Encyclopedia Screwedica – Page 3 – OfficiallyScrewed.com

GroupThink – We Are Borg, Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated

February 4, 2007Mulder

What happens when someone who is considered a leader switches sides? Should his followers shun him or follow him?

This question is being asked again by many on the left after Nick Cohen, infamous leftist protester and activist has come out with his new book What’s Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way.

I was pointed to an interview Nick Cohen gave and he has clearly not left his roots, but he is questioning the current state of affairs among what he calls “Guardianistas”.

“Serious people on the left I have no trouble with. They may not agree with me but they know something is going wrong. An Oxford don has told me, ‘I’m against the war but I hate going on a demo with anti-semites and Trotskyites’. It’s the soft left liberal intelligentsia, those bloody comedians we get these days — they want to feel righteous, they dislike all ambiguity. They want to think they are good. They swear at me.”

Auntie gets it on the chin too. “I support the BBC but I think our problem is the concentration of media in London. When there is an absolute liberal consensus, everyone they meet, eat or sleep with thinks the same damn thing.” So in Iraq’s case this groupthink didn’t come in the hard questions they asked the other side, but the soft questions they asked their own side. “For years,” he writes, “the BBC’s attack dog presenters couldn’t manage to give one opponent of the war a tough interview. Not even George Galloway.”

Auntie got her “impartial, balanced” revenge; on Radio 4’s Start the Week last Monday Cohen was politely monstered by every other left-liberal guest. The Guardian also came up with a novel way of pigeonholing Cohen’s politics as unworthy of serious discussion. “The Guardian online talkboards carried a discussion with me and another supporter of the war from the left with a Jewish name, which was entitled: ‘David Aaronovitch and Nick Cohen Are Enough to Make a Good Man Anti-Semitic’.” Not funny, not clever. He has also been pilloried on the paper’s op-ed pages by an apologist for the communist dictatorship in Cuba.

In that quote we see the term “groupthink”. I recently came across this word in Paul Wells’ new book which I am reading now, but Paul elabourates on not only the meaning but some scientific study into “groupthink”. I will refrain from quoting Mr. Wells directly, but I will say that group think polarizes people according to the studies Mr. Wells quotes. It takes a bell curve where their are few at the extreme and shifts the mass of the bell towards that edge. This is clearly something our society is dealing with now on many issues. Americans and Brits in Iraq … polarized. Canadians in Afghanistan … polarized. Climate Change being unnatural … polarized, etc. etc. etc.

Cohen appears to be standing off from the polarized left on a few issues and as the quote says, he is being “pilloried … by an apologist for the communist dictatorship in Cuba.”?

Wow, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

The left and, in particular, Guardianistas, have made their bed by defending the rights of the minorities in their own nations. Yet only those hard core leftists, leave their own country to protest. The majority of that shifted Bell Curve crowd run and hide when push comes to shove and getting up off their ass is required. You never see the throngs protesting women’s rights in Kabul or Riyadh. You never see the throngs protesting the opening of a Chinese coal fired power plant in Shenzhen. Those not willing to go to the extreme are the ones that are polarized by GroupThink and not the idealogy itself. They just keep jumping on the bandwagon of the issue of the day and pick the left leaning side and champion it, keeping this GroupThink polarization mentality. After all, who wants to be pilloried by your “friends” over a Latte or a Chi at Starbucks?

According to Paul Wells, the Paul Martin government fell in large part due to GroupThink polarizing Liberals towards the idea of change and the extreme was too much change for Canadians. If we are lucky the leftist movement supporting Kyoto will fall because they are all pulling the rope in the same direction and it happens to be one heading towards a cliff that Liberal Environment critic David McGuinty said will cost us as much as $40 Billion a year. That’s a pretty steep cliff that even extreme left leaning Canadians may not want to get close to for fear of falling over.

If we can take anything positive from Nick Cohen’s defection, it is that resistance is NOT futile. We will NOT be assimilated. (If there is anything leftists can take from this, it is that polarization and groupthink will destroy them…but I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell them that before they make like lemmings.)

H/T to my friend Sandy for the Nick Cohen link.

