Mars is melting according to the Times Online. How did those pesky martians get SUVs?????

Apparently, not only is methane production from bovine flatulence a great problem, but now it appears that we must also worry about termites. Yes termites. They seem to be too gassy as well. Story from Rush with data on the EPA site.

Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, has called out the environmental movement again during his visit ot Washington this week. See stories here and here.

Carbon offsets were big news earlier this week. All attendees of the Academy Awards received free carbon offsets to cover all those fossil fuels burned to heat their mansions, heat their pools, and fuel their SUVs. In addition, we found out that Al Gore himself burns huge quantities of carbon heating and cooling his huge house in Tennessee, his private jet, his other house houses, and his limos. But his carbon footprint is 0 because he buys carbon offsets.

So this got me to wondering about these carbon offsets. How do you create them? Does a government agency issue them? If your utility bill is below the national average, can you get them from your utility?  Can you then sell them on E-bay? (Heck I would like to make some cash from them!) Does anyone regulate them?

Well, the short answers are: anyone can, no, no, probably, and no. :)

The carbon offsets given out at the Academy awards were issued by Terrapass, a Silicon Valley based company in Menlo Park, CA. Go to their web site and check it out. You put in your zip code, answer a few questions about your utility bill, and whammo blammo, you are given a price at which you can pollute all year guilt free!!!

For an offset to truely be an offset they either need to (1) remove CO2 from the atmophere or (2) own projects that are emission free or reduce emissions. Their site lists all green projects they "fund" (kudos to them for listing this info). Doing a little quick math, all the projects totaled up should save 67,792 metric tons of pollution saved (thusly available as offsets). Now what does "fund" mean? Own 100%? 50%? 10%?  This is where things begin to get a little foggy for me.Unless they own all the projects, how can they claim all the offsets for them? What percentage of the money you pay Terrapass goes to "fund" these projects?  Hmmm.  Also, it would seem there would only be a finite number of passes they could sell every year. And by the way, Terrapass is a for profit company, not a nonprofit.

So its seems I'm not the only skeptic, tempus fugit has this post on the subject.

In addition, Andrew Bolt from the Sydney Herald Sun has this nice column on the subject. Turns out Al Gore buys his offsets from Generation Investment Management, who's Chairmen is .... Al Gore. He buys the carbon offsets from himself.

Here is a good story on the upcoming Discovery channel documentary "proving" that Jesus died and was buried in Jerusalem with his whole family. Yes the Carpentry business was good back then. And so was the Son of God biz. How else would Jesus be able to relocate the entire family to Jerusalem from Galilee?

Maybe now that James Cameron has "destroyed" Christianity he will take on Islam. I'm sure his next effort will find Mohammed's tomb. Heck its probably in Jerusalem too. :)

Well it turns out there is even more inconvenient truths for Al Gore. A typical liberal he wants you to do as he says not as he does. According to Drudge:


Obviously he is terrified, terrified I tell you, about global warming!

I found this article on the CNS news service about the inaccuracies in Academy Award Winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." I've been looked for a good summary about what is inaccurate and this looks to be it.

One of the claims in the movie is that Polar bears are dying off because they have to swim so much farther to find food. Well it turns out that this claim is based on a U. S. Minerals Management Service report that found 4 dead polar bears after a severe storm. According to the report, the bears  "are believed to have drowned as a result of the storm."

The claim about sea levels rising 20ft (their not, more likely 1.5 feet) is also addressed. Check it out.

Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus made some interesting comments on global warming last week. I have linked to them in case anyone else is interested in reading them.

Obviously he does not suffer from political correctness disease.

I have run across a number of references to an RNC ad about Harold Ford, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Tennessee. The Democrats are alleging that the ad is somehow racist. I don't understand. Are they implying that if you are a black man you can only date a black woman?  How racist is that kind of thinking? Maybe the DNC needs to create a list of acceptable races a woman can be for Harold to date.

Well make up your own mind. Here is a link to the ad on YouTube.

Harold Ford Ad

Rush mentioned this article on American Thinker that analyzes the Michael J Fox stem cell add from a scientific perspective. Very informative. Bottom line, to date, embryonic stem research has provided no therapies for anything.

Given that Mr Fox has admitted to not using his medication before testifying before congress, I think Rush is right on in attacking the content of the ad and its intent.

There have been a couple of good posts regarding the Path to 9/11 miniseries (Michael Medved on the left's over reaction and from Dean Barnett identifying some of the inaccuracies.)

I feel I must comment. The left's reaction to the movie is ridiculous. A Washington Post article on the miniseries includes quotes like: "false and defamatory", "flagrantly misrepresents my personal actions", "It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known." The left wing blogs include more of the same.

One would think the miniseries showed Usama Bin Laden included in the Clinton Administration's cabinet meetings or something. Instead, the miniseries is really about the terrorists, their connections to previous terrorist attacks, and how events lead to the 9/11 attacks. Both the Clinton and Bush adminstrations were shown as being bureaucratic and inept. If you have ever worked for a large company or organization, this should hardly be surprising. Would a Republican administration have responded any better than the Clinton Administration prior to 9/11? Maybe, but probably not.

The biggest objection to the miniseries seems to be the scene where our heroic CIA officer "Kirk" is above Usama's camp with the northern alliance just waiting for the word to go in and take out the bad guys. Now if you think about it at all, the scene is just silly. The Northern Alliance gets all the way to Bin Laden's camp, but can't attack it without Kirk or Washington's go ahead?  Huh? But, the point the scene is trying to make is valid in my opinion.  It shows that no one is "in charge" and consequently, everyone covers their rear end and nothing happens. The 9/11 report points out that the way the CIA, NSA, and FBI were organized we were pretty much doomed to fail. This scene along with several others brings this point home.

No dramatization is going to be 100% historically accurate. Take Braveheart for example, did you ever notice that at the battle of Stirling Bridge there is no bridge? No probably not. Does it ruin the movie for most people? No it doesn't. The same is true with the Path to 9/11. Its a really good piece of work on the events leading to the 9/11 attacks. The left's hysterical rantings are just silly.

Well setting up the blog account was pretty easy. I look forward to checking the whole thing out and jumping in!