Love My Country, Loathe My Government: August 2017

Monday, August 28, 2017

Stupid Laws By Stupid Politicians By State

More times than we would like to remember we have discussed the reality that American politicians are not smart enough, dedicated enough, or industrious enough to understand root causes of problems facing Americans today. As a result, they either put forth remedies that make a current problem worse or they focus on solving problems that no one really cares about.

This reality really comes into focus when you consider a recent article on the Self Reliance Central website. They went to the trouble of researching and determining the dumbest state or local laws in every state. I have pulled out some of the most ridiculous ones and listed them below.

When reading these inane laws, ask yourself if that is the type of effort and problems you wanted the local politicians to focus on when they were elected. I am assuming that the politicians that put forth effort to enact these types of nonsense did not fix the schools in their state or city. They did not get their broken infrastructure repaired. They did not resolve the problems of drug addictions of their citizens or get crime under control.

Instead they worked on the following non-problems:

In Alaska it is legal to convert a picnic table or bench into a boat as long it has life preservers and is legally registered as a boat.
In Arizona it is illegal for donkey to sleep in a bathtub. Really?
In Arkansas it is somehow illegal if you mispronounce the state’s name.
It is against the law to eat a frog in California who died during a “frog jumping contest.” Did not know that frog jumping was so big in that state.
In Florida, pregnant pigs must be allowed to roam freely and not penned up during their pregnancy term. This law applies only to pigs and is actually enshrined in the state’s Constitution.
In Pocatello, Idaho, it is illegal to be out in public and NOT smile, according to a 1948 city ordinance.
In Illinois anyone under the legal drinking age of 21 can legally drink if they are currently enrolled in a culinary program. I would bet that culinary programs are big in Illinois.
In Indiana it is illegal to have a hypnotist work on you unless you have a doctor’s referral or you are trying to lose weight or stop smoking.
In Topeka, Kansas, it is illegal to scream in a haunted house.
In Kentucky it is illegal to dye a duckling blue and put it up for sale….unless more than six ducklings are being sold at one time. Would love to know the thought process that said one is bad but six is okay.
In Louisiana you can be fined $500 if you instruct a pizza delivery person to deliver a pizza to someone without them knowing it was coming.
In Massachusetts it is illegal to have targets at shooting ranges that are in the shape of humans.
In Minnesota it is illegal to grease up a pig if the purpose of greasing the pig up is to try and capture it. Party poopers in that state.
In Mississippi a woman can go to jail if she delivers two illegitimate children, either at the same time or at different times.
It is illegal in Missouri to remove mattress tags (horrors!) or bring an unlabeled mattress into the state.
In Reno, Nevada, it is illegal to lie down on a public sidewalk.
New Hampshire, it is illegal to gather up seaweed on a beach during night hours, I am assuming it is okay to do it during the day
In New Jersey, it is illegal to wear a bulletproof vest while murdering, kidnapping, robbing, or raping. Which raises the obvious question, where and when is it legal to wear your bulletproof vest?
In North Carolina it is illegal to use a secret handshake to agree to or do illegal things. Can we assume the crime rate plummeted once secret handshakes were outlawed?
In North Dakota it is illegal to attempt or perform human cloning in the state. I wonder if that is a big problem up there, successful human cloning?
In Oklahoma it is illegal to participate in horse tripping in way or form, with the penalty being a $2,000 fine or one year in jail. Again, did horse tripping crime rates go way down once this law was passed?
If you are a convicted felon you are not allowed to operate a bingo game in the state of Pennsylvania. Because so many felons like to operate bingo games?
In South Carolina it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to play pinball. Maybe these S.C. youth should move to Illinois where they can enroll in a culinary class which allows them to drink alcohol AND play pinball.
In Texas, the state constitution says an atheist cannot hold any public office.
In Vermont, it is illegal to dress a horse up in a disguise or to disguise it as something other than a horse. Why would anyone want to dress up and disguise their horse?
In West Virginia it is illegal to use a ferret to hunt any kind of wild animal. I did not know ferrets could do that, even though it is illegal in West Virginia.
In Wisconsin it is illegal to serve margarine in restaurants (unless a customer asks for it) or in prisons unless the margarine is going to be used for medical purposes. I am curious to know what possible medical purpose margarine serves.

