AS IT STANDS: Overheard: A conversation about climate/global warming

           By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
   Overheard at Mom & Pop’s Café USA:
   First diner - “Climate change catastrophes are becoming common nowadays.”
   Second diner: “Oh no! Here we go with the liberal global warming conspiracies.”
   Story on open newspaper (Associated Press June 8) between the two diners:
  “The first six months of 2012 accounted for the warmest January-through-June period on record for the contiguous U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on July 9th.” 
  First diner - “Who said global warming? I try not to use that term because your conservative hackles flare up every time I do. I’m just saying climate changes are obvious right now.” 
  Second diner - “Of course they are. The earth’s climate goes through continual changes. It has since the start. We‘re in a lousy phase right now, that’s all.”
Same story on open newspaper between the two diners:
   “Climate models indicate the hot temperatures are not expected to ease anytime soon. ‘It looks like it’s going to stay above normal, for much of the remainder of the summer,’ said Jon Gottschalck at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.”

  First diner - “Okay. What about the U.S. National Academy of Sciences claim that
Climate change is occurring, most likely increasing global average surface temperatures worldwide about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century?”  
Second diner - “Sounds like change at that rate won’t make a difference to mankind for at least another thousand years.”
   Same story on open newspaper between the two diners:
   “In 2011, the U.S National Academy of Sciences concluded in a final report on U.S. global warming effects that ‘Climate change is occurring, and very likely caused primarily by the emission of greenhouse gases from human activities, and poses significant risks.’" 
  First diner - “Can we at least agree that the recent climate changes in our country have been devastating, and that manmade pollution contributed to it?”
  Second diner - “I have to admit that was something when that derecho (editor’s note: a pattern of thunderstorms racing in a straight line)  struck Washington on June 29th . I was hoping a few Democratic Congressmen might get swept up… no seriously, playing the Al Gore card isn’t going to get it.”
    Another open newspaper (AP article June 7th) between the two diners: “At least 30 deaths were blamed on the heat, including nine in Maryland and 10 in Chicago, mostly among the elderly. Three elderly people found dead in their houses in Ohio had heart disease, but died of high temperatures in homes lacking power because of recent outages, officials said. Heat was also cited as a factor in three deaths in Wisconsin, two in Tennessee and three in Pennsylvania.”
    First diner - “Had to get that partisan shot in didn’t ya George? This climate change business is no laughing matter. We should be looking at ways to prepare for what’s happening to our environment right now and in the future.” 
Second diner - “Are you aware that some climate scientists, such as Georgia Tech's Judith Curry, dismiss connections between global warming and U.S. heat waves? She says on her website, Climate Etc. ‘We saw these kinds of heat waves in the 1930s, and those were definitely not caused by greenhouse gases.’ I don't think what we are seeing this summer is outside the range of natural variability for the past century." 
Another open newspaper ( Associated Press June 9) between the diners: “June's derecho, that unleashed 80 mph winds that knocked out power for millions from Ohio to Virginia, has been seen as a consequence of global warming. ‘Derechos don't happen very often, but with heat waves more common under climate projections, they would most likely increase in frequency and severity,’ says forest ecologist Chris Peterson of the University of Georgia in Athens. He pointed to likely extreme-weather effects on forests in a 2000 study.”
   First diner - “Looks like we aren’t going to solve anything today George. I gotta go to work now. See ya tomorrow…”
  Second diner - I guess not Pete. We can take this conversation up again. Same time. Same place. It’s your turn to buy, though!”
   As It Stands, until the great partisan debate about the reason for rising world temperatures is set aside and actions taken, we might as well join George and Pete at Mom and Pop’s Café USA.  

Websites that have picked up this column:

1) Topics – Mendocino News -

2) Doing it Green -

3) Global Warming News Blog – Daily Global Warming News

4) Year 8888 – Climate Change

5) Event Earth -

6) The Basics of Global Warming -

7) Global Warming – Articles about Global warming

8) The Global Warming Diet

9) Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming

10) The History of the Movement to Stop Gobal warming

11) Taking It Global -

12) Environment News

13) Al Gore News

14) Citizens Climate Lobby -

15) Pros and Cons about Global Warming -

16) Energy Destiny -

17) Hub Pages -

18) Squidoo -

19) Citizens Climate Lobby -

20) Dream Catalyst

21) Ian McPherson blog -

22) Fast Company -

23) Understanding Climate Change -  Energy Education Foundation

24) Total Wealth Essentials Elite Group Inc.

