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The Daily Show Just got Dog The Bounty Hunter to endorse Hawaii's Healthcare. It was a brilliant piece where they basically said that the rest of the US should have the same system as Hawaii. They made it sound like it was Socialized Healthcare, but Wikipedia says it's just an employer mandate? Either way, see the segment, it was good. http://www.thedailyshow.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Prepaid_Health_Care_Act
Hawaii Prepaid Health Care (PHC) Act (PHCA) was a state law enacted January 1, 1975 in the State of Hawaii to improve health care coverage by employer mandate. Under the law, businesses are required to offer health insurance to employees who work more than twenty hours per week in the State of Hawaii. Before the law Hawaii had an uninsured rate of 30% presently Hawaii has an uninsured rate of 5%.
Thom, thank you for putting Prophet on hold so you could talk. It is important for some of these callers to listen.
We are a nation that talks family values but we will not spend money to help women and their babies. If we offered women better health services, better adoption services, better social services, and better child care services, there would be more women having the fetus live to full term.
Rick,
Even your own video says there has been no warming for 10 years, so that discussion is over.
Matt Simons wind project in Maine is about building huge, really huge, windmills off shore (out of sight), and have them not only generate electricicy, but also ammonia, that can be used for fuel in cars (yes cars can burn ammonia). This can potentially solve the energy storage problem.
A more honest approach to reduce our dependence on foreign oil would be to set a minimum price for a barrel of oil (say $80 per barrel) and tax imports up to that price if the world price should become temporarily lower. This would give alternative fuel providers the confidence that they would not be wiped out by a temporary drop in oil prices.
I would do this not for global warming, but to build a domestic renewable power infrastructure. Cap and trade is a scam plain and simple.
Hi Joe,
Cool, we can agree on plenty.
I'll look those up. Of course no single alternative will replace fossil fuels but a few percent here and there will add up, hopefully to at least what we have to import now..
On the Wind, Solar and Tidal; the problem always seemed to be how energy could be stored for the heavy demands; this is a good explanation of how a plug-in car fleet could minimize the need for new power plants; conventional or alternative..
Ewe-tube; greenman3610, plug-in hybrids..
A nuclear plant is going to be a long term build; I'd rather see a natural gas plant for current use.. realistically sensible conservation and things like smart power grids will save us more and much more quickly.
It will be a combination of a lot of things but they can all make sense on their own in other aspects without having to fit into a 'philosophy'..
Cheers,
Rick
Hi Joe,
It's not odd that anything like this can be abused by people to make money off of it. Upping a price is a crude way to decrease use; like taxes on cigarettes.
The real question is, Is your solution to stomp your feet and do absolutely nothing unless and until someone disproves every doubt you have and comes up with a policy solution you like?
Are you proposing that we do nothing?
As to cost, Thom has pointed out, the true cost of your gas from the Saudis includes a whole lot of hidden costs in military and foreign trade accommodations to ensure that supply.
Back to the question; still say things have been 'cooling' since '98?
Cheers,
Rick
Nels,
I welcome this conversation.
I have a comment awaiting moderation right now about 2 you tube video's that you might find interesting. I will close this conversation for tonight by saying that I am for Solar, Wind, and Tidal energy solutions. Have you heard about the wind energy research being spearheaded by Matt Simmons in Maine? WOW, that guy rocks!
Joe, cap and trade is a solution, certainly not the only solution. I back clean alternative energy sources, such as Solar, Wind and Tidal power. However Cap and Trade has proven to work as a good way to encourage companies that can be productive in a clean way to profit from that practice, which in turn has reduced overall pollution.
You and I will definitely pick up the tab, though I rather prefer the price to be an economic cost, and not a life threatening cost.
Does'nt it seem odd that the solution to global warming is a cap and trade system which will enrich Wall Street, and let industry pollute all they want for a price? By the way, who will be picking up the tab - you guessed right - you and me...
Hello Rick,
I watched the video you suggested (yes, all of it). It makes a good case on the surface, but only if you believe the data that they show - I don't, and here's why:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqWtA550PDo
This is an explanation of "Climategate" and why much of the global warming data was just made up.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D51xjrvr4bM
This is a TV special done by Jesse Ventura, believable in my book, about who is benefiting from the global warming scare.
All kidding aside, I respect those that are trying to do the right thing for the environment. I think the focus should be on how GMO food is poisoning us, and how the fish are dieing because we are making the ocean's a plastic waste dump. Do I think the air that all animals exhale is dangerous - no...
Uh-oh Rick, I think Joe might have gone home crying to his mommy (Sara) that we weren't playing nice with him >:-)
(without links)
Yes, Joe, Climate change has been denied since the last ice age, and that will continue… At least it feels like that.
The deniers are well organized and funded as with their previous projects like tobacco, but check this series out; no connection other than being glad for a clear, concise de-bunking of the deniers’ talking points; one by one.;
Look on ewe-yube for;
greenman3610#p/c/029130BFDC78FA33
'It's so cold.. '
Did Faux Gnus report the California or Australia bush fires as evidence ‘for’ Climate Change? No, must have got a phone call from the boss; Prince al-Walid-bin-Talal…
Look for the article at world net daily.. lefty press!!
The problem is, those who understand some of the science won’t try to read the daily weather one way or the other. The low-information or misled contingent will jump on and propogate anything they find.
Sad; thought we could bring the troops home from the War on Science..
