Category Archives: Stupidity

Far Green Screws Consumers and Environment. Again

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New York City has banned yet another common product. First it was the trans fats when the City worried about gangs greasing up the subway tracks. Then the red Solo™ cup of soda. Next it was selfies with kittens.

Now, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that the largest city in the U.S. will ban polystyrene foam, effective July 1. No more packing peanuts. No more takeout coffee cups. No more Rigid Foam insulation.
Coffee Cup on the Beach
Actually I’m good with losing packing peanuts. They are such a PITA to store in my barn.

And I don’t drink coffee.

More than 75 cities and counties in California have banned polystyrene food and beverage containers and more. Brookline, Massachusetts, did the same in 2013. And now NYC.

Did the U.S. suddenly suffer a cranio-rectal inversion? Did the science-denying State of California suddenly end up on the East Coast?

There is, as usual, pretty good (read “scientific”) evidence that plastic is better than paper. It seems that science is anathema to the Far Green.

Let’s spend a minute with the real science instead of the political science.

Study after study has compared “styrofoam” cups side by each with paper cups to find that

• Polystyrene is derived from petroleum and natural-gas. It takes 4,748 gallons of water to make 10,000 Polystyrene cups. The 5.4 million BTUs needed to make 10,000 16-ounce polystyrene cups is about the same as burning 450 pounds of coal. Most important, it takes gallons of water.

• In addition to the renewable twenty million trees, most paper cups are coated with polyethylene, derived from petroleum and natural-gas. It takes 8,095 gallons of water to make 10,000 LDPE-coated paper cups with sleeves. The 6.5 million BTUs needed for 10,000 polyethylene-coated paper cups is equivalent to 542 pounds of coal. (The “greener” polylactide-coated paper cups require even more water and energy.)

Huh.

The average 16-ounce polystyrene cup uses a third less energy, produces half the solid waste by volume, releases a third less of the so-called greenhouse gases, and uses 40-percent less water than does the “green” 16-ounce paper cup with a sleeve.

[Editor’s note: the next wars will be fought over water.]

I know! I know! We’ll ban the plastic cup because it’s bad and promote the paper cup because it’s so much better for the environment.

We haven’t even gotten to life cycles.

Polystyrene is easy peasy to grind up and put through the process again and again and again so that marvelous, mailable cooler your steaks came in could have a new life as a high dollar coffee cup if the Far Green weren’t determined to cut down our forests.

Do you really want to save the environment? Carry your own mug. Don’t litter on my beach. Learn science.

 

Kill the Pigs

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[please note that the title has nothing gekko’s porcine potluck provisioning poast.]

Neighbors shot it out in Liberty City yesterday. Again. A 3-year old girl was caught in the crossfire. The shooting started as a dispute between neighbors when bullets started flying. She was outside playing with her brother and friends when she was hit. Cops and paramedics rushed in. The little girl will be OK.

That’s just another day in the life of a police officer. It might have included a traffic stop (will they shoot me or spit on me?), a crash with injuries (will an innocent die?), a next of kin notification (how can they do that?), a burglary (is there a perp with a gun in the house?), a mob of looters (is that a brick or a stolen radio or a ham sandwich?), or a shoot out in Liberty City.

All of those incidents are adrenalin-rich but they may feel less dangerous than walking down the street to the cop on the beat who knows there could be a sniper in a shelter or a bomber with a backpack or a criminal on crank increasing his pressure on the trigger right now.

My daughter found this public troll on Facebook. She reproduced it with her own comment:

Somebody Needs to Kill Them All

“This is a posting from someone who lives in Vermont just five minutes from my house. For the purposes of this lesson, I removed the identity of the owner of the post; however, I was able to see the post without ‘friending’ him.

“The anger is real and it is on our doorstep. As the wife of a police officer, these are troubling times. Simply being a police officer makes a person ‘guilty by association.’

“We need to stand up for our police officers. I’m ready for a picket line in support of our officers. It’s about time.

I’d walk that line, too, but it will take more than that. See, this isn’t the first time — even in Vermont — for some nincompoop to put a target on the men and women who serve.