The entire list of every state can be accessed at:

www.selfreliancecentral.com

So the next time you realize your kids are not getting a good education, that you hit three pot holes on your way to work, that crime is out of control, keep in mind that your elected representatives are hard at work putting forth and wasting their time and your tax dollars enacting the above ludicrous laws. Term limits anyone?

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Political Elitism Is Still Alive and Well In Washington D.C.

We have often talked about how good/great life is if you are a member of Congress:

They are paid more than three times the amount of what a typical American household makes in a year.
Most politicians are far wealthier after they leave office than when they entered office.
They get a life time pension after just serving a few years in office while the vast majority of Americans never get a pension no matter how long they work.
They get top medical care and a whole variety of other perks.
They have large staffs to cater to their every whim.
They get multiple vacations a year, cleverly disguised as “recesses,” including a whopping five weeks off in the summer.
And best of all, they do not have to do anything productive for these perks and wages, since our recent history shows that over the past decades our public schools still under educate our kids, we have a crumbling infrastructure throughout the nation, our borders still leak, we have no overarching national energy strategy, we have no overarching immigration plan, poverty is still significant across the country, etc.

What a great life if you can get it. But a certain Congressman has taken this elitism and greed to a whole new level according to a recent Politico article by John Bresnahan and Rachael Baden which concerned Todd Rokita, an Indiana Congressman.

If you are his chauffeur when the Congressman visits his home district you better be prepared since Politico got its hands on an eight page memo that outlines the responsibilities of that chauffeur when driving around the Congressman:

You have to empty his trash.
You have to have hand sanitizer and gum always available.
You cannot have “unnecessary conversation” while driving the Congressman around.
You have to hand him a cup of black coffee when picking him up.
You have to act as a physical barrier if anyone approaches him.
You have to avoid sudden acceleration and braking while driving the Congressman around, with “The goal is to provide as smooth a ride as possible.”
You are expected to transport his toothbrush and toothpaste.
You also have to stock and carry around the 20 item supply box that his staff calls “the football,” which carries gum, hand sanitizer, business cards, bottled water, napkins, throat lozenges, s stapler with staple remover, Post-it notes, Shout wipes, and Kleenex.
The car should always have a hangar available and the chauffeur should never allow the Congressman to be photographed with a drink in his hand.
When the Congressman enters the car the chauffeur is to ask him if he has his phone and wallet.
According to Politico, “Drivers are expected to know when each event was approved in Rokita’s scheduling office, whether reporters will be there and the best locations for interviews, as well as the layout of each event and where Rokita will be standing.”
When picking up the Congressman the car needs to be properly positioned so that it is easy for the Congressman to enter and for the car to leave as quickly as possible.
The driver has to make sure that any idling cars are far enough away from the Congressman’s house so that fumes do not get close or inside the house.
The Congressman should be informed of any sudden turns and sudden stops while in the car, as if a driver knows ahead of time there will be a sudden stop coming up.
Things really get wild for the driver when the Congressman is gadflying about in public, functions that I would think would be part of his communications and PR staff, not his car driver: “Staffing Rokita's events seems to be a task made for Superman. Drivers are expected to collect contact information from “as many people as possible” and ensure the information is “quickly entered into the relevant databases.” At the same time, they're supposed to be taking pictures for social media, “notes of all interactions” Rokita has with constituents, identifying reporters and sending Rokita’s communications director a summary of exchanges he has with the press.”
From a health perspective, the chauffeur is expected to keep the Congressman hydrated: “When you arrive at the event, get Todd a non-alcoholic drink that he can carry with him as he visits (water, diet soda, and coffee are best),” the manual reads.
And in a blow against democracy, the chauffeur is expected to help keep contact with reporters and journalists to a minimum.

Pathetic elitism if you ask me. How much taxpayer wealth was spent putting together a detailed, single spaced, eight page document on how to drive a Congressman around town?

