APRIL 26, 2009

Our "equal partners" in Latin America declare themselves enemies of Capitalism The Declaration of Cumaná: Capitalism 'threatens life on the planet. The most dominant feature of Obama's foreign policy has been his language. He has stressed the need to change the tone of how America interacts with the rest of the world. When you think about it, this is almost childish. It is what a high school principal might emphasize when discussing the senior class president campaign. While there is nothing wrong with civility, it cannot be the central position of the most powerful nation; or any nation for that matter. In the end, it is simply irrelevant. In fact, the more one stresses it the sillier and weaker one looks. I am not sure what Obama's foreign policy is. Is he for free trade and open markets? Is he a "one worlder", seeking greater coordination through international bodies like the UN? What is his stance on "rogue" nations? I don't know. He greatly emphasizes the need to have dialog and to show we are willing to listen. Ok, I can live with that. But now what?

(posted by Mike Rulle at 10:16 am)

As anyone who has read this blog knows, I am beyond a skeptic when it comes to issues of global warming. The global warming phenomenon is one fraudulent money grab by a wide variety of interests in concert with anti-growth ideologues. That is my story and I am sticking to it. I have written about my reasons for this in the past "Red Flags" Fly as Gore Raises Stakes. But stories such as this are more compelling to me Examining SORCE data shows the Sun continues its slide. The graph below was generated at the website Watts UP with That (my primary source for environmental and global warming updates).

It shows the declining solar activity in this solar cycle versus the previous cycle. Scientists are in the still speculative stage on what this all means. One theory is this tends to happen at the beginning of ice ages, mini or otherwise. It also shows just how little we know about our physical world. The Universe is massive with literally trillions of galaxies. As much as we know, I am pretty sure we know a fraction of what there is to know about the Universe.

(posted by Mike Rulle at 9:55 am)

 

One of the things that I find so frustrating about the global warming debates is how completely political they are. Perhaps many fields of science are like this, for all I know. Any reasonable person looking at global warming science recognizes that policies proposed are so far out of proportion to our knowledge it is irrational. Extreme environmentalists hate Bjorn Lomborg. Lomborg's primary argument is that even if the forecasts are true regarding global warming, the policies proposed are wasteful and ineffective to the extreme Don't Waste Time Cutting Emissions. Arguments over whether this or that science is true are hard to wrap one's mind around. But measuring the impacts of certain actions are much easier. The reason I call global warming policies fraudulent, is that few dispute the facts underlying Lomborg's policy prescriptions. That is, the massive amounts that we are planning to spend will have little impact on global warming, even if one accepts the theories of global warming. It is a scam cooked up by the crony capitalist elite. And its effects on the poorest nations will be the hardest felt. This is probably one reason most people intuitively reject global warming policies as the Pew survey Lomborg references shows.

(posted by Mike Rulle at 9:35 am)

 

Maureen Dowd faces reality as she discusses the seeming death spiral of the newsprint business in Slouching Towards Oblivion. Print papers suffer from many problems. For me, the major problem they have is they are old before they are delivered. With one's iphone or PDA of choice one gets up to date "real time" information at will. Why buy a newspaper? There are reasons, as people still buy them, although I don't. If they deliver news that has a long shelf life; or if they cover highly localized news such as one's town newspaper; or perhaps if they specialize in some way like the WSJ does for global business; then I see them being viable. But who cares what the editorial guys at the NY Times think should be the headline above the fold? They might be better off having daily web papers and more specialized or weekly print papers. But the old model seems dead.

(posted by Mike Rulle at 9:10 am)

 

The latest news on first quarter GDP growth is less bad than some had expected U.S. Economy Probably Contracted in First Quarter as Inventories Plunged . The UK announced recently a drop of only 1.4%. The US may have dropped as much as 4.7%, with about half of that being a function of companies letting inventories drop. This is not exactly cause for celebration but it is not the disaster some feared; and light years from the "depression porn" speak we have grown accustomed to. Imagine if our financial regulators were less panic prone; or if the new administration were less tax and spend prone. We might have viewed this past year as a normal minor set back rather than the prelude to the apocalypse.

(posted by Mike Rulle at 8:44 am)

 

Comments

[Carolyn]

Have to laugh at Phil Bronstein sniffing the public is wrong because it 'thinks' he and his fellow journalists are biased - when really it's the public that's 'opinionated'.

We're 'opinionated'? Whatsamatter, Bronstein, can't spell 'stupid'? Or 'mindless morons' or 'idiots' or 'uneducated masses'? Come on, if you've got the cojones to treat us like fools dumb enough to buy your biased garbage, can't you at least have the cojones to be honest about it?

Or did the stupid dragon bite THEM off as well? (No wonder Sharon left you.)