Obama Administration Government Flow Chart

Hat tip for images to DienerConsultants and also American Political Action Committee (AmeriPAC)

Your laugh for the day? Or perhaps your shudder...

Is the Constitution a roadblock? Is this the scariest video you have ever seen?

Hawkeye has made a masterpiece.



Please share with your friends! The elections of 2010 may save us from becoming another socialist state but it will not be because the President cares about the will of the people.

Socialists have been the cold-blooded ruthless killers of mankind. Consider the top killers of civilians in the 20th century (not including civilians killed by "collateral damage" during warfare):

Mao (60-75 million?) - a communist
Stalin (22-30 million?) - a communist
Hitler (11-12 million?) - a socialist (a communist with racial dominance thrown in)
Tojo (5-6 million?)- a royalist and believer in racial dominance
Pol Pot (1.7 million?)- a communist
Kim Il Sung (1.6 million?) - a communist
Fidel Castro and Che Guevera (1 million?) - communists

Only Tojo was not a communist/socialist. If you do not believe Hitler was a socialist, you have not read much of Mein Kampf nor noted that the German flag was primarily red. His Brownshirts won the day in Germany but the communists in Germany allied themselves with Hitler, believing that his government would eventually turn completely communist. Their slogan was "First brown, then red." Hitler believed in a national medical system, welfare, practically all aspects of communist regimes save that he placed the Aryan race above the Party.

We can be thankful that a fanatical Hitler believed that the Bolsheviks of Russia were too kind to Jews and other "inferior races" (Hitler must not have heard of the word "Pogrom"?) and decided to attack his allies at the moment the Axis powers were poised to take over much of the world.

Now another communist/socialist finds himself at the head of a powerful nation. What do you think will happen if he continues to consolidate power? The Vice President was quoted last week as saying, at a fundraiser, that the Constitution is "a dangerous new roadblock in the way of American government." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Constitution is a roadblock?! Yes, it is, a roadblock set in place by our founding fathers to keep tyranny and communism and corruption OUT of the government!

Son of Climategate! More lies and manipulation uncovered...

Thanks to Planet Daily for the link to the linked story below

Son of Climategate! Scientist
says feds manipulated data

Reporting points in coldest regions
simply eliminated by U.S. agencies

---

Posted: January 16, 2010
12:20 am Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

In a one-two series of Climategate aftershocks that assuredly will further rattle the global warming community, a report has been issued by U.S. researchers accusing government agencies of cherry-picking temperature readings used to assess global temperatures, and a series of embarrassing e-mails were released revealing what happened when a blogger dared to point out a mistake by NASA climate scientists.

The new report is from scientist Joseph D'Aleo and was highlighted in a report on global warming on KUSI television in San Diego.

It comes only weeks after the tumultuous climategate e-mail scandal in Britain erupted, proving top global warming scientists manipulated data there.

The report from D'Aleo, a retired climatologist who has been skeptical of global warming, contends climate data has been corrupted and skewed by "urbanization and other local factors such as land-use-land-cover changes and improper siting."

He blamed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which he described as "seriously complicit in data manipulation and fraud."

The East Anglia e-mail leak focused on the work at the Climate Research Unit there, but the director there has confirmed "almost all the data" in the archive "is exactly the same as in the Global Historical Climatology Network archive used by the NOAA National Climatic Data Center," D'Aleo said.

But he noted that an analysis by San Jose computer programmer E.M. Smith of the data "found they systematically eliminated 75 percent of the world's stations with a clear bias towards removing higher latitude, high altitude and rural locations."

Unlock the mysteries now! Get "Global Warming or Global Governance? What the media refuse to tell you about so-called climate change"

"The thermometers in a sense marched towards the tropics, the sea and to airport tarmacs," he said.

For example, the report said the number of reporting stations in Canada dropped from 600 to 35 with the percentage of stations at lower elevations tripling while the numbers of those at higher elevations plummeted.

Further, a vast majority of the climate stations reporting in the U.S. were either poorly or very poorly sited, taking temperature readings from paved driveways, in a waste treatment facility, on rooftops or near the exhaust from idling jet engines, rather than in open areas.

Stations in such locations as the Andes and Bolivia have virtually vanished, meaning that temperatures for those areas now are "determined by interpolation from stations hundreds of miles away on the coast or in the Amazon."

"Think of it this way," D'Aleo told the television station, "if Minneapolis and other northern cities suddenly disappeared but Kansas City and St. Louis were still available, would you think an average of Kansas City and St. Louis would provide an accurate replacement for Minneapolis and expect to use that to determine how Minneapolis' temperature has changed with any hope of accuracy?"

D'Aleo said that the coolest stations in a particular reporting period sometimes disappeared in the next.

"This would indicate a deliberate attempt to create a warm bias on the part of NOAA because in calculating the average temperatures in this way it would ensure that the global average temperature for each month and year would now show a positive temperature anomaly," the report said.

Such anomalies, it added, make climate reports based on those figures simply unreliable.

"You can trust in the data that shows there has been warming from 1979 to 1998, just as there was warming the around 1920 to 1940. But there has been cooling from 1940 to the late 1970s and since 2001. It is the long term trend on which this cyclical pattern is superimposed that is exaggerated," the report said.

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C.-based government watchdog Judicial Watch has released several hundred pages of e-mails from U.S. government scientists reacting – sometimes with disdain and arrogance – when an independent investigator pointed out an error in their global warming statistics.

When the mistake ultimately was corrected, the tables reflected slightly lower temperatures for years following 2000, and the reshuffled rankings revealed that several years from the 1930s were, in fact, warmer than during the last decade.

That, of course, undercut arguments that the life of modern man is generating emissions that would, if left unchecked, eventually threaten life on earth because of melting ice caps, rising seas and climates too hot to support food production.

In the British scandal prior to Christmas, purloined e-mails from the East Anglia Climate Research Unit, one of the world's premier global warming investigative organizations, included references to a "trick" to "hide the decline."

University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit

The NASA issue developed around 2007 when Canadian blogger Stephen McIntyre exposed an error in NASA's handling of raw temperature data from 2000-2006 at its Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The issue was that temperature readings apparently weren't handled in a consistent fashion, leaving them open for challenge. Sometimes "raw" data was used, while other times it was adjusted for "time of observation."

The mistake noted by McIntyre prompted the government agency to "re-process" data to eliminate an "artificial step" in the charts.

"Obviously, combining the uncorrected [data] with the [corrected] records for earlier years caused jumps in the records at those stations," a government e-mail responded. "The net effect averaged over the U.S. was an error of about 0.15C or less in the post-2000 years."

However, 0.15 degrees Centigrade is one-third of a degree Fahrenheit, which could be considered a significant change in an overall climate average.

The e-mails show the impact was that while 1998 previously had a deviation of 1.24 degrees Centigrade, that should have been 1.23 – bringing it below 1934. The lists for the highest deviations, the e-mails show, had listed 1998, 1934, 2006, 1921, 1931, 1999, 1953, 2001, 1990 and 1938.

The new list was changed to: 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938, 1939.

Instead of simply correcting the errors, however, government scientist Jim Hansen responded by labeling McIntyre a "pest," and suggested that those who disagree with global warming "should be ready to crawl under a rock by now."

"This e-mail traffic ought to be embarrassing for NASA," said Tom Fitton, chief of Judicial Watch, which obtained the documents under a Freedom of Information Act request. "Given the recent Climategate scandal, NASA has an obligation to be completely transparent with its handling of temperature data."

