Monday, January 16, 2006

Mr Gore Get Off Your High Horse!

Al Gore has some nerve, criticizing the President for wiretapping terrorists. It was not very long ago he was criticizing the Administration for not doing enough to combat terrorism. Mr Gore You can’t have it both ways. Now I realize this is an Election year, and the Democrats need all the help they can get in the Midterm elections, but coming just short of calling for the impeachment of the President when he is doing what is necessary to protect this country from more terrorism, is beyond reason.

We do not yet know all the details of what the President authorized. There will be an investigation and we will find out.. We need to remember that this is a time of war, which means that it is sometimes necessary to use extreme methods to defeat the enemy. My understanding, so far, is that the wiretaps were on people getting phone calls from persons overseas who were known or suspected of being connected with Al Qaeda. This is a far cry from what Gore calls “pervasive spying” on US citizens. There are some questions as to whether he should have gotten warrants from the court. He did consult Congress, which is required in this situation.

Do not forget that the Administration that Gore was a part of obtained FBI files of those they considered political enemies. That was not during wartime, and there was no danger to national security. Ol’ Al still can’t get over the fact that he lost the 2000 election. I shutter to think what this country would now be if he had been in charge when we were hit on 9-11.

Thursday, January 5, 2006


Don't usually post video but this was just to good not to share. When it loads you need to restart it.

Monday, January 2, 2006

Global Warming... The Jury is still out

Well, I had planned to write a very different Blog today. But because of my discussion in the comments in an earlier Blog, on Global Warming, I decided to do some research on it. I am just in the beginning of this, but the major point I have seen so far is how hard it really is to obtain accurate world wide temperature averages because of the time it takes and the number of points needed to gather an accurate sampling. It gets even more difficult over time. Going back in history to find temperature trends is tough; most of the methods used have major questions.

The thermometer was invented in the early 18th Century, which is late in human history, let alone Natural History, in addition the thermometer was not widely available, even in Europe until late in the 18th Century. Therefore other methods must be used to find temperatures over the whole earth and throughout history. Tree rings is one way that this has been done. Light and dark rings form each year of a tree’s growth, the thickness of individual rings is dependant upon how fast the tree grows, which in turn is dependant on many factors, one of which is temperature. But other things affect tree growth as well, soil conditions, drought, carbon dioxide levels, so determining temperature trends by this method is by no means universally accepted even among the Global Warming Crowd.

Another thing I have discovered in my initial research is that the Kyoto Protocol (Treaty established to try and curb Global Warming) leaves out 2 of the worlds biggest contributors of greenhouse gasses, China, and India. Also the cost is so high that it could devastate the economies of most of the major countries in the world.

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in conservation, as a Christian I believe that we should be good stewards of what God has given us. In fact my next car will most likely be a hybrid. But I also see that the jury is still out on how human activity is impacting the Environment. Much of what is publicly believed is fear mongering, and fear is never a good basis for decision making. Public policy should be made on the basis of sound science, not on the disaster de jour.

More on this later. I want to do more research.


Links:

http://www.junkscience.com/MSU_Temps/Warming_Look.htm

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blthermometer.htm