Kill the Pigs
In this case, our Vermont poster could well be the idiot offspring of a 60s flower child who chanted the title phrase in San Francisco before moving east.

Those seminal protesters weren’t so original after all. Cecil Adams at
StraightDope tell us, “If you thought the term pig arose in the 1960s, you’re in for a surprise.

“The OED cites an 1811 reference to a ‘pig’ as a Bow Street Runner–the early police force, named after the location of their headquarters, before Sir Robert Peel and the Metropolitan Police Force. Before that, the term ‘pig’ had been used as early as the mid-1500s to refer to a person who is heartily disliked.”

For the record, I’ve yet to meet a liberal who liked being called “pissylittledramaqueen” or a police officer who liked being called “pig.”

Did you ever wonder why that cop looked you over — twice — when you walked past?

Did you ever wonder if it were the fact that cultured, ivy league you just screamed “Kill the pigs” and he wondered whether you meant to do it right now?

I don’t wonder about how we raise protesters. This country was founded by protesters.

I do wonder how we raise people who can praise burning down their town, praise looting my store, and praise murdering all the cops all while they condemn a cop for killing a likely lawbreaker.

Who will save your butt:
Remember that the “talk down, not take down” proponents are the ones who run away from the flying bullets and that police officers run toward them.

 

Hit the Road, Jack

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We go to the polls in just eight days. I’m on the road today, dodging politicians. They all want a piece of my wallet.

Let’s take a look at where we are now, thanks to the crowd in Washington, in Montpelier, in Sacramento, in Tallahassee, and in a capitol near you:

Fun
• I’ve been talking to people in the grocery aisles. “I hate my cow-orkers,” one woman said. “I still couldn’t refinance my mortgage.” “We wanted to go to Hilton Head this year but we couldn’t afford the gas.” People are more negative than ever.
• The Financial Times’ has this depressing air travel story: “Once upon a time, flying was fun. Most of you won’t remember.”
• From trust in airlines to trust in cable companies to trust in food producers to trust in government, doing business isn’t fun anymore. That’s not a political issue but it does contribute to the overall negative vibe. OK, trust in government is political. You know what to do.

Health
• California’s doctor networks will stay limited in 2015. Health Net is dumping its PPO network there and switching to a plan with 54% fewer doctors and no out-of-network coverage. Health Net said its cutbacks were necessary to avoid even steeper rate hikes in California. Obamacare where “if we like our doc, we can keep our doc!”
• Dropped or delayed or pooch-screwed coverage for about 30,000 Californians! The LA Times reported that Californians face enrollment delays, dropped coverage and more, thanks to the Unaffordable Care Act. “If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance!”
• In the People’s Republic of Vermont, another seriously blue state with a broken Health Exchange built by the same company the Feds used, premiums went up and coverage went down. Costs will go down, right?
• Staying in the People’s Republic of Vermont, the state’s largest employer (that would be state government) told workers that their health insurance premiums will rise 17.9% in 2015.
• News from the Veterans Administration to the CDC is of people dying, not people thriving while the agencies from Texas to Arizona “follow protocols.” Government care makes us healthier, right?

Money
• 46.5 million people now live in poverty up, up from when Mr. Bush was president, despite 6 years of “doing better.” Obamapologists keep trying to show how much better we treat our poor. Or to blame Mr. Bush.
• The national debt of $17.76 trillion is up more than a trillion dollars every year this Administration has remained in office, despite 6 years of “doing better.” Obamapologists keep trying to spin that into a smaller number. Or to blame Mr. Bush.
• Median household income fell again, down from when Mr. Bush was president despite 6 years of “doing better,” despite 6 years of inflation. Obamapologists can’t spin that.
• Premium increases for Obamacare policies and Medicare Part B won’t be released until after the election. Obamapologists can’t spin that, either.

