Lori Drew Goin’ Down
If you are a regular reader, I suggested a while ago (check Nov. 2007 archives) that MySpace bully Lori Drew deserved to dragged into the public square and flogged for her actions resulting in the death of 13 year old Megan Meier.
Just to reiterate Lori Drew created a fake MySpace profile using a teenage employee of hers to help…and ended up terrorizing this little girl to the point where she committed suicide. I think the words “Holy Bitch” can come into play without being too forward. Well, word is that since Missouri had no law to cover what happened, the Feds stepped in and convinced a jury to indite Drew on conspiracy and unlawful tampering with a computer. Each count (4 in all) could result in 5 years each, so she faces 20 years.
Now, we all know it’s not gonna end up that way, but at least it is good to see this POS that is wasting our most precious resource (air) is at least going to spend some time behind bars. Hopefully the Feds have enough to convince a judge at sentencing that it should be for quite some time.
I still prefer flogging, but this’ll do for now. More later when the trial is finally finished.
Figuring Out Obama
Ruxx Deluxx and I were on the way home yesterday, and he was doing his best impression of Barack and it finally occurred to me just who the presumptive Democratic candidate sounds like to me. See if you can hear it next time you see a speech.
A cross between Bill Cosby and Christopher Walken.
Ruxx agreed, and said it’s the Jello Pudding Pop commercial voice with that staccato “screw the punctuation” delivery style Walken perfected.
Tell me I’m wrong… Or, it could just be a really bad impersonation of Captain Kirk.
To be fair… I can’t figure out who Hillary sounds like, but I keep thinking small fish are scattering everywhere… That’s an echo-location joke, folks; one I’ve been wanting to use for years but never had the opportunity.
John McCain… I keep hearing the words “I miss Mayberry…” in my head.
Someone Pass the Blame Bowl
I’ve been thinking hard about the last post and the issues and something occurred to me. I’ve been really spending a lot of time blaming environmental activists for all the problems, but there is plenty of blame to put on another group as well…and a real FOR SHAME finger waggle along for good measure.
No, not the politicians, they’re too weak to really blame for anything. They go where they’re told to go by those with the largest bullhorns.
It’s the scientists, and for sake of clarity, I’ll focus only on those who ARE NOT in the pockets of the activists. Let me take a moment to relate a little story. I was at a convention last year for the cosmetics industry attending an all-day conference on regulatory aspects, and one of the speakers was whining about how junk-science wielding activists were getting all the attention, and REAL science was being left behind. He was talking mostly about those who keep banging the drum about animal testing (which really isn’t being done anymore in the industry) and how they started looking at nanotechnology in cosmetics as the next big issue to scream about. During his Q&A session, I asked what I thought was a simple question.
“If they are screaming about these issues, why don’t you scream louder?”
I didn’t get much of an answer…besides this. “Because we don’t scream. We have science on our side.”
Oh please. That’s such crap. For a scientist to complain that someone has a better bullhorn in the age of the Internet is just plain garbage. For cripes sake, if you have taken the time to truly learn or discover something of value in an argument, then you must use the same tactics as those you argue with. To think that a scientists must rise above the fray just won’t work anymore, and restricting your arguments to the scientific community is the work of a sissy. In this day and age, if you ain’t screaming, you ain’t gonna be heard.
Now, as I mentioned in the last post, I am a big fan of Jack Dini, who is not afraid to point out the other side of the argument, but Jack is really an aberration in a community of scientists who seem too scared to stand up and be heard. His tendency to use humor and frank language in his writings certainly makes a difference and changes some minds and for that I applaud him, but again, he is one man in a world full of scientists who are too afraid to be heard. Bjorn Lomborg is another example of a scientist not afraid to be heard, but he went out alone into the cold, hard, world and no one had his back.
Just to throw out another example, I have a colleague that has worked in the oil industry for years, and according to him, the new technologies for bringing oil out of the ground are extremely safe for the environment. The activists base their arguments on the use of 19th century technology and the visions of massive spills of the past. Bet you didn’t know that…so who’s fault is it? I would say the blame is just as much on the scientists and engineers within the industry who do not jump up and say “YOU’RE WRONG AND I CAN PROVE IT!” And then, go out and prove it. If you prove to people that you can snatch oil out of ANWAR, the Gulf of Mexico, etc., without doing any major harm, public opinion will start swaying in your direction. But not if you don’t stop sitting with your thumbs in your puckers and whining.
If you want to prove yourself to the world, you can do it through this neat little invention called The Internet. They call it “the new media” and your detractors have from day one.
I understand that scientists want rational discourse and for their work to be appreciated for what it is. I do too! But if you don’t get up off your asses and start yelling about things, you’ll never win. You’re smart enough to build a better bullhorn, and by God, if you don’t get to it soon we are literally headed for another Dark Ages. Sure, publishing in important journals like Science and Nature gets you some cred, but only in the laboratories. You need some serious street cred, and the Internet is where to find it.
I beg each and every one of the scientists, engineers, researchers, and developers out there who know we have answers to these problems…please, please get up and say something, and use that fancy computer on your desk for something besides crunching data.