25) Pepper Groups

26) Energy Federation -

 

 

Joe Paterno's halo removed from Penn State mural

No man, or woman, should be painted with halos, because they ARE NOT angels. I’m sorry, but if you have a halo that means you’re one of God’s servants…at least according to the Christian faith. Right?

Joe Paterno was no angel. He was a great coach, but that will forever be overlooked because people will remember how he enabled Sandusky all of those years while those boys were being molested.

 Artist Michael Pilato adds a halo over football coach Joe Paterno's head to a mural in January in downtown State College, Pa. Pilato created the mural several years ago. On Saturday, Pilato removed the halo - Photo - Pat Little / Reuters

Today’s Feel-Good Story: Family Fulfills Dying Man's Wish: $500 Tip For Waitress

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The waitresses reaction is really cool…

          Good Day Humboldt County!

 I really enjoy reading about stories that are so uplifting.

Yes, it’s kind of bittersweet, as it’s about someone dying, but his last wish was something so special it’s going to keep on giving beyond what he envisioned:

“A Kentucky man's family fulfilled his dying wish when they left a $500 tip to their waitress at a Lexington restaurant a few days after he died, the NBC station WLEX in Lexington. And that wish has turned into something bigger.

Before he died July 7, 30-year-old Aaron Collins told his family he wanted to eat pizza and leave the server a large tip, but didn't have the money, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. His family raised the money through a website that Collins' brother Seth started. (Source)

Controversy or diverson? Olympic uniforms made in China rile some people

 I think it really stinks that our National Olympic Team’s uniforms were made in China. Having said that, the controversy over the uniform’s origin has ignited senators and citizens to cry “foul!” over the purchase.

What makes me laugh is the fact that we purchase billions of dollars worth of clothing from China annually, but these uniforms are the straw that broke the camel’s back? C’mon folks, let’s get real. Look at the big picture. I think this “controversy” is the work of the mainstream media, pols looking to divert people from real issues, and some Tea Party types with time on their hands.

‘Nuff said…here’s some links:

Outrage Over Ralph Lauren's 'Made in China' Team USA Olympic Uniforms

Lawmaker outraged over team USA's uniform

Growing Outrage Over Team USA’s Olympic Uniforms Made in China

American religious institutions losing members due to lack of confidence in them

   Good Day Humboldt County!

The numbers don’t lie. Church attendance across the board is down. Organized religion has never been under more scrutiny by the public than now. Scandals have eroded the church’s credibility.

Is it any wonder that millions of Catholics have left the church because of the ongoing sexual abuse that has been exposed?

Televangelists acting badly helped destroy people’s beliefs when they took their money in the name of God, and bought themselves all the luxury’s possible in this world with it. The question I have is; what do people turn to after their religious beliefs have been turned upside down? 

“Americans' confidence in religious institutions has hit an all-time low, with only 44 percent expressing a "great deal" of confidence in organized religion, according to a new Gallup survey.

This follows a downward trend since the 1970s, when 68 percent of Americans had a high degree of confidence. Gallup cites two big blows to confidence in organized religion: 1980s scandals involving televangelists like Jim Bakker and the Catholic sex abuse scandal in the 2000s.

It's also worth noting that organized religion is far from the only institution in which Americans are losing confidence. Americans also are souring on schools, banks and television news, according to Gallup's survey.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

TRENDING: Cities that declare bankruptcy – San Bernardino makes 3

I was talking with my sister who owns a house in San Bernardino yesterday, when she asked me if I heard the city was declaring bankruptcy? I didn’t and was surprised.

Her house, valued at $500,000 before the recession hit, has been reduced in value to $250,000.

“I’m getting out of here,” she assured me.

I asked where she would move to? Her answer was typical of her, “Anywhere but here!”

Let’s see now, Stockton and Mammoth Lakes both declared bankruptcy recently, so San Bernardino makes three in California in the last 30 days…a trend? 

in the news today..

“San Bernardino became the third California city in less than two weeks to file municipal bankruptcy protection Tuesday night when the city council voted to make the move in the face of a $45-million budget shortfall.

Shortly before the council's vote, Interim Mayor Andrea Miller recommended the city of 209,000 seek bankruptcy protection due, in part, to its inability to make payroll over the next three months, the Los Angeles Times reported.(source)”

Here we go again – the financial woes of another country are now our problem

              Good Day Humboldt County!

Every time I hear about financial woes overseas I cringe, because it means the U.S. is going to feel the impact.

We, you and I, are going to suffer because criminals in another country, the U.K., got caught manipulating bank rates late in June.

