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For those of you who refuse to question popular theories of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming, maybe you should reconsider.  I’m not asking anyone to accept my view without question, I’m asking you to question both sides of the issue.  If you’re a liberal who claims to be open-minded that should be no problem for you.

I’m certainly not the only one questioning the issue, nor are conservatives the only ones.  It seems that top scientists in Japan are questioning the man-made aspect of global warming.  They question the data used to come to those conclusions and they challenge the climate modeling theories that global warming alarmism is based on.

I’m not used to seeing snow on the ground in mid-March in Tacoma.  All across the country record low temperatures have been set this year.  How is that consistent with the idea of man-made global warming?  Have we solved the problem and this is the result? And if we’ve solved it then we can stop spending tax dollars on it, right?
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Global warming alarmists who want us to spend all of our hard earned money on yellow dim-bulbs (CFLs) and higher energy costs are a little red in the face. They’re not embarrassed at how ridiculous they sound, they’ve just been out in the cold weather too long.

Washington temperatures drop near record lows

The low temperature at Sea-Tac Airport dropped to 19 degrees at 4 a.m. today, breaking the old record of 20 for the date set in 1964.

Johnny Burg of the National Weather Service office in Seattle says Hoquiam tied its record low of 25, set in 1967.

Forecasters say previous cold spells will make records hard to break, but the lows expected this week might come close.

I’m still waiting for the last enviro-scare, the coming ice age. Or is it here already?

This week an award was given to the President of the Czech Republic by a Puget Sound think-tank known as the Washington Policy Institute. The organization’s primary goals are to support democracy free market principles. The award was given to Václav Klaus and he spoke that evening to a group gathered in Seattle. Several from Tacoma were in attendance.

In his published speech he spoke out against the EU, saying that his nation had little choice in joining and that the effects have been the loss of freedom, democracy and free-market liberties.

I would like to focus on his comments about global warming alarmism. As a world leader he is faced with the effects of this trend and in his speech offered some insights that seem to be lacking in American discourse. I apologize for lifting so much of the text, but I think it’s important to hear it all in his words, rather than mine. I’m not an economist or world leader. (more…)

The first energy crisis, back in the 70’s, was created by foreign interests who hate America. It was people from the ilk that took American embassy workers hostage in Iran and blew up a marine barracks in Lebanon. And along came a Democrat U.S. President and Congress and made the problem worse with their consistently bad economic policy.

The next time the Democrats provided us with a president that same ilk reappeared and was re-energized by the lack of proper response to their threats and attacks. Now the oil prices are rising again, for many reasons. Partly because our enemies can get away with it, but mostly because we have no alternatives to buying their oil.

Thanks again to the Democrats, oil companies cannot drill in areas that have the largest oil reserves in the U.S. President Bush has lifted the ban on offshore drilling, which was half of the problem. The other half is caused by the Democrat controlled congress. Thanks to them and their continual resistance to using our own oil, we are stuck paying exorbitant prices at the pump, most of which goes to rich oil sheiks who hate America (but love American money.)
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Tacoma has been implementing policies that are touted as eco-friendly for a while now. Some of them have come around to bite them, mostly in the form of higher costs or lost revenues (for the city and for businesses in the city). Another consequence of their il-conceived policies has reared it’s ugly head.

One of the major problems with these new policies is that they’re trying to force a supposedly ‘new way of thinking’ into existing environments. In this case they are encouraging multi-story mixed-use buildings (residential combined with commercial, such as retail) by giving tax breaks to developers. And without thought of the consequences the city has allowed these buildings with large reflective exterior surfaces to be built next to existing houses.

The consequence: sunlight is concentrated on existing houses causing the interior to heat up.

Some might think this is an acceptable consequence to protect the planet from its evil nemesis ‘urban sprawl’, but if you’re sitting in a solar roaster that was once a comfortable rambler, it ain’t so cool.
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Wired magazine, known for it’s zealous focus on the latest crazes, takes a look at the latest environmental craze and what people think they should do about it. They don’t actually look at the validity of the anthropogenic issue or the dire consequences debate, but at least they add a little bit of objectivity to the climate of climate change.

