...The very mild warming that the earth experienced over the last century: does that have more to do with mankind's activities or the sun?

It seems like it must be the sun. The reason we say that is because 70% of the warming we've had since 1850, when the Little Ice Age ended -- 70% of that warming came before 1940. 85% of the human emitted greenhouse gasses came after 1940. In fact, the net warming of the earth since 1940 is a miniscule 2/10 of 1 degree celsius....

Another question related to your last book: if you listen to global warming alarmists, they'll tell you that the earth is warmer than it ever has been during mankind's history. Is that true?

No. Absolutely untrue. The...warming before our last ice age was much warmer than anything we've had since. We had a warming that peaked 9000 years ago, another warming that peaked 5000 years ago. Both were warmer than today. Probably the Roman warming and the medieval warming were both warmer than today -- and we've had 8 warmings of the earth since the last Ice Age.

The whole thing is interesting - the coming outlook for global temperature?

You've recently said you believe we're about to experience mild global cooling. Can you tell us about that?

We are experiencing now, mild global cooling. We had a peak temperature in 1998, at the end of a hot El Nino and the climate model said this is just the beginning, it's going to get much hotter. But, it didn't. For 10 years, the temperature held stable.

During this time, from 2000 onward, the sunspots were predicting cooling. Let me point out to your readers that sunspots have had a strong history of predicting our temperature changes 10 years from now. A 10 year lag in predicting how solar activity will warm or cool the ocean. But, from 2000 on, they were predicting cooling.

2007, we got it. 2007 was significantly cooler and that was the first major downturn in the temperature in 30 years. That cooling has persisted -- at this point, in temperature, about back where we were in the year 1900.

And this kind of information just completely unhinges the section of the population that has decided that they have finally gotten the tool they can use to make Western Civilization destroy itself.  The flecks of spittle that I have seen sprayed around on this blog are nothing compared to the vitriol poured out by the true believers on those who actually stand athwart their ideas and stay "STOP".

But remember this too:

Another thing I have noticed is that even the global warming alarmists were right: the solutions that they're suggesting don't come close to fixing the problems. Kyoto, these cap and trade schemes, they are really expensive and actually do very little to reduce greenhouse gasses. Any thoughts on that?

They're really talking about going back to the Great Depression. Nobody has a car, nobody could afford the fuel if they had a car. They're talking about living a hundred yards from the factory, except there isn't going to be a factory because there is not going to be any coal burning to power it. No nuclear power, no drilling for oil, no hope.

I just want to remind you that there are millions of people in the Third World, women and children, heating and cooking with cow manure, firewood that they gather off the mountainside. The air pollution in some of those areas is equal to a 2 pack a day cigarette habit. ...If there's no kerosene, no propane, no nuclear electricity, are we all going to be in that situation?

Gordon Brown wants to see petrol-driven cars off the roads within 12 years as evidence that Britain can break its addiction to oil.

The Prime Minister, hailing a climate change agreement by world leaders at the G8 summit in Japan yesterday, insisted all new vehicles could be powered by electric or hybrid engines by 2020.

The driving force to achieve that goal, he suggested, would be fuel costs and road taxes.

So in 12 years the Brits will essentially be back where they were in the Middle Ages - the aristocrats and politicans will be driving their hybrids and electro-cars while the peasants walk or ride donkeys or some such.  Isn't it interesting that he thinks that high fuel costs and raising the taxes on any road use is a really GOOD thing and that the peasants should be happy?

But when your "environment minister" (what a crock - jobs for the boyos?) says this?

A Cabinet minister welcomed spiralling petrol prices last night as an incentive for drivers to make fewer car journeys.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said the high cost of oil helps force people off the road and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

He also launched a robust defence of road tax rises for more than 9million cars  -  insisting it was right that they should also apply to second-hand vehicles.

Or what about this lunacy?

Police made the astonishing admission yesterday that they have given up even trying to catch thousands of burglars.

Just days after the Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine insisted that the public don't want to see many house-breakers jailed, officers have been told not to bother investigating many offences.

That means there must be clear evidence pointing towards a suspect such as DNA traces, fingerprints or a possible identity, which makes an arrest likely.

In other cases, unless there are "special factors" - such as an elderly victim or if it is a repeat attack - no effort will be made to track down the criminal.