And if he is a member of Congress that 1) needs to have someone else make sure he has enough gum around, 2) needs someone else to remind him to bring his wallet and phone, 3) needs someone else to manage his reporter contact time, 4) needs someone else to serve him a cup of coffee, 5) needs someone else to tote his toothbrush and toothpaste around, and 6) needs someone to actually warn him about a sudden curve or stop, then I am not quite sure he is not the right person to fix our schools, fix our infrastructure, fix our energy plans, fix our leaky borders, fix Social Security, fix Medicare and Medicaid, and fix the dire financial state of the country’s fiscal condition.

If you cannot remember to bring your wallet, if you cannot remember to bring your cell phone, if you are too lazy to get your own pack of gum, if you are not smart enough to manage your own time with reporters, then you probably need to leave and let someone else take your spot. You are obviously worried about the wrong set of priorities.

The entire document can be viewed at:

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3933393-Scan.html#document/p6/a368855

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Political Class Insanity and Economic Ignorance: California Update

We have often discussed the reality that politicians could not be any more ignorant of economics and financial planning than if they tried. Their economic strategies, policies, and stupidity usually make economic and financial conditions worse. Their idiocy usually comes down hardest on those that can least afford bad economic policies and environments, those at the lower economic scale in this country and around the world.

Their economic policies overseas have stifled economic growth and greatly reduced economic freedoms as we discussed in the following post:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/07/july-2017-part-4-political-class.html

Their economic policies at the state and local government levels in this country have crippled economic development in many states and cities. Detroit and several cities in California have already essentially gone bankrupt and the state governments in Illinois, New Jersey, and California are not too far behind when it comes to economic collapse, as the following posts and discussions reveal:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/02/people-want-to-be-freeas-do-california.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/02/februrary-2017-part-3-political-class.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-californias-distressed-economy-is.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-california-is-failing-while.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/07/state-level-economic-musings-california.html

And the sad thing about these posts is that they are not all of the bad news that we have previously discussed regarding stupid politicians doing stupid economic things. I just got tired of listing all of them.

Today we will discuss AGAIN how politicians, California politicians in this case, have managed to economically and financially wreck an entire state’s current and future financial well being. The basis of this review is an article by Scott Osborn, writing for the Joe For America website on August 20, 2017, “Point Of No Return! California Faces Imminent Financial Collapse!”:

The state of California has incurred and is now carrying a debt load of $340 billion.
This comes out to a whopping debt load of over $8,700 for every man, woman, and child in the state.
But that is of today, experts peg the future debt load just for the state pension system at $1 TRILLION, about three times higher than the obscene current debt burden of $340 billion: “California is a cautionary tale for taxpayers in the rest of the country. The people of California are being burdened by an unsustainable, unfunded liability – a $1 trillion dollar government pension system. At the end of the day under California law, the taxpayers will subsidize the shortfall in the budget.”
While California has 14 million people working in private sector jobs in the state, there is almost the same amount of people (12.6) million not working and who are living on welfare benefits.
There are 2.1 current state and local government employees but there are 1.3 million people collecting government pensions in the state.
There are 114 people getting government benefits in the state, either by drawing a government worker check or by getting welfare, for every 100 people outside of government paying taxes to support the 114.
And this outrageous state government debt was incurred despite the reality that California has one of the highest, if not the highest, state income tax rates in the country.
For many working people in California, if they moved to Texas and maintained their current income level, their tax savings would enable them to buy a new car every year.
While there are rich Californians living in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, poverty permeates the rest of the state with homeless people creating tent cities in other parts of the state and the L.A. City Council recently pleading with governor Jerry Brown ““to declare homelessness a statewide emergency“.
Despite the sky high taxes, the state’s infrastructure is falling apart with even the governor recognizing the fact and calling for another $100 billion to be spent to fix the infrastructure.
In a previous post, we cited the reality that about 40% of L.A. residents are on the Medicaid roles, indicating a very low level of income for 40% of the city’s residents.
High taxes, bad employment opportunities, high crime, bad schools etc. have resulted in a net migration out of California of about 5 million people in the past decade.
I would assume that a high proportion of those moving out were not welfare cases but were likely highly productive, tax paying, working individuals, which if true, would put even more pressure on the state government’s tax revenue collections.
The author cites his success in escaping California: a 25% reduction in the cost of living, a 15% decrease in income, a $2 a gallon drop in gasoline prices, and the purchase of a livable 3,200 square foot home for less than a third of the price of a comparable home in California, and no state income tax...and a new car every year if he wanted it.