Things Enviro-activists Don’t Care About
Let me point you to a favorite blog of mine… FACTORFICTION? is written by Jack Dini, a retired scientist from Lawrence Livermore and author of Challenging Environmental Mythology: Wrestling Zeus, which is currently out of print (that’s a discussion for some other time). Anyway, I suggest highly that you subscribe to Jack’s blog, as he is one of those highly credible scientists that goes against the global warming grain and backs it up with strong research. His latest post is the basis of what comes below.
I have said in the past that environuts care more about trees than they do people. It is truly a sad state of affairs when their latest pet project gets all the credit while the majority of us struggle to simply live life with some kind of comfort, and many try just to live, period. Certainly, it is important to be careful and do what you can, but environmental activists have tried very hard to make sure the “climate crisis” is considered the most important thing facing humankind. But is it? Here’s a copy/paste from Jack’s blog…(please note I have removed his “references” as they only make sense when you read the article in its entirety)
Indur M. Goklany, whose resume includes stints with federal and state governments, think tanks, and the private sector for over 30 years, has also analyzed this issue. He examined certain risks to humanity, and compared the contributory effects of climate change to non-climate factors. His most significant conclusion: “Climate change is clearly not the most important environmental, let alone public health problem facing the world today, nor is it likely to be the most important environmental problem confronting human or environmental well-being, at least through the foreseeable future. Hence, the argument that we should shift resources from dealing with the real and urgent problems confronting present generations to solving potential problems of tomorrow’s wealthier and better positioned generations is unpersuasive at best and verging on immoral at worst.” (4)
Goklany provides data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Similar to the conclusions from the Copenhagen Consensus mentioned earlier, climate change doesn’t even make the top ten global health risk factors related to food, nutrition, and environmental occupation exposure. Specifically, the WHO provides the following information:
Malaria (2001) 1.12 million deaths
Malnutrition 3.24 million deaths
Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation,
and hygiene 1.73 million deaths
Indoor air pollution from heating and cooking
with wood, coal, and dung 1.62 million deaths
Urban air pollution 800,000 deaths
Lead exposure 230,000 deathsHow many deaths from climate change? No one knows. However, a review paper published in Nature in 2005 claims that global warming may have been responsible for about 170,000 deaths worldwide in 2000. (5) This estimate is based on an analysis which was put out under the auspices of WHO. However, as Goklany notes, “The 170,000 estimate should be viewed with skepticism since science was admittedly sacrificed in hot pursuit of a predetermined policy objective.” (4)
We’ve discussed the malaria crisis here before…and surmised that environmental activists care more about birdies than babies. But look at the other things on the list! As Jack said in his book “poverty is the worst carcinogen,” and nothing could be closer to the truth.
I’ll stop here and let you figure out the rest for yourselves.
Reasoned Discourse…From Al Gore?
Let’s start with a premise. The environment is important enough to care about protecting.
That said…I was listening to Al Gore on Fresh Air (yes, conservative friends, I listen to Fresh Air) on the way home this afternoon from work with Ruxx Deluxx. Al Gore was on with Ms. Gross discussing his newly paperbacked book, The Assault on Reason. Now, Mr. Gore and I do not agree on many things but I really attempted to keep an open mind because I agree with the basic premise that our culture is becoming less and less capable of having a rational discussion on any topic. However, hearing the former Vice President and “A Number One” enviroactivist complain that we aren’t having rational discussions about the environment caused my eyelids to twitch.
Al Gore has proclaimed time and time again that “science has spoken” and that there is no doubt that humans are causing a climate crisis. “There is no room for argument…only room for action,” is another one of his favorite phrases. So, where’s the rational discourse here, Mr. Gore? I suppose that only one who agrees with his position can be considered of sound mind and he hides this skeleton in a closet full of complaints about Paris Hilton, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson, and (shockingly) President Bush. In his message to Amazon Readers, he states “fear has become a more powerful political tool than trust.”
Of course, nothing in Earth in the Balance or his Nobel Prize winning Power Point (an Inconvenient Truth) is fear based. This kind of blatant hypocrisy drives me loopy. His reply would be that he is simply trying to create a “well-informed citizenry,” away from the government. When thrown a Nerf ball question on how he manages to not overwhelm people with fear in his print and screen works, he focuses on the “opportunities” that the crisis provides us and is quite upbeat and optimistic. Back on the radio…Gore did even say that people who disagreed with his positions were “paid by the largest carbon producers.” In other words…they are industry schills, which is tantamount to tobacco lobbyists and ambulance chasing lawyers. The scum of the Earth.
Yes, I want rational discourse on the environment as well, Mr. Gore. But I think you need to step back and look at the fact that your traveling show is one of the things that is actually preventing it. Let’s let the smart guys figure all this out and take the politicians and activists out to lunch…then again, good luck on getting them to agree on the place to eat 
.
Turning 40 Sucks…Maybe
Turned 40 today and spent most of the day in a funk. Typical behavior for me around birthday time every year. Taking stock and all that…what have I done? What successes can I point to? What have I learned? Who have I helped? I think normal questions at the half-life point (ah if I could only be Cesium, but then again, who wants to live that long?).
Well, the answer came at dinner.
There’s a 5 year old in my house that adores me, and an 18 year old that gave me a wise-ass card about getting old, and a wife that bought a singing card with one of my favorite artists and a special song about love. It’s all good.
So often, the answers lie right in front of us. Someday, I think that God will be more concerned with what I did in this little part of the world than anything else…