Fearmongering 101 – What Kind Of Person Fearmongers?

February 3, 2007Mulder

Well there is the childhood fearmonger…always good for a laugh.

Then we have the humourous “the end is near, my alien friends will take us to safety” fearmonger…always good for a laugh

Exidor

Then we have the goofball fearmonger…always good for a laugh.

HomerEndIsNear

Then we have the wacky looking (to attract attention) fearmonger…always good for a laugh.

End Is Near

And finally we have the get on a bus, travel across the country, to share the experience fearmonger….

Further

Oops, wrong bus. I meant the following person who plans to ride across the country in a bus and share his experience with the people. And he too is good for a laugh.

Suzuki

Go Figure – Suzuki Bus Tour Will Burn A Ton Of Gas

January 29, 2007Mulder

The night was February 8th, 1989. David Suzuki’s hair had more black than grey in it. The location was Alumni Hall at the University of Western Ontario. The debate was about race and a University of Western Ontario professor, Philip Rushton was preaching that intelligence was related to your race and penis size.

The controversy was immense. The outrage was real. Me and my fellow students were all up in arms over this outrageous claim made by an unknown professor.

So a debate was scheduled and the famous scientist David Suzuki was to be our saviour. We knew that a lowly professor could not possibly stand up to the onslaught that a worldly man like Suzuki would bring.

But it never happened. If there was someone scoring the debate, Rushton would have kicked Suzuki’s ass. All Suzuki could go on about was how a University of 50 or 60 thousand students couldn’t find anyone to debate this monster. How our world class school had to go outside its’ walls to find someone to denounce this professor. I was never so disappointed in David Suzuki as I was that day. But heck, when a major controversy was happening, Suzuki was there … at least in name.

And now he is at it again. The economy is flush with money and David Suzuki is aiming to make his mark on the subject of climate change and global warming. He is launching what CTV calls an “election-style environment tour“. Note it was not called an “Election-style Attack Tour”.

The first question that crossed my mind was “how much emissions is this tour putting into our atmospphere” as Suzuki is using a bus for the tour. The response is given:

The David Suzuki Foundation says in a news release that the carbon emissions associated with the tour are offset through its investments in sustainable energy projects, such as wind farms, solar installations, or energy efficiency projects.

Buying carbon credits with investments in green programs is good for his foundation but it is not acceptable for our government to invest money in Made in Canada green programs. For Suzuki to be happy, we need to give our tax dollars to Russia and Saudi Arabia via Kyoto.
David Suzuki has now disappointed me twice.

Randomness Be Damned, Tim Horton's Gives Me The "Seam"

January 27, 2007Mulder

The Tim Hortons Seam I have been drinking Tim Horton’s coffee for as long as I can remember and drinking it from literally dozens, if not hundreds, of different franchise locations. And I want some answers.

Why, oh why, is the seam in the coffee cup ALWAYS lining up with the space in the lid created when you pull back the tab.

I know most of you are saying “What the heck is he talking about?” but I want you to pay attention. This cannot possibly be random. The diameter of a Tim’s Extra Large lid is 9cm, meaning the circumference is approximately 28.25 cm. The space created by the pull back tab is approximately 2.5 cm, which means the “seam” that runs up the cup should only appear in sip gap approximately once every 12 cups. Yet I seem to get the “seam” at least 80 to 90% of the time.

This is far too great to be random. It must be in the procedures or equipment Tim Horton franchises use to fill, stack and dispense the lids. In fact, I would go so far as to say the randomness probably comes in the “wrist twist” that some employees may add when pressing the lids down on the cup. If it wasn’t for that “wrist twist” I would think that 100% of the cups would give me the dreaded “seam”. And trust me, I am starting to hate it.

You get that uncomfortable bump in the lip of the cup and if you try to twist or remove and replace the cap, you inevitably get a leak in your cup due to the improper fit.

If you have noticed this or if you go out to Tim’s I urge you to pay attention to how often you get the “seam” and come back and comment.

I know this post wasn’t very political, but as Peter Truman of Global used to say “…but that too is reality.”

