Sunday, March 07, 2010
There is plenty of data that supports warming
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There is plenty of data that supports warming
In the Feb. 24 letter "There just isn't enough evidence of global warming," Kirtland Ross claims a lack of data to support global warming. If one looks beyond the mass media to the scientific literature, there is a voluminous amount of evidence regarding climate change. The challenge is to analyze and interpret all of this information, not just selected data.
NASA recently reported that the decade ending in 2009 was the warmest on record, even with the sun currently in a period of abnormally low solar activity. This decade also included eight of the top 10 hottest years. The International Panel on Climate Change draws upon thousands of studies from scientists across the world. The 2007 IPCC report found 765 significant physical changes and 28,671 significant biological changes, with 94 percent and 90 percent of the data sets consistent with global warming, respectively.
Scientists do not hope for data to support their hypotheses. They collect data, analyze it, then use this information to refine and improve their understanding of observations. The vast majority of scientific publications support the hypothesis that the Earth's climate is warming due to human activities.
SEAN McGINNIS
Planned Parenthood prevents abortions
The governor wants to stop funding to Planned Parenthood. Wow, talk about dumb. I've gone to Planned Parenthood my whole life because, thanks to Republicans, I've never been able to afford health insurance, even though I've also worked my whole life.
Planned Parenthood helped me prevent accidental, unwanted pregnancies, which -- you know what? I'm going to admit it -- I would have aborted if it wasn't for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood helped me get good gynecological care and birth control. They also helped educate me. Therefore, I have never had an accidental pregnancy and no need for an abortion.
Gov. Bob McDonnell should get his head out of the sand. This is not 1970. Sex is a drive. People are going to have it. Teens are going to have it. And without Planned Parenthood, they are also going to have abortions. Not the other way around. Only this time, it will be back in the alleys.
Don't backtrack on Clean Air Act
Personally, I've heard all I want from Alaska. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's resolution to turn back to the days of smog-ridden skies and sickened children, with the rest of us struggling against respiratory ailments, is totally unacceptable to this Virginia voter.
Moreover, the insidious destructive forces of acid rain still assailing the rest of our natural and man-built infrastructure would be allowed to rise once more.
Murkowski has sold out to the big polluters and their lobbyist shills.
My fervent hope is that our own Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb will stand up for us and the health and welfare improvements attending the Clean Air Act. Please, senators, do not erase the good progress, which over a generation of toil has begun to yield discernible advances in the protection of the air we breathe -- a resource we depend upon for life itself.
Reform of today's health care morass is clearly needed; however, basic attention to assuring that the air we breathe, the water we drink and the Earth we depend upon will go very far toward decreasing medical costs and improving the nation's health.
No to Murkowski and her ilk.
War with al-Qaida is a cynical strategy
The war against al-Qaida is only a pretext for gaining control of Iraq and Afghanistan. Eventually we will shut down al-Qaida, but only after we have secured the oil and military positioning in those two countries. If we shut down al-Qaida now, there would be no pretext for war.
Iraq and Afghanistan both have oil, and are both situated well militarily, near Russia and China. We are power-grabbing for their oil and positioning ourselves to win a conventional world war.
What this says about America is that we will roll dice with the lives of people of the developing world to create better and better economic and military positioning in a race against communist powers. We should simply negotiate with communist powers.
We have been behaving in this warlike way in the developing world for more than 60 years. This behavior is not only lethal to civilians in the developing world, it is creating a tension that could lead into World War III. For more on this topic, please read "Killing Hope," by William Blum.
We must create a foreign policy of negotiation, fair trade and trust to create world peace. The next generation depends on it.
Reason to cast light on Palin's notes
Once again, the President Obama haters have broken down on Silly Street. I am thinking specifically of Kitty Landis's letter, "Hypocrites slammed Palin," of Feb. 23, in which she defends the nation's most prominent palm reader and suggests Obama can't function without a teleprompter.
The president certainly did not need a teleprompter when he stood down an entire roomful of Republicans at the GOP retreat in Baltimore in January. The Republicans allowed the event to be televised; you can bet they won't let that happen next year.
The Palin notes-on-hand incident was newsworthy because it provided further confirmation that she is a particularly dim bulb. It was newsworthy because Palin is a dim bulb who aspires to be president. And it was especially newsworthy because her dimness is the very thing that many supporters find so appealing about her.
Really, though, wasn't it just cool to see a gathering of leaders in which the president of the United States was the smartest guy in the room?
Obama leadership is more like dictatorship
Since a president is elected by a majority, it logically follows that he should implement the will of the people; whereas a dictator's goal is to impose his will on the people. Given the recent polls on health care reform, cap and trade, and massive spending increases, does President Obama more closely resemble a president or a dictator?
Whose interests do the budget cuts serve?
Only a fool could think that the only way for the state (or federal) government to balance the budget is by cutting programs -- that is, unless those deciding have an agenda. You can cut programs for only so long before there are no programs at all, and at the heart and soul of it, that is and has been the GOP agenda for decades now.
Are you horrified at the education budget cuts? The GOP is on record as opposing public education, so why do their cuts surprise you? The same is true of the arts, regulation, the environment and so on. In short, just about everything that helps communities be places you would want to raise your children in.
Del. Morgan Griffith recently said that he had seen no swelling of support for raising taxes. Who is he kidding? For the past few months, town hall meetings were full of people saying that given the choice of cutting services or raising taxes, they would prefer the tax increases.
The question simply has to be asked: Whose interests are they serving? Hint: not yours or mine.