"Instead of insulting those who point out their mistakes, NASA scientists should engage the public in an open, professional and honest matter," he said.

The hundreds of pages of documents concern what the government described as a "glitch" in official assessments of temperatures.

Judicial Watch noted that a Bloomberg reporter had e-mailed to Hansen, "The U.S. figures showed 1998 as the warmest year. Nevertheless, NASA has indeed newly ranked 1934 as the warmest year…"

Hansen responded, "We have not changed ranking of warmest year in the U.S. As you will see in our 2001 paper we found 1934 slightly warmer, by an insignificant hair over 1998. We still find that result. The flaw affected temperatures only after 2000, not 1998 and 1934."

To which NASA scientist Makiko Sato told Hansen, "I am sure I had 1998 warmer at least once on my own temperature web page..."

Fitton told WND the e-mails reveal at "unflattering portrait of NASA scientists who, rather than deal forthrightly with their error, attacked those who called them on it."

He said he would leave to scientific experts the exact analysis of the impact of the flaw. But he said the dispute – and the government's response – "calls into question other data that is being presented by NASA [and others] in the global warming community."

"One has to wonder whether or not it would have been caught but for a diligent researcher," he said. "These are not everyday scientists in the private sector who can do whatever they want to do. These are government scientists trashing citizens and bloggers."

He said the e-mails make it appear the government didn't even want to engage in a discussion over the mistake – but for political, not scientific reasons.

One of the newly revealed e-mails documents a government scientist writing about those who were questioning the government's mistake: "This seems to be a tempest inside somebody's teapot dome… It is unclear why anyone would try to make something out of this, perhaps a light not on upstairs? Or perhaps this is coming from one of the old contrarians? They can't seem to get over the fact that the real world has proven them to be full of malarkey! You would think that they would be ready to crawl under a rock by now!"

McIntyre's website comment on the e-mail revelation today was that, "If anyone is wondering whether e-mails by U.S. government employees are 'private' and 'personal' – an assertion sometimes made in respect to emails at CRU, an institution subject to UK FOI – the answer in respect to NASA GISS appears to be no."

The previous e-mails from East Anglia, posted online after a hacker found them, said, "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't. The CERES data published in the August (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society) 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate."

Suggestions to suppress information also were documented at East Anglia, "Can you delete any e-mails you may have had with Keith re (Assessment Report 4)? Keith will do likewise. He's not in at the moment – minor family crisis."

They also suggest how "warmists," as critics label those who believe in global warming, conspired to squeeze dissenting scientists out of the peer-review process.

Myron Ebell, of the GlobalWarming.org website where "cooler heads prevail," had described the East Anglia e-mails as "shocking."

"It's kind of interesting to learn that petty politics seems to be more prevalent in the scientific community than in the political community," he said.

The documents, he said, "raise a huge number of questions about the integrity of a lot of people in the alarmist community.

"What I've seen there is a very strong effort to manage the issue by scientists and not as a scientific issue. It's very improper," he said. "One of the criticisms is that we need scientists to be scientists, and policy can be handled in public debate."

There also is an effort called the Petition Project which was launched some 10 years ago when the first few thousand signatures were gathered. The effort, assembled by Art Robinson, a research professor of chemistry and cofounder of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in 1973, now lists tens of thousands of qualified scientists who endorse this:

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.

WND also reported recently on the United Nation's summit in Copenhagen, which failed to produce a global carbon emissions agreement as advocates had sought.

That meeting, instead, was simply about American money, according to Steve Stockman, a former Texas congressman who was in the Danish capital for the two-week event before Christmas.

"It was about transferring the wealth of taxpayers," he said. "This has nothing to do with science."

Further, a Colorado scientist described by the Washington Post as "the World's Most Famous Hurricane Expert" said the East Anglia e-mails "are but the tip of a giant iceberg of a well-organized international climate-warming conspiracy that has been gathering momentum for the last 25 years."

The comment came from Colorado State University's William Gray, whose annual hurricane forecasts are the standard for weather prognostications. His work pioneered the science of forecasting hurricanes, and he has served as weather forecaster for the U.S. Air Force. He is emeritus professor of atmospheric science at CSU and heads the school's Department of Atmospheric Sciences Tropical Meteorology Project.

He had forecast that U.S. researchers eventually would be caught by their own e-mails, too.

"This conspiracy would become much more manifest if all the e-mails of the publicly funded climate-research groups of the U.S. and of foreign governments were ever made public," he said at the time.

~


Once again scientists are found playing with data to get the results that fit in with their worldview rather than simply looking for truth. I hope you are all awake by now and realize that the EPA is a disastrous agency that has been killing off jobs and indirectly destroying homes and murdering people by their ridiculous policies (check out recent forest fires in the Western USA and consider how EPA regulations have played a part). People in the Salinas valley starve becaue the EPA is worried about a variation of a kind of fish. A FISH?!

The Al Gores of this world hoped to make millions on cap and trade/carbon offset companies while sending us further into depression and keeping the third world countries from developing. Global Warming caused by man has always been a hoax as I have always said and now the evidence is coming out that not only were people mistaken, they were actually conspiring to lie to the world for their own reasons. Is Al Gore a criminal? Are these scientists who have deliberately faked and twisted evidence criminals?

If CO2 is a greenhouse gas that will cause the oceans to rise and destroy the cities of the seacoasts then you and I had better quit breathing. One big volcano can do more to the environment than an entire nation full of factories and people and animals. Man does not have much of an impact on the weather and we can't predict what is going to happen two weeks ago, let alone several years from now.

There is a God who cannot be faked and cannot be hidden and the final fate of Al Gore and those like him will be up to Him. But I hope all of you, my readers, know the truth now and will resist any efforts by the government of your state or nation to take any actions to supposedly stave off anthropic global warming, because it does not exist. In fact, the world is in a cooling cycle. Duh.

Mr. Obama, tear down this wall! (AKA Mr. Brown goes to Washington)

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.


"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. " Thomas Jefferson. "I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion. "

President Barack Obama is a liar. He has done the very opposite of what he promised during his Presidential campaign. He promised an open, honest government and then brought in hundreds of political hacks and radicals operating behind closed doors and devising legislation hidden from public view. Barack Obama has erected his own Berlin Wall of secrecy to hide old-style Chicago Machine politics in which followers get paid off and the taxpayers get screwed. Is that clear enough? How many criminal czars does one man need? Barack Obama is not particularly intelligent or accomplished.

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson.

Barack Obama is a disappointment. The only good thing about Obama's election was that all people of color (any color) in this country could believe that it was their country, too. That women and people of color were among the strong candidates for President and Vice President was a reason for celebration in that government was not a white-men-only club. But Obama has been such a terrible disaster that the symbolism of his election is being overwhelmed by the treachery of his actions.

Hope and Change? A punchline rather than a promise. The only hope is that there will be change left in your pocket after Obama's administration fines and taxes you into poverty. Transparency? Only if you can see through walls. Obama was a storefront candidate manufactured by the Machine and, as Harry Reid said, was not "too Negro" in appearance or dialect to scare off voters.

Don't believe me? I quote Beth Shaw from ten days ago:

"There is another scandal involving the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He referred to Barack Obama as ‘light-skinned’ with ‘no Negro dialect’. The comment was made in connection with Reid being excited at the prospect of the democratic party running a Black man for President. He apparently thought only ‘light-skinned’ men with ‘no Negro dialect’ could get White people to vote for him. I think he managed to insult the entire Black and White races in the United States. Read about it below and see Greta Perry’s video on the Harry Reid, Obama comment."

