In which Shifty poses a question...

Back so soon?! Well done!
Alright, since you've now seen that perhaps, just maybe, possibly the whole "global-warming", or "climate-change" thing is a tad over-hyped, you might be asking yourself why your local power company is advertising all these lovely new "green" initiatives. Why is it that every time you turn around it seems like the company you buy your electricity from is coming up with a new "program" or gadget to demonstrate their "green-ness"? The answer to that, in my opinion, is two-fold.
Who has read "Atlas Shrugged"? Remember the "businessmen" like Jim Taggart (the heroine Dagny's limp-wristed twit of a brother) and his ilk? Did it strike anyone else as strange that supposed captains of industry would throw their support entirely behind government programs that were virtually guaranteed to destroy the very industries they were "captaining"? Why would they do stupid stuff like that? It's just a story...in real life industry leaders would NEVER go along with crap like that. Not so. and here's why.
Once the knot-hole rapists (you KNOW who I'm talking about...the "environmentalists" who have gone beyond merely hugging the trees to.....well you know!) found a sort of non-whackjob spokesperson in the Goreacle (before he lost the 2000 election, his mind and the ability to push away from the buffet table) and the deep pockets of Mr. Soros, they made themselves a movie. As luck would have it, Mr. Gore's tragic decline from official Whitehouse campaign extorter to Jabba the Hut stand-in engendered sympathy from the liberal "elite" who decide what the "proper" social position is on a given subject. Whereas the environmental extremists had been relegated to the role of stinky, stoner hippie cousin in the liberal family tree, the confluence of Mr. Gore's personal misfortune, Mr. Soros' large bankbook and the EEEEVIL Bush/Republican/Big Business cabal coming into power suddenly rehabilitated the knot-holer's image.
Soon it was considered ESTABLISHED FACT that the most lunatic of the environmentalists' notions were gospel truth. AlGore said so! Then the TOTALLY impartial UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published their "findings" (which curiously parroted the whack-o's findings!) and undertook a campaign to systematically destroy any and all who dared hold a dissenting view. For a while, debate was virtually silenced on the "science" of Global Warming. The lap-dogs of the MSM did their part, happily trumpeting every storm, flood, earthquake, drought, birth defect and outbreak of teen-age acne as PROOF!! PROOF I SAY!! that global warming was real and HUMANS were the culprit!
In this climate, most power companies found themselves castigated as unrepentant planet-murderers, so consumed by profit that they cared not one whit for the damage they did to Mother Earth in the process. Standing up to the nonsense, which would have been the logical, sensible and morally correct thing to do was deemed too big a risk, in a newly risk-averse post-Enron electric industry. So what happened? The Jim Taggarts of the world decided to agree that their industries were eeeevvvil polluters and nature-rapers. Whatever needed to be done, we will support, they said. Cost was no object (more on why in a sec..), the stated aims of the opposition to "destroy" traditional fossil-fueled power production didn't matter....all that mattered is that the power companies not be seen as reprobate where the epic battle for the very survival of planet earth was concerned! Can't have the public thinking we don't care about global warming...why they might just decide to get their power from......uh.....well, I don't know who, since we have a virtual monopoly on delivering their power, but they will be MAD at us!
So all these power companies have signed on to support every stupid new anti-GHG scheme that's bubbled out of the bong resin.
Some of these "solutions" are fantastically expensive. We're talking BILLIONS of dollars to retrofit a company's coal-fired generating fleet with equipment to reduce pollutants. But it's not the power company's money that pays for that...oh no. Wonder why you electric bill has been climbing? If you listen to the drooling horde, it's because we fat cats in the power industry are giggling all the way to the bank at your expense. Just RAKING in the profits, while Joe Six-pack works three jobs to keep the lights on and his 2.5 kids fed. In actuality, although we ARE guaranteed a certain profit (why this is so is another post...) the rising cost of electricity has more to do with the rising fuel costs and the expensive new doo-dads the gubmint done required your electric company to install on it's generating fleet.
Much like what happens when "corporate" tax rates are increased, costs associated with mandated upgrades to a utilities generating fleet are simply past along to the consumer....presto-chango you get a bigger electric bill. And because of the system in place, you tend to see all of the costs hit your bill at one time, instead of slowly accumulating over time. Most utilities also have a fuel clause, which allows them to charge consumers directly for the costs of the fuels the company uses to generate their power.
"But Shifty" I hear, " How come when oil prices dropped, my electric bill didn't go down?" First, you're electric company uses a variety of fuels, not just oil. So while oil prices might have gone down, what about the price of natural gas? Coal? How much of each fuel is used to produce your electricity? AND...think back....did you're electric bill go up each time the price of a barrel of oil closed the days trading at a new record high last summer? Obviously not....your power company enters into long-term fuel supply contracts to stabilize costs. Only AFTER the fuel has been used can a power company "true up" their actual fuel costs with projected fuel costs (which they use to establish the GOVERNMENT set price per kilowatt of electricity you pay). If the utility had to burn more (or more expensive) fuel to satisfy your gluttonous power cravings, it's only right that they should recoup that cost. If they end up paying less (because they either secured a cheaper fuel source or you used less energy), most utilities will rebate the savings to the customer.
All of this begs the question....wouldn't you the rate-paying electricity consumer benefit MORE from executives who are more concerned about what's good for their customers (which would be to tell the truth about "Global Warming" and stand against the costly initiatives to appease the moon-bat knot-holers) than about being politically correct? I'll let you be the judge!

