My Email To Valerie Easton Of Pacific Magazine

Regarding your Pacific Magazine article last week:

Would you like to maybe fix this sentence:

a decrease in snowpack in the mountains and less snow in the lowlands

because I have about 16 inches of climate change I need shoveled from my driveway.

Here is the problem, when the earth was getting warmer 10 years ago, people were crying global warming. Now that it has been getting cooler the last few years, it is now "climate change". What the climate change crowd does not seem to understand is the earth's climate is always changing and that people are really insignificant part in the process.

You can not think of global climate over a 1 year or 10 year period. Looking at the big picture, hundreds of millions of years, this page has a graph of carbon levels and global temperature, scroll down to the graph labeled Global Temperature and Atmospheric CO2 over Geologic Time, historically the earth is now cold and carbon levels are low.

The other reality is ever single human being could live in the state of Texas with a population density of less than 39 people per acre. And before you reply about that is too dense, there was an article in the Seattle Times within the last year or two about a new "green" housing development in Issaquah that had a density of 40 people per acre.

Then there is the whole myth of carbon dioxide causes temperature rise. If anything it is the opposite. Look at the following. It is clear that the change in carbon levels FOLLOW temperature changes. The temperature starts moving up or down and then the carbon follows.

Finally, who is claiming that a warmer earth would not be a better earth. More people die during the colder months than the warmer months. 7,300 Americans die each day during January and February while 6,200 die each day during July, August and September.

In addition, about 1,000 years ago was a time referred to as the Medieval Warm Period when the earth was warmer than it is now. It is also called the Medieval Climate Optimum. Funny how it is not call Medieval We Are All Going To Drown Because Of The Melting Polar Ice Caps Period.

As Dennis Miller says, I will believe we can fix global warming sometime after we figure out how to fix traffic after a Lakers game.

Just had a few spare minutes because I was unable to drive into work today because of the lack of lowland snowfall and thought I would express myself.

Global Warming... Is There Nothing It Can Not Do, Part 424.

An "informative" article in today Pacific Magazine section of today's Seattle Times

While there is great year-to-year variability in our weather, Mass documents a warming trend, increased precipitation, a decrease in snowpack in the mountains and less snow in the lowlands.

In unrelated news...

Snow continues to fall; freezing rain glazes roads
Snow is falling again this afternoon all around the region — south in Fife and Tukwila, at Paine Field in Everett, east in Redmond, and on the Seahawks and Jets at Qwest Field in Seattle.

The when's-it-going-to-end snow followed a pre-dawn freezing rain that left a slippery layer of ice over Saturday's snow. Roadways and sidewalks have been left worse for the mix.

Rufus Wainwright Is Retarded

Yea, I had never heard of him either until I read an bit about him in the Newsmakers question and answer section of Newsweek.

You've lived in Canada and the U.S. Which has the better healthcare system?
At the end of the day, if it's free it's better. There are a lot of obstacles but eventually you get what you need if you fight really hard. That's better than being completely wiped out.

Well then I guess his music must suck since if I go to Amazon and search on his name, none of what comes up is free.

The whole Canadian Health Care is free line just bothers me to no end. It is not free. Doctors in Canada do not perform medical procedures as a hobby. The pharmacuticals do not donate drugs to Canadian medical facilities. It is NOT free and it is NOT better.

Canadian healthcare is funded through a combination of taxes and / or premiums...

Funding for the insurance plans comes from the general revenues of the Canadian provinces/territories, assisted by transfer payments from the federal government through the Canada Health Transfer. Some provinces charge health care premiums, but these are in effect taxes (since they are not tied to service use, nor to provincial health expenditures). The system is accordingly classified by the OECD as a tax-supported system, as opposed to the social insurance approaches used in many European countries.

Free healthcare, it does not exist, it never has and it never will. Someone is paying and most likely it is the person receiving the treatment.

But let me ask this one question, would you even want to go to a doctor that does not get paid?

Al "Amazing Kreskin" Gore Makes Another Prediction

From Watts Up With That, Al Gore is now claiming all the ice in the North Pole will be gone in 5 years.

Al Gore made another prediction, about increased hurricanes shortly after hurricane Katrina.

