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A Gallimaufry

This is going to be a hodgepodge of thoughts (as you should have known from the title). But before I get into it I wanted to do some political stuff. But as I showed here - http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2012/01/reprise.html (this is a link to a post I did at the first of the year with links to some other political posts.) There, political posts done, except for some of the thoughts below.

I guess I am turning more and more into the crotchety old curmudgeon that will be running people off of the grass soon. I find myself getting so angry and perplexed at the "stuff" that is passed off as fact now in news, entertainment, and casual conversation. Now, I am not naive enough to think that everyone should think like me or even that these subjects are conclusively the way I see them. But, they are not conclusively the way they are presented. As I have stated here in many posts, (variations ) have been attributed to Goebbels, Hitler, Stalin, and various Chinese leaders) it is said if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes accepted a truth. This is what is happening on a lot of important issues today.

1) to me the biggest lie is the man-made global warming hoax. Now I know some of you just gasped (if you have not read many other of my posts - I have many on this subject - with links to proof of the hoax), that is how prevalent this idiocy has been ingrained into our national and global psyche. This is a perfect example of a lie told often and loudly until it is accepted. I am not going to cover all the ground I have in earlier posts (here is one - http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2011/10/on-soapbox-again.html ) , but here are a few facts.

     a) not all scientists believw the man-made global warming scam. It is presented as a universally accepted scientific fact, but that is far from the truth. There are famous, Nobel prize winning scientists that have publicly denounced this myth along with over 30,000 scientists that have signed a petition (check it out here - http://www.petitionproject.org/ ) against the presentation of anthropogenic global warming as a globally accepted fact.

     b) the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does NOT track with any warming of the atmosphere. There have been MANY periods of time that the average global temperatures were much warmer than this as well as much cooler. Carbon dioxide does not track with this. The level of carbon dioxide has been increasing steadily and temperatures have not - even over the past decades.

     c) anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide amount to about 3% of the output of the gas globally. I cannot believe the earth is so fragile that an additional 3% will shut down life as we know it. (FYI, I have seen figures as low as 2% for this and as high as 4% that is why I picked 3% - obviously it is a hard number to establish exactly)

     d) lastly on this one - why is it that our "carbon footprint" is so important, yet to resolve it all we have to do is pay money to buy "carbon credits" from someone. The amazing, wonderful Al Gore is involved with one such organization. As he and those like him fly around in their jets being met by their SUVs, all that we need to do to save the earth is pay them to "offset" our carbon dioxide output. This is such a crock that if you don't see it, I am not even going to try to explain it!

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2) one other "accepted" fact is that we are running out of crude oil and other natural hydrocarbons. Now, I realize that someday we may "run out" of oil. But, that day is far and away in the future. The proven known reserves in the ground today are TEN TIMES what they were in 1950 and DOUBLE what they were in 1970! That is PROVEN reserves - oil we know of with at least 90% certainty and can get with existing technology. If you add in the oil we now know in other forms, it is a LOT higher.  As for some predictions:

Before the first U.S. oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania in 1859, petroleum supplies were limited to crude oil that oozed to the surface. In 1855, an advertisement for Kier’ Rock Oil advised

consumers to “hurry, before this wonderful product is depleted from Nature’ laboratory.”

In 1874, the state geologist of Pennsylvania, the nation’s leading oil producing state, estimated that only enough U.S. oil remained to keep the nation’s kerosene lamps burning for four years



The 1973 Arab oil embargo gave rise to renewed claims that the world’s oil supply would be exhausted shortly. “The Oil Crisis: This Time the Wolf Is Here,” warned an article in the influential journal Foreign Affairs  geologists had cried wolf many times, acknowledged the authors of a respected and widely used textbook on economic geology in 1981; "finally, however the wolves are with us." The authors predicted that the U.S. was entering an incipient 125-year-long “energy gap,” projected to be at its worst shortly after the year 2000.

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3) how about the one where salt is bad for you? Did you know you would die without an intake of sodium (one of the two components of table salt)? Did you know that there are many seniors in controlled living environments that are possibly suffering from mental problems like dementia due to a sodium deficiency? Now, the average American gets WAY too much salt in their diets to ever worry about this. But, salt is not necessarily evil. Salt CAN contribute to high blood pressure. If you remember your science classes, you should have learned about osmosis and equilibrium. If you take in a lot of sodium your body will retain water to equalize the sodium content of the blood and bodily fluids. This can cause an increase in blood volume as well as  pressure on capillaries which can raise blood pressure. However, the degree to which this occurs varies greatly by individual. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure when I was 16. I have been on many medications, and done many diets. I can tell you that I am not overly reactive to sodium as far as my blood pressure goes. I have been on an very low sodium diet with no change to my blood pressure. I have "pigged out" on sodium laden foods with no spike in blood pressure. Too much salt is bad, but so is too little.

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4) I know from statistics I get that these long posts do not get read as much. But I have one more.
Cholesterol. Almost as big an evil as our carbon footprint. Did you know you would die without cholesterol? Did you know that cholesterol was so important to bodily functions that you have a system to produce it? ( as we do Vitamin D - amazing we are finding out it is important). Your brain is made up of a lot of lipids (fat). A large portion of that is cholesterol. Why do we spend so much time and effort in trying to reduce this in our body? I did a whole post on this with a lot of background - if you still care check it out here - http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2010/05/take-two-and-call-ambulance-in-morning.html

Hey even I am getting bored with this. Until next time - same bat time - same bat station!!





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