It means a huge number of cases of robbery, violent crime, car crime, sex offences - all of which saw rises in the latest crime figures - as well as burglary, will be left to gather dust.

OK - the curtain has rung down on Britain as a place where good, normal people live.  Those of you there who want to live in a place where your politicians think that making the cost of living unbearable while simultaneously refusing to protect you deserve what you get.  Everybody else - we need people who want to work hard.

And there are a few people left in Britain who realize this too:

While Gordon Brown prattles about wind turbines, and plays silly games for the cameras with electric cars, Britain within a few years is facing the near certainty of a massive shortfall in our electricity supplies.

By 2015, thanks to the obsolescence of our nuclear power plants and the forced closure of nine of our major coal and oil-fired power stations under EU anti-pollution rules, we are due to lose 40 per cent of our current generating capacity - and Mr Brown hasn't the slightest practical idea of how to fill the gap.

Forget the nonsense about a 50 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050. Our Government has already committed Britain to go even further, by imposing a statutory cut of 60 per cent through its Climate Change Bill.

But long before that, unless those who rule us come down out of cloud cuckoo land very fast, our lights will go out, our computers will shut down, our economy will judder to a halt and we shall face a national catastrophe. We may well be meeting that 60 per cent target sooner than we think - but not for reasons that reflect well on our politicians, of any party.

Local climate control: how can it be done? - the facts are these. To say that climate engineering is in a pre-early stage of development is a vast understatement. There is no such thing. Governments can no more control climate globally than they can locally. We have a long, long way to go technologically before any such thing as climate democracy can become reality. Wake up and smell the crap – it’s a scam! They want to raise taxes and increase government control over earthly endeavors and you won’t get anything for it in return.

clipped from mensnewsdaily.com I’ve never been one to disparage a glacier, but that doesn’t obscure my recognition of the manipulation in Mr. Gore’s message when he attempts to convince us that we have no choice. Balderdash! If government can control the earth’s temperature, then it can be forced in either direction. More importantly, if politicians are going to assume the authority to manipulate climate, voters should decide which way it goes. Mr. Gore lives in the southern United States where I can well understand that a few degrees of cooling seems like a good thing. Try walking around Baton Rouge, Louisiana on a hot, humid summer day. Given a democratic choice, the south will likely rise in favor of cooling. But put yourself in the middle of a snowstorm in northern Minnesota and your perspective will change dramatically. Several degrees warmer would be a relief. Make it colder and Minnesota will suffer physically and economically.

In another distraction meant to keep American voters away from the real issues, Fox News channel announced today that the GOP is in possession of a birth certificate proving beyond doubt that Barack Obama's real birthplace is, in fact, planet Lappa IV, located in the Alpha Quadrant and inhabited by a splinter group of the Ferengi species, who have developed a highly collectivist culture based on the principles of socialist acquisition and redistribution of wealth

Looking back, one can only wonder at the mainstream media's unblinking acceptance of Obama as a 100% Earthling, despite even such obvious clues as his big earlobes, a supernatural fundraising ability, and his campaign logo that resembles the emblem of the Ferengi Alliance.

The Lappian Rules of Socialist Acquisition are similar to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, but are more focused on sacred collectivist rules of behavior, which, combined with the entrepreneurial spirit of the Ferengi species, uniquely qualifies them to handle Democrat Party fundraisers.

Although the history of Lappian presence on Earth is unclear, it is known that Lappian children are required to memorize Rules of Socialist Acquisition as part of their general education to become consummate Democrat Party operatives, strategists, and consultants. It is said that the earliest Rule of Socialist Acquisition was penned by Karl Marx, who was also a Ferengi from Lappa IV.

The Rules of Socialist Acquisition
(a representative sample)

1. To each according to his ability to work the system.
2. Compassion without coercion is useless.
3. The vast majority of the rich in this galaxy are undertaxed.
4. All we want is what's yours.
5. Monopoly is evil unless the government runs it.
6. Never be afraid to mislabel an opponent.
7. Be clean, articulate, and non-threatening.
8. When in doubt, throw a friend under the bus.
9. A liberal without guilt is no liberal at all.
10. When someone says, "I'm not a racist," he's lying.
11. Entitlements and handouts will always overcome freedom and opportunity.
12. Integrity is no substitute for campaign cash.
13. Make sure your campaign cash doesn't cost you more than it is really worth.
14. Beware of relatives giving speeches.
15. The most beautiful thing about the environment is that you can turn it into an election issue.
16. Citing Global Warming yields more cash than pointing a gun.