The following is a transcript of a speech given by former Vice President Al Gore at the National Sierra Club Convention in San Francisco on September 9, 2005 addressing the challenges and moral imperatives posed by Hurricane Katrina and global warming.
...
...
There are scientific warnings now of another onrushing catastrophe. We were warned of an imminent attack by Al Qaeda; we didn't respond. We were warned the levees would break in New Orleans; we didn't respond. Now, the scientific community is warning us that the average hurricane will continue to get stronger because of global warming. A scientist at MIT has published a study well before this tragedy showing that since the 1970s, hurricanes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific have increased in duration, and in intensity, by about 50 %. The newscasters told us after Hurricane Katrina went over the southern tip of Florida that there was a particular danger for the Gulf Coast of the hurricanes becoming much stronger because it was passing over unusually warm waters in the gulf. The waters in the gulf have been unusually warm. The oceans generally have been getting warmer. And the pattern is exactly consistent with what scientists have predicted for twenty years. Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming. [applause] It is important to learn the lessons of what happens when scientific evidence and clear authoritative warnings are ignored in order to induce our leaders not to do it again and not to ignore the scientists again and not to leave us unprotected in the face of those threats that are facing us right now.

We can check how that prediction has panned out...
2005 28 storms, 15 hurricanes, 7 major hurricanes
2006 10 storms, 5 hurricanes, 2 major hurricanes
2007 15 storms, 6 hurricanes, 2 major hurricanes
2008 16 storms, 8 hurricanes, 5 major hurricanes

But that does not tell us how big and devastating the storms can be, so lets look at it from a different perspective. How costly have they been? It would seem to make sense that if in fact things are getting warmer and if in fact storms are getting bigger and more dangerous then the most costly storms should have been fairly recent.

Costliest U.S. Atlantic hurricanes
Total estimated property damage, adjusted for wealth normalization[121] Rank Hurricane Season Cost (2005 USD)
1 “Miami” 1926 $157 billion
2 “Galveston” 1900 $99.4 billion
3 Katrina 2005 $81.0 billion
4 “Galveston” 1915 $68.0 billion
5 Andrew 1992 $55.8 billion
6 “New England” 1938 $39.2 billion
7 “Pinar del Río” 1944 $38.7 billion
8 “Okeechobee” 1928 $33.6 billion
9 Ike 2008 $31.5 billion
10 Donna 1960 $26.8 billion


Hmmm... 6 of the top 8 costliest storms are prior to 1945. Only one in the top 10, that being #9 since Mr. Gore made his prediction.


Unlike "The Amazing Kreskin" though Al Gore actually believes what he is saying is true. Too bad the facts do not back him up. Really too bad nobody seems interesting in calling him on it.

Seattle's Proposed Gun Ban Hearing

Monday 6:30, be there.

Public hearing scheduled on proposed firearms rule
Residents may also comment online

SEATTLE – The city of Seattle has scheduled a public hearing on a proposed administrative rule to restrict firearms on city-owned property.

The hearing will be held on Dec. 15, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. at Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue, with sign-in beginning at 5:30 p.m. The Bertha Knight Landes room is accessible from the building’s Fifth Avenue entrance. Residents unable to attend may also submit written comments at: www.seattle.gov/firearmsrule

Following a shooting that injured three people at the Folklife Festival on May 24 of this year, Mayor Greg Nickels directed all city of Seattle departments to study the adoption and enforcement of policies, rules and contractual agreements which would prohibit the possession of dangerous weapons, including firearms, on city property. The suspect in the Folklife shooting had a concealed weapons permit, despite a history of drug abuse and mental health problems.

“From increasing the number of patrol officers on our streets, to our Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, we’re addressing public safety issues from all directions. Common-sense gun rules are just one more way to protect our workers, residents, families and children,” said Nickels.

The proposed rule does not include any specific criminal or civil penalties, but a person refusing to comply with the rule would be subject to citation or arrest for criminal trespass.

The proposed rule would not apply to:

City streets and public sidewalks, except when they are being used for non-transportation purposes such as special events. The rule does apply to sidewalks and other walkways located within city parks.
Motor vehicle parking garages and parking lots.
City property leased and occupied for residential purposes.
City-owned property that is located outside the state of Washington.
The Roger Dahl Rifle Training Range.
To address the safety of visitors, including families and children, at city-owned properties, the city of Seattle is also implementing a firearms policy which is applicable to permits, leases and other contractual agreements for the use of city property. Under its policy, the city would lease, rent or permit the use of city property to only those parties who prohibit all persons, except law enforcement officers, from possessing firearms on leased city premises. To prevent the possession of firearms during an event, the city would also require sponsors of major events to take reasonable steps, such as signage, visual inspections, safe storage for lawful firearms, etc. The city would also permit departments to add gun-free terms to most leases and agreements.

State law allows private property owners to prohibit the presence of firearms on their property. As a property owner, the city has rules at Seattle Center and most facilities such as City Hall, prohibiting firearms unless a person has a concealed weapons permit. Organizations that lease Key Arena also have the ability to prohibit firearms in the facility. In addition to other prohibitions, state law prohibits firearms at schools, jails and courthouses.

Get the Nickels Newsletter and the mayor’s inside view on transportation, public safety, economic opportunity and healthy communities at mayor.seattle.gov


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Office of the Mayor