Peace Begins With Him

I was perusing Leninology and I found reference to Missing Links, a blog which translates Arab news articles into English.

If you know anything about my work on linguistics and conflict (see below) you'll know this is part of what I think the 'solution' is.
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Huckabee on Economics

When Huckabee talks about social issues, or, more specifically, when he talked about running a positive campaign, out of politeness, I will give him an ear, plus, he is easy to listen to.

He talked at the Commonwealth Club on Thursday and, on tax issues, he is sadly ignorant. I wonder where he knows people that lose half their paychecks before they get it. His idea is a national sales tax, which he calls a "fair tax", but which hits the poor much harder than the rich. How Christian of him! It's just what Jesus would do.
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Carbon Sequestration, A Solution Not Discussed

Most people don't know what a tree is, at least, I can say I didn't know what a tree was until I heard the proper definition. Tell me if you knew this: a tree is a solar powered machine for turning air into wood.

The C02 that trees breathe in becomes O2 for us, and the C goes into the tree. Trees don't come from the soil, but the air.

Turns out we have a carbon problem, the International Panel on Climate Change has lots to say about it.

Well, can we use trees to get rid of the carbon? The idea is based on the ideas that we would grow trees and bury them, or, if not bury them, then, at least, prevent them from rotting. Rotting releases the carbon back into the atmosphere.

How much carbon gets released, total? I've been given to understand that the American total is 25% of the global total of emissions. Anyway, the US total per year is 1.44 petagrams so the global total is about 5 petagrams. (kilo, meta, giga, tera, peta). This site says global production is already over 6.32 petagrams.

And how much does a forest consume? One (probably healthy) forest consumes about 1.5 megagrams of carbon per year/per hectare.

And how many hectares of forest are there, total? About 4 billion, although it was probably closer to 5.5 billion a few hundred years ago.

So, if every acre of forest was harvested like this, we'd have 4,000,000,000 x 1,500,000 = 6,000,000,000,000,000 grams of carbon, compared to 5,000,000,000,000,000 grams of total carbon emissions. 6 petagrams versus 5 petagrams.

I love old growth forests. I'm just saying.

Think of all the algae!
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Hip, Hip, Hamas!

How come I never heard that Hamas had destroyed the wall between Egypt and the Gaza Strip?

I learned it on the interesting TheRealNews.com.

And, if you have some doubt about this, a) I've said before that the treatment of Gaza by Israel is 'collective punishment' (just like the US in Fallujah) and, b) imagine if someone built a wall around your county, wouldn't you cheer when it came down?
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Concerning What They Call God

I was just thinking thinking that if the deity isn't from Earth, then the deity is an alien. Half the world (or more) worships an alien.

Then I was thinking about Judaism, since I was raised Jewish. The Jews believe that they are the alien's "chosen people." And I realized they believe that, no matter what, that will always be the case. They could rip every baby on Earth apart, limb from limb, and they would still be the alien's "chosen people."

That is some insanely evil alien they worship.

Some other people believe one time the alien came down and boinked a person.


Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Antarctic Melting News

A story I didn't heard on the TV News, but saw on the bottom of the new NASA home page
First of its kind study has consistent with Gore results for Antactica melting at here

Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Retroactive Immunity in History

I was interested in checking the record for instances when Congress had passed laws granting retroactive immunity. This link is to a Glenn Greenwald story about Robert F. Kennedy and Katzenbach speaking against retroactive immunity for the banks.
The banks merged knowing they'd be sued for violating monopoly laws, but when they started losing the suits, they went to Congress. Congress granted the immunity in 1965.
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Citizens of Missouri

"First do no harm" says Kit Bond, the war booster, "first do no harm" says torture advocate Kit Bond, "first do no harm" Kit Bond says is the dictate of leadership. Of course, it is really the mandate of medicine, but even there it isn't followed. Nowadays many things, like chemotherapy, do harm to get the healthy result.
Citizens of Missouri, read these words and know that Kit Bond does you no honor.  If you can not find someone who can debate better than Kit Bond, don't send anyone to the Senate at all.
If you are out there, and still young enough to want a life in politics, do the United States Senate a favor and study some of the formal branch of logic called Fallacy Logic, the kind that prevents you from throwing up straw men like o many skeet targets.
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

The Fallacy of Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

The books main premise is that people can instantly recognize the solutions to problems, and don't need to think about them. I shall not argue from adverse consequences, however appealing it is to besmirch the name of people who suggest that people shouldn't think.