Read entire article and see video here.

Sometimes we get a glimpse over the wall and see a Senator like Ben Nelson getting a brazen payoff for his vote on Obamacare, or the inept-to-the-point-of-criminality sequence of events that led to the underwear bomber's parade through airport security or the Christmas sessions to ram Obamacare down our throats whether we want it or not. We see that a terrorist can become a high ranking officer and then gun down innocents on Obama's watch. We see that, to paraphrase Senator Brown, our money is going to hire lawyers to defend terrrorists rather than for weapons to blow them up!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson.


"CNN’s Jack Cafferty carved out at a unique spot for himself during the Bush administration –while the rest of his network peers stayed away from the opinion media fray, Cafferty was consistently one of Bush’s fiercest critics, and often got labeled “liberal” by Cafferty’s critics. But any expectations that the Obama administration would reveal a kinder and gentler Cafferty have been wrong, evidenced by the following clip."

Even CNN's Jack Caffery, who used to rake President Bush over the coals repeatedly, has flat out called Barack Hussein Obama a liar. Go see for yourself!


"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. " Thomas Jefferson


Much has already been made of Obama’s promise of transparency in negotiating health care reform — its become a robust topic of debate between left and right. Cafferty doesn’t demure when he calls it as he sees it, and actually is pretty harsh in calling the president a liar.

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. " Thomas Jefferson.

~

Scott Brown won in part because the Massachusetts election (much like earlier ones in New Jersey and Virginia) was a referendum on Barack Obama and his Obamacare and especially his positions on terrorists and security. Both Joe Six Pack and Gerald Grey Goose are against Obamacare and against giving terrorists the rights of US citizens in a standard court of law. Massachusetts was voting against Barack Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi as much as they were for Brown. Actually, Scott Brown reminds one of a 21st century JFK and quoted the former President during his victory speech. It reminds us that JFK's policies would look Republican today. JFK and Ronald Reagan fit together much better than Barack Obama and any other president since WWII. Even Bill Clinton pragmatically reworked his viewpoint after the 1994 elections. But Obama may be rooted too far to the left to understand the difference between his viewpoint and the ordinary American, let alone the Constitution and the intent of the founding fathers.

WE DO NOT WANT OBAMACARE!!!!!!!!

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. " Thomas Jefferson.

What Washington needs, what this whole country needs, is to go watch Frank Capra's classic movie, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." The Obama administration and Congress is stuffed full of Jim Taylors and Senator Joseph Caines and has far too few Jefferson Smiths!

Here is a good synopsis from a great classics movie blog:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Director: Frank Capra
USA 1939
129 min


Holy Mackerel! This is a great film.
James Stewart plays the role of Jefferson Smith, a naive and hopeful man who, by the spineless governor of his state, is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. Unfortunately he collides with political corruption and gets dragged through the mud in the press.





Mr. Smith is the head of the Boy Rangers, and sees now his chance to start a national boy's camp and comes up with a legislation to authorize a federal government loan to buy a piece of land for that business. The loan will then be paid for by the contributions of the boy's camp's members. Donations starts to pour in immediately by mail.

The corrupt government, however, has other plans for that particular piece of land, and tries to make Smith their ally. When he still wants to go through with his plans (with the help of Clarissa Saunders, played by the adorable Jean Arthur) the government instead tries to smear the name of Mr. Smith. They ridicule him in the newspapers and come up with lies about his intentions of the boy's camp to get him out of the Congress.

Jim Taylor and Senator Joseph Paine.

Claude Rains plays Senator Joseph Paine, an old-time friend of Mr. Smith's father. He is torn between his personal feelings for Mr. Smith, and the will of his political boss Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who helped him to be successful in politics, and quickly could make him powerless. You can almost not recognize Rains by appearance in this role, and the only different thing is that his hair is white and he's got spectacles on his nose.




As the beautiful daughter of Joseph Paine, Susan, Astrid Allwyn steals the two scenes she appears in. The first of those, were she meets Mr. Smith and "turns the glamour" on him, making him so nervous that he drops his hat about three times, is very amusing.

Senator Joseph Paine and his daughter Susan finds Mr. Smith very amusing.

From the telephone scene with Astrid Allwyn and Jean Arthur.

Scene: Saunders finds Mr. Smith in despair by the Lincoln monument.

"It's a forty foot dive into a tub of water, but I think you can do it."

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington caused a lot of angry feelings around the country by Washington insiders, who thought they were pictured in a false and negative way. One of the real Senators even walked out from the screening he attended in disgust. But on the opposite side the film was rejected by fascists, nazists and communists in Europe for showing that democracy can work.

Director Frank Capra got anyhow letters years afterwards by people being inspired by the film to go into politics.

The at first cynical Saunders is inspired by Mr. Smith's enthusiasm and energy, and soon finds herself falling for him.

From the filibuster scene.

The last line in this film might be one of the best ones ever, spoken by Jean Arthur:


Clarissa Saunders: [shouts] Yippee!

A couple of nice film posters.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. " Thomas Jefferson.

Tea Parties are just getting started! SCOTT BROWN!

I know all sorts of private citizens like myself contributed money to help Scott Brown publicize his come-from-behind campaign and hand the Democratic Machine a punch in the nose. The economy will begin to revive when the Obamites quit stealing our funds and threatening us all with more taxes and programs and people on the government dole.

Locally in Lake County, Indiana, there is a big meeting of Constitution-believing, American way of life living people. My wife and I have tickets already:

Please visit our website: www.teapartyoflakecounty.org

Please pass on to friends and family January 23rd "Reclaiming America" TEA Party Rally WHERE: Lake County Fairgrounds (4-H Building) 889 South Court Street Crown Point, IN Click HERE for google map TIME: 1:00-3:30PM CST Doors open at 12:15pm CST for meet and greet with U.S. Senate Candidates Tickets are limited, so reserve now, Click HERE to purchase tickets.

There are probably Tea Party or 912 or Patriot organizations near you if you live in the USA. For my foreign readers, this is a time of crisis for the USA. We are being led by a Chicago-style politician with a socialist/communist agenda and a pocket full of bribes fleeced from the American people. I hope you pray and/or hope for us to defeat this menace and vote in normal Americans in the next elections. I think the world is a better place when the USA is the brightest beacon of freedom to be seen. We strengthen the free and give hope to the enslaved.

