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Messages - mjmsprt40

52
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
All I've seen Midnight do is call people who would DARE to disagree with the "accepted, ancient and true" CAGW names. I begin to suspect--- strongly--- that this is how "97% consensus" came about: Anybody who disagreed was shamed into signing on, and if shame wouldn't work then threats of having funding cut, or even of being driven from the community would surely make the holdouts toe the line. Midnight's efforts here give rise to that idea as it happens.
53
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
This sort of thing seems to have been going on for a while. I always thought (because this is what I learned in history) that WW1 and the armistice that followed-- with its punitive effects on Germany in particular-- followed by a global depression which affected Germany especially hard, helped Hitler attain and then keep power. Nope, I was wrong apparently---- it was global warming. Can't make this stuff up.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/11/24/the-ultimate-godwin-effect-science-in-1941-global-warming-caused-hitler/
54
DnD Central / Re: Keeping an eye on Vivaldi.net
I've just deleted Vivaldi from my bookmarks. I suppose I could go there and end my membership, but it doesn't seem worth the bother. Deleting from the bookmarks will be good enough.
55
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
I keep pitching them, you keep ducking them because the politics----..

OK, here comes another one---fast, on the inside---- DUCK!!!

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/11/24/claim-500-million-children-at-risk-from-climate-change/

Side note: I have a couple of blogs that I follow on this subject. Most stuff I would put here comes from WUWT because he does run a scientifically inclined blog, usually backing up what he says with solid data. The other one, I have to say is spotty at best and I have a suspicion he just might be a corporate shill--- much of "Junk Science" seems to make me wonder about that blog.
56
DnD Central / Re: Is there a police psychology problem??
We have one going to trial, and dash-cam footage shows that the officer fired long after the "suspect" could have been any threat. The officer involved is now facing a murder rap, and is held without bond today.

16 shots-------- the officer had to have emptied his gun and possibly reloaded-- I can't be sure-- to fire that many times. Once or maybe twice would have stopped most offenders, so--- 16?? Worse, the officer did this within range of his own squad-car's dash-cam. Not only a murderer, but a brain-dead one at that.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/chicago-cop-allegedly-shot-teen-laquan-mcdonald-16/story?id=35391346
57
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
I don't do "politically correct" in case you haven't noticed. Frankly, I got tired a long time ago of leftist lies--- sorry, can't call it anything else--- that I am expected to swallow whole and believe because it's "politically correct" to spout that nonsense.

Now that this is out of the way: Highly placed white-horse souses tell me that much of this "climate change" stuff is little more than a wealth-transfer shakedown, where richer nations are expected to give billions to poorer nations. The UN will, of course, oversee the transfer. The check will be in the mail, you can count on it. Would the Nigerian general's wife lie about that?
58
DnD Central / Re: Gun Control - Should Ordinary Citizens Own, Carry, & Use Firearms?
Now there's a thought for you. Oakdale reports on suspected terrorists legally being able to buy guns, and a bill in Congress likely dying in committee because the gun lobby would stop it. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Look---- it makes sense to stop some folk from getting guns if possible--- at least legally. (I know there's a black market, and anybody who can fork over the cash can get what they want illegally.)

There was a law--- maybe there still is-- that stops a person who has a domestic violence rap from getting a gun legally. The idea is that if a person beats on his/her mate, you sure don't want that person armed so he/she can kill their mate. Now, a person with a DV rap is likely to kill only his/her spouse and maybe their children--- not much more than that though that is plenty and to spare.

Selling weapons to suspected terrorists LEGALLY?? I begin to think just maybe RJH has a point about this nation being crazy.
59
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
How about this one? King of Sweden wants to ban baths to stop climate change......

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3329759/King-Sweden-calls-ban-BATHS-admits-ashamed-run-one.html

Look, folks, there's TONS of this kind of stuff. Makes you think that maybe we're in a lot of trouble, and it's not from climate change.

We're not off the hook here in the states either. President Obama says that climate change is a bigger and more important threat than terrorism--- and last I heard, he seemed so convinced of this that I daresay he would believe it even with ISIL operatives in the Oval Office holding a knife to his throat. Our leaders do not appear to be well.
60
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
Do you still wonder why I don't believe this hoo-hah about climate change?

Consider that Prince Charles, heir apparent to the Throne of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, believes that climate change caused the present terrorism. I am not making this up. In fact, I've been reading several items that suggest that our esteemed world leaders believe tough talk on climate change will show ISIL that this time, we mean business! That'll scare 'em.

Yeah---- maybe it'll scare ISIL that men with their heads so firmly planted up their @&& are actually world leaders. I know it scares me.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/11/23/prince-charles-climate-change-is-to-blame-for-war-in-syria/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
61
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
I never said I trust Exxon/Mobil either. You say that, Sang, because you need to discredit what I did in fact say---- and the only way, apparently, that you can do that is to suggest that I am in the back-pocket of Big Oil.

Good luck in your fairy-tale dream world--- you'll need it.
62
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
Midnight, I may not be the sharpest tack in the box. But, I do possess a few things that have stood the test of time.