Many more are listed at the People's Cube who also have an interesting photo of the creator of the rules:

Oil sands are a mixture of sand, water and sticky oil that need enormous amounts of heat to extract usable quantities of conventional oil. Reserves of oil sands in Canada are equivalent to 174 billion barrels of oil, making it the second largest reserve after that of Saudi Arabia. Canadian oil sand production becomes economically viable once oil reaches $US30 a barrel. Considering the price of oil, there has been huge investment in oil-sand production over the past decade. Production is more than 1 million barrels a day, with some forecasting fourfold expansion by 2030. Oil sands in Canada are three to four times more greenhouse gas intensive than conventional oil, and that is why Canada's greenhouse emissions have surged over the past decade.

So conventional oil is bad - oil sands are worse. You had better start breeding horses or get those walking shoes going. Because there is absolutely nothing that any environmentalist wants more than to turn the clock back about 300 years.

High oil prices in the absence of imposing a carbon price on fuel will drive Australian coal-to-oil production, like oil sands in Canada, so as to fill the void of dwindling conventional oil supplies. A carbon price in transport is critical to avoid this and to create new investment in Australia's low carbon economic future - whether it is next-generation cellulosic biofuels, battery technology, fuel cells or plug-in electric cars.

Biofuels - starve the poor for transport. Batteries - just where do you think those electricals come from? Same with plug-in electric cars. And anybody who thinks fuel cells are economically feasible should notify their local car manufacturer.

And that horse will produce dung and farts (methane) so that isn't acceptable either. Complete dissolution of global transport and going back to local subsistence agriculture (without tractors or beasts of burden) seems to be the only acceptable future the EcoNazis want.

And if lots of people die - so much the better.

The court heard she was allegedly sexually abused as a child, had been assessed as retarded and suffering from intermittent explosive disorder.

This is one stupid little story. This seriously troubled girl has, since age 8, accomplished the following:

She was just eight the first time she threatened her mother with a knife. She had also similarly threatened her foster carer, attacked a teacher and stabbed a fellow student. Since she was sent to Yasmar {Juvenile Detention center} at 16, she has assaulted her solicitor, doctor, psychiatrist and two teachers, one of whom was attacked with a leather working tool in July 1999.

Well the wonderfully politically correct idiots at the JD center then put her into a COOKING class - with knives. And she then ups and stabs her cooking teacher to death. Shocking result, eh?

So now the girl who committed the murder is suing the state for "allowing her access to knives". We really do seem to need to experience some sort of major catastrophe and restart civilization.

But isn't the diagnosis of intermittent explosive disorder a great euphemism for "murderous rage"? Sounds like something you will be hearing a lot of in the future.

"Yes, officer I got drunk and sliced my wife up with a knife, but I have intermittent explosive disorder so send me to the funny farm for 2 weeks so I can get better".

U.S. and British diplomats were attacked Thursday as they tried to investigate political violence in Zimbabwe and a U.S. Embassy staffer was beaten, an embassy spokesman said.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Engelstad said the attackers had beaten up a U.S. Embassy staffer and slashed the tires of some cars in the convoy after it was stopped at a roadblock just north of Harare.

And what consequences will there be for this violation of international law and civility?

He said the U.S. plans to raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council and directly with Zimbabwean diplomats attending a U.N. food conference in Rome.

Yes - we are going to "talk" to them some more.  I bet that has Mugabe waking up with nightmares.

Lung cancer patient, Barbara Wagner, was recently notified that her oncologist-prescribed medication that would slow the growth of cancer would not be covered by the Oregon Health Plan; the plan, however, she was informed, would cover doctor-assisted suicide should she wish to kill herself.

"Treatment of advanced cancer that is meant to prolong life, or change the course of this disease, is not a covered benefit of the Oregon Health Plan," read the letter notifying Wagner of the health plan's decision.

Wagner says she was shocked by the decision. "To say to someone, we'll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it's cruel," she said. "I get angry. Who do they think they are?"