Putting aside the absolute lie known as ‘the coming ice age’. And ignoring the food shortages and high prices caused by biofuel mandates, not to mention the slashing and burning of rain forest in Brazil because of their extremely high biofuel mandates. And forget for a moment the economic impact on the timber industry because so-called scientists failed to realize that spotted owls will fornicate anywhere (they just happen to prefer old growth forests the way hippies prefer rock concerts). The list goes on, but lets ignore all that for the moment. I’m starting to wonder which will be the next abject failure of the environmentalist movement.

I’m addressing this to the local liberal set who go crazy over the crazes. Since they’re like most liberals they never really think things through. Let’s hope that this gets them thinking instead of reacting to whatever bright ideas blow their way.
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As an alternative to the zoning approach to land use restrictions, Houston, TX has always had used a free market approach. There are benefits and drawbacks, but the important thing is it puts property rights in the right place, the hands of the property owner.

Michael Ennis of the Washington Policy Center (WPC) attended a conference in Houston where the subject came up. He points out some interesting aspects of the system in this blog entry.

Our Neighborhood Council meeting recently had visits from the city’s planning commission staff and from a lobbyist group that is lobbying the city for more restrictive land use. This article seemed a good way to start the conversation on this blog.

I’m not advocating a radical change to our land use and zoning laws. However, I do want to make clear that a) there are alternatives, and b) that more restriction isn’t the best approach.

Update: Robert Mak, probably the closest thing that Northwest TV news has to an objective reporter, did a segment on this issue (here’s an online synopsis). He spoke with a UW professor who, without outside funding or support, did a study on the impact that land use regulations have on housing prices.
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I had no idea that Harrison Ford felt so deeply about deforestation (h/t NewsBusters.Org). He’s actually gone to a salon to have his chest hair removed:

In an effort to showcase the pain involved in deforestation, Harrison willingly subject himself to the painful process of stripping his chest of all its follicles.

Having worked with [Conservation International] for 15 years, it was Harrison’s hope that his trip to the salon might just shock people into thinking “green.”

Ever since I heard about the plight of baboons in Tanzania I’ve wanted to show them that I care. Now I’ve found a way.

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The Puget Sound Regional Council today released what they called a study. I guess in some definitions it would qualify as a study, but in the truest sense, it’s a piece of agitprop. Their goal was obviously to find out if drivers would actually pay more money, but they veiled it in other terms. Anything to avoid doing their job of building roads.

The problem with congestion pricing:

Starting with the basic premise of the study, asking the question, “would drivers change their driving habits if they were charged congestion pricing”. What happened to the question of ’should they have to change their driving habits’? They have paid for the roads, they shouldn’t have to pay for them all over again.

Next, congestion pricing is a punitive fee placed on taxpayers for a failure in government. Neither the drivers nor the taxpayers are at fault for congestion. The responsibility rests solely on the shoulders of government for failing to meet the demand. Taxpayers trusted these people to provide adequate means of transportation, but the people they trusted used the money for pet projects instead of paying for the roads that the money was intended to cover. Here’s some comments on that from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation:

Secretary Paula Hammond displayed a trend graph of the last 25 years, which showed population, licensed drivers, employment, and vehicle miles traveled rising between 50% and 100%, while new lane miles barely increased 10%.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been quoting the Bible. Well not actually quoting. And, well, not actually the Bible.

What she’s been saying is, “The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.’” (More over at MichelleMalkin.com.)

The word ‘minister’ simply means ’serve’, so Nancy is telling us to serve created things. And is it an act of worship? Probably, but not one that is worshiping God. When you worship God, you worship God, not the things He created. But since she was ambiguous about who or what was is being worshiped, maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe she meant ’serving created things is also worshiping created things’.
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