2010 Warmest Ever?

USA Today says that 2010 might just be the warmest year since record keeping began:

This will be the 34th consecutive year that the global temperature will be above average, according to the data center. The last below-average year was 1976.

I'm sure you folks in Florida agree, yes? Frost on the windows doesn't mean we're not getting warmer, after all... yeah, right.

Take a look at the chart up top. If 2010 is the warmest year since record keeping began (in 1880, evidently), it will still rank as one of the coldest years in the last 10,500 years. Click on the chart for more information, but the key trick here, as always, is to throw away the entire history of the Earth up until the year 1880 and then claim this year is horribly hot.

Of the past 10,500 years, 9,100 (87 percent) were warmer than 2010. Now, be scared and do as the government says.

2010 as the warmest year is put to rest by Christopher Monckton

Service Lost

The idea that county, city, state and federal workers are performing a public service is being lost. To have NYC workers purposefully delay clearing the roads shows just how ill the relationship between governmnent workers and the people they serve can get. The fact that people's lives are in jeopardy, with emergency vehicles unable to reach those in need -- appears to be less important than padding paychecks and union loyalties.

Out in the heartland, where this infection of losing the concept of service has not yet taken hold, workers, both volunteer and paid, still rise in the night to put out fires, still offer up their four-wheel drives to reach those in need and still push back snow and fix water, electric and gas leaks and remove waste tirelessly. And the public they serve still appreciates and honors them. Budget shortfalls will put a strain on this relationship between service providers and the public they serve... public displays of appreciation is one way to let hard workers and life riskers know the difference they make.

So as the end of the year comes near -- thank you, thank you to all of you in county, city, state and federal government -- as well as those who volunteer as fire fighters, hospital workers, social workers, teachers and aids -- who are doing your best, working your hardest, in service to the public. Don't take complaints about the worst of you as definition of your efforts.

Iran, Venezuela and Russia

We haven't taken care of the last "Axis of Evil" and it's already spreading to the Americas.

Among the two most alarming revelations is the already completed sale and delivery, to Venezuela by Russia, of nearly 2,000 advanced, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles capable of hitting aircraft as high as 19,000 feet. Equally and perhaps more alarming is an October agreement between Iran and Venezuela. The agreement establishes a joint ground-to-ground missile base on Venezuelan soil and calls for the sharing of missile technology and the training of technicians and officers. In addition, Venezuela may use the missiles as it chooses for "national needs" and in case of "emergency." Several types of missiles will be deployed, giving Venezuela the ability to strike targets throughout South and Central America and throughout the U.S.

Are we going to have to pat-down Hugo Chavez before every flight takes off in America?

UN Resolution for Indigenous Peoples

President Obama has reversed the Bush Administration's position on the UN resolution stating "Indigenous Peoples Have the Right to the Lands They Have Traditionally Owned, Occupied or Otherwise Used or Acquired." 

Section 26 of that resolution says, "Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired," and it says nations "shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources."  President Bush thought that section made the resolution impossible to follow since it doesn't recognize current legal rights to the land.

I don't quite see how Congress will ever agree to passing this thing... On the other hand, there's a case to be made that the only people  Indigenous to the Americas (The Clovis culture) died out when a comet hit the north American ice shield 12,900 years ago.  Since then, everyone's an immigrant.  What does indigenous mean, anyway, except that you claim your culture originated on the land where you live.  I so claim.

EPA Removes Saccharin from Hazardous Substances

The EPA has removed saccharin from the agency's list of hazardous substances.  Saccharin is no longer considered a potential hazard to human health.

EPA scientist Emily Litella spoke to the press, saying, "Never mind."

Clark Griswold, eat your heart out

Full Lunar Eclipse Coming Your Way

If you wake up way early Tuesday morning 12/21 (or go to bed way late Monday night 12/20), take a glance at the moon.  North America has a front row seat to a full lunar eclipse beginning 12/21 at 12:55am, becoming complete from 2:41am to 3:53am, and ending at 5:35am.

The moon should be reddish orange for over an hour!

Great Start, Norwell

The Knights are off to a great start this basketball season.  The girls are 6-1, having lost only to 4A Homestead, and the boys are 4-1, having lost only to 3A Whitko.   The girls have a 23 point average margin of victory while the boys have a 10 point margin of victory. 

Keep it up!

Iran placing missiles in Venezuela?

This can't be good...

The situation that is unfolding in Venezuela has some resemblance to the Cuba crisis of 1962. At that time, Cuba was acting on behalf of the USSR; now Venezuela is acting on behalf of Iran. At present, the geopolitical situation is very different: the world is no longer ruled by two superpowers; new nations, often with questionable leaders and the ambition of acquiring global status, are appearing on the international scene. Their danger to the free world will be greater if the process of nuclear proliferation is not stopped. Among the nations that aspire to become world powers, Iran has certainly the best capabilities of posing a challenge to the West.

Back in the 1962, thanks to the stern stance adopted by the then Kennedy administration, the crisis was defused

Nowadays, however, we do not see the same firmness from the present administration. On the contrary, we see a lax attitude, both in language and in deeds, that results in extending hands when our adversaries have no intention of shaking hands with us.

I think maybe it's time for Hugo Chevez to join Manuel Noriega in that French Prison... does Obama have any Ramones tunes on his iPod?