Oh yes - Oregon will always pay for the drugs to kill you.

Wesley J. Smith, a prominent conservative bioethicist, says that he was not surprised by the events.

"We have been warning for years that this was a possibility in Oregon. Medicaid is rationed, meaning that some treatments are not covered. But assisted suicide is always covered. And now, Barbara Wagner was faced with that very scenario."

Fortunzately for this woman some help is on offer:

This past Monday morning, however, Wagner had reason to rejoice. A representative from the company that manufactures the treatment called the cancer patient to say they would give her the medication for free.

The U.S. government just put polar bears on the threatened species list because climate change is shrinking the Arctic ice where they live. Never mind that polar bears are in fact thriving -- their numbers have quadrupled in the last 50 years. Never mind that full implementation of the Kyoto protocols on greenhouse gases would save exactly one polar bear, according to Danish social scientist Bjorn Lomborg, author of the book "Cool It!" Yet 300 to 500 polar bears could be saved every year, Lomborg says, if there were a ban on hunting them. What's cheaper -- trillions to trim carbon emissions, or a push for a ban on polar bear hunting?

The country is being forced to subscribe to a modern version of transubstantiation, whereby corn is miraculously transformed into sinless energy even as it does worse damage than oil.

Plastic grocery bags are being banned, even though they require less energy to make and recycle than paper ones.

But the polar bears make for such cute, cuddly pictures.  I am married to someone who has seen the aftereffects of these little cuties tearing off people's arms and legs however, so I'm not quite so sure its a good thing to have them on the endangered list.

After decades of comparing Nixon to Hitler, Reagan to Hitler and Bush to Hitler, liberals have finally decided it is wrong to make comparisons to Hitler. But the only leader to whom they have applied their newfound rule of thumb is: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

While Ahmadinejad has not done anything as starkly evil as cut the capital gains tax, he does deny the Holocaust, call for the destruction of Israel, deny the existence of gays in Iran and refuses to abandon his nuclear program despite protests from the United Nations. That's the only world leader we're not allowed to compare to Hitler.

And the ditz who wants to be President and thinks talking to a kook like this with no pre-conditions is just fine?

Liberals view talk as an end in itself. They never think through how these talks will proceed, which is why Chamberlain ended up giving away Czechoslovakia. He didn't leave for Munich planning to do that. It is simply the inevitable result of talking with madmen without a clear and obtainable goal. Without a stick, there's only a carrot.

The only explanation for liberals' hysterical zealotry in favor of Obama's proposed open-ended talks with Ahmadinejad is that they seriously imagine crazy foreign dictators will be as charmed by Obama as cable TV hosts whose legs tingle when they listen to Obama (a condition that used to be known as "sciatica").

Because, really, who better to face down a Holocaust denier with a messianic complex than the guy who is afraid of a debate moderated by Brit Hume?

You go girl!

On Friday's Countdown show, MSNBC analyst Jonathan Alter, also of Newsweek, suggested that voters who support Hillary Clinton's call for a temporary suspension of the federal gasoline tax are "stupid" as he contended that the Clinton campaign team are "assuming that people are too stupid to realize that this is a bad idea that won't save them any money at the pump."

I defy you to find one Democrat who will point to any tax and say "this is excessive, we don't need this money for government.  It should stay with the people who actually earn the money".

Even Hillary's "acceptance" of this tax holiday is not really one.  She just is so stupid as to think that she can force the oil companies to pay the tax and not pass the expense on to the consumers.  This ignorance of the laws of supply and demand sure makes her sobriquet of "Smartest Woman In the World" seem rather inappropriate.

Will C. Wood Middle School faced a vexing situation when last year's test results came out in August. Most students had met the mark set by No Child Left Behind. But African American students' math scores fell far short of it, bringing the school into failing status in the eyes of the federal law.

One hundred students were categorized as black when they took the test last spring. But if the school had fewer than 100 students in that group, their low scores wouldn't count. So Principal Jim Wong reviewed the files of all the students classified as African American on the test, he said, and found that four of them had indicated no race or mixed race on their enrollment paperwork. Wong sent his staff to talk to the four families to ask permission to put the kids in a different racial group.

"You get a kid that's half black, half white. What are you going to put him down as?" Wong said. "If one kid makes the difference and I can go white, that gets me out of trouble."