30 Minutes Can Save Your Life …

January 22, 2007Mulder

… If you tossed it away on being an environmentalista.

For those who don’t know, I went to dozens of Grateful Dead concerts in my youth. I used to have long hair, go unshaven for weeks, I wore tie-dye and Guatamalan pants and cruised around the American north east whenever the Dead were coming around. Heck, I was even at a concert in Rich Stadium in Buffalo the night before my Transform Analysis Final exam.

And one thing that I can tell you is that at a Grateful Dead concert there is lots of dancing and lots of drumming. This is not limited to the actual concert mind you, but what takes place the whole day of in the parking lot and for hours after the show. Past live concerts can be heard playing all over and if you walk around enough you find this circle of drummers. Anyone is welcome to sit in with their bongos or whatever they want to beat on. It’s actually quite surreal.

When Jerry Garcia died, I always wondered what would become of the Deadheads. What would this pro peace, anti war, anti capitalistic society do? What would the innovative ones among them do to survive? I am talking about the ones selling home made crafts and tie dyes and veggie burritos.

Now I know where they are all dancing and drumming.

(note: the video below contains some swearing, but is WELL worth the 30 minutes)

I can safely say that after watching this video, I have realized that over half the people show up at these things for the party and not the cause. I am not sure if I find that to be a good thing or a bad thing.

H/T to 905Tory

A commenter at 905Tory pointed out a link to Penn’s radio show where he interviews Patrick Moore. It is also quite enlightening. Patrick Moore WAS the International Director for Greenpeace until 1986 and grew the organization from the original fledgling it was to an entity pulling in $100 Million USD before resigning. Find out why.

Of Mice And (Boys Pretending To Be) Men…

January 21, 2007Mulder

Tell me about the rabbits Stephane Dion.

“My first interest was for the society of animals, not of man,” he recalls. “We had a neighbour named Gaston Moisan, a biologist who was a deputy minister of natural resources. He set traps for the rabbits, to band them, and used to take me with him. He was 5-foot-7, but he was a giant for me.”

A charming childhood anecdote — except, according to Mr. Moisan, it never happened. “I don’t know how he could have imagined that,” the retired bureaucrat and university professor says. “I had nothing to do with Stéphane. And I never sensed any interest on his part for my work.”

H/T to Darcey at DustMyBroom.

Vegetarian It Is

January 21, 2007Mulder

After reading Greg Weston today, I am wondering if the next proposal from granola crunchers is that we all go vegetarian and stop our efforts to aid in the reproduction of cattle.

Among the many reasons to cut the bull on global warming, it turns out a staggering 24 million tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions are coming from the exhaust pipes of Canadian cattle and other farting farm animals.

In the overall ecological scheme of things, that means farmyard flatulence is contributing as much to heating the planet as half of all the regular passenger cars on Canadian roads today.

All I have to say is that if Cows are making up half the GHG’s that regular passenger cars on our roads make, then we really are lucky our current government opted out of Kyoto or we all may be sitting in a cart being pulled by some farm animal.

The worst offenders?

-Power Generation – 130 MegaTonnes
-Oil and Gas Industry – 133
-Oil and Gas Exports – 46
-Ordinary Passenger Cars – 50
-SUVs and Family Vans – 44
-Transport Trucks – 45
-Domestic Aircraft – 8
-Mining and Manufacturing – 139
   -Chemical Industries – 22
   -Mining – 18
   -Steel Mills – 15
   -Aluminum and Other Smelting – 13
   -Cement – 11
   -Pulp and Paper – 9
Home Heating – 43
Office and Institutional Heating – 38
Waste Disposal – 29
Agriculture – 55
   -Animal Flatulence – 24
   -Manure Management – 9
   -Other – 23

So there you have it. So let’s put a few facts down. As previous Environment Minister Rona Ambrose stated, it is true that we could take every vehicle off the roads and every airplane out of the air and we would only eliminate 147 MegaTonnes, less than 75% of our target.

It is also true that with scrubber technology on incinerators that we should probably get rid of all landfills. The Netherlands has banned them all together and is now strictly using incineration. This alone could cut close to 30 megatonnes. Why are the environmentalistas not jumping on this idea? It would certainly help remove what may become the biggest pile of trash in the free world should the city approve a proposal to triple or quadruple the size of the Carp Rd. landfill in Ottawa. What a way to add another monument to our nation’s capital.