1. A window. These panes of glass are excellent for allowing you to see outside to see what is happening. Right now--- there's snow on the ground. We've cleared it from the driveway here, and the streets have been plowed, but there's still ice to be watchful for.

2. A thermometer. A really useful device for telling you--- before you step outside--- that it's cold in November in Chicago. It's been like that every November that I can remember.

3. Some degree, at least, of common sense, and with it a sense of the history of conditions. You know, things really haven't changed in all the years (60 so far) that I've been alive. It's warm in the summer and cold in the winter, every year--- and it doesn't vary much.

I also developed, over a period of years, a sense of who should and who should not be trusted--- and why. Right now, the warmunists are really low on my trust-o-meter, and there's no sign of that changing any time soon.
63
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
You can call it whatever you like. "Climate Change", "Global Warming" "CAGW" or whatever else you choose to hang on it when the present name has worn out its welcome. It's still the same old same old---- a bunch of rich guys who want to remain rich and get even richer are ready, willing and able--- through political muscle-- to impoverish the rest of the world through made-up crapola. Frankly, they don't care if you and I freeze in the dark so long as they continue to live the high-life, and the fact that you're ready to sign on to your own impoverishment just makes it easier.
64
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
I look out the window, glad I don't have to go anywhere. "Global warming" has served up a snorter of a blizzard, with heavy snow, high winds and low visibility. My landlord shoveled the drive not an hour ago, and at this moment you can't tell that he did a thing. With these winds, we get ground-effect blizzard into the bargain.

The weather prognosticators say the snow should end in a couple of hours, but that the temperature will plunge tonight. Bring in the brass monkey!

Edit; add-on: The snow stopped, and landlord and I joined forces to clear the drive. Good thing to get that done too, it was heavy and wet, and with tonight's low temps it would have frozen to rock-hard in the morning. Good luck moving it then.

I know my personal observations don't count because I don't have the "right" (or maybe that should be "left") credentials, but I do have 60 years of noticing things around me. That's why I'm a skeptic--- I just don't see the calamities that were forecast to have already happened, but have not. I suspect it won't happen by 2115 either--- but conveniently for the forecasters of CAGW doom, nobody now living will be alive to call them out on it and they won't be alive--- at least in the sense that we understand life on this planet-- to face the music.

Now, wait a bit while I brush the snow off of my flying car. Oh, wait, that's right--- they're still toys in the hands of inventors, not ready for public use and may never be. See what a problem predicting the future can be?
65
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
I never even once said that a triangle had four sides. Where on Earth did you get a silly idea like that?

But, since you seem to think I did, at some time, insist that a triangle has four sides--- I suspect I can safely discard anything else you have to say since it's obviously not based on reality. Four sided triangles? Must be a Portuguese thing.

Reality right now: Where I live, we're under "Winter storm warning" with several inches of "Global warming" expected to accumulate. While I'm at it, a look at the regional maps shows that it is, in fact, snowing in Hell right now. (I'm not just a-woofin'. It is snowing in Hell, Michigan according to the radar images.)
66
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
I have to do this. Some time back, our fellow from Portugal put up a long list of scientific and religious organizations that have gotten onto the AGW /Stop Climate Change train. Now, truth is I've never been one to jump onto bandwagons, and sometimes there's good reason to stay clear of the bandwagon.

Since Bel seems to like long, exhaustive lists, how about a list of all the things that Global Warming is supposed to be causing? Some things on the list are contradictory-- how can AGW cause less Antarctic ice and MORE Antarctic ice? Some things are patently silly. I fully expect that if you stub your toe on a chair leg and utter a stream of words nobody thought you even knew, stubbing your toe can be blamed on AGW. Well, why not? They're already saying terrorism is caused by it, so we might as well blame AGW for stubbing your toe.

Warning: The list is something of a link-farm, and if you trace all that stuff down it'll take forever--- and the list is growing.

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
67
DnD Central / Re: Intellectual debate on DnD
Got curious, looked it up: Cardinals and the Pope do, indeed, wear red garments--- including socks. It does have significant meaning too, signifying that the Cardinal is willing to lay down his life for the faith.

The other information I was able to find concerning red socks has to do with a major-league baseball team in Boston.

http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/30649/what-do-red-garments-represent-for-leaders-in-the-catholic-church
68
DnD Central / Re: Why trains don't catch on here in the "ex-colonies".
A couple of points: I can see high-speed rail coming into its own in the Northeast Corridor, and in cases like Sang mentions between LA and Lost Wages, beyond that I just don't know---- could it make sense from Minneapolis to Billings, Montana? Hard to say.

The second point: RJ, you may want to re-think pointing out Japan as a "large country". It's a string of small islands, the entire distance from one end to the other probably doesn't reach (comparatively) from Land's End to John O'Groats--- in fact, it seems to me to be probably just a little over half that. You have the advantage in that the entire distance between those points is on one island, Japan is made up of many small islands.
69
DnD Central / Re: Why trains don't catch on here in the "ex-colonies".
Quote from: Frenzie on

Quote from: mjmsprt40 on
But only on long-haul. There's still the distance from the railroad freight-yard to the shipping/receiving docks, and this is done by truck. Pulling pigs for the rails* keeps a lot of truckers in business.

