Our dependence on oil is coming to an end in the near future. I keep seeing new experimental energy sources. Some of them will probably work. Here's the latest:

Yahoo News:

New technique creates cheap, abundant hydrogen: report

Mon Nov 12, 5:12 PM ET

CHICAGO (AFP) - US researchers have developed a method of producing hydrogen gas from biodegradable organic material, potentially providing an abundant source of this clean-burning fuel, according to a study released Monday.The technology offers a way to cheaply and efficiently generate hydrogen gas from readily available and renewable biomass such as cellulose or glucose, and could be used for powering vehicles, making fertilizer and treating drinking water.

AFP/DDP Photo: View of a hydrogen plant. A study just released reveals US researchers have developed a...

Read the rest at Yahoo news.

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Since the school district in its stupidity has locked us out of our “C” drives and therefore made the computers next to worthless, I’ve been trying to find some cheap flash drives so I can try to get along without the “C” drive. I’ve been using one that’s about the size of a stick of Dentine, the Kingmax in 1 GB, but I haven’t had much luck in finding another except for a company on Amazon, that wants to charge almost as much for shipping as the price of the flash drive. Every time I find one on sale it’s sold out. I’m also shopping for a cheap computer to take to school, but by the time I add all the software I would need it ain’t cheap anymore. I have some software that I use to make Power Point presentations and it must access the “C” drive, so it’s just not useable anymore. No wonder the district can’t keep teachers.

We have a three day weekend (the kids have 4) this weekend and Thanksgiving the weekend after next, so that’s two weeks in a row with short weeks, yay!

I also lit the first fire today. It’s been cool enough for heaters and the AC is not done down stairs so we used the old fashioned wood flame. Ah warm!

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Monday I got my replacement phone. I needed to reenter the contacts so I used BitPim which doesn’t support my phone yet, but I used the settings for a similar phone and uploaded my wife’s address book onto my computer. That worked just fine. When I downloaded them to my phone it cut off the first four numbers of each phone number. It was still easier to put them in that way. BitPim won’t transfer anything else, so I hope they get a version of BitPim that works with my phone soon. Plus I’m now using a backup service that Verizon is offering free to those who have a web account with them.

I bought a 2 gig memory card for the new phone because the one in the other phone (0.5 gig) was too small. It’s got all the music on my laptop on it and isn’t even half full. Sweet!

I bought my wife a book written by a former polygamist. The book finally came today and I recognized nearly everyone in the book! Apparently the author is related to my wife.

Last week I rewired the lights in the cellar so I could turn them off and on in two places. Then I realized I had to move the air conditioning unit, so yesterday I had to move the lights again. After I finished and started hooking up the a/c again, I realized I’ve got to move one of the lights yet again.

I’ve dug in as far as I need to, so now it’s time to widen my hole and make the room. If I didn’t have that sewer line right in the way I’d pour a concrete floor. But I’m not going to do much of that if I have to scoop concrete out of one wheel barrow into another, to get it across the pipe. If the guest house were empty I could cut the pipe and replace it when I’m all done. Oh well….

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My wife comes home a few days ago and tells me her car is falling apart, so yesterday we go car shopping. In St. George the car dealers are lined up all in a row, so we stopped at Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and Mitsubishi. I really like the Nissan Altima, it has many of the features that were in the $100,000 BMW Ivan let me drive just before he left for Chili, but when the salesman made his initial offer my wife stood up and walked out! She was a bit (no a lot) angry at the insulting offer. We ended up buying another Gallant. We could have gotten a ’08 but we got a great deal on a new ’07 so that’s what we brought home.

The poor salesman didn’t know what hit him. My wife is so much fun when we’re buying a car, she’s brutal!

The salesman tells us he used to be a cop. When they wouldn’t transfer him from child abuse cases, which were just too hard on him, he quit and is now a car salesman. Later the people at the next desk turned to him and asked, “Weren’t you the cop that arrested us a few years ago?” (He was.) It was quite the day.

Our wonderful senator, Harry Reid, violated his oath of office to condemn a private citizen (Rush Limbaugh) on the floor of the Senate the other day. He even got 40 other senators to sign the letter, including three presidential candidates. The letter was sent to Clear Channel asking them to condemn Limbaugh (for condemning our troops and that is something he didn’t do, and Harry Reid knows he didn’t do it, though Reid has done it)! Clear Channel gave the letter to Limbaugh who decided to auction it off on e-Bay with the proceeds going to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. It sold for 2.1 million dollars—a record for e-Bay—with Rush matching with another 2.1. What makes the letter so historic is the blatant violation of the oath of office of the signers. Reid made a speech on the senate floor in which he tried to take credit for the 4.2 million charitable donation. It just made him look like the fool and Gadianton Robber that he is. Limbaugh clearly won this round!