Safety
• A man who posed as a congressman was allowed backstage at when Mr. Obama appeared at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation awards dinner, making us wonder, Who would fake being a congressman?
• Mr. Obama has doubled the number of Border Patrol agents and says “border security is stronger than it has ever been” making us wonder, How do so many millions of illegal aliens get in?
• D.C. Spirit killed his daughter, her six children, and then himself. They had had repeated interactions with the Florida Department of Children and Families. In Hardwick, Vermont, Isaac Robitille was 5 when he got a puppy from Make-A-Wish. The Vermont Department of Children and Families confirms that they’ve tracked Isaac’s problems at least seven years. The state removed Isaac from home in 2007 but a DCF expert sent him back in 2008. They “handled” a new complaint in May. His mom and her boyfriend are charged with his murder. Police say they put vodka in Isaac’s IV. Doesn’t that make you wonder?

Every politician in office today ran on a platform of change. Every politician running for re-election is running on a promise that they “know how to fix it.”

If they know how, why didn’t they?

Tell me again why you want to re-elect any of the liars who brought you to this?

 

Thursday Thorn

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This tweeted ad from 2009 has gone viral: “If the IRS uses Sonasoft products to backup their servers why wouldn’t you choose them to protect your severs?” Hmmm. Maybe because they, um, lied?

Sonasoft IRS Update
Sonasoft has a lot more words about it in an “IRS UPDATE” on their site now: “Sonasoft Corp., a leader in enterprise-class email archiving and eDiscovery tools, clarifies its role with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Sonasoft’s email archiving services. Sonasoft does NOT have IRS email. Sonasoft NEVER had access to IRS email.”

OK, so the company that wanted you to use their products because the IRS uses their products maybe fibbed a little.

Call me crazy but I’m thinking I don’t want to do business with someone who lies to me. Of course, that seems to be business-as-usual inside the Beltway.

Kerfuffle

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“We Only Have 500 Days Left to Avoid Climate Chaos!”

Cool!

I started a kerfuffle without really trying when I posted a random quip on Facebook.

If you distrust what the Administration told you about the military, why do you trust what they say about global warming?

There’s nothing particularly profound about tossing out a query that rotated into my email signature file. On the other hand, it does ask a profound question.

You can read the more than 100 comments here but I’ll summarize the discussion:

“Because they said so!”
“Oh no they didn’t and besides, they’re wrong!”
“Oh, you don’t know what you’re talking about!”

That’s the usual take on social media these days when a person who studied materials science, a cartoonist, an international banker, a retired chemist, and a couple of writers set themselves up as the experts on climate science. Or any other hot button issue.

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
–Mark Twain

The solar deniers in this argument are quick to blame “the Internet” or “Faux News” or the “Koch Brothers” for any data that contradicts them. The irony that their proofs come from “the Internet” or “MSNBC” or “Tom Steyer” or the totally political IPCC aggregation committee apparently eludes them.

Once upon a time, I thought that nothing rivaled the misinformation spewed by global warming true believers and spinmeisters. Then I reported on the anti-GMO campaign. The way the Far Green consortium has distorted science makes Dr. Murari Lal look pure.

“We thought that if we can highlight [the fake ice melt data], it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action,” Dr. Lal told the Daily Mail.

In both cases, the purpose is to convince you, Dear Reader, to take up arms in the cause.

In both cases, the purpose is to keep the Green flowing. The green research dollars. The green investment dollars. The green tax dollars.

Science is not a Harris poll. It doesn’t matter a whit whether you believe in cold fusion or phrenology or that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. It doesn’t matter if 71% or 51% or 0% of all mankind believe in global warming. 100% of scientists believed Aristotle who told them a heavy body falls to earth faster than a light one. One man didn’t. The Church later found him “vehemently suspect of heresy” for saying the sun didn’t rotate around the earth. He spent the last years of his life under house arrest.

The trouble with our liberal friends
is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just
that they know so much that isn’t so.
And they would force us to go along.
–Dick Harper paraphrasing Ronald Reagan paraphrasing Mark Twain

Want to to know why I distrust our liberal friends?

Because they deride faith but put their faith in all the fads their polls tell them to believe. Because they adhere to vaccination denials but don’t accept the things Galileo (and others) showed them data to support.

And because everyone jumped to defend their faith in the “settled science” in this thread but not one of them answered the original question.