I hope the following is of interest to you all, from Mark Leyva:

MASS. ELECTION UPDATE:
Massachusetts politicians vie to direct voters' ire
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31596.html

GOP money, troops pour into Massachusetts
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31535.html

Seating Mass. Senate winner could be delayed
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9D72N2O0&show_article=1

VISCLOSKY'S TOWN HALL: Please leave your comments
Is it mob-rule rudeness or 'democracy in action'?
http://www.post-trib.com/news/davich/1994825,jdavich-0117.article

Visclosky deserves civility at his forums
http://www.post-trib.com/news/opinion/1991563,edit-forum-01xx.article

TOP STORIES:
Report: Congressman challenges Obama eligibility
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121234

Majority Would Vote Against Obama
http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/01/majority_would.php

Is America's financial collapse inevitable?
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=122030

Swine flu "false pandemic" seems to be biggest pharma-fraud of century
http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-01-13/swine-flu-false-pandemic.html/print

American murder toll in Mexico continues to climb
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6810308.html

Here is what the airport scanners will really show about you.
http://whatistaxed.com/missing_report-airport_scanners-what_do_they_really_show.htm

HEALTH CARE:
Wall St. Weighs a Challenge to a Proposed Tax
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/business/18bank.html?hp

Know the TRUTH about the Government Health Care Bill H.R.3200 - Key Points
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBaSP31Be8

GOV. WASTE:
Nassau DA: Wealthy Couple Scammed Medicaid
http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-li-couple-medicaid,0,5483384.story

IMMIGRATION NEWS:
Charges dropped against illegal immigrants
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer/the_intelligencer_news_details/article/92/2010/january/13/charges-dropped-against-illegal-immigrants.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20IntelligencerNews%20%28Intelligenc

TEA NEWS:
Glenn Beck and CPAC: Outsider steps in
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31473.html

9 Vt. State Office Candidates Favor Secession
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/13/us/AP-US-Vermont-Secession-Candidates.html?_r=2

HEALTH CARE: House Dems mount health assault
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31438.html

Labor angry over Obama-backed insurance tax
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100112/D9D6661G1.html

Amish families exempt from insurance mandate
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20100109/NEWS02/301099964

TERRIST UPDATES:
Here is what the airport scanners will really show about you.
http://whatistaxed.com/missing_report-airport_scanners-what_do_they_really_show.htm

Director of Terror Watch List Says Government Has Technical Capability to Screen All Passengers Against Full List Before They Board Planes
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/59762

Parts sent to Iran could be used for nuclear weapons; 3 charged in alleged plot
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/parts-shipped-from-glendale-to-iran-could-be-used-for-nuclear-weapons-federal-investigation-launched.html

Obama's TSA Nominee Once Said U.S. a Terror Target for Ties to Israel, France
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/12/obamas-tsa-nominee-ties-israel-france-lead-terror-attack/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+foxnews%252Flatest+%2528Text+-+Latest+Headlines%2529

Counterterrorism chief: Officials 'didn't understand' intel
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/09/counterterrorism-chief-officials-didnt-understand-/

Fiend's easy escape
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/fiend_easy_escape_no4I3fUgiSmzc7WxrV2LLN

Police discover children as young as seven being groomed for terrorism
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6961431/Police-discover-children-as-young-as-seven-being-groomed-for-terrorism.html

CIA bomber calls for attacks on US in video
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100109/D9D49EU80.html

ARTICLES:
Venezuela devalues U.S. Dollar
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN096521320100109

Navy SEAL's trial in detainee abuse moved to Iraq
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-01-11-seal-trial-moved_N.htm

California considers this and first statewide green building code
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/01/cash-for-saving-energy-california-considers-this-and-new-green-building-code/1

The lies of Global Warming are exposed!

