USpolitical.com

A humorous look at a serious situation.  I don’t know how I would even hold a conversation with someone that thought Israel at fault in the “Flotilla Incident.”

Just came across a fascinating website called Information is Beautiful.

One of the articles that caught my eye was one about military spending & size when taking wealth and population into account.

It doesn’t seem fair to not factor in the wealth of a country when assessing its military budget.

So, if you take military budgets as a proportion of each country’s GDP, a very different picture emerges.

The US is knocked down into 8th place by such nations as Jordan, Burundi and Georgia. The UK plunges to 29th.

Perhaps others thought of the same thing I did, but also dismissed it due to the apparent absurdity.

But yes, some people are openly wondering if anthropogenic global warming is to blame for recent seismic activity.

Yet something else is lately worrying geologists: the likelihood that the Earth’s crust, relieved of so much formidable weight of ice borne for many thousands of years, has begun to stretch and rebound.

As it does, a volcano awakens in Iceland (with another, larger and adjacent to still-erupting Eyjafjallajokull, threatening to detonate next). The Earth shudders in Haiti. Then Chile. Then western China. Mexicali-Calexico. The Solomon Islands. Spain. New Guinea. And those are just the big ones, 6+ on the Richter scale, and just in 2010. And it’s only April.

Does any of this ring familiar to claims about more intense hurricanes, despite no scientific evidence?

I’m no geologist, and neither is Alan Weisman, but his ambiguous assertion certainly plays into the humorous propensity to blame anything bad on human caused global warming.  In the article, it links to an article about James Lovelock, with whom I apparently share some opinions.  Those being that if global warming is happening because of human activity (I think he is more sure than I am), then all the actions we think we can take to save the planet are in the end, pointless.  There is nothing we can do, according to Lovelock, because we’re already past the tipping point.  Enjoy the ride.  If transformational global warming is happening, I don’t know if we’ve passed a tipping point, but my view is that no one is actually willing to literally abandon our carbon rich energy lifestyle in any kind of meaningful way.  So anything short of resorting to an agrarian lifestyle that is car and electricity free, is not going to stop AGW, but will instead just give government more oversight, power and authority without solving anything.

On another note, I recently saw this roundup of global warming mistakes and scandals on HotAir.  A good resource for the inquisitive skeptic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/sc_afp/lifestyleclimatewarminganimalsfood

I think that as stories like this become more and more prevalent, people might start to question how hard they are willing to go to fight anthropogenic global warming.  I feel quite strongly that those dedicated to “saving the planet” are fighting a losing battle.  Instead of a win-win, its a lose-lose.  Not only are they not going to get humans to return to hunter/gatherer status to actually cut carbon emissions to a level that can affect the planet (or so we are told we ought to), but in the process of trying to cut emissions at least some, it is just going to cost a lot in lost productivity, money or quality of life.  All of it without really changing global warming all that much.  Or will it?  Oh, right.  No one really knows.

In other news, the Washinton DC metro area just had the biggest December snowstorm on record.

Seems like a fascinating approach to easing the transition to renewable sources of energy.  Scrubbing it out of the air with “synthetic trees.”

I’d heard about scrubbing ideas before, but I had never heard about them being close to production.

If you were to install 10 million of them, you would pull back on the order of 3.6 gigatons of C02 a year. The world right now produces 30 gigatons of C02 a year. In 2006, the world made 73 million cars. They are comparable in size, and ultimately comparable in cost.

Iran:

“It is not productive, given the history of US and Iranian relations to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections,” he said.

“But when I see violence directed at peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed… it is of concern to me and it is of concern to the American people.”

 Honduras:

Leaders from across the Western Hemisphere and beyond called for return to power of Zelaya, who arrested on Sunday morning by soldiers who stormed his residence and forced him into exile. The country now has another president appointed by its Congress, Roberto Micheletti, who insisted that Zelaya was legally removed by the courts and Congress for violating Honduras’ constitution and attempting to extend his own rule.

“We are very clear about the fact that President Zelaya is the democratically elected president,” Obama said.

Hat tip: Townhall.com’s Carol Platt Liebau

I glanced at msNBC.com and noticed an AP article about some recent riots in France. In a repeat from the 2005 riots, it is minorities, Muslim and African immigrants, that are the perpetrators.

Despite the fact that this entire episode, like the one in 2005 is perpetrated in the name of race, the AP journalist thought that fact, the one about it being Muslim and African minorities, was only worthy of the 5th paragraph.

If Al Gore was worthy of a Nobel Prize, he wouldn’t be selling his movie for the same over-priced nonsense as Disney Classics. $20 on Amazon.com? Get real. Al Gore is not out to save the world. “Climate warriors” are so wrapped up in their own euphoria over saving the earth they fail to recognize their own hypocrisy. Unless Gore is donating all his proceeds from this film to actual, proven environmental measures, he deserves no more lauding than your average Hollywood star.

While Hillary and others criticize Barack Obama for his comments about meeting with leaders from Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and North Korea, another candidate is making bizarre comments.

Tom Tancredo suggests we threaten to attack Mecca in the event of another terrorist attack.

Check it out over at Real Clear Politics.

Outlines the many and varied conflicts and turmoil that exist and have existed in the Middle East. Sort of opens the eyes in a sense.