Environmentalism, North Korea Style

from StrategyPage, a partial explanation of why North Korea’s pollution problem is so out of control:

… When you burn wood or coal in a low oxygen environment you produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas that can be sent directly to a diesel or gasoline engine and produce enough horsepower to move a truck, boat, or any other engine.  This is not as efficient as diesel or gasoline/petrol type fuel.  A liter (quart) of gasoline produces as much engine energy as 2.75 kg (six pounds) of wood.  That means you need three times as much fuel (by weight) when using wood and coal.  The process (which usually takes place in a container the size of a 55 gallon barrel) produces a lot of air pollution and requires more regular attention than a diesel or gasoline engine.  But it works, and during World War II, when many nations were cut off from regular supplies of petroleum based fuels, wood gas was the solution for running vehicle, boat, and factory engines.  Germany, for example, had over half a million vehicles running on wood gas by the end of World War II.

Full article is HERE.

What the Hell — Let's Just Make Him King

From the opening paragraphs of a report by Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times:Golfing_LegLift_4CCTPP

President Obama’s repeated use of presidential powers is causing a tough problem — his own supporters now expect him to use it to achieve everything they want.

From immigration to the minimum wage, congressional Democrats and liberal activists this week urged President Obama to declare an end run around Capitol Hill, assert executive authority, and make as much progress as he can on the expansive agenda he laid out for his second term.

Read the entire, disgusting article HERE.

Obama Gotta Have His Renewable Energy

MillPondPost_LogoBreitbart’s Robert Wilde is reporting today on the intent of the Obama administartion to weaken the regulations protecting our national symbol, bald eagles, particularly from deaths due to wind turbine farms.  This hazard was responsible for the recent $1M fine that Duke Energy had to pay for deaths resulting from birds flying into the deadly turbine blades at their wind farms.

The proposed new rules —

… will give wind farms thirty year permits for the “non purposeful take of eagles-that is where the take is associated with but not the purpose of, the activity.’’ The take of eagles is also a euphemism for the slaughter of them.

The wind farms fulfill Obama’s ambitious pursuit of developing renewable energy sources. Unfortunately, some bird species being destroyed by the turbines are not renewable. As a result, Obama finds himself wedged between the ire of opposing green groups. In July, wildlife groups met with administration officials and lobbied against the granting of 30 year permits for energy companies that own the wind farms.

Wildlife groups are advocating shorter leases and insist that a 30-year free pass for eagle “taking” is too long. They argue that before we are stuck with three decades of the rule, there are still some unanswered questions about how to prevent the destroying of the birds.

The text of the rule is on the OMB site, HERE, and from The Hill Blog, the full story is HERE.

And Speaking Of The X-47B, Check Out This Puppy!

RQ180_StealthDroneThe drone that spied on bin Laden and on Iran’s nukes was just the start. Meet its bigger, higher-flying, stealthier cousin, the Northrop Grumman RQ-180. It’s probably been flying for a few years now, but you weren’t supposed to know that; the existence of this secret project, based out of Area 51, was revealed Friday by Aviation Week magazine.

The existence of the RQ-180 has been long rumored. Cryptic public statements by U.S. Air Force officials indicated a secret high-altitude reconnaissance drone, and Northrop officials …    MORE HERE.

Continued Interest In The Proposed Torch Energy "Mill Pond" Wind Turbine Farm

MillPondPost_LogoNo one has been more vigilant than John Droz about informing the Crystal Coast citizenry of the implications associated with the wind turbine farm being proposed for the area around Mill Pond, just north of Morehead City and just east of Newport.  This morning, before a small invitation-only crowd assembled in an Atlantic Beach hotel, John went once more into the breach, presenting a store of information to the attendees on wind energy in general and on the Mill Pond project in particular.  In attendance were some notable elected officials, including state representative Pat McElraft, Carteret commissioners Robin Comer, Jonathan Robinson, and Jimmy Farrington.  Commissioners Elaine Crittenton and Bill Smith had attended one of John’s previous presentations.