From the Cornwall Alliance Blog Forget Global Warming--Mini Ice Age May Be on Its Way Cornwall’s Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming couldn’t come at a better time--sign today! By E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D. Tuesday, January 12, 2010 You know the wheels are falling off the manmade global warming bandwagon when even the mainstream media begin publishing reports of major scientists who challenge it. The UK’s MailOnline did just that this week under the headline The mini ice age starts here. Lead paragraph? “The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.” Right. MailOnline reporter David Rose doesn’t call them “the world’s leading climate skeptics.” He calls them “some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists"--and he goes on to cite “Mojib Latif, a leading member of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” “Anastasios Tsonis, head of the University of Wisconsin Atmospheric Sciences Group,” and “William Gray, emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University.” Contrary to fears of inexorably diminishing Arctic sea ice, Rose cites the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center as reporting that “Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007.” Though snow’s been unusual for most of the southern half of the United Kingdom in recent decades, the Mail published the accompanying satellite photo of Great Britain during the recent cold snap. The island is essentially all covered with snow. Rose reported record lows as far south as Cuba--something I can attest to, living near Miami in south Florida, where we experienced sub-freezing weather over the weekend. He quoted Tsonis as saying that last week 56% of the United States was covered by snow--something that hasn’t happened in several decades. And the “‘Arctic oscillation’--a weather pattern that sees the development of huge ‘blocking’ areas of high pressure in northern latitudes, driving polar winds far to the south . . . is at its strongest for at least 60 years. As a result, the jetstream--the high-altitude wind that circles the globe from west to east and normally pushes a series of wet but mild Atlantic lows across Britain--is currently running not over the English Channel but the Strait of Gibraltar.” Consequently, most of the Northern Hemisphere is much colder this winter than it’s been in decades--and the Southern Hemisphere is cooler, too. According to Rose, Latif, Tsonis, and other scientists attribute the cold shift primarily to a shift in the world’s dominant ocean circulations--the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation--from a warm phase to a cool phase, something that happens about every 20 to 30 years. “The scientists’ predictions also undermine the standard climate computer models, which assert that the warming of the Earth since 1900 has been driven solely by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and will continue as long as carbon dioxide levels rise. They say that their research shows that much of the warming was caused by oceanic cycles when they were in a ‘warm mode’ as opposed to the present ‘cold mode’.” That’s a point made by Dr. Roy W. Spencer in the science chapter of the Cornwall Alliance’s new document A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science, and Economics of Global Warming and illustrated in the graph below. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, an index of weather patterns over the North Pacific Ocean, has coincided with periods of warming and cooling over the last century (JISAO, 2008). “A significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles,” said Latif, “perhaps as much as 50 per cent. They have now gone into reverse, so winters like this one will become much more likely. Summers will also probably be cooler, and all this may well last two decades or longer. The extreme retreats that we have seen in glaciers and sea ice will come to a halt. For the time being, global warming has paused, and there may well be some cooling.” Tsonis also believes that the ocean current cycles dominated global climate change in the 20th century, including the post-1970s, the period many point to as driven by human greenhouse gas emissions, but he doesn’t venture to attribute specific percentages to the natural and human causes. “I do not believe in catastrophe theories,” Rose quoted him as saying. “Man-made warming is balanced by the natural cycles, and I do not trust the computer models which state that if CO2 reaches a particular level then temperatures and sea levels will rise by a given amount. These models cannot be trusted to predict the weather for a week, yet they are running them to give readings for 100 years.” Gray went farther: “Most of the rise in temperature from the Seventies to the Nineties was natural. Very little was down to CO2--in my view, as little as five to ten per cent.” Gray, Tsonis, and Latif all agreed that the findings about the ocean currents undermined the credibility of the computer climate models on which the IPCC and other alarmists rely. Such findings support the Cornwall Alliance’s view that global climate changes are overwhelmingly natural, not manmade, that human contribution to them is not dangerous, and that the effort to fight global warming is needless, with costs far exceeding benefits. Want to let leaders know you agree? Add your endorsement to An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming. By doing so, you’ll join about 500 others who have endorsed it so far, including ministry leaders like Tony Perkins (President, Family Research Council); Tom Minnery (Executive Vice President, Focus on the Family); Wendy Wright (President, Concerned Women for America); David Barton (President, Wallbuilders); Gary DeMar (President, American Vision); Rev. Lou Sheldon (President, Traditional Values Coalition); Dr. Ted Baehr (President, Christian Film and Television Commission & Movieguide); Hector Padron (Executive Vice President, Coral Ridge Ministries); Mark Tooley (President, Institute on Religion and Democracy); Rev. John Sorensen (President, Evangelism Explosion International); Dr. Ray Bohlin (President, Probe Ministries); Marita Littauer (President, CLASServices, Inc.); Rev. Robert L. Allen (President and Director, Midwest Apologetics Research Service); Dr. John L. Yeats (Director of Communications, Louisiana Baptist Convention); Shannon Royce (Executive Director, Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation); Dr. E. Calvin Beisner (Founder, National Spokesman, Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation); John Sanford (President, Feed My Sheep Foundation); Mark Williamson (Founder and President, Federal Intercessors); Mark Nordtvedt (Executive Director, Sound the Alarm); Leanne Payne (President, Pastoral Care Ministries); Rev. R. C. Sproul Jr. (President, Highlands Ministries); John Stonestreet (Executive Director, Summit Ministries); Julie Walsh (Coordinator, Freedom Action); Jerry Johnson (President, NiceneCouncil.com); Donna Hearne (Executive Director, Constitutional Coalition); Rev. Charles A. Dunahoo (Coordinator, Christian Education & Publication, Presbyterian Church in America); Gary J. Palmer (President, Alabama Policy Institute); John Aman (Director of Communications, Coral Ridge Ministries); Rev. Robert Andrews (Director, Gospel Parenting) theologians, philosophers, ethicists, and pastors like Dr. Richard Land and Dr. Barrett Duke (President and Vice President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention); Dr. William Dembski (Research Professor in Philosophy, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary); Dr. Daniel Heimbach (Professor of Christian Ethics, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary); Dr. Wayne Grudem (Research Professor of Theology, Phoenix Seminary); Dr. C. Ben Mitchell (Graves Chair of Moral Philosophy, Union University); Dr. Nelson Kloosterman (Professor of Ethics and New Testament, Mid-America Reformed Seminary); Dr. John Warwick Montgomery (Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Christian Thought, Patrick Henry College, and Director, International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights); Dr. Bruce Ware (Professor of Christian Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary); Dr. Peter Jones (Director, Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, and Adjunct Professor and Scholar in Residence, Westminster Theological Seminary, Escondido, CA); Dr. Douglas Groothuis (Professor of Philosophy, Denver Seminary); Dr. Mark Coppenger (Professor of Apologetics, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary); Rev. Jay Dennis (Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church-at-the-Mall, Lakeland, FL); Rev. Dr. David Hall (Senior Pastor, Midway Presbyterian Church, Powder Springs, GA); Rev. Dr. George Grant (Pastor, Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN); Dr. David Wells (Distinguished Research Professor of Theology, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA); Rev. Gary Nelson (Senior Pastor, Vineyard Church of Scottsdale); Rev. Cecil Siriwardene (Senior Pastor, Sovereign Grace Bible Church); Rev. Chad Sadorf (Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Villa Rica, GA); Rev. Paul Sagan (Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Fayetteville, AR); Rev. Kenneth Pierce (Senior Minister, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS); Rev. John G. Kearns (Pastor, Christ Harbor United Methodist Church, Northport, AL); Dr. Thomas Ice (Associate Professor of Theology, Liberty University); Rev. James R. Carlson (Pastor, Plymell Union Church, Garden City, KS); Dr. H. Wayne House (Distinguished Research Professor, Faith Evangelical Seminary); Rev. Christian A. Bayles (Pastor, Resurrection Free Methodist Church, Oklahoma City, OK); Rev. Steve Fargo (Teacher/Minister, Church of the Nazarene, Denton, TX); Rev. Ken Crabb (Pastor, Arden Presbyterian Church, Arden, NC); Rev. Stuart V. Burt (Assistant Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, Grand Island, NE); Dr. Robert L. Reymond (Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology, Knox Theological Seminary and Covenant Theological Seminary); Rev. Dennis M. Cahill (Pastor, Christ Community Church, Piscataway, NJ); Rev. Charlie Vaughn (Pastor, Austin Baptist Church, Austin, NV); Rev. Hector P. Gonzalez Jr. (Pastor, New Creation Church, Hialeah, FL); Rev. David A. Queener (Pastor, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, TN); Rev. Gary Rogers (Pastor, N. Pownal Congregational Church, N. Pownal, VT); Rev. Ron Heffield (Pastor, New Life Community Church, C&MA, Orlando, FL); Rev. Gus Flores (Senior Pastor, Calvary Chapel, Coral Springs, FL); Rev. Richard Todd (Pastor, Las Americas Baptist Church, Hollywood, FL); Rev. William V. Welzien (Pastor, Keys Presbyterian Church, OPC, Key West, FL); Dr. Michael Bauman (Professor of Theology and Culture, Hillsdale College); Dr. Gregg R. Allison (Professor of Christian Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary); Dr. Jay Wegter (Professor of Theology, The Master’s College); Rev. Wayne Rogers (Pastor, Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church, Stockbridge, GA); Rev. Brian Rihner (Pastor, Grace Evangelical Free Church, Denison, IA); Rev. Lawrence C. Roff (Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Schenectady, NY); Rev. Dr. Joseph Ton (President, Romanian Missionary Society); Dr. Thomas Sieger Derr (Emeritus Professor of Religion and Ethics, Smith College); Rev. Jim Tonkowich (independent scholar, former President, Institute on Religion and Democracy) scientists and medical doctors like Dr. Roy W. Spencer (Principal Research Scientist in Climatology, University of Alabama, Huntsville, U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer aboard NASA’s Aqua Satellite, and author of Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians, and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor); Dr. David Legates (Associate Professor of Climatology, University of Delaware); Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez (Associate Professor of Physics, Grove City College); Dr. Michael Salazar (Associate Professor of Chemistry, Union University); Dr. James Wanliss (Associate Professor of Physics, Presbyterian College); Dr. Victor Goldschmidt (Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University); Gordon Evans (Environmental Manager, Texas A&M University System); Dr. Neil Frank (Chief Meteorologist, WHOU-TV, Houston, and former Director, National Hurricane Center); Dr. Joseph D’Aleo (Executive Director and Certified Meteorologist, Icecap, and first Director of Meteorology, The Weather Channel); Dr. Glenn Marsch (Professor of Physics, Grove City College); James Spann (Chief Meteorologist, ABC 33/40, Birmingham, AL); Dr. Ronald Marks (Professor of Chemistry, North Greenville University); Jeffrey Mahn (Principal Member of Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories); Dr. Lawrence McHargue (Emeritus Professor of Botany and Ecology, Vanguard University); Ed Payne, M.D. (retired Professor of Family Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, founder and editor of The Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine); Hilton Terrell, M.D. (physician in private practice); Harry V. Wiant Jr. (retired, Joseph E. Ibberson Chair, School of Forest Resources, Pennsylvania State University); Stan G. Smith (Professor of Math and Physics, South Plains College); Jonathan Clough (Operations Research Analyst, U.S. Air Force); Scott Sands, M.D. (President and Physician, Ecosystems Products LLC); Sonji L. Boyd, M.D. (physician in private practice); Dr. Michael J. Oard (retired atmospheric scientist); Gene Hawkins (consulting geologist); Dr. John Baumgardner (President, Logos Research Associates, former developer of global ocean and climate models, Los Alamos National Laborary); Dr. Larry Vardiman (Chairman, Department of Astrogeophysics, Institute for Creation Research); Raymond K. Mason (retired forester, Fellow of the American Society of Foresters); Dr. James A. Brandt (Assistant Professor, Microbiology, Loma Linda University); Dr. Theodore Richerzhagen III (chemist); Ellery S. Meyers (Engineer, Oak Ridge National Laboratory); Dr. Philip Pennance (Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Puerto Rico); Anthony J. Sadar (Certified Consulting Meteorologist, Environmental Science Communication); Mark Stacy (Environmental Specialist, Senior Hydrogeologist, Lidstone & Associates); H. S. Woffenden (retired forester); Daryl A. Doughty (retired physics professor); Robert Stephen Adams, M.D., FACOG (private physician); Bill Freeman (retired environmental and chemical engineer); Gregory W. McCall (Senior Engineer, American Electric Power); Dr. Edward C. Krug (retired soil and water chemist, Illinois Water Survey); Philip Ranheim, M.D. (physician private practice); Dr. Steven L. Hayes (Research Scientist, Nuclear Science & Technology Directorate, Idaho National Laboratory); Rev. Charles Clough (retired atmospheric scientist and pastor); economists like Dr. Cornelis van Kooten (Professor of Economics and Research Chair in Environmental Studies and Climate, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Expert Reviewer, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change); Dr. Ross McKitrick (Associate Professor of Economics, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Expert Reviewer, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change); Dr. Kenneth W. Chilton (Founder and Emeritus Director, Institute for the Study of Economics and the Environment, Lindenwood College); Dr. Charles Van Eaton (Emeritus Distinguished Professor at Large and Director of the Institute for Critical Thought and Analysis, Bryan College, Dayton, TN); Dr. Tracy Miller (Associate Professor of Economics, Grove City College); Dr. Shawn Ritenour (Associate Professor of Economics, Grove City College); Larry Reed (President, Foundation for Economic Education); Dr. Sacha Walicord (Associate Professor of Economics, Mount Vernon Nazarene University); Dr. Jeffrey M. Doyle (President, Thermoeconomics); Dr. Timothy Terrell (Associate Professor of Economics, Wofford College); Christian education leaders and other academics like Dr. Stephen Livesay (President, Bryan College, Dayton, TN); Dr. Joseph Pipa (President, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Greenville, SC); Dr. Matthew Staver (Dean and Professor of Law, Liberty University, and Chairman, Liberty Counsel, Lynchburg, VA); John Sparks (Dean of Arts and Letters, Grove City College, Grove City, PA); Dr. Kenneth Talbot (President, Whitefield Theological Seminary); Dr. K. Alan Snyder (Professor of History, Southeastern University); Dr. Michael L. Thompson (Academic Dean, Professor of Old Testament, Rocky Mountain Bible College); Dr. Paul C. Boling (Chairman, Christian Studies Division, Bryan College); Dr. Joseph Childs (Dean, College of Business and Legal Studies, Southeastern University); Dr. Bradley G. Green (Associate Professor of Christian Studies, Union University); Dr. James P. Bartlett (Executive Director, Biblical Concourse of Home Universities); Sen. John Andrews (Director, Centennial Institute, Colorado Christian University); Dr. William Watson (Professor of History, Colorado Christian University); Dr. Dominic Aquila (President, New Geneva Theological Seminary); Dr. David Revell (Professor, Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Southeastern University); Dr. Kevin L. Clauson (Professor of Government, Director of the Center for Law and Policy, Bryan College) Christian media and publishing personalities like Janet Parshall (Host, Janet Parshall’s America); Joel Belz (Founder, World magazine); Bryan Fischer (Director of Issues and Analysis, American Family Association); Pat Boone (singer and National Spokesman of the 60 Plus Association); John Van Dyke (Editor, Christian Renewal); Rev. Frank J. Smith (Editor, Presbyterian International News Service); Rev. Marvin Padgett (P&R Publishing); and hundreds of laymen from all over America. [Organization and title are listed for identification only, and do not imply organizational endorsement. Read the Declaration and add your name today!]

