, eh? Who knew that when governments insanely guarantee to pay grossly inflated prices for “green” electricity for 20-25 years, thus handing developers windfall profits from the hides of electricity consumers, many don’t deliver the goods?

Not you, obviously. Or Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Does none of this ever penetrate your Pandora world or your Na’vi brains, as you self-righteously declare yourselves the only people on Earth who care about your grandchildren? (You do realize Avatar was just a movie, right?) When challenged, warmists with their apocalyptic rhetoric that even responsible climate scientists shun, insist the answers lie in doing more of what hasn’t worked. For example, putting Kyoto on steroids. Never mind that doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is a good definition of insanity.

Perhaps this blindness is related to the fact that, particularly in Europe, which has led on climate hysteria, the green agenda was driven in large part by Marxists, who, realizing the jig was up when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, quickly shifted their anti-capitalist, anti-western, anti-growth, anti-American rhetoric to “fighting” climate change. Not for nothing are they called green on the outside, red on the inside.

Doomed from the start


Thus, it’s hardly surprising we ended up with the Soviet-style, centrally-imposed, Kyoto approach to reducing CO 2 emissions. Kyoto was doomed from the start for the same reason as the Soviet Union — you can’t manage an economy, or the environment, by imposing from on high five-year plans for the production of tin, or 10, 40 or 70-year plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Ironically, the Soviet Union, the “workers’ paradise,” was supposed to deliver to humanity both economic prosperity and environmental nirvana. Instead it produced a devastated economy and environmental nightmares. So, of course, the crafters of Kyoto retroactively rewarded Russia and the former Soviet satellites by choosing 1990 as the base year for reducing global emissions, just before the Soviet empire collapsed, thus handing Russia billions of dollars in “hot air” credits to sell to unsuspecting suckers like … uh … us. Not because of anything Russia or (East Germany) actually did to improve its environment, but because its economy collapsed.

That’s warmist “logic.” Unsurprisingly, none of it has worked. But that never deters them from carrying on to the next disaster.

With their final cry, they demand: “What would you do, instead?” — ignoring the fact that since they’re the ones demanding a massive change in how mankind secures and uses energy, the onus is on them to come up with something that works.

Which, of course, they can’t.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Exposing Tiger.


Alex Rodriguez






Tony Galea








Canadian sports medicine guru Tony Galea, who treated Alex Rodriguez following the Yankee superstar's hip surgery last year, is the focus of a grand jury investigation in Buffalo, two sources familiar with the case told the Daily News on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors will interview Rodriguez, who they are treating as a witness, separately from the grand jury on Friday, one source said. The grand jury is hearing evidence from prosecutors investigating Galea, the Toronto physician who already faces four drug-related charges in Canada and is at the center of a probe being conducted by the FBI and several other U.S. agencies, according to a source.


Rodriguez will be asked to discuss his relationship with Galea, said one source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The Yankee third baseman could be called to testify before the grand jury at some point in the investigation.


Rodriguez, who told reporters earlier this month that he is cooperating with agents, rebuffed investigators who traveled to Tampa to question him several times this month, a source said. So the investigators, frustrated by mounting travel expenses, told the baeball superstar that he needed to come to them. One source said Rodriguez has willingly agreed to meet with the authorities, avoiding having to respond to a subpoena compelling him to testify if he continued to delay. The Mets' Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes, as the Daily News first reported, said they have already met with investigators to discuss their dealings with Galea, who one source said has treated 30 to 40 major leaguers and 50 to 60 other elite athletes, including Tiger Woods and Olympic swimmer Dara Torres.


The evidence gathered by investigators points toward authorities pursuing Galea on charges of practicing medicine without a license in the U.S. and on conspiracy charges rather than widespread distribution of drugs. "This is not the BALCO case," one source said. "This is not where they are going, unless they get someone to say Galea gave them human growth hormone." However, there is evidence that suggests that Galea treated patients in the United States without a license, the source said.


There are no federal statutes specifically barring the practice of medicine without a license, but state authorities could charge Galea, who is licensed to practice in Canada, if there is evidence that he worked in their jurisdictions. The Buffalo prosecutors could bring federal charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. The feds could also charge Galea if the found that he gave patients in this country drugs that are classified as controlled substances.

NY Daily News.

"Da tip of da iceberg"!

Told Ya

Wally



Saturday, March 13, 2010

I'm Tired Of All This Old Spice Guy Man Crush'n. Wallycrawler Is A Real Dude...

So fer da real men out there. Sumthin to enjoy.

Sa Later

Wally

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Da Cars That Will Not Stop!









Toyota Pile'O'Crap!


LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Toyota sought Tuesday to dispel fears about the safety of its electronics, but was put on the defensive when a Prius went speeding out of control along a California highway.



The Japanese automaker insisted that mechanical fixes it is applying to more than eight million vehicles recalled worldwide are sufficient and that its tests are rigorous. It empanelled engineers from Stanford University and a top consulting firm to dismiss as "unrealistic" and contrived a study showing crossed wires could send a false signal that would cause Toyota cars to speed out of control. David Gilbert, a professor of automotive technology at Southern Illinois University, told a US congressional investigation last month that some Toyota and Lexus vehicles may have an electronics design flaw. Toyota dismissed his findings, saying he had re-engineered and rewired the signals from the accelerator pedal in order to create the flaw.



"If an electrical system is re-engineered and rewired it's not surprising that subsequent testing of the system may cause unrealistic results," Toyota spokesman Mike Michaels told reporters.



US regulators said last week that they had received more than 60 complaints from Toyota owners reporting sudden unintended acceleration despite having their recalled vehicle repaired by a Toyota dealer. Toyota is in the process of investigating those complaints and has found that some of the incidents were a result of incomplete repairs, Michaels told reporters. "We remain confident that if the modifications to the vehicle are deployed and done properly that they are effective," he said. Yet just hours after Toyota's trenchant criticism of Gilbert's findings, the company was grappling with another public relations nightmare after a runaway Prius drama in California.

James Sikes, 61, was driving on the busy Interstate 8 freeway outside San Diego when he noticed his car was starting to accelerate of its own accord, the California Highway Patrol said.

The terrified motorist was helpless as the car raced along the road at speeds of more than 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour.

Tragedy was only averted after Sikes was able to call police, and officers using a loudspeaker talked the driver through the process of slowing down by using his emergency brake and then turning off the engine.

Toyota later issued a statement saying a technical specialist had been sent to San Diego "to investigate the report and offer assistance." The drama was a chilling echo of the tragic accident last August where off-duty California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor and three family members were killed when the accelerator of the Lexus ES350 they were in got stuck.

Meanwhile, the chairman of a congressional committee sent a letter Monday to Toyota North America President Yoshimi Inaba, ordering the company to turn over a memo in which senior employees reportedly flagged their concerns about the safety of Toyota cars. "If senior Toyota officials ignored important safety concerns raised by their own employees, it calls into question Toyota's corporate priorities and its commitment to safety," wrote Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in a statement.

Towns has given Toyota until Friday to respond.

Toyota, which overtook General Motors in 2008 to become world number one automaker, has seen its reputation tarnished by a litany of complaints ranging from unintended acceleration to brake failure and steering problems.



Monday, March 08, 2010

Buy Buy American Pie