Representative McElraft confirmed that Torch Energy has yet to file an application for the project, but that we should persist in our efforts to strengthen the Carteret County and Newport ordinances governing the permitting for tall structures, as any provisions enacted after an application has been filed may not apply to the applicant.

Can UAV’s Have The Right Stuff?

GlobalHawkTiffany Kaiser, the Science reporter for the DailyTech blog, recently interviewed retired Israeli Major General Eitan Eliyahu on the likelihood that the world’s major air forces will continue the shift toward unmanned drones:

“We pilots are the decision makers … and the claim to fame of fighter pilots are dogfights.  So in the future, part of the process of replacing jet fighters with UAVs will be the ability to start dogfights between drones,” said Eliyahu.

According to Eliyahu, air forces are largely trading-in expensive fixed-wing and rotary aircraft, which will save on life-cycle and training costs.  However, he believes UAVs cannot deter enemies well enough yet.

“UAVs will not contribute enough deterrence to prevent war,” said Eliyahu.  “When the F-35 is operational in Israel, it will have a dramatic effect on deterring our enemies.  So even if we have hundreds of UAVs, it won’t impact the balance of power as much as a single squadron of F-35s.”

He added that UAVs are also more susceptible to cyber attacks because they run on networked control.

Right, don’t think we will see a UAV winning the Navy’s Top Gun competition anytime soon.  Bet they’re working on it, ‘though.

Karzai Family Values

Austin Bay and the guys at StrategyPage have up an interesting and informative article about happenings in Afghanistan, with topics ranging from the state of the current negotiations over the Status Of Forces treaty to various other regional events.  The article takes five minutes or so to read.  A couple of tidbits:

The U.S. has finally negotiated terms for keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan once all other NATO forces have left after 2014. Some Afghan politicians played hardball with the Americans on this, refusing to agree to continue American immunity from the corrupt Afghan justice system after 2014. The U.S. told the Afghans that if they don’t get a Status of Forces (immunity) agreement by the end of 2014 then the U.S. will withdraw all their forces and most of their aid money. This finally got most Afghan leaders to agree …

and

Now the Karzai clan faces a crises because Hamid Karzai cannot run for president again. The constitution forbids it and the U.S. has made it clear that trying to use bribes and coercion to change the constitution will not be tolerated. So Hamid Karzai has to make plans for life after dominating the government for a decade …

The entire PIECE is available at the StrategyPage site.

Oh, You Ditsy Climate Scientists

From a November 30th article at the US Finance Post blog:

Critics of those who claim that man-made global warming is a serious threat to the planet and settled science frequently point to the fickleness of scientists on the issue, noting that in the 60s and 70s scientists were warning of just the opposite. It now appears the critic’s claims may have merit as a new consensus is beginning to once again return to the global cooling model.

The whole PIECE makes for interesting reading.

Uh-Oh, Boehner has a new Immigration Policy Director

Something wicked this way comes?

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is taking on a new and formidable immigration policy director, a sign that he could be more serious about passing immigration legislation than his critics suggest.

Rebecca Tallent, who currently serves as director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, will join Boehner’s staff on Wednesday.  Before joining the BPC, Tallent held several senior staff positions with Senator John McCain, including chief of staff.

During her time with McCain, she helped the Arizona Republican draft a handful of immigration overhaul measures, including the last big push McCain made with the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) in 2007.  In 2008, she was a policy adviser on McCain’s presidential campaign.  Before working for McCain, she worked for former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), a longtime advocate of overhauling the immigration system, and who was involved in immigration efforts before he retired in 2006.

Navy X-47B: Is China Catching Up?