No issues with the 300 number? I mean, freight trains are quite long, but I've never felt that they seemed 300 wagons long. :P


To be sure, 300 seems big. Until you take into account that containers may be stacked one on top of another, and it is possible to have 4 pup-containers on one freight car. Regular trailers may sometimes be 2 to a railcar. CN trains around here have grown to preposterous lengths, a two-mile long consist seems not uncommon. So--- I have to grant that Belfragers' number may be plausible.
70
DnD Central / Re: Why trains don't catch on here in the "ex-colonies".
Quote from: Belfrager on

A single train retires 300 trucks from the roads or even more.


But only on long-haul. There's still the distance from the railroad freight-yard to the shipping/receiving docks, and this is done by truck. Pulling pigs for the rails* keeps a lot of truckers in business.

* I did this for a couple of months. Trailers--- or sometimes containers-- ride piggy-back on the train, so these are "pigs". The trucker comes to the yard, gets his assigned trailer or container, then drives it to the final destination. On the flip-side, trucks pick up at the shipper and deliver the "pig" to the railroad, complete with information as to where the consignment is headed. The "Rubber link" can be anywhere from a couple of miles to a couple hundred miles, depending on the load in question.
71
DnD Central / Re: Why trains don't catch on here in the "ex-colonies".
It would have to be really something to get me to fly. Just ain't agonna doit until the Second Coming if I have anything to say about it.

Been on a train a few times--- OK, RJH, all commuters of one sort or another but trains none the less. First ever was a South Shore train to the Loop, where we switched to a Green-Line train to the West Side. This was wayyyyyy back, when the Austin neighborhood was working-class white, and my uncle owned a house near Central and Lake Street. They even had a smoking-car on the South Shore train, that's how far back in time that was.

Since then--- some CTA trains in and out of the Loop--- the only times I've driven into and out of the Loop was pickup or delivery of packages, for any other purpose I'll stop in Forest Park and take the Blue-Line train every time.

I think I've been on an IC train once--- the electrified branch of the line that goes from Chicago to New Orleans, I was headed into Chicago at the time. Not sure though, I was young and the South Shore and IC run close for a few miles in the final ten miles into the city.

Anywhere else--- I'm driving.
72
DnD Central / Re: Anthropogenic Global Warming
Oakdale brings up a point worth thinking about.

Way back when, I used to belong to Boilermakers/Blacksmiths union. Typical of most unions, they never saw a Democrat they didn't like nor a Republican they didn't hate with a passion. If you only got your information from the official paper of the union, you'd think the entire membership would vote Democrat.

Now, many members did in fact do just that. But then you have folk like me at the time, who think independent of what the union hierarchy was trying to push-- people who voted for somebody else. Some independent, some Republican and some mixed-ticket (separate from independent here because I thought maybe 3rd or even 4th party).

So--- when somebody here (I won't mention names, but you know who you are) puts up a long list of organizations that say we must do something to stop climate change, I openly wonder how many of the scientists within those groups stand with it heart and soul, and how many would openly question it IF their voices were allowed to be heard.

No, I don't trust "consensus". In my mind, it's just another word for censorship of any opinion that doesn't toe the party line.
73
DnD Central / Re: Why trains don't catch on here in the "ex-colonies".
Quote from: ersi on

Quote from: mjmsprt40 on

Trains don't work well here because of the distances, and more to the point because there isn't the density of population centers that you have in Europe.

Last century they thought they had the required population density worth to cover the continent with a network of trains, but now...


In the 1880s they didn't have planes and automobiles. A steam-powered train could travel at 25 mph and keep doing it for several miles, having to stop only for coal and water and oiling the moving parts. It wasn't that hard to outrun the Wells-Fargo wagon on the open prairie.

Call it progress: There was a time when, if you wanted to move passengers and goods over long distances, you chose steamboats and barges. Then the trains came and took that business away from the river steamers, which could not compete with the trains. Then, around the time the 1800s were giving way to the 1900s, some folk came up with ideas about planes and automobiles. It took awhile, but eventually the superhighway and the jet plane settled the issue for long-distance passenger rail in the same way rail had done to the steamboat.
74
DnD Central / Re: Why trains don't catch on here in the "ex-colonies".
RJ--- passenger service could hardly be made profitable here. That outline of Texas over Europe doesn't take into account the fact that in that space in Europe you have a number of major cities. In Texas---- you've got miles and miles of zilch. The cities are few and far between, and it would take a miracle of God to make the train pay for itself. How many people go from Houston to Lubbock? How much do you suppose they'd be willing to pay for the privilege of doing so on a train? (Houston to Dallas--- maybe. Problem: Both of these cities have airports, and a puddle-jumper plane can get you from one to the other in maybe an hour. A train would take--- fergit it.)

Trains don't work well here because of the distances, and more to the point because there isn't the density of population centers that you have in Europe.