Can You Tell Which Way the Bus Is Moving?

It's funny how things happen.

Back in February of last year, the big stink among the intellectually challenged was George Taylor. Er, Lefties.

From KGW:

" In the face of evidence agreed upon by hundreds of climate scientists, George Taylor holds firm. He does not believe human activities are the main cause of global climate change."

Unbelievable, right? That sciency guy, Governor Kulongosski had determined that Man Made Global Warming was the biggest problem facing the state of Oregon.

"Salem – Today Governor Ted Kulongoski announced that the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington will take the lead in addressing climate change with a new western regional initiative that commits the states to set clear reduction targets for greenhouse emissions and a market-based strategy to achieve those reductions."

I mean, George got the memo, right? When the Governor says there's Man Made Global Warming, he's right. He's the Governor.

“You will be the instrument for my office to shape policy and advocate for disaster preparedness and recovery."

But George is one of those guys who wasn't cowed by the political tsunami that infected the sciency men and women of the Democrat party. And the Lefty media.

"GEORGE TAYLOR: The real question is, how much is the human effect compared to natural variation?

"LEE HOCHBERG: He's freely advanced his view, which is at odds with the preponderance of scientific thinking at scientific forums in the past. But this time, Taylor was speaking to a public audience of 400 and TV news viewers statewide. His words got the angry attention of Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski."

So, ignoring the best available evidence, the Governor pushes ahead with his mad scheme to prepare for the ultimate Quixotic vision. Jousting with Global Warming. Where poor Don, the poor guy saw windmills turn into giants, so to did our Governor see weather turn into Man Made Global Warming.

"GOV. TED KULONGOSKI: If you look at the overwhelming science in this area, the handwriting is on the wall. I don't think this is a debate any longer.

"LEE HOCHBERG: The debate is over?

"GOV. TED KULONGOSKI: It is. I think it is, and I think you have to start adopting policies to actually how we get to remedy this problem. I think it's over with.

"LEE HOCHBERG: The governor was miffed when Taylor testified against several measures in the state legislature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the recent speech may have been the last straw. The governor asked the university to get Taylor to stop using the title of "state climatologist," and he asked the legislature to make climatologist a governor-appointed position. That bill is now under debate.

"GOV. TED KULONGOSKI: You can have a press conference and say whatever you want. I don't care. Just don't say that you're the state -- representing the state when you're doing this. Mr. Taylor is a meteorologist. He's not a climatologist.

---

"GEORGE TAYLOR: As far as I'm concerned, I'm a climatologist, because I am a person who studies weather and climate trends over long periods of time, and that's what climatologists do."

So the Governor couldn't handle a guy that was stuck on smart. But he needed "technical" guys to flak for his programs. Here's the line-up:

Bill Drumheller

Senior Policy Analyst

Oregon Department of Energy

Phil Carver

Senior Policy Analyst

Oregon Department of Energy

Jim Cathcart, Ph.D.

Acting Forest Health & Monitoring Manager

Private and Community Forests Program

Oregon Department of Forestry

David Allaway

Waste Prevention Specialist

Solid Waste Policy and Program Development

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

One Ph.D. And it is instructive to read his work (pdf). (Forests, Carbon and Climate Change, Oregon Forest Resources Institute, 2006, pp 157-174.)

If you think government is all about the regulations, you haven't seen nothin' yet. You thought the Snowy Plover was a development stopper. Man Made Global Warming brings resource utilization to a grinding halt. Screeching halt. Dead stop.

No one will be able to fill in all the spaces in the reports and studies that are going to be created before allowing a logger into the woods. But that's the point, in'it? Stop logging. Stop development. Stop jobs.

Stop common sense?

So now we get back to George Taylor.

December 2nd we had a Class A Big Storm. You live next to the most violent ocean on the planet, I guess that's to be expected. I've been through a lot of storms. This one was crazy. So it has generated a lot of interest by People Who Care (gummint). And when People Who Care need info on flooding, landslides and mudslides, who did they turn to? (OREGONIANS SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR ADDITIONAL FLOODING, Press Release, January 11, 2008, FEMA/State of Oregon, no link available.)