X47B_TrapThe U.S. Navy’s X-47B UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) successfully carried out more tests aboard an aircraft carrier during November. In this case both existing X-47Bs were used. This comes after an X-47B made two out of three carrier landings for the first time on July 10th.  The November tests further stressed …

The full article, from StrategyPage, is HERE.

Changes to the Voting Records page

Due to the difficulty of keeping up with the voting records of our many elected officials at all levels of government, I have abandoned that task in favor of listing a number of websites that do a much better and more comprehensive job than I can.  To view the changes, use the menu above or CLICK HERE.

Martin Bashir Out at MSNBC – Only 1 Limey Left?

Bashir_OutJust over two weeks ago, MSNBC host Martin Bashir delivered a harsh piece of commentary that culminated in the suggestion that someone should “s-h-i-t” in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin‘s (R-AK) mouth.  Bashir offered an abject apology on his next broadcast, but a chorus of critics continued to demand action against the host.  After a reported “vacation” for the host earlier this week, Bashir announced, Wednesday afternoon, that MSNBC and Martin Bashir are parting ways.  (via Drudge Reports)

NC Gen-Assy Meeting on Common Core

Lynn Childs of the Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association (CCTA) wants to call attention to the PUBLIC meeting (on Tuesday, December 17th) of the state legislature’s Common Core Study Committee.  The meeting is to begin at 1:00pm in Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building (LOB) in Raleigh.  Lynn believes that it is most important that as many people as possible show up to demonstrate to the legislators our commitment to stopping further implementation of Common Core in North Carolina.  Those planning to attend should wear red and plan to get there early, as the proponents of Common Core will be there in force.

To contact Lynn for more details, her e-mail address is Lynn.CCTA@gmail.com.   [ NOT A LINK ]

For more on CCTA’s perspective regarding Common Core and other matters, check out their BLOG HERE.

More News On The Exalted UNC/Duke Faculty

By way of the InsideHigherEd blog, the Raleigh N-&-O reports that Julius Nyang’oro, the former chair and former professor of African studies at UNC-CH, was indicted Monday on a felony charge of accepting $12,000 for a course he did not teach.  The phantom course was conceived as a way of improving the grade point average of UNC athletes, particularly football players.  An Orange County grand jury indicted Nyang’oro on a felony charge of obtaining property by false pretenses.  Although not identified, a second person is also under investigation and could be indicted next month, said Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall.  Other probes have identified Nyang’oro’s longtime department manager, Deborah Crowder, as being involved in the bogus classes.  Ms. Crowder retired in 2009.

The Ugly End To The Duke Lacrosse Team Story

Many readers will know that Crystal Gail Mangum, the accuser of the Duke Lacrosse Team players, was convicted of murder in late November and sentenced to prison.  A week or so afterwards, Brent Bozell posted this comprehensive wrap-up at NewsBusters:

On November 22, with the national media focused on the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s death, few noticed the story of a jury in North Carolina convicting Crystal Mangum of murder in the 2011 kitchen stabbing death of her boyfriend Reginald Daye.  Why should that fact fixate the national media?

On its own, it shouldn’t.  But in 2006 and 2007, Mangum’s false charges of rape against three lacrosse players at Duke University caused a national tsunami of media sensation, an angry wave of prejudiced coverage that presumed the guilt of rich white college boys when accused by an African-American stripper.  

More than any other media outlet, the New York Times trumpeted Mangum’s rape accusations, even after they fell apart.  As other liberal media outlets were backing away, the Times published a notorious, error-riddled 5,700-word lead story by Duff Wilson on August 25, 2006, arguing there was enough evidence against the players for Michael Nifong, the atrocious local  prosecutor (who would be jailed and disbarred) to bring the case to trial.

Within the Times, perhaps the most aggressive accuser was then-sports columnist Selena Roberts, who made a habit of comparing the accused Duke lacrosse players to drug dealers and gang members.

