Weekend Fun

... with some truth mixed in.

"15 Days" to Flatten the Curve

Too Much Sitting' and Thinkin'

• If people evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?
• 
  
• Who knew what time it was when the first clock was invented?
• 
  
• How come lipstick doesn't do what it says?
• 
  
• If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
• 
  
• How do you get on (or off) a non-stop flight?
• 
  
• Why is it called 'rush hour' when traffic moves at its slowest then?
• 
  
• What are you vacating when you go on a vacation?

His Imperious Majesty

imperious: adj. domineering in a haughty manner; dictatorial; overbearing

*****

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth 

rule, the people mourn. (Proverbs 29:2 KJV)

*****

The heavy-handed Mayor of All He Surveys is hinting heavily that his response to the rising number of positive Covid test results* will be to reactivate large segments of his original "hunker down" order, sometime in the coming week.

Just like everywhere else, the bulk of new positive test results are in the 20-to-30 year old population, and nearly all of them remain asymptomatic. But that's the part that the local press would sooner die, themselves, than report to the sheeple who bother to pay any attention.

We were all excited when the original shut-down expired. But many restaurants remain closed to dining-in, and buying take-out from the same 5 or 8 choices has gotten really old.

The local Wal-Mart in our little town now has a very large Samoan fella standing out in front of an 8-foot banner. Said banner displays the message that masks are now required by "federal, state and local laws" (a whole series of falsehoods, there). He confronts everyone who who approaches the entrance without a mask visible, demanding that they put one on.

For the record, there is no federal, state, or local law requiring a mask. There is only a municipal edict from Lord Ozymandias requiring that masks be worn inside all public places. 

And I'm astonished by the numbers of people I see driving alone on the highway with a mask on inside their cars. But I digress.

The whole farce has left me increasingly angry at the governmental hoax being perpetrated on people who used to know better. 

However, I'm quite happy to report that the vast majority of people have stopped pretending to go along with the draconian edicts, and are doing their best to resume a semi-normal life. 

* Never mind that Anchorage has quintupled the number of tests performed; that's apparently irrelevant. So is the fact that only 32 persons remain hospitalized. Nothing to see, here: move along!

The Great Pandemic Hysteria

No, not the virus: it's real enough, but isn't the global killer the pols would have us believe. The Progressive office-holders (like the mayor of nearby Anchorage) are doing their best to squeeze every last bit of "emergency authority" out of the situation. The better to unseat Mr. Trump with, you see.

Given the majority of the new "spike" in cases are in folks under 35 or so, and most have either no symptoms, or are sick for only a couple of days, it's not a reason for concern.

This is the virus adapting to live in healthy folks; it's what viruses do, to survive. This is how herd immunity is built.

Wear a mask? Since the CDC, the mask manufacturers, and the honest medical professionals all tell us that the only mask effective is a full-fledged respirator, I'll pass.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, the recent rains and our 24 hours of daylight have caused all the weeds to go from 12" to 30" in the last five days, I guess we need to attack the yard again. I note that about half the homes on our road haven't done so, but it bothers me.

Ah, well. This too shall pass.  I keep reminding myself we'll have snow in October, so enjoy the green while it lasts.

sigh ...

The Day Collusion Died

Word. Video here.

Alan Caruba: "More Climate Lies"

Mr. Caruba hit one out of the park today. Excerpt:

What a different nation America could be were it not for Obama’s deliberate attack on the coal industry in particular and other fossil fuels, oil and natural gas. In the name of reducing emissions, Obama deliberately ignores the increasing use of coal in Europe and nations that include China, Japan, and India.

The emissions limits the White House wants and continues to impose would constitute less than a fraction of a single degree Fahrenheit over the course of a decade or more. In short, nothing.

You really need to read the whole article. 

Coldest Winter on Record Followed by Latest Global Warming Warnings

Out of Their Freakin' Minds!

You HAVE to be kidding me.

Starting in about a decade, Kingston, Jamaica, will probably be off-the-charts hot — permanently. Other places will soon follow. Singapore in 2028. Mexico City in 2031. Cairo in 2036. Phoenix and Honolulu in 2043.

And eventually the whole world in 2047.

A new study on global warming pinpoints the probable dates for when cities and ecosystems around the world will regularly experience hotter environments the likes of which they have never seen before.