Over the past two years, 80 California schools got "out of trouble" with No Child Left Behind after changing the way they classify their students, a Bee analysis has found. The changes nudged their status from failing to passing under the federal law.

Of course, the obvious solution of actually teaching these children how to count and multiply and divide is not even considered. And apparently the families of these poor ignorant students have no problems with the whole process either. Instead of the outrage of "why aren't you actually correcting the problem and making sure my son/daughter can perform to standards" they shrug their shoulders. Which is also why their kids are destined to be the garbage workers of tomorrow.

the point of No Child Left Behind lies in separating test scores by race – then demanding educators bring all children to the same level. The law says all major demographic groups – categorized by race, income, English fluency and disability status – must meet test score targets that increase over time. If one group doesn't meet the target, the entire school faces the stigma of low performance and a series of consequences.

Advocates see the consequences as extra help for struggling students – from after-school tutoring to more time in the classroom to a change in teachers. Many educators, however, view them as punishment.

Yeah, that whole actually doing your job thing interferes with summer holiday doesn't it? Because the story notes that before NCLB schools could pass their overall test levels and let the blacks and Latinos stew in their stupidity. But the punishment (their word not mine) of working to bring their students up to standard is a lot harder than just calling them something they are not and then not having to do anything about it.

Just when will black parents start demanding something better? About the time that they quit having children at 13 and start actually being families again - instead of serial wombs for the next drug-dealing punk.

California Republican John Campbell yesterday introduced in the House his "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act," which would amend the tax code to allow individuals to make voluntary donations to the federal government above their normal tax liability. The bill would place a new line on IRS tax forms to make this easy.

Mr. Campbell says he has heard the "cries" of those wealthy Americans – Mrs. Clinton, Warren Buffett, Barbra Streisand – who reject the lower tax rates passed in 2001 and 2003 and complain that they and their fellow rich don't pay enough. "It's a great injustice that citizens wishing to fulfill their dream of paying more taxes cannot simply check a box on their 1040 form to make a donation," he says. His bill would give liberals a chance to salve their consciences without having to raise taxes on millions of Americans who already feel overtaxed as it is.

My simple predictions:

1.  The Democrats will never let this bill see any light of day.  it will be holed up in some House subcommittee undergoing "review" till this Congress is history.  It would be a most dangerous thing for Democrats to actually give people the freedom to make their own choices - especially about how much of their hard earned money goes to the government.  Allowing people to choose this essential hold over their lives would absolutely destroy the whole premise of what the Democrats stand for.  They are about controlling people - not giving them choice.

2.  Why is Warren Buffett giving most of his money to Bill Gates's charity instead of just handing it over to the government?  He wants rich people to pay more in taxes - why is he not giving the earnings of his lifetime to some twits who would spend in all in less than a month?

3.  As a thought experiment - just how much money would actually come in if this box were on the 1040 form making it extremely simple to allow good progressives to put their money where their considerable mouths are?  The Treasury got about $2.9 million in contributions last year.  The US governnment is scheduled to spend $3 trillion dollars in FY2008.  My calculations show that as spending $5,707,762 a minute.  Yes, every minute of every day of every week of every month of the whole year.  So that lousy three million in contributions would only fund the government for 30 seconds odd.    Do you think they would get enough in "contributions" to fund 2 minutes?  I certainly don't think they would.  Maybe, just maybe they might get enough for 1 minute.

4.  And don't forget - you are not paying enough in taxes.  The Obamamessiah says so.  The Hildebeast says so.  The Great and Wonderous Algore certainly says so.   But would they give half their estates directly to the governement?

The San Diego City Council voted 5-2 to honor the American Civil Liberties Union with a special day of recognition, even after the organization sued the city and collected $900,000 in taxpayer funds.

The plan was offered by council member Toni Atkins, who said she stood "by the resolution" and commended "the ACLU for the work they do."

In San Diego, the ACLU cost the city's taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars by raising the fight over the Mt. Soledad cross and continued the battle even after 76 percent of the voters supported maintaining the cross where it was built.

A bipartisan team of council members, Tony Young and Brian Maienschein, opposed the resolution, and Jim Madaffer did not vote. The other five members – Kavin Faulconer, Atkins, Donne Frye, Ben Hueso and Scott Peters – went along.