Thus, only politicians can take the most beautiful piece of property in the country, have the most residents, have the most tax revenue, have the the built in, perpetual wealth of Hollywood and Silicon Valley but yet have some of the worst schools, the worst run pension systems, have the highest debt, have some of the worst public infrastructure, and the worst economic outlook of just about any state in the union.

Economic ignorance is too tame a term to describe what the California political class has done to the state, its citizens, and its future. Let’s just hope that the cancer that is California economic ignorance can be contained before it spreads elsewhere in the country.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

August, 2017, Part 3, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees.

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control of our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical posts listed on the right side of this page.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) I used to work for a manager in a corporation who had a great saying: “nothing is more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” Every body has an opinion, but only opinions based on real numbers have any chance at being accurate. Such is the case when you look at the numbers on two graphs on the NASA website page dedicated to climate:

https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/

As we discussed a few days ago, one of the lynch pins that must happen for global warming advocates to be right is that the seas and oceans around the world need to rise dramatically as the ice caps melt and the water in those seas and oceans gets ever higher. If that rise in the water levels is not dramatic than the entire globaL warming hysteria starts to look just like that, hysteria.

Such is the case with the two graphs from NASA on the website cited above and the what their numbers convey:

The first graph charts the rise in sea levels from 1993 to the present.
And at first blush, it appears that global warming advocates might be right, the sea levels have increased at a pretty steady pace over the past 24 years.
But look closely at the graph and you will notice two things.
First, you will see that while the levels are up, they are up only about 86 mm which, if I did the math right, is only about 3.4 inches, hardly enough to flood out New York City as was claimed might happen in a global warming piece decades ago.
Also note that for the last couple of years there has been no increase in the sea levels. While a couple of years is not enough to say the trend has stopped or started to reverse, it is something to follow going forward.
The second graph does the same tracking of sea levels but starts way back in 1870 until about 1993, the point where the first graph started.
If global warming is a recent phenomenon because there are so many more people using so much more fossil based fuels than for most of the time period of 1870 to 1993, then that chart of sea levels should have been flat at least until the 1970s, when global warming theory took hold.
But it is not flat, the sea levels have been rising at a steady rate for about 147 years, according to NASA, and were rising long before global warming should have been happening.

Now, one could make the case that sea levels have been rising since 1870 but man made global warming made them rise faster in the past 24 years vs. the previous 120 years or so. That is a valid logical point.

But let’s not try to claim that the entire 86 mm rise since 1993 is solely because of mankind’s use of carbon fuel sources, something Al Gore would likely try to do. Some, most, or all of that rise could be just a trend of nature that began back in 1870 and what has seen sea levels rise ever since.

2) The beauty of predicting the future is that often no one is still alive to see if your predictions came true. Unfortunately, that was not the case for climate change/global warming scientist James Hansen back in 1988, according to V. Saxena, writing for the Conservative Tribune website on July 17, 2017:

When interviewed by Salon magazine back then in 1988, Hansen claimed that within a few decades that New York City’s West Side Highway would “be under water.”
That windows in the city would have to be taped in order to resist the high winds of global warming.
Bird populations would have changed and trees would have changed because of global warming.
Crime rates would soar because of the high temperatures.

Bad prediction, Mr. Hansen, 30 years later the West Side Highway is still high and dry, bird and tree populations have not changed, and no one sees a need to tape their windows. Another global warming prediction that is completely wrong on all counts.

Unfortunately for Hansen, he outlived his predictions and is still alive to see how grossly wrong his predictions went. But I give him credit because he is still plugging away with a new set of global warming predictions.

In a recent paper he published he now warns that if the U.S. continues to use fossil fuels, the world’s sea levels would increase “several meters” within the next 50 to 150 years. He was wrong when he said in 1988 that NYC would be flooded by this time so now he makes sure he and most of the rest of us will be dead before if we see if he is wrong a second time.