Roberts continued to lob charges of white privilege in her last column on the subject in 2007: “Don’t mess with Duke, though. To shine a light on its integrity has been treated by the irrational mighty as a threat to white privilege. Feel free to excoriate the African-American basketball stars and football behemoths for the misdeeds of all athletes, but lay off the lacrosse pipeline to Wall Street, excuse the khaki-pants crowd of SAT wonder kids.”  She lamented “some news media jackknifed as they moved from victim’s advocate to angel-tinting the lacrosse team.”

To Roberts, the false accuser never stopped being the victim. Roberts never wrote a retraction for the columns that relentlessly championed a false narrative.  She is the Al Sharpton of sports columnists.

See the FULL STORY HERE.

I guess this means that Ms. Mangum will not be taking advantage of that free college education that Jesse Jackson promised her back when he was so certain of her verisimilitude.  [ NOTE:  Bill O’Reilly also did a short piece on this story on The Factor yesterday evening. ]

And the ObamaCare hits just keep a-coming …

In the latest of what seems to be an unending stream of outrages from the Obama administration in their attempts to keep the ObamaCare boat from being swamped by reality, the White House is floating several proposals to “help offset the loss in premium revenue and profit” that it said might occur if insurers went along with President Obama’s request to reinstate canceled policies.  The proposals will offer more money to insurance companies as an incentive for them to let people keep insurance policies that were to have been canceled next year.

And what congressional spending authority does the NYT article cite as underpinning for these proposals.  Don’t ask …

FBI Obstructing Justice?

Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, has been doggedly pursuing information related to two of the big Obama administration scandals.  Benghazi is one of them, the IRS targeting of conservative groups the other.  He is now calling attention to the intransigence of the FBI in not cooperating with his committee in their IRS investigations.

Issa says that the FBI is refusing to turn over any documents related to its own investigation into the IRS, which began in the days after an auditor’s report revealed the tax agency had improperly targeted tea party groups for special scrutiny.  Moreover, Issa revealed that, six months after it began, the FBI’s investigation has resulted in no release of information.  The congressmen said the FBI even rescinded an offer for an in-person briefing with the assistant director in charge of the investigation. To Rep. Issa, the reversal, after the FBI consulted with the Justice Department, suggests political meddling.  He has given the FBI until December 16 to answer his questions rather than to have FBI Director James Comey appear by compulsion as the result of a subpoena from his committee.

The full Washington Times article is HERE.

The Ice Man Cometh

ArcticIceCapGrows

The online version of the British newspaper Daily Mail has up an ARTICLE on the spectacular 29% expansion this summer of the arctic ice cap, further confounding the predictions in the UN’s IPCC climate change report and other AGW alarmists.  Now, just before the annual re-freeze that begins each fall around this time, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia’s northern shores.

Help Out In Opposing The Newport "Mill Pond"

John Droz notes that, if we are to adequately protect the interests of our coastal citizenry in the “Mill Pond” wind farm fight, we need to stay focused on that campaign until it is over.

After the meeting this past Tuesday at Fort Benjamin Park in Newport, many concerned and considerate people asked what they could do to help.  John’s answer is that we need to get better organized to prevail against our more-experienced, politically-connected, and well-financed opposition.

Toward that end, the help of several committed and capable volunteers is urgently needed.  If you think you can help, contact John by e-mail (aaprjohn@northnet.org) to let him know what relevant skills you have, and how much time per week you can dedicate to this cause.

He needs volunteers who have any of the following skills:

  1. are good organizers
  2. like to contact people by phone and/or email
  3. would like to be a formal interface with our representatives
  4. have good connections with various local organizations
  5. have an interest in health matters
  6. have an interest in the tourism business
  7. have an interest in environmental issues
  8. are retired military
  9. like to publicly speak
  10. have public relation skills
  11. have superior writing ability
  12. have a technical background and can help in that area
  13. enjoy doing research
  14. are good at investigative work
  15. like doing fund raising
  16. anything else you think would assist in this effort

If you can respond to this important need, be sure to include your phone number, and remember to tell John how many hours per week you can commit to help.