San Francisco should not have to spend $1 million on a wheelchair ramp in the Board of Supervisors chambers to assure equal access for people with disabilities.

There must be less expensive options than the 10-foot ramp that has been through 18 designs and consumed more than $200,000 in planning.

What I'm most shocked about is that Pravda of the Left Coast is saying that this is not a good use of tax money. And why must this million bucks be spent? The Lifetime Employment for Lawyers Act (also known as the ADA). One of the supervisors is a paraplegic and there are only steps up to the podium.

I have an idea for these guys. Hire someone at $80K a year who's whole job is to stand around and haul any disabled people up and down the steps. Have him buy some plywood and 2x4's and in his spare time build the fracking ramp. And even with salary, benefits, expenses, vacation time, materials, and everything else you would still be able to get the job done for less than $150K. Even if it took a whole year.

Or just have him haul the disabled up and down and you have a decade's worth of disability access without changing anything else.

Hey, you self-righteous progressives who chat about blood for oil. How many homeless people could have been fed with the $200,000 already spent on the 18 different designs? Would a million dollars get clean needles and condoms to the entire city for a year?

No ramps for condoms!

White men could be legally blocked from getting jobs under new anti-discrimination laws being considered by Labour.

Employers would be able to give jobs to women or ethnic minority candidates in preference to other applicants, under the plans unveiled by equalities minister Harriet Harman.

If two candidates were equally qualified for a position, employers would be able to reject the white person or the man in favour of a black person or a woman.

Its so 1984 that the ministry is "Equalities".  Equalities ministry will implement rules so that its much more important about the shape of your genitals or the color of your skin.  However, I find it very sad that the response of the Conservatives is to discriminate but base it on pay and the shape of your genitals - not the color of your skin:

Theresa May, Conservative spokesperson for women, said: "One of the real problems facing women today is the gender pay gap.

"If Harriet Harman really wants to help women in the work place she should strengthen the existing laws on equal pay. We have recently put forward proposals to do just that and our proposals would have a real impact on women's lives."

And none of this should be any surprise.  Why just last year the "Equalities" minister wanted to:

Last year Miss Harman called for all-black shortlists in constituencies with high ethnic-minority populations.

She said that unless action was taken, it would take decades for the make-up of the Commons to accurately reflect the make-up of British society.

But the plan immediately came under attack from ethnic minority MPs on the Labour backbenchers - saying black people should be selected on merit.

Buoyed by Super Tuesday's record Latino voter turnout, a San Jose State University student group — made up of both legal and illegal residents — is planning a widespread, grass-roots campaign to register voters, especially those who can speak for them at the polls.

"I don't need to live in the shadows anymore," said Ruiz, a 24-year-old San Jose State student whose mother brought him from Mexico on a tourist visa when he was a child.

Live in the shadows?  Since when does anybody in California actually have to worry about living in the shadows.  Brought here illegally as a child?  Not a problem.  You can attend a state university (wonder if he's getting instate tuition rates?  not even a bet - I'm sure he is), you can register people to vote, you can give an interview to a local newspaper.  No one will even come check on your illegal butt.

  It's unknown how many illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition in California, officials said, because the information isn't tracked to protect students' privacy.

Because of their status, the students are not eligible for financial aid, and most must earn tuition — more than $2,000 a semester — on their own.

Ruiz and Cardenas don't hold their status against their parents, saying their time in the United States has given them opportunities they wouldn't have had in Mexico.

"You can't just live in a place and not became a part of it," Ruiz said. "If I were still in Mexico, I wouldn't be who I am today."

Just another example of Mexico dumping its problems on the US.  Otherwise they might have to actually fix their own third-world toilet of a country so they don't export their own citizens.  But little chance of that happening any time soon.  All our Presidential candidates just want to either turn their backs or actually beckon them to come.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner was in Gaza yesterday and made a total jerk of himself. Kouchner told reporters that Israel shouldn't inspect trucks from Gaza because 'not all of them are carrying bombs.'

How does that work out at French airports? Do you want to just inspect "some" of the luggage and hope that you found the ones with the bombs? Idiot.

In his quest to make San Francisco the greenest city in the nation, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently created a $160,000-a-year job for a senior aide and gave him the ambitious-sounding title of director of climate protection initiatives.