How does that old saying go: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Too bad we will not be around to see if he is so wrong again, wise move on his part.

3) Looks like Mr. Hansen is not the only person coming out with new predictions despite having been so wrong with his predictions in the past. According to an article by Sarah Taylor, writing for the The Blaze on July 25, 2017, Al Gore is back with a whole new set of scary predictions that will happen because of global warming/climate change:

Gore claims that global warming, something that stopped almost 20 years ago, will result in the “potential for tens of millions of refugees”entering the United States: “The Max Planck Institute and others are now saying that some significant regions of the Middle East and North Africa may become uninhabitable because of the rise in both the temperature and humidity. And that will increase the flows of refugees. Africa by mid-century will have more people than either China or India, and by the end of the century more people than India and China combined.”He went on to claim that 20 million people are on the verge of famine around the world.
This despite the fact that global warming has made the world greener and food production more efficient and productive.
He is once again trying to equate his stand and position on global warming on the highest moral and spiritual causes, much like he has done in the past when he called those of us that have doubts about global warming as being ignorant, racist, and homophobic.
Now he claims the following moral high ground: “The climate movement is right now in the tradition of all the great moral causes that have improved the circumstances of humanity throughout our history. The abolition of slavery. Women’s suffrage and women’s rights.”

By inference, those that disagree with him would have also been against slavery, women’s suffrage, and women’s rights. Which of course is total garbage. Gore’s predictions have been wrong, Hansen’s predictions have been wrong, every global warming advocate’s predictions have been wrong. Trying to cover up your incompetence by shaming others is the lowest form of discussion and debate. Pathetic.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

August, 2017, Part 2, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science:

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control of our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) We are going to start today’s discussion with a topic that is not exactly a global warming issue, But it is instructional why one should always be open to expert opinions but one should always be wary of anyone that thinks they have a perfect way to predict the future. Remember, “climate experts” in the 1970s were predicting a coming Ice Age and within ten years the “experts” were predicting global warming.

Benjamin Arie, writing for the Conservative Tribune on August 3, 2017, described how the “experts” were once horribly wrong in predicting the future:

Forty five years ago there were plans to build something called the Tellico Dam in Tennessee.
It was being planned to provide electricity for the local area with no carbon emissions.
However, the local Little Tennessee River would have to be re-directed if the dam was built.
But the Tennessee River was the home of a fish called the snail darter, a member of the perch family.
Even though $100 million had already been spent to start building the dam, it turned out that the snail darter was on the endangered species list and was legally protected, and thus, some snail darter fans were able to sue to shut down the construction in order to save the snail darter from the expert prediction of extinction.
Current Tennessee Senator at the time, Howard Baker, was frustrated by the experts that predicted the snail darter would go extinct if the dam was built: “In the midst of a national energy crisis, the snail darter demands that we scuttle a project that would produce 200 million kilowatt hours of hydroelectric power and save an estimated 15 million gallons of oil.”
As a result of Baker’s frustration, Congress passed an amendment to the current environmental laws to exempt the Tellico Dam.

Forty five years later, whatever happened to the snail darter? Did it become extinct as the “experts” predicted way back when? Of course, not. The fish was transplanted into other rivers and it has thrived, actually being taken off of the endangered species list and downgraded to merely threatened, not endangered.

The lesson to be learned is just because the experts predict something, be it the extinction of a fish, global cooling, or global warming, take any prediction of the future with a grain of salt, it is almost always wrong. That was certainly the case with global warming since every global warming prediction by every expert never anticipated that global warming would plateau 20 years ago.

2) Global warming advocates have blamed many different things and creatures for global warming. My favorite was blaming the world’s beavers for global warming because they build dams and that causes global warming.