If a friend forwarded this to you, you can subscribe at www.CornwallAlliance.org.

~

I highly recommend that if you have any questions about whether or not "greenhouse gas and CO2" causes global warming you actually research the issue. You will find that Al Gore has lied and misled people because he and many other government figures have invested in carbon offset companies and people associated with IPCC and CRU deliberately faked graphs and calculations to scare the world into supporting offsets. This is a great evil! Poor countries and the common man in richer countries would all suffer greatly to make a few rich people richer!

Where you find communism and socialism and so-called progressive thinking in positions of power, you soon find that the man on the street gets poorer and the ruling class gets richer. Some animals are more equal than others - Animal Farm (George Orwell). The man-made global warming scare turns out to be another fraudulent scheme to take more control over people and harvest more of their money. Game/set/match!

You will find the Cornwall Alliance in my list of links along the leftside column. Happy New Year and, if you are in the Northern regions, enjoy the snow! I believe we have about a foot of snow on the ground here.

Ray Stevens versus the Orwellian Obamites!

Ray Stevens, God bless him, believes that We The People are supposed to be represented rather than royally screwed!

Trust me, you do want to watch it! Hat tip to Amanda!!! (that's my girl!)

Another Little Ice Age coming? I shiver to think!

For those who have noticed that Hawkeye and I have been having an energetic discussion on eschatology (if you care) I want you to realize that I think Hawkeye often has a lot of great things to say, such as this: The True Progressives

Jo Nova tells Australia and the rest of us How Not To Do Journalism

The 4-Block World author, Tom McMahon, recently posted this air safety thought:

Where Are The Corpses?

Excerpt:

Abstract

The record of continental (as opposed to island) bird and mammal extinctions in the last five centuries was analyzed to determine if the “species-area” relationship actually works to predict extinctions. Very few continental birds or mammals are recorded as having gone extinct, and none have gone extinct from habitat reduction alone. No continental forest bird or mammal is recorded as having gone extinct from any cause. Since the species-area relationship predicts that there should have been a very large number of recorded bird and mammal extinctions from habitat reduction over the last half millennium, I show that the species-area relationship gives erroneous answers to the question of extinction rates....

Go read the whole thing to remind yourself how Econuts continually lie about pretty well everything!

Now on to Global Dumbing!

I was grateful at the time to the United Kingdom journalists who broke the Climategate story and I suppose to the Russian agents who hacked in and got the CRU emails in the first place. But now it appears that hacking was not the reason the information appeared on the internet:

Update: It has become fairly obvious this archive was not "hacked" or "stolen" but rather is a file assembled by CRU staff in preparation for complying with a freedom of information request. Whether it was carelessly left in a publicly accessible portion of the CRU computer system or was "leaked" by staff believing the FOIA request was improperly rejected may never be known but is not really that important. What is important is that:

1. There was no "security breach" at CRU that "stole" these files
2. The files appear genuine and to have been prepared by CRU staff, not edited by malicious hackers
3. The information was accidentally or deliberately released by CRU staff
4. Selection criteria appears to be compliance with an or several FOIA request(s)

We are now introducing Junk Science blog to our blogroll. Yet another blog that stays on top of the actual science involved in Global Dumbing. Unfortunately the globe has actually been cooling for the last few years and, if the Sun does not get more active soon, it will have dire consequences for mankind. No matter how the Global Dumbing conspirators try to spin it, the world is getting colder and it is likely that if you are in the Northern Hemisphere you have already noticed!


A blog co-authored by an English scientist and an American makes a good clearinghouse for global dumbing information. Lord Monckton knows his stuff!

A Canadian blog I like, Small Dead Animals, has kept track of some global warming morons in the UK and Canada pretty well. Thanks, Kate!

