Choose Life

For those of you expecting an anti-abortion rant out of me today, sorry to disappoint.  The winner of the Wacky Warning Label Contest advises users of a bobcat type tractor to “Avoid Death”…  Good advice in most situations, but especially when you’re using a Bobcat.  Second place went to a label on an iron-on T-shirt transfer that advocates not wearing the shirt while ironing.  The contest is hosted by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch to point out how our insane civil court system and sue happy lawyers have taken things a touch too far…  Pictures of the winning entries can be seen here.  (Warning: Apparently they’re getting too much traffic, so the sight may be down.  Please don’t sue me.)

McDonald's Wants You to Move Along...

Ran across this story today, which I’m not sure I understand…  Drive-Thru customers at 40 McDonald’s in England are given 45 minutes to finish their meal and leave the parking lot or they’re issued a $225 ticket.  Oddly enough, I find myself having trouble grasping the behavior of the customers, not McDonalds.  First off, isn’t the whole purpose of going through a drive-thru so you eat on the road?  If you’re going to sit in your car to eat, why not just go inside?  And 45 minutes?  Holy cow, how slow of an eater are you?  You can’t eat a Big Mac and fries in 45 minutes?  Shoot, I can be done at most sit-down restaurants in 45 minutes and that’s with three kids!  I know people are different in Europe, but this story really confuses me…

Maybe we should get us some of that reform, Pappy?

I couldn’t help but think of the above quote from one of the most quotable movies of all time (O, Brother Where Are Thou?) when I read this today about how the Democrats are going to run as the “Change Candidate” in the ’08 elections... Apparently they don’t have enough Democrats to actually accomplish things, so even though they’re the Majority that’s presided over one of the least effective congresses of all time they want to run on change… From Harry Reid:

Have we stopped the war in Iraq? No. Have we gotten health care? No. Have we improved education? No. But we have been able to do what we’ve done. We’ve done a lot of things.

Let me translate. We haven’t done anything we said we would, but hey, will you elect more of us? Sounds like an effective strategy. Unfortunately I’m not sure the Republicans have fully learned the lessons of ’06 enough to take advantage of it.

Oh well, more O, Brother quotes. Much more entertaining…

· Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi's a little more hard-nosed.
· You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land.
· Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T.
· We ain't one-at-a-timin' here. We're MASS communicating!
· You don't say much my friend, but when you do it's to the point, and I salute you for it.

You're a Genius

Apparently if you can read and understand this blog, you're a genius! Yeah... No idea what their criteria is over at criticsrant.com, but hey, they must be right...

Well at least you can tell people you're a genius...

More Global Warming Insanity

By now, you’ve probably heard about the list of things caused by Global Warming produced by British mathematician John Brignell.  If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out here.  It’s an astounding list of all the things that have been attributed to global warming in some media source or another, with links (some are broken).  I’m astounded at all the “matching pairs” of mutually exclusive items, such as:

·       Atlantic less salty – Atlantic more salty
·       Avalanches reduced – Avalanches increased
·       Bananas destroyed – Bananas grow
·       Coral reefs dying – Coral reefs grow
·       Desert advance – Desert retreat
·       Earth slowing down – Earth spins faster
·       Fish stocks rise – Fish stocks decline

There’s a number more, but that’s enough for now; you’ll have to find the rest on your own.  Some of my personal favorites were “circumcision in decline”, “brothels struggle”, “boredom”, “early marriage” and “inflation in China”.  Now maybe it’s just me, but it seems this might be something we don’t have a real good handle on if we’re blaming everything under the sun on global warming, including things that directly contradict each other. 

And another thing, “Carbon Cap and Trade” schemes have been in the news lately with Democrats wanting to attach them to the latest energy bill.  Now basically, this is the Carbon Credits, which I discuss here, on a grand scale.  So today on my news reader I get this from HowStuffWorks.com.  It’s a great little article expounding the many virtues of a carbon tax…  I had a number of issues with this article.  First off, there is no real neutrality here.  One of the things I’ve liked about HSW in the past was that they were even-handed on things I’d read.  This article takes global warming as fact and carbon emissions by humans as the cause.  Setting that aside, it says that “Carbon tax is one of two major market-based options to lower emissions, the other being cap-and-trade schemes.”  Now maybe it’s just me, but we’re talking about a tax and government regulation.  How exactly are those “market-based”?  They sound as “market-based” as rent ceilings and the minimum wage…  Now let’s look at their arguments as to why this is such a good thing…

First, it encourages people to stop using fossil fuels.  Here’s your first tip this isn’t a market-based solution.  Government action is changing the behavior of consumers.  If the Market was driving this action, it wouldn’t require a tax.  Second, “Carbon tax also encourages alternative energy by making it cost-competitive with cheaper fuels.”  Note here that all this is going to do is raise energy prices.  I don’t know about you, but I would love nothing more than to hand over more of my hard-earned money every time I fill up at the gas station or pay my monthly bills.  If you want me to use alternative energy, fine.  Come up with an alternative energy that’s cost-effective (oh wait, we already have.  It’s called nuclear power).  Don’t jack the price of everything up to make alternative energy competitive.  And yes, it’s the cost of everything.  You’re not the only one that depends on fossil fuels to get to do your job and run your lights.  Finally, “don't forget about all the money raised by the tax”.  Absolutely.  We all know the government is such a good steward of our money.  What they need is more of my money to waste.  And I don’t see this tax being manipulated like all the other taxes out there.  You know, those with the best lobbyists suddenly finding their carbon emissions are “tax-free”.  No, that would never happen…

Finally, good news on the environmental front from an unexpected source.  It seems we may all be saved by sweet-smelling kangaroos.  Well, I’m not sure if they smell sweet, but presumably their farts don’t stink because the bacteria in their digestive tracts don’t create methane, a “potent greenhouse gas”.  Now, scientists are going to try and transfer this bacteria to other species, which seems like a great idea.  Perhaps this device would serve the same purpose?