Click for the full article

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Another look at solar power satellites, the real answer to our energy problems.

Solar array in space could provide all the world's energy

Lately we've been hearing a lot about alternative ways of generating electricity, and the idea of a solar power-gathering satellite sounds like the best plan yet. Its proponents say an orbital power station placed in a position where it's constantly bathed in unfiltered sunlight could provide enough power to run the whole world seven times over.

story continues here.


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On a sad note Cox and Forkum, after many great political cartoons, have decided to take a final bow. They will be missed!
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Can levitation be around the corner? Some physicists have apparently solved it. Check it out here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/06/nlevitate106.xml

Then you can check out the 4 September '07 Mike Shelton cartoon about Democrat hypocrisy with moral standards at http://www.townhall.com/Funnies/cartoonist/MikeShelton. Surprisingly The Orange County Register fired Shelton when he refused to allow them to steal work he did on his own time. Amazing!


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Oho! And now we have this!

Sizzling study concludes: Global warming 'hot air'
'You can spit, have same effect as doubling the carbon dioxide'

Wow, global warming is not man-made! Imagine that!

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Walter Williams has this to say:

Environmentalists, with the help of politicians and other government officials, have an agenda that has cost thousands of American lives.

In the wake of Hurricane Betsy, which struck New Orleans in 1965, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed building flood gates on Lake Pontchartrain, like those in the Netherlands that protect cities from North Sea storms. In 1977, the gates were about to be built, but the Environmental Defense Fund and Save Our Wetlands sought a court injunction to block the project.

Find the rest here.

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We flew up to Post Falls Friday. We went by way of Portland on an Alaska Air Boeing MD-80. That’s the one with three seats on one side and two on the other. Since first class has two by two that makes you have to negotiate a little dog-leg with your luggage where the aisle moves from the middle to off to the side. Then we got on a Horizons (run by Alaska) Bombardier Q-400 which is a 74 passenger prop (I call it a puddle jumper) plane. That one makes for a rough ride. We went on to Spokane in that one.

The next day we went all the way to the Canadian border and visited Gardner cave, the third largest (or second—depends on who you talk to) cave in Washington. We got to go in about 500 feet. It used to belong to a moonshiner who would walk his customers a few hundred yards north of the cave to finish up the sale. Once when a federal agent tried to put him under arrest he laughed and said, “you can’t, we’re in Canada!” (The cave is right on the border!)

We also saw Boundary Dam which was the dam where they built the city run by the rock star Tom Petty in the movie “The Postman.” You might remember the line where the postman asks him, “Weren’t you famous?” What was really cool is we got a personal tour. It’s not like Hoover Dam. This dam is really out of the way so there aren’t a lot of tourists. we got to see a lot of it. We were walking down a tunnel and we started to walk on a grate. Raegan looked down and when she realized it was four stories down she jumped off the grate and wouldn’t walk on any kind of grate the rest of the day! I think this dam is way cooler than Hoover. It’s built like a piece of egg shell, so when you’re on the walkway below the dam it’s curving out above your head. It’s only eight feet thick at the top (thirty-five at the base) and looks flimsy, but the curve is very strong—like an egg shell! We had a great time and the grandkids loved it.

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Michael Ramirez is on a roll! These are great!

links: Las Vegas Review Journal (where I got these) and Investor's Business Daily (where they originally appeared).

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This great Mike Shelton cartoon appeared in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

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Mike Shelton

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Just a few years ago I went to watch one of the final test flights of Space Ship One. Todays Las Vegas Review Journal has a story on XCOR Aerospace's Xerus. It won't be too much longer before commercial space ventures start to really take off!

Then this from Debbie Schussel

It's Islam, stupid!

A couple of day's ago Oprah featured two 9/11 widows on her daytime talk show. They raised money to help Afghani widows start businesses and support themselves. "We gave them this opportunity, so that they'd get out of poverty, so that 9/11 would never happen again."

I was shouting at the TV: They commited this terrorist murder of 3,000 Americans out of hate bred by their Islamic ideology, NOT out of economic status. (Many, including Mohammed Atta, were wealthy and educated.)

The 9/11 widow's myth has been repeated by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, President Bush, Mrs. Bush, Oprah herself, and your average dummy on the street who watches her. More here.