Another way to cut our emissions is to tell Kyoto to eliminate the penalty we receive for being a net exporter of oil. After all, we may be producing it, but we aren’t burning it. Saudi Arabia exports more than four times the oil we do and they are exempt from Kyoto because they are considered a developing nation. Go figure that one out.

The Saudi GDP is about 20th in the world (+/-2) and they have a population about 3/4’s that of Canada. The per capita number may be lower than us, but when the worlds 20th most prosperous nation is considered developing, think about how many nations our payment into Kyoto would be compensating? Sorry, but no thanks. A lot of oil get’s used in plastics and is not simply burned, so I don’t think we should be responsible with what other nations do with that oil.

And regarding going vegetarian, if we move from beef to broccoli, we wouldn’t eliminate the flatulence, we would just displace it.

Ontario Liberals Redefine Hypocrisy In Opening Of Smoking Lounges

January 17, 2007Mulder

The Ontario Liberal government has decided that government owned casinos are no longer considered public places because the Niagara Falls Casino and the Windsor Casino will be opening smoking zones.

Today, Ontario Health Minister Jim Watson defended the announcement by saying that the ban on restaurants and bars is different because they serve food but that the primary reason for a casino is not to serve food.

This plan comes on the heels of the drop in business at the Windsor casino after the Detroit casino opened up a smoking area.

In related news, Legion’s are still smoke free zones which means the Provincial Liberals, headed by Dalton McShifty, are giving more rights to gamblers than to veterans who fought to create a free Canada.

I guess the dollar is almighty to the Ontario Liberal government and public businesses just don’t get a level playing field.

OfficiallyScrewed … again.

Thermodynamically Speaking, Global Warming Will LOWER Sea Levels

January 6, 2007Mulder

I have seen, read or heard numerous indications saying how the Earth’s Ocean’s will rise as iceberg’s melt. That was quickly refuted via Archimedes and good old fashioned displacement science.

Then came the fear-mongering about Antarctic ice melting. Considering the average temperature on the south pole is anywhere from -37 Celsius to -57 Celsius, I do not think a few degrees of planetary warmth will do much.

So now the environmentalists want to attack Greenland ice shelfs and other glaciers that are overland.

Well here is some science that no one has mentioned that counters rising sea levels.

It is a very well known but not well announced fact that warm air holds more moisture than cold air. By doing a bit of formula manipulation with the Ideal Gas law, I calculated that a cubic meter of atmosphere can hold an extra 0.85 grams of water vapour for every degree Celsius that the temperature rises. This fluctuates a very very small amount depending on what the two temperatures are or how high up in the atmosphere you go.

However, for a good rough estimate, you can assume the lowest 11km of the atmosphere holds about 75% of the Earth’s atmosphere density. Using the Earth’s average radius of 6.37 Million meters, I calculated that that 11km zone around the planet can hold AN EXTRA 851 Billion cubic meters of water. Taking into account the water surface area of the planet is 361 Billion square meters, then simple division would tell us that the planet’s water level would drop approximately 2.36 meters for every degree Celsius of increased average temperature.

Remember this when someone tells you melting ice will raise sea levels.

You can also point out that increased CO₂ levels create bigger, stronger and more abundant plant life. These plants will need more moisture for photosynthesis which means they will be taking in more water than plant life in an environment with less CO₂ and they will also convert more of that CO₂ into O₂.

i.e. warmer temperatures and more CO₂ creates a buffering environment that counters the high levels with thriving plant life.

I think that’s enough science to last a week. I urge others to doublecheck my math. The data I used included:

The Ideal Gas Law (PV=nRT)
The Earth’s water surface is 361,126,400,000 square meters
The Earth’s average radius is 6.37 Million Meters
The average temperature is 283 Kelvin (or 10 degrees Celsius)
The average air pressure is 1 atmosphere or 101.325 KiloPascals
The weight of one mole of H₂0 is 18 grams