"Director of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University, George H. Taylor said,

“'The ingredients for producing a significant flood event exist. We are having a wet winter which saturates the soil and fills up the rivers and reservoirs. We also have a deeper than average snow pack. With an additional period of heavy rain with mild temperatures melting the snow pack, there could be significant flooding.'

"'The most damaging winter flooding in the Northwest is the rain on snow event', said Taylor. This occurs when rain falls on a deep snow pack, melting the snow and causing a 'double-shot' of run-off from rain and melted snow.'

“'The conditions are right in the Willamette Valley for a significant flood event. You still have a saturated soil, full rivers, and a heavy snow pack. The average snow pack figures have increased dramatically in the last 30 days. Thirty days ago it was at 45 percent of the average snow water equivalent in the Willamette Valley. Recently it was listed at 162 percent.'

"The flood of February 1996 is an example of the 'rain on snow event', according to Taylor. He said the combination of heavy rain, warm temperatures and a deep snow pack, caused large amounts of run-off water and wide-spread flooding. He noted the importance of residents heeding agencies’ warnings and that in Dec. 1964 the flooding caused a tremendous loss of life while in Feb. 1996 there was less loss of life due in part to residents taking flood warnings seriously, being prepared, and being aware of what to do in an emergency situation."

In a post-Normal world, from time to time Lenin's "Useful Idiots" need to be turned to for street cred. Does the Governor believe that George Taylor knows what he's talking about? the Governor's own words say "no". “You will be the instrument for my office." Or, you're out.

I'm glad that the Feds are here. George is getting the attention he deserves, in a good way. Senator Avakian has never met the man...but sponsored a bill to replace him.

"Sen. Brad Avakian, (D) Washington County, is sponsoring the bill. He said global warming is so important to state policy it's important to have a climatologist as a consultant to the governor. He denied this is targeted personally at Taylor. 'Absolutely not,' Avakian said, 'I've never met Mr. Taylor and if he's got opinions I hope he comes to the hearing and testifies.'"

Yeah, sure, McGoo. Just as sure as Governor Kulongoski is mad.

"Kulongoski said the state needs a consistent message on reducing greenhouse gases to combat climate change.

"The Governor says, 'I just think there has to be somebody that says, "this is the state position on this."'"

Earlier links here, here, here, here and here

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Governor K Has Lost His Marbles

Kulongoski to Oregon Homeland Security Council:

“You will be the instrument for my office to shape policy and advocate for disaster preparedness and recovery."

I can't imagine being in the same room with this guy.

“It is our responsibility to do everything we can to prepare our communities for the consequences of crisis, whether by natural causes or man-made.”

I can't imagine talking to a roomful of adults in this fashion. Do they see the meglomania in his eyes? Gag.

The members of the Homeland Security Council are:
Representative Jeff Barker, D-Aloha
Chief Dave Bishop, Beaverton Police Department
Representative Brian Boquist, R-Dallas
Chief John Buchanan, Siuslaw Valley Fire & Rescue
Craig Campbell, President, The Victory Group
Katy Coba, Director, Department of Agriculture
Glen Collins, Department of Homeland Security
Mark Crosby, Chief Public Safety Officer, Port of Portland
Paul Evans, Governor’s Emergency Preparedness Policy Advisor
Matt Garrett, Director, Department of Transportation
Senator Gary George, R-Newberg
Bruce Goldberg, Director, Department of Human Resources
Chief Jeff Johnson, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue
John McArdle, Mayor of Independence, Oregon
Tim McLain, Superintendent, Oregon State Police
Armond Minthorn, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla
Larry Mullins, DHA, Samaritan Health Service
Ken Murphy, Director, Oregon Emergency Management
Ken Niles, Assistant Director of Nuclear Safety & Energy Siting, Department of Energy
MG Raymond Rees, Adjutant General, Oregon National Guard
Ken Rueben, Chief Investigator/Criminal Intelligence Unit, Department of Justice
Kelly Skye, Governor’s Legal Counsel
Gerard Smith, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
Chip Terhune, Governor’s Chief of Staff
Senator Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay
Fred Warner, Baker County Board of Commissioners
Max Williams, Director, Department of Corrections

Teh Church Cats

A mother looked out a window and saw Johnny playing church with their three kittens.