San Francisco has at least two dozen other city employees already working directly on climate issues at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In addition to the director of climate protection initiatives in Newsom's office, San Francisco has an Energy and Climate Program team of eight people in the Department of the Environment, who combined earn more than $800,000 a year in salary and benefits, including a "climate action coordinator." At least 12 San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff members work on climate issues related to water and energy, including a $146,000-a-year "projects manager for the climate action plan."

Also in the name of climate control, the Municipal Transportation Agency has a "manager of emissions reductions and sustainability programs" who works on making Muni's bus fleet greener, and the San Francisco International Airport has a "manager of environmental services" who oversees such projects as the installation of energy-efficient lighting and solar panels.

The list doesn't include the scores of staff members who work on broader environmental policies, like the recently hired $130,700-a-year "greening director" in Newsom's office, or Jared Blumenfeld, who earns $207,500 a year in salary and benefits as the head of the city's Environment Department, which has a staff of 65 and annual budget of about $14 million.

And you know you have completely gone off the deep end when the flipping Green Party commissioner questions what is going on:

"Although it sounds very well intentioned, and perhaps even necessary, I'm concerned this is a case where eco-chic has gone out of control," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the only Green Party member on the Board of Supervisors.

And the evidence continues to build that the whole global warming hysteria is a) religious in nature and b) a scheme for smart hustlers to shake down taxpayers.

State lawmakers can rule out Virginian's offering up more of their hard-earned money to fix the $1.4 billion budget shortfall Gov. Tim Kaine announced this week.

At least that is what a peek at the so-called "Tax Me More Fund" suggests.

Since its inception in 2002, the fund has collected a total of $10,217.04. 

In his book, "From Hope to Higher Ground," Mr. Huckabee said that from 2001 to 2005, a total of 56 persons made contributions to the Arkansas fund, totaling $2,077. 

Don't tax me or thee, but tax him over there behind that tree.

"The people of Virginia have voluntarily taxed themselves in the amount of 0.00000005 percent of Virginia's budget since 2002, which is a good measure of their support for tax increases," said Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, Fairfax County Republican. 

So why do we let Presidential candidates run around talking about how  wonderful it will be when everybody is taxed to death for "universal health care"?  Because everybody believes that it will be somebody else paying for it - not them!

Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday.

It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.

''It was a small surprise,'' said Pieter van Baal, an economist at the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who led the study. ''But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then you cost the health system more.''

And this really brings into sharp relief an interesting point about turning the responsibility over health care to a government.  While the initial jabber about universal healthcare is how wonderful it will be that no one has to worry about getting sick because the all-knowing Big Brother will take care of everyone - once you screw up the system and get government running  it, the focus becomes COST!  As in - holy crap this free health care costs tons of money.  And if we only have 25% of the population carrying everybody else, the productive ones will finally balk.

So it becomes a cost-benefit analysis - as in just how much cost can we shave off these silly people who are going to die anyway in order to keep the productive ones happy.  And government bureaucrats are really good at a) screwing over people who aren't government bureaucrats and b) responding to political pressure.  So whoever screams the loudest gets the health care and the peasants are sent off to watch TV and die quietly in the corner.

Which this interesting little snippet in the story illustrates:

''This throws a bucket of cold water onto the idea that obesity is going to cost trillions of dollars,'' said Patrick Basham, a professor of health politics at Johns Hopkins University who was unconnected to the study. He said that government projections about obesity costs are frequently based on guesswork, political agendas, and changing science.

Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go. That's the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

In addition, the council voted to explore enforcing its law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against the Marines because of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. And it officially encouraged the women's peace group Code Pink to impede the work of the Marines in the city by protesting in front of the station.

In a separate item, the council voted 8-1 to give Code Pink a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week from noon to 4 p.m.

If only our enemies were stupid enough to actually do something in Bezerkly. What am I saying - our enemies live there, work there, plot there, and hopefully will die there.  I mean, we know that the University of Califonia at Crazy is there, which concentrates the idiocy level.  But it looks like the inmates have taken over the government asylum too.

I think that putting up a nice big fence around this vile nest of human slime and making sure they can't get out to the rest of America would be a good start. They don't want to be part of America? Well, America doesn't want them either.