Rick
Here Joe,
These links will take you to NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies reports on Global Temperatures.
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20100121/
(First couple of paragraphs of the report released Jan 21, 2010)
2009 was tied for the second warmest year in the modern record, a new NASA analysis of global surface temperature shows. The analysis, conducted by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, also shows that in the Southern Hemisphere, 2009 was the warmest year since modern records began in 1880.
Although 2008 was the coolest year of the decade, due to strong cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean, 2009 saw a return to near-record global temperatures. The past year was only a fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest year on record, and tied with a cluster of other years — 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007 1998 and 2007 — as the second warmest year since recordkeeping began.
That didn't take to long for me to find, perhaps you can find me a source that is just as recognized as NASA for scientific research to debunk it. Good Luck, and don't forget to double check your facts, because as I see it you didn't when you decided to sound off.
Feel free to read the rest of that article too, by the way, perhaps you'll learn something.
Joe,
Specific to the 'cooling since '98, check out;
http://www.youtube.com/user/greenman3610#p/c/029130BFDC78FA33/9/QwnrpwctIh4
Please spend the 8 minutes to listen and come back; do you see anything wrong in the facts presented? Can it not be that that refrain was launched with errors in fact?
This is just one more point that can be cleared up; check out the rest of the series by this fellow; I haven't seen anybody challenge him on facts.. Anybody?
Cheers,
Rick
Gee Joe, if I go to ahead and Google this how many accredited sources will I find vs. a bunch of wingnuts espousing their view. Can you site a credible source? Or are you just able to call upon search engines to find your choir?
Yes, Joe, Climate change has been denied since the last ice age, and that will continue... At least it feels like that.
The deniers are well organized and funded as with their previous projects like tobacco, but check this series out; no connection other than being glad for a clear, concise de-bunking of the deniers' talking points; one by one.;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDTUuckNHgc
http://www.youtube.com/user/greenman3610#p/c/029130BFDC78FA33
Did Faux Gnus report the California or Australia bush fires as evidence 'for' Climate Change? No, must have got a phone call from the boss; Prince al-Walid-bin-Talal...
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47771
The problem is, those who understand some of the science won't try to read the daily weather one way or the other. The low-information or misled contingent will jump on and propogate anything they find.
Sad; thought we could bring the troops home from the War on Science..
Rick
Nels,
I know that I will not break your faith in the global warming religion, but in fact the earth has been cooling since 1998, and the speed of cooling is accelerating. That cannot be possible if CO2 was the boogyman so many think it is. You can Google search that too if you like...
Stop Calling it Global Warming.Call it a name that mainstreet can understand.Atmospheric Destrution caused by polution. Enough with words used by corporate America to cover their sins.
You're right Joe, the earth has been warming since the last ice age, nice talking point.
However, the temperature has been rising far more rapidly over the past few decades. Also it isn't "Global Warming" it's "Climate Change". If you want to pretend it isn't happening, do better than pointing out your preferred Google search for backing your denial.
Thom,
The corporate power now granted by your Supreme Board of Directors, sounds more official than SCROTUS, means that true reforms in lots of areas has just become more difficult.
It would be interesting to hear some whistle-blowing officials recording the actual threats delivered by lobbyists.. Of course most of them are lawyers..
A bit aside but related, I wonder if there might not be a way to start taxing some of that upper 1%;
A modest Proposal;
Income is taxed at different rates with a number of different rationales.
The very rich, as you often note, receive their money in a large part from dividends and capital gains, often through the mechanism of stock options.
Why not tax capital gains from different sources at different rates?
If someone has capital gains from the sale of the family home that is one thing.
If someone is holding stock in a company and receives dividends, fine.
If, however, someone has been given a large number of stock options as a way to defer payment and really, avoid paying tax, (avoiding, not strictly evading) and eventually cashes them in, flipping for a sale immediately, that could well be a different class of income.
Perhaps it could depend on how much time a stock was held.
Perhaps the tax rates could be tied to how much of that gain was really generated or benefitted the country as opposed to being off-shore growth.
The right will scream about how many pages the tax law is now and how this could never be done, but they scream just as loud about any change that would simplify by closing loopholes.
It's not for us to decide details, it is just the idea that not all capital gain is created equally and perhaps it shouldn't all be treated the same for taxation.
You could even tie the time a stock was held to a scaled transaction fee..
Hmm?
Rick
The issue is not the reality of global warming, the earth has been warming since the last ice age. The issue is whether CO2 is the cause, and if buring fossil fuels is the problem.
The fact is, CO2 is such an insignificant player in the global warming calculus, to focus on it is just ridiculus.
As to the propaganda that the glaciers and the Arctic sea ice are melting, this is just lies and propoganda. Just Google "Climategate" to see how this "scientific evidence" was just created out of thin air to further globalist policies.
OK Quark, have a good day. I too appreciated your insight. Your activism is inspiring.
Bye
The Tea Party movement is being hijacked by the right wing media. They understand that the original position of the Tea Parties was anti war. The main stream media all but ignored the 100,000 people who Marched on Washington a year ago - while ignoring their message - but shed the spotlight on the pseudo teabaggers who came to worship Sarah Palin??? Puleeease...
As the old Chinese curse goes eh.
May you live in interesting times.
Nels,
Thanks for your thoughts. I really enjoyed the exchange.
'Got to go. 'See ya later.
Nels,
It's going to be interesting...