He had them lined up and was preaching to them. The mother turned around to do some work.

A while later she heard meowing and scratching on the door.

She went to the window and saw Johnny baptizing the kittens.

She opened the window and said, 'Johnny, stop that! You'll drown those kittens.'

Johnny looked at her and said with much conviction in his voice:

'They should have thought of that before they joined my church.'

Thanks to my ma. Former PTA president. Back before the unions turned teachers against the kids. The PTA actually supported education back then. They taught us about energy. There were two type; kinetic and potential. Kinetic energy was characterized as motion. Stuff like waves, atoms, objects. Potential energy was characterized as stored energy. Stuff like chemical energy, energy stored by a wound-up spring. My coffee cup sitting on the edge of my desk.

The biggest fund raiser of the year for the PTA was the annual carnival. My favorite was the fishing pole. For three tickets you stuck a fishing pole with a magnet attached by a short line into the cut-out of a large box. What I didn't know--when I was little--was that grown-ups were inside the box. When you pulled your line out of the box a prize was attached. My favorite was a large, black plastic spider on a scissors. When you squeezed the scissors, the spider stuck out. I took the scissors off the spider and put the spider under my oldest sister's pillow that night.

Funniest night of my life.

Want To Feel Good?

Follow this link to The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

Mr. Robin Williams may not always agree on starting points, or where we should end up, but it is clear that he enjoys the men and women of our armed forces.

In the "old days" we used to be able to disagree with each other and not want to destroy each other. During the days of the Viet Nam protests, that civility ended. Cops were pigs. Politicians were crooks. If you weren't fighting "The Man" it was because you were "The Man".

Now we live, or would like to live, our dreams. And don't wish to be awakened.

A Growth Conundrum

(This is a picture of Hines. Hines is in Harney county. Harney county is larger than eight US states. The population of Harney county is 7, 609.)

It takes a lot of energy to excite change.

Those of you with technical or scientific backgrounds are aware of this. Heat is a by-product of this change. Harnessing that heat is one of the ways that we are able to capture energy and transport it from place to place. When you take a look at the work Edison and Westinghouse--both real people, not just names of companies--and how that work has transformed civilization, our lives are really type and kind different from a scant 150 years ago. Throw in Henry, Morse and Bell, and you have the transformation of society and culture.

I am a product of the society and culture that has been built upon the work of these men. I'm not Eurocentric in terms of holding in greater esteem the culture and practises of our European forefathers. I'm a Rationalist. A Classic Liberal. I value the empirical.

At the same time I'm also aware of my humanity. My feelings and need for love. My appreciation of music and art. In many ways, these feelings are non-rational. I accept the fact that I feel a cringe of pain when a bird unwittingly flies into my car. At 65 miles per hour. My rationality can only hope to impose order on a random event. Am I responsible for the death of the bird?

When I was a boy I borrowed my next door neighbor's BB gun. When I gave my sons their first BB guns I told them not to shoot birds. Or any little critter. When I was a boy I thought I'd try my hand at shooting a bird. Well, mission accomplished. I gave my neighbor his gun back and never fired a weapon at another creature again. I didn't like the way it made me feel.

Now, dial back to my childhood. We raised 100 chickens each year. Twenty rabbits. One calf. For slaughter.

One of the advantages of living on a farm--in this case what was known as a "gentleman's farm"--is the proximity within which one is placed with the eventual victuals before they are borne off to Animal Valhalla. That is to say, chickens is stupid. You feed them. You collect the eggs. And once a year a whole passle of them sign up for dinner duty. It's more of a federal program. You don't actually volunteer. You're inducted.

When it's chopping block time the whole family is involved. Being the only male offspring had its perks (in my family's Male-Centric Culture!). Mom would organize the girls around the large pot of water over the cook-ring. My job was to round up the volunteers and take them to my dad. He would seperate and toss. I would then collect the carcass and carry it to my waiting mom and sisters, who would dunk the carcass in the hot water and proceed to denude the little chicken bodies. If you think a chicken coop smells, wait until the feathers hit the hot water pot. (Ah! memories).