From the New York Post we have this:

ISLAM'S PROBLEM

WE MUST STOP DENYING OUR RELIGION'S ROLE IN VIOLENCE

By IRSHAD MANJI

Mohammed Bouyeri

July 8, 2007 -- LAST week, two very different Brits had their say about the latest terrorist plots in their country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the nation that "we have got to separate those great moderate members of our community from a few extremists who wish to practice violence and inflict maximum loss of life in the interests of a perversion of their religion." By contrast, a former jihadist from Manchester wrote that the "real engine of our violence" is "Islamic theology."

Months ago, this young man informed me that as a militant he raised most of his war chest not from obscenely rich Saudis, but from middle-class Muslim dentists living in the United Kingdom. There's sobering lesson here for the new prime minister.

So far, those arrested in connection to the car bombs are, by and large, medical professionals. The seeming paradox of the privileged seeking to avenge grievance has many champions of compassion scratching their heads. Aren't Muslim martyrs supposed to be poor, disenfranchised, and resentful about both?

WE should have been stripped of that breezy simplification by now. The 9/11 hijackers came from means. Mohamed Atta, their ringleader, earned an engineering degree. He then moved to the West, pursuing his post-graduate studies in Germany. No servile goat-herder, that one. More here.

And of course now Cindy Sheehan demands Pelosi either impeach Bush or she'll run against her in the next election, gasp! Horrors! I mean as if Cindy could win! Hell, what if she did, would she be any worse than Pelosi?

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http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/ has a wonderful Harry Reid picture. Enjoy the picture then check out the site. It's great!

Also, I found a great piece by Ted Nugent at Opinion Journal. Having lived through the sixties myself and embraced the soul stealing sex and drugs lifestyle for a (thankfully) short time, I can agree with Nugent whole-heartedly!

The Summer of Drugs
Forty years ago, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in and drop out."

BY TED NUGENT
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love. Honest and intelligent people will remember it for what it really was: the Summer of Drugs.

Forty years ago hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was the calling card of LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Turned off by the work ethic and productive American Dream values of their parents, hippies instead opted for a cowardly, irresponsible lifestyle of random sex, life-destroying drugs and mostly soulless rock music that flourished in San Francisco.

The Summer of Drugs climaxed with the Monterey Pop Festival which included some truly virtuoso musical talents such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, both of whom would be dead a couple of years later due to drug abuse. Other musical geniuses such as Jim Morrison and Mama Cass would also be dead due to drugs within a few short years. The bodies of chemical-infested, brain-dead liberal deniers continue to stack up like cordwood.

As a diehard musician, I terribly miss these very talented people who squandered God's gifts in favor of poison and the joke of hipness. I often wonder what musical peaks they could have climbed had they not gagged to death on their own vomit. Their choice of dope over quality of life, musical talent and meaningful relationships with loved ones can only be categorized as despicably selfish.

I literally had to step over stoned, drooling fans, band mates, concert promoters and staff to pursue my musical American Dream throughout the 1960s and 1970s. I flushed more dope and cocaine down backstage toilets than I care to remember. In utter frustration I was even forced to punch my way through violent dopers on occasion. So much for peace and love. The DEA should make me an honorary officer.

See the rest here.

I didn't listen to Cat Stevens in the sixties, but I did listen in the early seventies. I wish I could rip his songs out of my ears as if I'd never heard them. This guy is scum.



Extremist Muslim Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam & His Extremist Muslim Family

I don't get it. Why does any European or American embrace Islam? Well, I can understand a male chauvinist pig (the real ones--not the ones given that label by feminazis) doing it, but why would any woman embrace such a religion?

And of course, how do you spell chutzpah? I spell it B i l l C l i n t o n... How dare that hypocrite complain about any Bush pardon? This sleaze-bag did it for money!

And check this out!

Even independent-minded celebrities are now questioning the establishment media orthodoxy that the debate over global warming and its effects are all but over. In a phrase familiar to those who study pop culture, it appears that the global warming scare may have "jumped the shark."

And finally, on the global warming front, apparently the earth has been much warmer in the past, and the glaciers didn't melt, the seas didn't inundate the land and we didn't roast! From Brietbart.com:

Oldest DNA ever recovered shows warmer planet: report
Jul 5 03:14 PM US/Eastern

Scientists who probed two kilometers (1.2 miles) through a Greenland glacier to recover the oldest plant DNA on record said Thursday the planet was far warmer hundreds of thousands of years ago than is generally believed. DNA of trees, plants and insects including butterflies and spiders from beneath the southern Greenland glacier was estimated to date to 450,000 to 900,000 years ago, according to the remnants retrieved from this long-vanished boreal forest. That contrasts sharply with the prevailing view that a lush forest of this kind could only have existed in Greenland as recently as 2.4 million years ago, according to a summary of the study, which is published Thursday in the journal Science. The samples suggest the temperature probably reached 10 degrees C (50 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer and -17 C (1 F) in the winter. more