And for dozens of cities, mostly in the tropics, those dates are a generation or less away.

So.

These hydrocephalic Chicken Littles, who have insisted that the Earth is heating up like crazy while the temps stayed rock-steady for the last 17 years, now say, "OMG OMG OMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!ONE!!!!ELEVENTY!!"

I truly feel sorry for anyone who believes that bilge. Only Man, in his overwhelming hubris, thinks that he can control the weather.

And, given their track record thus far, why should we believe them?

That's what I thought. It's sad, really.

Global Warming/Climate Change/Global Cooling: I Have a Question

A forest revealed under glacial ice

Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier is shrinking, and its retreating ice has bared the remains of an ancient forest. Preserved stumps and trunks, many still rooted and even bearing bark, sit in a gravelly mix of stone churned up by the glacier. The trees are being exposed to open air for the first time in over two thousand years. 

So my question is this: since the retreating glacier* reveals there was a freakin' forest there, before the ice ... then were the Native Alaskans sitting around bemoaning the death of their beloved forest as the ice encroached upon it?

And were they as rabid in their beliefs that carbon dioxide & mankind (not necessarily in that order) were responsible?

Oh. Wait.

They didn't have carbon dioxide OR lots of people, "over two thousand years" ago.
Maybe it was a naturally occurring cycle of nature, hmm? Then WHAT. IN. BLUE. BLAZES. are you brain-dead warmists slavering about?


Srsly, do 'climate change' people even have an active thought in their hive-mind?


* (OMG globular warmering or something!!!!ONE!!!ELEVENTY!!)

Attn: Global Warming Alarmists

China has 19% of the worlds population, but consumes 53% of the world's cement, 48% of the world's iron ore,47% of the world's coal ... and the majority of just about every other major commodity. In 2010, China produced 11 times more steel than the United States .       New World Record: China made and sold 18 million vehicles in 2010.   There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.     China currently has the worlds fastest train and the worlds largest high-speed rail network.   China is currently the number one producer in the world of wind and solar power, but don't use it themselves. While they manufacture 80% of the worlds solar panels, they build a new coal-fired power station every week.

In 1 year they install less than 5% and turn on more new coal powered electricity than Australia 's total output.

China currently controls more than 90% of the total global supply of rare earth elements.   In the past 15 years, China has moved from 14th place to 2nd place in the world in published scientific research articles.   China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire planet. At the end of March 2011, China accumulated US$3.04 trillion in foreign currency reserves - the largest stockpile on the entire globe.   Chinese consume 50,000 cigarettes every second.     They are already the largest carbon dioxide emitter and their output will rise 70% by 2020.     So we're saving the planet are we? Driving a Prius will fix all that, will it? Think again. You are wasting your time and ours with your proposals for a carbon tax/cap & trade/ whatever. All you are doing is increasing our cost of living and rendering our manufacturers uncompetitive. It will make no difference when countries like China are consuming at these extraordinary rates. Wake up.

h/t ajdshootist

ZOMG!! H.R. 4646 Will Take 1% of Every Transaction

except it won't. According to Politifact.com:

The bill, HR-4646, is indeed actual legislation whose subject has something to do with taxation. But that's where the similarities end.

The "Debt Free America Act" was introduced by Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., in February 2010. He proposed a 1-percent tax on all money transactions, "including cash transactions, checks, credit cards, those processed through the Federal Reserve Bank, and those collected at the point of sale." Fattah's idea was to use the money to pay down the national debt and eventually replace the income tax. He has proposed similar legislation since 2004.

HR-4646 had no support -- and certainly not from Obama's "finance team" -- and is now dying a quiet death in committee. Yet the resolution continues to live online, where the DeFazio connection has been repeated by a former Hernando County (Fla.) commissioner.

Penny Dodge, DeFazio's chief of staff, told PolitiFact Oregon that the congressman opposes HR-4646. An unamused DeFazio doesn't know who is behind the e-mail attack.

"It's slanderous," DeFazio said of the electronic claim. "I have nothing to do with the bill, no one pays any attention to the bill. It's chronically introduced, and never received any attention before this."

So ... not so much. But it sure sounds scary ... and that, children, is how internet hoaxes stay alive.

Daily Mail: There's No Man-made Global Warming

From the Daily Mail:

Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organizational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.

The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.

Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.

And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming. [emphasis added - Ed.]

h/t Alphecca