Point is, we laughed at the chickens who, for the first time, attempted flight sans head. Chickens is amazing things. You lop their tiny heads and their bodies still attempt to take the 4 o'clock outta town. It's amazing and yes, funny. Rabbits? Not so much fun. I won't go through the process, you can find out on your own. But my dad did it quickly and with a certain grimness that attends taking your daughters' and son's "pets" to the dinner table. It's okay to have a relationship with your rooster. It's okay to have an almost relationship with your brood hens. But brood hens often end up in the stew pot. Circle of Life.

Rabbits are hard. You can take one or two out of their hutch and bring them with you into the yard. They're cute. And little ones love to pet them. So, dad did his best to minimize their demise. Lloyd, our beef--all beeves were named Lloyd, family tradition--was taken off for his trip to the other side. What we got back were white packages with words written on them, like "tongue", "roast" and "steak". So long, Lloyd. Lloyd will be back in a matter of weeks, new and fresh.

So shooting a bird, and I don't remember if it was a robin or a sparrow, is a hurt that I remember today. There was my prize. A dead bird. I had unnecessarily taken a life for absolutely no more reason than to prove to myself I could hit a target on the fly.

When I gave my sons their BB guns I shared my killing of this innocent bird. Don't do it. And if you do, to just see if you're a Gee-Whiz Ace, don't be surprised if you feel bad. Real bad.

When I kill a bird with my car I feel bad, too. And this whole memory comes back. The shock of death. It's finality. But I shake it off. We were both complicit in the act. I for driving, it for choosing the wrong moment to attempt to take a bug that coincidently also was a victim of the crash. Our compassion tends to extend to the furry and the feathered. Rarely for the exoskeletoned. Or opposums.

But I'm not giving up my car. That would be stupid.

And the source of the great divide in current political thoughts.

Let's assume that Oregon is going to need an additonal 360-megawatts of electricity in the next two years. And an additional 360-megawatts in the two years following that investment. For a total of 720-megawatts. How do we get there?

Two choices. Understand that if you want to eat chicken, you gotta kill the chicken. Or, the vegan way. Renewables. Sounds cool, huh? Wind!

Somebody needs to take these vegans out of their cells and into the world. At times I feel they must envision (visioning things is something vegans do well...maybe they need more meat in their diet?) the production process for wind generators as involving men in leather aprons hammering turbine blades on the anvil next to their hearth. Wind Power! It's Infinite! And incredibly expensive to produce. And, and here's the killer, dependant upon the wind. So if it's not windy? Storage Cells! And leather clad smithies are imagined forging these Storage Cells out of iron on the anvils next to their hearths.

There is a reason why children in this country are named Bilbo and Frodo. And I don't think it's good.

But it's a total package. The Vegan View is we can't eat meat. We can't pollute the world. And I shouldn't be allowed to drive my car if I'm going to go out and slaughter innocent creatures with it. Bugs and opposums, excluded.

But do you have any understanding of what happens to birds? Subtend an arc of 60 feet. Now, determine the speed that the tip of that arc is travelling at when the tip is rotated 10 times per minute. 30 times per minute. Bird, meet Animal Valhalla. The difference to the Vegan? When I drive my car, I'm there. When my leather-clad technology--think quaint Dutch windmill--meets bird I'm not there. More birds die, remotely. Not to mention all the exoskeletal life that will end up at the foot of their new altar.

And, of course, this whole looniness wants to ignore more than dead birds. It wants to ignore the manufacturing process for these new "renewable" wind turbines. In the manufacture of these devices, there is nothing "renewable" about it. Composites are made from metal and oil. Petroleum products. Minerals mined from the earth and oil pumped from the ground. The amount of waste products going into the manufacture of just one wind turbine would spin your head.

But, just like the birds you kill remotely, the manufacturing process is one involving leather-clad elven-folk. Complete with felt hat and arrow quiver over one shoulder. Not the white-coated, gleaming production plant that such stringent manufacturing methods require. But the unseen, white-coated production team is just another unseen part of their Miracle of Energy. Elven, leather-clad smithies. Infinitely renewable energy. A mantra of stupid, repeated over, and over and over.