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I just discovered Michael Yon (michaelyon-online.com). He's a reporter who actually reports the truth of what's happening in Iraq.
Let me warn you, there is some heartbreaking content on the site. Like this report:

On 29 June, American and Iraqi soldiers were again fighting side-by-side as soldiers from Charley Company 1-12 CAV—led by Captain Clayton Combs—and Iraqi soldiers from the 5th IA, closed in on a village on the outskirts of Baqubah. The village had the apparent misfortune of being located near a main road—about 3.5 miles from FOB Warhorse—that al Qaeda liked to bomb. Al Qaeda had taken over the village. As Iraqi and American soldiers moved in, they came under light contact; but the bombs planted in the roads (and maybe in the houses) were the real threat.

The firefight progressed. American missiles were fired. The enemy might have been trying to bait Iraqi and American soldiers into ambush, but it did not work. The village was riddled with bombs, some of them large enough to destroy a tank. One by one, experts destroyed the bombs, leaving small and large craters in the unpaved roads.

The village was abandoned. All the people were gone. But where?

See the rest here.

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Another gem from Cox and Forkum.

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There is a great new Ross Mackenzie piece I read in the Las Vegas Review Journal. I couldn't find it on their website so I have to link to the Sacramento Bee which did have it.

Here is just a piece of his article:

Global warming and global terror

We know the truth about global terror and malign jihad -- emphatically, flat-out, now. About global warming we "know" a multiplicity of things not necessarily so. In the success of the war against global terror lies the salvation of liberty and mankind. In the war to make the world safe from climate change we invite outcomes unknowable and known -- among the latter the destruction of free economies and free societies in order to save them.

Relentlessly prosecuting the war on terror to a more beneficial result seems clearly the prudent choice -- even if it turns out to take the better part of this century.

Click here for the rest. I highly recommend it.

Actually, I just found out if you click one of the above links it takes you to a sign in page. If you cut and paste this address: http://www.sacbee.com/debate/story/210492.html in your web browser it takes you directly to the article.

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A few weeks ago I sent Harry Reid a letter. Understandably he never replied but here is the letter:

Let me tell you a story. You should be familiar with this story since I share your religion. A great general was fighting a war far from home, and wondering why his troops were not being given the supplies or reinforcements they needed, sent a blistering letter to the leader of his country and demanded immediate support. The leader informed him that certain evil men, for political advantage, were blocking the needed supplies and reinforcements. This general took his troops home and captured or killed those evil men, then returned to the war with the materials he needed.

You might recognize this as the story of Moroni and the traitorous king men who had tried to overthrow the elected leader Pahoran.

Let’s put this in a modern context. President Bush is like Pahoran our elected leader (whether you like it or not), you are one of the leading king men attempting to overthrow the elected leader of this great nation for your own political advantage. I wonder when our Moroni equivalent will get fed up with you, march on Washington, and throw you and your ilk into prison for your treason.

I think you forget how close the election before your last was. I don’t think your next will be close, you will lose badly, I pray. You don’t represent this nation, you represent Nevada (and not very well). President Bush was elected in two national elections, you were not.

Your actions, paint you more as a Gadianton robber than a decent and honest senator, you should resign, if you have any honor left.

If you would like to read the story of General Moroni you can go here to read it.

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I received this in an email then found the source here. It's great. Here's the first part of it:

Americans must confront their axis of idiots and the media

Sgt. Major J.D. Pendry (Ret)
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 4 September 2006

Jimmy Carter, you’re the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You’re the Runner-in-Chief.

Bill Clinton, you played “ring around the Lewinsky” while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses embolden the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.

Read the rest here!

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I’m watching “The Great Global Warming Swindle” which is a UK Channel 4 show that they will not show in this country because it totally annihilates the man-made global warming myth. It tracks temperature change with cosmic ray levels and sunspot activity and the graphs match perfectly. Their theory is that when there are lots of sunspots the solar wind slows the level of cosmic rays striking the earth which cuts the formation of clouds and thus warms the earth. When the oceans warm they can’t hold as much CO₂ and thus CO₂ levels rise, but that it follows warming and is not the cause of it.

One scientist pointed out that if he wanted to study the nut gathering habits of squirrels he would write up the grant request as “The nut gathering habits of common squirrels with a special empathizes on the effects of global warming.” That way he’d be sure to get his grant.

Another scientist had to threaten to sue to get his name off a global warming report that he disagreed with. His only contribution had been to disagree with it! Some anti-warming scientists report death threats for their stand. Even the co-founder of Greenpeace does not believe in man-made global warming, in fact he calls the global warming people anti-human. Fascinating stuff.

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