But I may now have a new favorite of insanity when it comes to blaming something for global warming. According to reporting by James Barrett, writing for the Daily Wire website on August 3, 2017:

Research by a research team at UCLA says that our pet cats and dogs cause global warming.
This is particularly interesting since the global warming of the Earth stopped about 20 years ago but the researchers at UCLA still blame our pets.
UCLA Geography Professor Gregory Okin clarifies the dire findings of the research: "Americans are the largest pet owners in the world, but the tradition of pet ownership in the US has considerable costs. As pet ownership increases in some developing countries, especially China, and trends continue in pet food toward higher content and quality of meat, globally, pet ownership will compound the environmental impacts of human dietary choices."
This guy tries to equate the meat eaten by our pets with global warming and that if our pets did not exist, less meat would be created and processed and that would reduce global warming… and the beat goes on and the ability to stay logical eventually goes down the drain.
He claims that pet food creates 64 million tons of carbon dioxide every year which he claims is the equivalent of 13.6 million cars giving off carbon dioxide.
He continues on with silly analogies: "If Americans’ 163 million Fidos and Felixes comprised a separate country, their fluffy nation would rank fifth in global meat consumption, Okin calculated, behind only Russia, Brazil, the United States and China."
Continuing insanity: “But not only is all that meat our beloved pets are eating as bad as over 13 million environment-hating, gas-guzzling cars, their feces is killing Mother Earth, too. Okin calculates that our 163 million dogs and cats produce just over 5 million tons of feces per year, the equivalent of about 90 million Americans, or the trash production of the entire state of Massachusetts.”
Note: I really cannot believe this last statistic although I have no basis for not buying his numbers: I do not believe that an average pet creates a feces total equivalent of 55% of an average American (90/163= 55%).

You can imagine what his solution is to a problem that has not gotten worse over the past 20 years despite there likely being a lot more pets in the country vs. 20 years ago: "Reducing the rate of dog and cat ownership, perhaps in favor of other pets that offer similar health and emotional benefits would considerably reduce these impacts. Simultaneous industry-wide efforts to reduce overfeeding, reduce waste, and find alternative sources of protein will also reduce these impacts."

No global warming for almost 20 years, many more pets in the world since 20 years ago, and yet, global warming advocates are still looking for boogie men ...or four legged critters to blame.

3) The biggest global warming advocate of all, Al Gore, was recently on CNN hyping his latest installment/movie on how mankind is ruining the world with its use of fossil fuels which cause global warming which is bad. So bad that global warming advocates had to rebrand their entire movement to “climate change” once global warming stopped. (As an aside, his sequel movie has bombed at the theaters.) The interview was held in a “town hall meeting format” so that regular Americans participating in the town hall meeting could ask Gore questions.

Which is exactly what a Chesapeake River fisherman did. He told Gore that he had been fishing in the same area for 50 years and he had seen absolutely no rise in the ocean waters that feed the river. Remember, one of the lynch pins of the global warming crowd is that ocean levels will rise dramatically.

So who to believe? Al Gore and the “experts” that developed a whole bunch of global warming prediction models, all of which failed miserably or a local fisherman who has been at the same place for 50 years and has firsthand experience that disproves a lynchpin of global warming, i.e. rising ocean waters? An easy choice if there ever was one.

The actual video of the exchange can be viewed at:

https://renewedright.com/lying-al-gore-just-got-called-bogus-claims-rising-sea-levels/

So, experts said the snail darter would become extinct but it did not. Experts blame our pets for global warming even though global warming stopped almost 20 years ago. And experts predicted that the ocean levels would rise but they have not. Feeling pretty good about being a global warming doubter and a believer in science.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

Sunday, August 20, 2017

August,2017, Part 1, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science: The Ecological Benefits of Global Warming and Al Gore's Intense Carbon Footprint

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control of our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) We have often discussed the reality that for almost 20 years the Earth’s temperature has been about constant. This is in direct contrast to the myriad of global warming models that predicted that global warming would march ever upwards with no hesitation, never mind a nearly 20 year pause. This reality more than any other that we have discussed has so destroyed the global warming hysteria that the movement had to rebrand itself as the more nebulous “climate change”movement.