The fallacy, repeated over and over again in the book, is that in each of his examples, the people who aren't thinking are experts in their field. Surely a heart surgeon, plopped in front of an open, bleeding chest, might not need to think about which vessel to clamp down on first to prevent loss of life. You (for my non-thorassic surgeon readers) and I, however, would be lost (as the Marines say) in the sauce.

I can only guess that Malcolm Gladwell didn't think before he wrote this book (and he considered that a good thing).

I'm Back!

Well, sorta.

I left the job which I understood had a "no blogging allowed" policy. At least, no blogging without corporate pre-approval, and am now looking to get involved in political campaigning as a career.

However, in the meantime, I'll be working on my new website:

Josh Wants The Nobel Prize

If I get the Prize, and you helped, you can get some share of the million+ dollar prize. :)

For now, that should be occupying all my time that I'm not seeking to fight someone's struggle for elected office, so I probably won't be blogging much, but who knows. I will change the colors of the site before long, too.

Did anyone know that "SATP" stands for "Screaming AT Pigeons". I was a caller in to Brian Lamb's hosted C-SPAN Washington Journal on blogs, and I explained that "Well, it was sorta like a crazy guy in the park, screaming at pigeons, I know no one is going to listen, but it might be interesting to watch."

Sigh.

"Range" of Opinion on Gaza

     Not very surprising, this is a synposis of the BBC press review:

Palestinian	AL-QUDS	This firms our resolve to fight back.
Palestinian	AL-HAYAT AL-JADIDAH	Who will rise, the nationalists, democratics, or fundies?
Palestinian	AL-AYYAM	All Palestinians are kidnapped
Israeli	HAARETZ	This must be surgical, no timelines, start already
Israeli	MAARIV	Full force needed as long as one Palestinian attacks Israel
Israeli	YEDIOT AHARONOT	We aren't attacking hard enough to stop it, but are attacking hard enough to make more enemies
Israeli	HATZOFE	This was inevitable, only now Gaza looks worse because we left a year ago
Israeli	JERUSALEM POST	The buffer to stop the Qassem is the buffer to stop the missiles from Lebanon, and we all know how that turned out
Omani	OMAN	Guns can't negotiate a sensible resolution
Qatari	AL-WATAN	We read Palestinian AL-QUDS
Jordanian	JORDAN TIMES	This looks protracted
Jordanian	AL-RA'Y	This seems premeditated by Israel, but they should be negotiating.

Politics Over Economics

If getting money is our job,
and politics (if anything) is but our hobby,
then the aim of our politics
will necessarily
become a servant
of our money.

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. -- Sam Adams, 1776

Time Constraints In Conflict

     A couple weeks ago a shell landed on a beach and killed a Palestinian family.  It appears that, in response, a group of Palestinians began tunneling into Israel in order to launch the attack that resulted in the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.  If this had happened within minutes of the beach bombing, people would have seen it for a reaction against an Israeli action. 

     The IDF is able, and has been able, to launch its counterattack within minutes or hours of any Palestinian action.  In this case it was clear, and clearly stated, that the re-occupation of the Gaza Strip was a retaliation for the kidnapping.

     Because the Pali attacks can never be quick responses, it will always seem, to the casual observer, that the Palestinians are acting and the Israelis are reacting.

Headline: Crack Found In Shuttle Discovery Insulating Foam

     My friend's reaction?  "Those crazy drug dealers..."

But Those Last 8,000 Are Some Real Motherf*ckers

     George Bush is lying when he suggests that Americans will stand down as Iraqis stand up.  The Pentagon has stated that, as a goal, it hopes to train a total of 272,566 Iraqis for the Iraqi Army, National Guard and Police Forces.  They are within 8,000 of the total goal of 272,566.