The Goreacle is a big FAT lying liar

Seeing as I've made my career in the electric industry, I could possibly be considered biased on the issue of the "global warming crisis". I would argue otherwise...and so would the good people at the Heritage Foundation. This is a link to a longish video produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute that gives lie to the right Reverend Gore's claim that the "science is settled". I highly recommend it. Go watch it (at least through the video presentation...even I tunedout during the Q & A session afterward)...when you get back, we'll compare the "leaders" of today's power companies to James Taggart and his ilk!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid13746676001?bctid=33334489001

I wonder if this is included in the "reform" plans....

Came across this gem of a link at Insta-Pundit.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6823630.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084

It would seem our erstwhile British cousins are getting serious about battling the proliferation of fat kiddies inhabiting merry olde England. The solution? Why enroll the kids in a six week "fat camp" of course!

"PRIMARY school pupils as young as four will be offered places on “weight management” courses as the NHS urges health trusts to provide slimming programmes for overweight children."

So the NHS (the governing body that runs Britain's "Public Option" health care system) will now decide the appropriate weight for it's youngest citizens and "offer" parents the option of having little Dudders attend fat camp. Yeah that won't cause any emotional trauma....being officially labeled a lard-butt. So in later years they'll have to be treated for anorexia, bulimia, and a raft full of mental, social and psychological disorders that come about when a kid's weight is made an issue early in life. (And any takers on just how long until the "offered" spot in fat camp becomes MANDATORY?) This is the model we're supposed to emulate folks. When the government runs health care, the government gets to tell you how to live, eat, sleep, pee....anything that is REMOTELY connected to "health" will become their domain.

I love this quip from the comments section...

"£3,000 per patient for a six-week residential course" I hope it's the parents who will be paying and not the taxpayer! Gotta love that British sense of humor!

Repent for the end is nigh!

I was poking around over at Insta-pundit and came across a story about our glorious leader making the entirely unprecendented decision to chair the September 24th meeting of the UN Security Council. Bear in mind that NO President EVER has attempted this. Not during the Cuban Missle Crisis, not when Saddam invaded Kuwait....not after 9/11. NO. ONE. EVER. Not that I look for End Times prophecy in every current event, but geez....this seems a little One World Government to me. Besides that, a couple of things are tweaking me about this.

First, doesn't he have bigger fish to fry? Unemployment is nudging closer to double digits nationwide. His domestic agenda is tanking as good portions of the brain-dead 52% who elected him are wondering what the heck they've done to the country. He can't put together a strategy to fight the "Overseas Contingency Operation" against the perpetrators of "man-caused disasters" in Afghanistan, probably because they can't figure out how to lose the war and weaken the US and still blame Bush. We've been promised (or threatened with if you prefer)a new push to foist the European model of health "care" on America. He has to indoctrinate our kids live via simulcast (don't get me started!). None of his spendulous plans have quite worked out. But he's got time to waste at the UN?

Second, he is apparently intent on "modifying" the established agenda. Seems the meeting was supposed to deal with Iran and North Korea and their nuclear ambitions. Probably would have amounted to a big ol' waste of time. I picture the scene in Team America where Hans Blix tells Kim Jong Il that if he doesn't cooperate with the UN ..." Ve shall be very, very angry vis you. Und ve vill write you a nasty letter telling you how unhappy we are!" But the anointed one, President Barak Hussein Obama, (pbuh) has decided that the meeting really should deal with "nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament broadly, and not on any specific countries", according to Susan Rice (the American UN Ambassador...and shouldn't SHE be the one chairing the meeting?! What are we paying her for anyhow?!) Oh he doesn't want to deal with "specific countries" ....wonder why? The article discusses a few reasons, but to me this is the typical liberal dislike for accountability. Kinda like how the "experts" bemoan competitive sports because.....(gasp) someone LOSES! Just think how the non-winning team must FEEL! So we don't want to single out anyone....just talk about non-proliferation in general, non-specific terms. Oh and let's throw in disarmament....we gotta get nukes out of the hands of the Israelis for goodness sake. They might just USE them before Brother Ahmidinijad can put the finishing touches on HIS "peaceful nuclear power" projects. After all...he intends to share them with Israel just as soon as they are done!

Anyhow...check out the article linked below...its worth a read. http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWNkMWViY2YyZjU5OTY5ZDcyNDQ1MzIwY2NkNWUyOTU=&p=1

Well here goes nothing....

A few weeks ago Chuck over at XtnYoda put the thought in my head to start up my own blog. After mulling over whether I have anything creative enough to contribute to the world at large for a bit, I figured I'd just throw it out there and see what happens. If you find anything you like, thank Chuck for encouraging me. If you think it sucks, blame me!