But up until about 20 years, the Earth did indeed get warmer as more carbon dioxide went into the air. And despite what Al Gore says about this long ago warming, it was not necessarily a bad thing. Consider some statistics and thoughts from a recent Heritage Foundation article written by Texas Congressman Lamar Smith:

This higher concentration and presence of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has helped plants with their photosynthesis process.
This improvement in photosynthesis leads to greater and higher quality food production.
The Congressman claims that research studies have found that as plants get more efficient from the presence of more carbon dioxide they use less water, a good thing.
Although global warming stopped almost 20 years ago, the warming up until that point in time allowed farm belts around the world to experience longer growing seasons.
This “carbon enrichment” process from global warming helps farmers grow more resilient crops of maize, soybeans, wheat, and rice.
More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has made “The world’s vegetated areas are becoming 25-50 percent greener, according to satellite images. Seventy percent of this greening is due to a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide.”
This greater vegetation helps reduce water runoff, improves animal habitats, and as vegetation volume increases, it helps actually remove the carbon dioxide from the air, which should make Al Gore happy.

To my knowledge, the Congressman is not scientist. But these ideas are not new, we have talked about them before via other scientific research and reality. He just puts those realities together in a short, concise and easy to understand summary.

Shouldn’t his ideas and the realities of what carbon dioxide has done for the planet’s flora and fauna along with the improvements in the food supply for humans be part of any “climate change” discussion?

2) One thing that makes me crazy probably more than any other trait is that of hypocrisy. I hate being preached to on a subject when that preacher does not adhere to what they are advocating. According to a recent Independent Journal Review article by Benny Johnson, Al Gore, the all time preacher and screamer about man made global warming and climate change, would appear to be just that type of person:

Al Gore’s net worth is now about $200 million, a level he did not attain by being a politician in office, much of his wealth has been gathered since he left politics and got paid handsomely for advocating for global warming via huge speaking fees, book deals, and movie deals.
New research by the National Center for Public Policy Research has found that Gore is quite the hypocrite from a personal carbon footprint perspective.
I believe he is no longer married, having gotten a divorce from his wife Tipper a number of years ago and has only grown children, but he owns three different homes, all of which contribute to his carbon footprint.
His Nashville home/mansion alone has 20 rooms:

His Nashville mansion is over 10,000 square feet in size and sits in the eighth wealthiest neighborhood in the country.
He also owns at least two other homes in addition to this 10,000 square foot monster, one in San Francisco and a farmhouse in Carthage, Tennessee.
The research obtained the public records of Gore’s electricity usage and the numbers are staggering, especially when you consider there is no wife or kids involved in the living arrangements.
Gore’s electricity usage averages 19,241 kilowatt hours (KWh) every month while the average U.S.household uses 901 kWh a month.
Thus, he uses about 20 times the amount of electricity in a month than the average U.S household uses in a month.
In September, 2016 Gore’s mansion used 30,993 kWh in that single month, more than what the typical household burns in 34 months.
In one year, Gore spent almost $22,000 on just electricity bills.
Which is amazing since as you can see from the above pictures, Gore has 33 solar panels on his roof so his electricity usage is even greater than what he is paying in utility bills.
Less than 6% of his monthly electricity use comes from those solar panels.
In the past 12 months Gore used 66,159 kWh just heating his pool, enough energy to power six average households for a whole year.

Look, the guy is rich and it is understandable that he would use more electricity than the average American. But really, how large of a carbon footprint does this global warming preacher-type use every month. a carbon footprint that dwarfs what the average American uses? And he has the nerve to preach to us when his unmarried lifestyle is creating a carbon footprint in multiple locations that is far and away out of control? Give me a break from a hypocrisy perspective.

That will get us started for this month;s discussion under the theme, “I am a global warming doubter and a believer in science.” An interesting discussion on the good side of global warming from an ecology and food production standpoint and the hypocrisy of Al Gore and his daily and mega carbon footprint.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

Love My Country, Loathe My Government

Monday, August 28, 2017

Stupid Laws By Stupid Politicians By State

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Political Elitism Is Still Alive and Well In Washington D.C.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Political Class Insanity and Economic Ignorance: California Update

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

August, 2017, Part 3, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

August, 2017, Part 2, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science:

Sunday, August 20, 2017

August,2017, Part 1, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science: The Ecological Benefits of Global Warming and Al Gore's Intense Carbon Footprint

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