Did you notice that yet another Global Warming Protest was cancelled due to snow and cold? Hahahahahaha!

What Northern India is experiencing is not fun, though! Dozens of Indians have died!

Planet Gore graphically illustrated how global warming is NOT happening here in the states!

Al Gore / AIT Index, Vol. 20: Globally averaged temperatures have gone down .158°F/.088°C since An Inconvenient Truth was released

Now a pictoral history lessson from our newest blog link, JunkScience. The first is a painting of a frozen-over Thames! Hey Europe, do you want your Little Ice Age back?

Then thereafter from SUNY a summary of the Little Ice Age in Europe. Can you imagine what America will be like if the Obamites destroy the economy just in time for the climate to turn colder and harsher? I shiver to think...

For those who yearn for seasons past, here are a few paintings from Little Ice Age Europe:

And now for a summary of the Little Ice Age In Europe:

Western Europe experienced a general cooling of the climate between the years 1150 and 1460 and a very cold climate between 1560 and 1850 that brought dire consequences to its peoples. The colder weather impacted agriculture, health, economics, social strife, emigration, and even art and literature. Increased glaciation and storms also had a devastating affect on those that lived near glaciers and the sea.

Impact on Agriculture

Lamb (1966) points out that the growing season changed by 15 to 20 percent between the warmest and coldest times of the millenium. That is enough to affect almost any type of food production, especially crops highly adapted to use the full-season warm climatic periods. During the coldest times of the LIA, England's growing season was shortened by one to two months compared to present day values. The availability of varieties of seed today that can withstand extreme cold or warmth, wetness or dryness, was not available in the past. Therefore, climate changes had a much greater impact on agricultural output in the past.

Fig. 16 and 17 show the price of wheat and rye, respectively, in various European countries during the LIA.

Figure 16: Prices of wheat expressed in Dutch guilders per 100 kg. in various countries vs. time. (Source: Lamb, 1995)

Figure 17: Price of rye in Germany vs. time expressed as an index. (Source: Lamb, 1995)

Each of the peaks in prices corresponds to a particularly poor harvest, mostly due to unfavorable climates with the most notable peak in the year 1816 - "the year without a summer." One of the worst famines in the seventeenth century occurred in France due to the failed harvest of 1693. Millions of people in France and surrounding countries were killed.

The effect of the LIA on Swiss farms was also severe. Due to the cooler climate, snow covered the ground deep into spring. A parasite, known as Fusarium nivale, which thrives under snow cover, devastated crops. Additionally, due to the increased number of days of snow cover, the stocks of hay for the animals ran out so livestock were fed on straw and pine branches. Many cows had to be slaughtered.

In Norway, many farms located at higher latitudes were abandoned for better land in the valleys. By 1387, production and tax yields were between 12 percent and 70 percent of what they had been around 1300. In the 1460's it was being recognized that this change was permanent. As late as the year 1665, the total Norwegian grain harvest is reported to have been only 67 - 70 percent of what it had been about the year 1300 (Lamb, 1995.)

Fig. 18 shows a chronology of dearth and famine in Scotland during the LIA. Broken lines are years with reported dearth and full lines are years with reported famine.

Figure 18: Dearth and famine in Scotland during the LIA. (Source: Lamb, 1995)

Dots represent years with severe losses of stock (sheep and cattle), usually because of snow.

Impact on Wine Production

People keep records of their most important crops, grapes for wine-making being no exception. Ladurie (1971) notes that there were many "bad years" for wine during the LIA in France and surrounding countries due to very late harvests and very wet summers. The cultivation of grapes was extensive throughout the southern portion of England from about 1100-1300. This area is about 300 miles farther north than the areas in France and Germany that grow grapes today. Grapes were also grown in northern France and Germany at that time, areas which even today do not sustain commercial vineyards. At the time of the compilation of the Domesday Survey in the late eleventh century, vineyards were recorded in 46 places in southern England, from East Anglia through to modern-day Somerset. By the time King Henry VIIIth ascended the throne there were 139 sizeable vineyards in England and Wales - 11 of them owned by the Crown, 67 by noble families and 52 by the church (English-wine.com). In fact, Lamb (1995) suggests that during that period the amount of wine produced in England was substantial enough to provide significant economic competition with the producers in France. With the coming cooler climate in the 1400's, temperatures became too cold for grape production and the vineyards in southern England gradually declined.

German wine production also declined during the cooling experienced after the MWP and during the LIA. Between 1400 and 1700 German wine production was never above 53% of the production before 1300 and at times was as low as 20% of that production (Lamb, 1995.)

Impact on Forests During the Little Ice Age

A study of the tree populations in forests of Southern Ontario by Campbell and McAndrews (1993) shows how the tree population in Europe might have been changed by the LIA. Their analysis of pollen demonstrated that after the year 1400, beech trees, the formerly dominant warmth-loving species, were replaced first by oak and subsequently by pine. Further, the forest under study appears to have remained in disequilbrium with the prevailing climate of today. That suggests that tree population distribution takes hundreds of years to recover from major climate changes.

Impact on Health

The cooler climate during the LIA had a huge impact on the health of Europeans. As mentioned earlier, dearth and famine killed millions and poor nutrition decreased the stature of the Vikings in Greenland and Iceland.

Cool, wet summers led to outbreaks of an illness called St. Anthony's Fire. Whole villages would suffer convulsions, hallucinations, gangrenous rotting of the extremities, and even death. Grain, if stored in cool, damp conditions, may develop a fungus known as ergot blight and also may ferment just enough to produce a drug similar to LSD. (In fact, some historians claim that the Salem, Massachusetts witch hysteria was the result of ergot blight.)

Malnutrition led to a weakened immunity to a variety of illnesses. In England, malnutrition aggravated an influenza epidemic of 1557-8 in which whole families died. In fact, during most of the 1550's deaths outnumbered births (Lamb, 1995.) The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) was hastened by malnutrition all over Europe.

One might not expect a typically tropical disease such as malaria to be found during the LIA, but Reiter (2000) has shown that it was an important cause of illness and death in several parts of England. The English word for malaria was ague, a term that remained in common usage until the nineteenth century. Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400) wrote in the Nun's Priest Tale:

You are so very choleric of complexion.
Beware the mounting sun and all dejection,
Nor get yourself with sudden humours hot;
For if you do, I dare well lay a groat
That you shall have the tertian fever's pain,
Or some ague that may well be your bane.

In sixteenth century England, many marshlands were notorious for their ague-stricken populations. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) mentioned ague in eight of his plays. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) died of ague in September 1658, which was one of the coldest years of the LIA.

Five indigenous species of mosquito are capable of transmitting malaria in England where they prefer the brackish water along river estuaries. The anaerobic bacterial flora of saline mud produces a strong sulfur odor that was widely believed to be the cause of agues in salt marsh areas (i.e. Shakespeare's "unwholesome fens.") The term malaria comes from the Italian term "mala aria" meaning "bad air."

Impact on Economics

In addition to increasing grain prices and lower wine production, there were many examples of economic impact by the dramatic cooling of the climate. Due to famine, storms, and growth of glaciers ,many farmsteads were destroyed, which resulted in less tax revenues collected due to decreased value of the properties (Lamb, 1995.)