The New York Times Swallows A Bitter Pill

This very good article from NYT reporters Sheryl Stolberg and Michael Shear sets the stage early on:

HealthCare.gov, the $630 million online insurance marketplace, was a disaster after it went live on Oct. 1, with a roster of engineering repairs that would eventually swell to more than 600 items. The private contractors who built it were pointing fingers at one another. And inside the White House, after initially saying too much traffic was to blame, Mr. Obama’s closest confidants had few good answers.

It is a fairly long article, but informative, and the full article is HERE.

Making Fuel From Food — Dumbest Idea Ever?

As a former farm boy and a guy who still owns an itty-bitty amount of tillable acreage in eastern NC, I have always thought that the ethanol fuel mandate was the height of idiocy.  It drives up the cost or corn, thus driving up the cost of beef and pork and lots of other food items, it causes farmers to favor corn over other crops in the competition for the available crop land, and it pushes up the true cost of motor vehicle fuel by diluting the miles driven per gallon of gasohol versus gasoline.

This and lots of other ramifications are exposed in this comprehensive ARTICLE, written by Dina Cappiello of the AP, encouraging me to believe that at least some members of the MSM are coming around to my view.

American Sub-Hunter Aircraft Sent To East China Sea

President Obama does something right, for a change.

In November, China unilaterally declared an air defense zone covering islands controlled by Japan but claimed by Beijing, creating apprehensions in Japan and elsewhere that the aggressive posture on the part of the Panda could result at some point in an unplanned military encounter.  The several small uninhabited islands, known to the west as the Senkaku group, lie just to the northeast of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa) in the southern portion of the East China Sea.

Last week, the US Air Force flew two B-52 heavy bombers through the area, serving notice to the Chinese that their claim of exclusivity was repudiated.  Now the British newspaper MailOnline is reporting that the US Navy is sending P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft to strengthen America’s ability to hunt submarines and other vessels in seas close to China.

For those with an interest in this subject, the FULL ARTICLE includes the best map I have seen of the islands and where they are positioned in the disputed area.

George Will: How A Presidency Unravels

In his recent piece at the Washington Post, columnist George Will reveals, among other things, the shear awesomeness of President Barack Obama, at least in the opinion of his el-primo minion, Valarie Jarrett:

“He knows exactly how smart he is …  I think that he has never really been challenged intellectually …  He’s been bored to death his whole life.  He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.”

 Gag me with a spoon, then read the whole thing, HERE.

Newport Meeting On The "Mill Pond" Wind Farm (UPDATED) (UPDATE #2)

At the meeting held on Tuesday night (11/26/2013) in Newport to discuss the Mill Pond wind farm project, presenter John Droz spoke to a packed house at the large meeting room in the Fort Benjamin Park building.  The meeting was attended by about one hundred people, the vast majority of whom seemed to be very skeptical about the merits of the project as proposed by Torch Renewable Energy.  Droz did a thorough job, given his time limits, of highlighting the most important issues related to the proposal, particularly as they might relate to or inform any laws or regulations promulgated by Carteret County and the town of Newport.  For more information from Droz on this project, go here.

Although they were grossly outnumbered, opinion-wise, Penny Hooper and husband Mark were two brave soles who spoke in support of the Torch Energy project.  The Hoopers engaged the group as a couple who are concerned about our coastal environment, and who embrace the Climate Change (nee Anthropogenic Global Warming) dogma.  For more on the views and perspective of the Hoopers, Penny Hooper may be reached at pjhooper@ec.rr.com.

Several local dignitaries were also in attendance, including County Commissioners Bill Smith and Elaine Crittenton, State Senator Norman Sanderson, and Pine Knoll Shores mayor Ken Jones.  During the discussion period after the formal presentation, many citizens rose to either ask questions of John Droz or to convey their thoughts and opinions.  Among those joining in the discussion were Commissioner Crittenton and Senator Sanderson.