I don’t know about you, but I think this global economy stuff sucks! Every time another country threatens to default financially – think Greece – the rest of the world has to scramble to save them from themselves. Now, criminals from another country are ruining people’s lives here.

It’s like one big game of deadly dominos…when one falls the rest follow: 

“It may seem like just another obscure banking scandal at a 322-year-old British bank, but there are a number of good reasons why you should care about the LIBOR rate-rigging scandal now roiling the world’s biggest and most powerful banks, including that it probably cost you money if you own a mortgage.

Robert Shapiro, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs in the Clinton administration and now chairman of Sonecon, an economic advisory firm, warned Wednesday that the LIBOR scandal could become the largest financial fraud in history.

Shapiro wrote in a blog Wednesday that “coming on top of the reckless and dishonest behavior that led to the 2008 financial collapse, the LIBOR manipulations should finally dispose of the conservative case for self-regulation by Wall Street.” (Source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

TSA Agents at Louisville Airport Steal Deaf Man's Candy, Call Him "Fucking Deafie"

A group of students leaving the annual conference of the National Association of the Deaf in Louisville had a rather awful experience courtesy of the Transportation Security Administration in that city's airport.

One of the travelers wrote about it on his blog:

It was a very public week-long event downtown, make no bones about it. As such, the shirt very clearly identified me as deaf.

While I was going through the TSA, some of them started laughing in my direction. I thought it might’ve been someone behind me, but I found out otherwise.

They went through my bag (for no reason), and found a couple bags of candy I brought. I was told I wasn’t allowed to fly with that (wtf? I’ve flown with food before — these were even sealed still because I brought them right in the airport). I was then asked if I would like to donate the candy “To the USO”. Since I know the airport there has an Air National Guard base, and I figured it would go to the soldiers, I (annoyed) said sure, why not?

The guards, as I was getting scanned, started eating the candy they just told me was for the soldiers. In front of me, still laughing at me (very clearly now). One of them asked why they were laughing, and one of them came up to me, pointed at my shirt, laughed at me and said, “Fucking deafie”. The Louisville TSA called me a “fucking deafie” and laughed at me because I was deaf, and they expected wouldn’t say anything back (or wouldn’t hear them). Make no bones about it — she was facing me and I read her lips. There was no mistake. I would later find out that they had called at least 4 other individuals the same thing. (story by Mike Riggs)

H/T BoingBoing

UPDATE: Teaandtheatre (the Tumblr account of the above complainant) is down. A commenter at Boing Boing says that the author "is concerned for negative consequences for himself and other people with disabilities. He was venting primarily to other people with disabilities.  This post has gone way past what he wants."

So if you click through, and the Tumblr page is down, that's why. We'll update as soon as TSA responds.

A Promise Broken: Black Lung disease still the bane of coal miners

       Good Day Humboldt County!

The following story is another example of corporations ignoring weak laws set down by Congress. With no one to enforce the laws, it’s business as usual for coal mine operators who are looking to cut corners at every opportunity. Even when those opportunities endanger worker’s safety and ultimately their lives:

Via PBS: Deadly Black Lung disease rises among coal miners

Via Open Channel on MSNBC: Deadly black lung surges back in coal country

“Amid strikes throughout the West Virginia coalfields, Congress made a promise in 1969: Mining companies would have to keep dust levels down, and black lung would be virtually eradicated.

The disease's resurgence represents a failure to deliver on a 40-year-old pledge to miners in which few are blameless, an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and NPR has found. The system for monitoring dust levels is tailor-made for cheating, and mining companies haven’t been shy about doing so.

Meanwhile, regulators often have neglected to enforce even these porous rules. Again and again, attempts at reform have failed. In the hard-won 1969 law, Congress demanded that dust be controlled and new cases of disease be prevented. The idea was that, even if black lung didn’t disappear, there would be a small number of mild cases.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Hang Around For Humor: Louis CK Takes a Stand on Smoking Pot

Sit back, but don’t relax…this guy keeps ‘em coming!

             Good Day Humboldt County!

 There’s nothing like taking a stroll down humor lane when you need a “pick-me-up.”

 The weight of the world slides away, and the sound of your laughter makes your own day.

Is there a funnier comedian than Louis CK right now?

 I am a huge fan of the late Mitch Hedberg, but outside of a few legends, CK is owning the comedy scene right now.

 He has the wit of George Carlin, the balls of Bill Hicks, and a voice all his own. He is the comedian who says what we are all thinking, but says it way cooler and funnier than any of us could. Take for example, his personal stance on smoking pot. The hilarity lies in just how right on he is.

Time for me to walk on down the road…