Cod fishing greatly decreased, especially for the Scottish fisherman, as the cod moved farther south. The cod fishery at the Faeroe Islands began to fail around 1615 and failed altogether for thirty years between 1675 and 1704 (Lamb, 1995.) In the Hohe Tauern mountains of the Austrian Alps, advancing glaciers closed the gold mines of the Archbishop of Salzburg who was one of the wealthiest dukes in the empire. The succession of two or three bad summers where the miners could not rely on work in the mines caused them to find employment elsewhere, which resulted in an abrupt end to the mining operations (Bryson, 1977.)

Not all of the economic impact was bad. The fertile fishing grounds of the present day Newfoundland Banks were thought to have been found by fisherman in the late 1400's who were looking for the fish stocks that had deserted their former grounds as the result of the movement of colder waters from the north (Lamb, 1995.)

English fisherman benefited by the southern movement of herring normally found in the waters off Norway. This increase in deep-sea fishing helped to build the maritime population and strength of the country (Lamb, 1995.) The failure of crops in Norway between 1680 and 1720 was a prime reason for the great growth of merchant shipping there. Coastal farmers whose crops failed turned to selling their timber and to constructing ships in order to transport these timbers themselves (Lamb, 1995.)

Social Unrest

Conditions during the LIA led to many cases of social unrest. The winter of 1709 killed many people in France. Conditions were so bad, a priest in Angers, in west-central France, wrote: "The cold began on January 6, 1709, and lasted in all its rigor until the twenty-fourth. The crops that had been sewn were all completely destroyed.... Most of the hens had died of cold, as had the beasts in the stables. When any poultry did survive the cold, their combs were seen to freeze and fall off. Many birds, ducks, partidges, woodcock, and blackbirds died and were found on the roads and on the thick ice and frequent snow. Oaks, ashes, and other valley trees split with cold. Two thirds of the vines died.... No grape harvest was gathered at all in Anjou.... I myself did not get enough wine from my vineyard to fill a nutshell." (Ladurie, 1971) In March the poor rioted in several cities to keep the merchants from selling what little wheat they had left.

The winter of 1739-40 was also a bad one. After that there was no spring and only a damp, cool summer which spoiled the wheat harvest. The poor rebelled and the governor of Liège told the rich to "fire into the middle of them. That's the only way to disperse this riffraff, who want nothing but bread and loot." (Ladurie, 1971)

Lamb (1995) reports the occurrence of cattle raids on the Lowlanders by Highlanders who were stressed by the deteriorating climate. In 1436, King James I of Scotland was murdered while hunting on the edge of the Highland region near Perth. The clan warfare grew so bad that it was decided that no place north of Edinburgh Castle was safe for the king so Edinburgh became the capital of the country.

In England, the effect of starvation and the poor condition of the country encouraged men to enlist during the War of the Roses (1455-1485.) As tillable land was converted to other uses such as sheep rearing, the landlords who organized the conversions became the focus of many hostilities.

One group in particular suffered from the poor conditions - people thought to be witches (Behringer, 1999.) Weather-making was thought to be among the traditional abilities of witches and during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries many saw a great witch conspiracy. Extensive witch hunts took place during the most severe years of the LIA, as people looked for scapegoats to blame for their suffering.

One of history's most notorious quotes might have been due in part to a rare extremely warm period during the LIA. In northern France in 1788, after an unusually bad winter, May, June, and July were excessively hot, which caused the grain to shrivel. On July 13, just at harvest time, a severe hailstorm (which typically occurs when there is very cold air aloft) destroyed what little crops were left. From that bad harvest of 1788 came the bread riots of 1789 which led to Marie Antoinette's alleged remark "Let them eat cake," and the storming of the Bastille.

Art and Literature

Writers and artists were also influenced by the great change in climate. In 1816, "the year without a summer," many Europeans spent their summers around the fire. Mary Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein, and Polidori, The Vampire. Both authors, together with Byron and Percy Shelley, were in Switzerland, near Lake Geneva where Byron said "We will each write a ghost story." Percy Shelley also referred to a glacier in his poem "Mont Blanc" when he wrote "…and wall impregnable of beaming ice. The race of man flies far in dread; his work and dwelling vanish…"

Neuberger (1970) studied more than 12,000 paintings in 41 art museums in the United States and eight European countries to test his hypothesis that paintings would accurately reveal the climate record. These paintings covered the period from 1400 to 1967. He categorized the blueness of the sky into a three-step scale consisting of pale blue, medium blue, and deep blue. Cloudiness was estimated according to the U.S. airways code: clear (less than 10 percent coverage), scattered (10 to 50 percent), broken (60 to 90 percent), and overcast (more than 90 percent cloud coverage.) In addition, the types of clouds were observed according to four families: high, middle, low, and convective (vertically-developed) clouds. Neuberger separated his data into three epochs. According to the data in Fig. 19 below, during the second epoch when the LIA was at its peak, cloudiness and darkness prevailed.

Figure 19: Epochal changes in various painting features. (Source: Neuberger, 1970)

Neuberger suggests that the similarities between the second and third epochs have more to do with a stylistic change in the third epoch to impressionism which produced hazy atmospheres and also to an increase in industrial pollution.

Frequency of Storms

Fig. 20 shows the number of reported severe sea floods per century in the North Sea region.

Figure 20: Number of reported sea floods per century in the North Sea region. (Source: Lamb, 1995)

During the LIA, there was a high frequency of storms. As the cooler air began to move southward, the polar jet stream strengthened and followed, which directed a higher number of storms into the region. At least four sea floods of the Dutch and German coasts in the thirteenth century were reported to have caused the loss of around 100,000 lives. Sea level was likely increased by the long-term ice melt during the MWP which compounded the flooding. Storms that caused greater than 100,000 deaths were also reported in 1421, 1446, and 1570. Additionally, large hailstorms that wiped out farmland and killed great numbers of livestock occurred over much of Europe due to the very cold air aloft during the warmer months. Due to severe erosion of coastline and high winds, great sand storms developed which destroyed farmlands and reshaped coastal land regions. Impact of Glaciers

During the post-MWP cooling of the climate, glaciers in many parts of Europe began to advance. Glaciers negatively influenced almost every aspect of life for those unfortunate enough to be living in their path. Glacial advances throughout Europe destroyed farmland and caused massive flooding. On many occasions bishops and priests were called to bless the fields and to pray that the ice stopped grinding forward (Bryson, 1977.) Various tax records show glaciers over the years destroying whole towns caught in their path. A few major advances, as noted by Ladurie (1971), appear below:

1595: Gietroz (Switzerland) glacier advances, dammed Dranse River, and caused flooding of Bagne with 70 deaths.
1600-10: Advances by Chamonix (France) glaciers cause massive floods which destroyed three villages and severely damaged a fourth. One village had stood since the 1200's.
1670-80's: Maximum historical advances by glaciers in eastern Alps. Noticeable decline of human population by this time in areas close to glaciers, whereas population elsewhere in Europe had risen.
1695-1709: Iceland glaciers advance dramatically, destroying farms.
1710-1735: A glacier in Norway was advancing at a rate of 100 m per year for 25 years.
1748-50: Norwegian glaciers achieved their historical maximum LIA positions.

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• Determining the Climate Record
• Vikings During the Medieval Warm Period
• The End of the Vikings in Greenland
• Decline of the Vikings in Iceland
• Conclusion
• Works Cited
• Home

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Scott A. Mandia
Professor - Physical Sciences
T-206 Smithtown Sciences Bldg.
S.C.C.C.
533 College Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
(631) 451-4104
mandias@sunysuffolk.edu
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/