If wind turbines were truly cost effective, do you think a single, non-wind turbine source for energy would exist in this country? Of course not. Just like dreams of non-gasoline engined cars is proffered by the political class as a solution to our dependence on Middle East oil, these political dreamers have envisioned white-coated technicians coming to the aid of our country, in our hour of crises.

While reasonable sources of energy are condemned. Because the interior picture, the one these vegan lefties refer to when thinking about common sense, is one of black smoke billowing from tall brick chimneys, and street orphans roaming the street as Fagins, searching for love and a meal.

We need energy today. If you were the Boss of Everything, would you look to coal? Nuclear? LNG? They're low-cost. They're efficient. They're doable. And they are cheaper than any of the alternatives. Except, perhaps, for Hydro. But, like nuclear I don't think we'll see a new power plant built in this country in my lifetime. Re-licensing these remarkably efficient power sources has become a marathon event in its own right.

So, what would you choose?

I live in a county the size of Rhode Island. I live in a county with around 33-thousand people in it. Will someone, please, explain to me why I'm in danger of living in an 18th century, pollution-filled future if we build one LNG or coal-fired power plant? Is it simply because, even though we aren't there, we can remotely "envision" the pollution pouring from such a plant?

I think that is so. Worried by apocalyptic warnings eminating from the pie-hole of such notable scientists as Al Gore and Governor Kulongoski, we live in fear of being a single trip-wire away from disaster. And yet my eyes, everywhere I look, see empty.

This is the disconnect between the "vision" and seeing.

When you reflect upon your choices this election season, I'd ask you to think about the man you're choosing to vote for. Are you buying into his vision? Or, can the man see things the way they are.

Chances are, if you're more into the vision-thing, you're a Democrat. Or a Ron Paul guy. And I can't change a single thing about you.

But, if your rational, a liberal, maybe you can learn something from a guy like David Hume. Or, even Al Bell, G. Westinghouse, T. Edison or that Henry feller. I know what kind of a future I had hoped for for my children. My vision was one of progress and reason.

Oops. There's that vision-thing again.

Thematic links: It seems that others have been considering this conundrum. Here are some different ways of approaching this divide between vision and seeing.

From Captain's Quarters. Make sure you click on the "1956 cartoon" link.

From Barking Moonbat Early Warning System. A brief essay from Pat Sajak. Yes. That Pat Sajak.

From The Belmont Club. Dreamers and Dreaming.

It's time to stop talking about the vision and start living it.

State Senator In The News!

NEW! Video of Senator Johnson pushing land deal. (Transcription of story here.)

In Oregon, the fix is in.

Pretty much. If you're a Democrat and you want to break the law, normally impunity is the right pose. When you've got the governor, the secretary of state and the attorney general all riding the same train there are few checks and balances.

For example? Why not take the "Special Session" they decided to have last year. Law abiding citizens have tried to point out that simply deferring a decision to the following year doesn't create an emergency. Pretty much by definition, anything you plan to do later can't be considered an act out of a necessary emergency. For democrats, the law is what they believe it should be.

Of course, if a legislator finds his, or her, finger in somebody else's purse and doesn't report it no one can tell you if a crime occured. At least not in Oregon. Well, it seems that the FBI may be considered a competent legal authority. Those darn Feds! Didn't they get the memo?

We wake to find out that State Senator Betsy Johnson is being investigated by the FBI. Surprised? Me not so much. I've written about the senator here and here. Is there a tie-in to the 800-lb gorilla of state politics? Or, are we being unfair?

After all, Democrats enjoy majority status in the state legislature. Who are we to question their ethics?

UPDATE: Here are some thoughts from Willamette Week.

"Sen. Johnson is another of Gov. Neil's corrupt cronies. I predict she will fall as well."

"I predict that Senator Johnson will outlast this controversy. She has too many powerful friends. You can read peoples comments about Betsy on the St. Helens update's barbs and letters. www.sthelensupdate.com"

"Ethical legislators do not pay fines for Ethics Law violations. They just don't commit the violations. Betsy needs to go- now !!"