To view the presentation in its entirety, John Droz has made it available at THIS LINK.

Kesler On The Tea Party

Charles Kesler is a Senior Fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute, as well as their editor for the esteemed Claremont Review Of Books.  Recently he wrote a short but very good article about the aims of the Tea Party.  An edited summary follows:

The original tea party was neither a political organization nor a populist movement, but one … the young John Adams judged so intrepid and consequential as to mark “an epocha in history.”

The British government agreed. Lord North warned the British Parliament that  “We are now to establish our authority, or give it up entirely.” We all know how that turned out.

Both the old and the new Tea Party stand for resistance to unconstitutional power.  In 1773 the Tea Partiers opposed the Tea Act, which violated their rights as Englishmen and as men. Their counterparts today fight against Obamacare, a much worse law.

If the Tea Party is revolutionary, it is so only in the traditional American sense: it wants to revolve back, to return to the Constitution and the principles of the Declaration of Independence as the basis of government.  This is the deepest reason why the Obama Administration has reacted to this Tea Party as Lord North did to the original.  If Obamacare is overturned, then liberals will have lost control of the future and hence of their legitimacy; and if they lose the future, they will lose the present, too.  So the Tea Party must be stopped at all costs.

The full article is here.

ObamaCare Bending The Cost Curve? uhh…Not So Much

In one of their many attempts lately to distract from the cancellation of insurance plans by the millions, and from the failures attending the Laurel & Hardy designed HealthCare.gov website portal, the President’s minions are returning to the lie that ObamaCare is bending the cost curve downward.  To help readers understand exactly why this is so much DoDo doo-doo, economist and Hoover Institution fellow Charles Blahous has this article up.

Before ObamaCare, There Was …

Ever wonder why the Obama administration (with the enthusiastic connivance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) went to so much effort to conceal the real costs of the entitlement?  Every wonder if “Read My Lips – No New Taxes” was the only stupid mistake that President George H. W. Bush did to ensure he did not win re-election?

Probably because they wanted ObamaCare to avoid the fate of the 1989 Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act.  If your memory is a little hazy on that episode, which not only preceded ObamaCare but HillaryCare as well, I recommend this National Review article written by John Fund.

New Meeting Scheduled Regarding Newport Wind

Another meeting has been scheduled to inform the public about the issues attending the Torch Renewable Energy wind farm (now termed the Mill Pond project) proposed for a large area east of Newport and north of Morehead City in Carteret County. The meeting will feature a presentation (entitled “Mill Pond = Mill Stone”) by Morehead City physicist and independent energy expert John Droz, Jr., who will outline some technical, economic, and environmental concerns relating to the proposed project, after which there will be a Q-&-A session.  The meeting is free and open to the public, and is to be held this coming Tuesday evening, November 26th beginning at 6:30pm.  The venue is the main building at Fort Benjamin Park, located at 100 McQueen Avenue in Newport.

This will be of interest to any citizen who is concerned about regional issues to include the Crystal Coast tourism business, the continued operation of Cherry Point MCAS, the coastal environmental consequences of industrial wind energy, the health of Mill Creek residents, the cost of electricity in eastern NC, and numerous others.

In order to get the most out of the presentation and the discussion, potential attendees are urged to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals before the meeting by reading the materials available on this new webpage.

ObamaCare Delaying Yet Another Component? Yep!!

Fox News is reporting that the Obama administration “plans to delay the start of next year’s ObamaCare enrollment period, a move pitched as a way to give consumers and insurance companies more time to study their options — but which also conveniently pushes the second round of enrollment past the 2014 midterm elections.”  The article also says that the decision will not affect those trying to enroll this year, despite the myriad problems with the launch of the law and the HealthCare.gov website.  Rather, it affects those who will sign up late next year for 2015 coverage.

The full article is here …