The Beer: Leinenkugel's Oktoberfest Marzen. "Shandy" is not beer.
The Bicycle: I'm back up, although not as often as I would like. Cooler weather would help.
The VWRC: Many years ago, Michael Crichton wrote a book called "State of Fear". The book was not terribly well written, IMHO,but it told a story that is more timely today than it has ever been. The premise was that the populace had to be kept fearful so they could be controlled. Sound familiar? It should. We are bombarded daily with doom and gloom. "We are 18 months from extinction because of climate change"> "We are all in danger of a nut with a gun at our local Walmart". The Rainforest is burning and will be the end of us all". President Trump (fill in the hand-on-the-button fear of the day)". "A giant island of plastic in the ocean". There are hundreds of them that bombard us every day and have for the last 50 years. But here is the thing. None of it is true. It is all "fear porn" meant to get you riled up and tell the government they must "do something". That something is never the right thing. It is the expedient thing; the thing that buys more votes and placates the right constituency.
Wait a day or two before you get excited. Maybe as much as a week. Because that's how long it takes for the facts to get out.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
What Kind of Madness Has Overtaken the World?
The Beer: Peaches and Cream continues to sit in the secondary fermenter, awaiting kegging.
The Bicycle: Help a brother out here and motivate me to start riding again.
The VRWC: A madness has overtaken the world. It is not just the partisan bickering that we have grown accustomed to. It is more than that. Far more. It is madness to believe so many things that many do. It rolls both ways, too. Under the Obama Administration, so many claims were made that just didn't hold water. Claims sometimes made intentionally to stir the pot. But people on the Right believed much of it. FEMA Camps, UN invasion, and many others. Now, there was plenty that was true. Obama wanted to "fundamentally remake America" and he was partly successful in that.
Now, it seems even more pronounced. "Russia". It is likely that Russia interfered in the last Presidential Election, but there is zero evidence anyone from the Trump campaign or administration was involved. Yet nearly everyone on the Left continues to promote "Russia, Russia, Russia". The Left said the results of the last presidential election "must be accepted". Then Hillary lost. The left forgot anything about accepting the results and immediately went into "Resist". "Resist"....what? And when pressed, they can't even tell you what Trump policies they are resisting except the Wall. Resist detention and deportation of illegal immigrants? Obama policy. I got nothing else.
The country was going to end up "The Handmaid's Tale" because Brett Kavanaugh became a SCOTUS justice. The hand-wringing and wailing and gnashing of teeth was endless. Women embarrassed their gender (we will get to that later) by publicly "free bleeding" among other absurd protests. The women brought forward to discredit him were obviously lying or not credible or politically motivated. But few on the Left could see it.
This idea that there are more than 2 genders is equally absurd. There are not 58 or 63 or 87 genders. Only 2. And the proof of that is the way in which those other genders are presented. The terms are either behaviorally based ("advocate"....not a gender) or use the term "gender" in the new "gender" (trans-gendered). But people who believe this, believe it with a religious fervor in spite of the evidence. They have even changed the definition of the word "gender" to fit their insanity.
This brings us to "Global Warming" or "Climate....whatever" and the headlong rush into "green" energy. I have written many times in this blog on this particular subject. Simply stated, wind and solar are unreliable. The available energy density is not sufficient to supply an advanced industrial/post-industrial civilization. This will only result in higher energy prices and lower availability with no discernable change to the climate. No discernable change, you ask? Yes. No discernable change. We are about to doom our economy and maybe even our lives here. The notion that a 30% change in 0.04% of the atmosphere is catastrophic defies any kind of logic. It is much more likely that this climate is cycling and we are about to enter a cooler period. But the beliefs persist, again with a religious fervor.
There are plenty of other examples of this inssanity; these are but few. I don't know where this is going or why it is what it is, but it is worrisome.
The Bicycle: Help a brother out here and motivate me to start riding again.
The VRWC: A madness has overtaken the world. It is not just the partisan bickering that we have grown accustomed to. It is more than that. Far more. It is madness to believe so many things that many do. It rolls both ways, too. Under the Obama Administration, so many claims were made that just didn't hold water. Claims sometimes made intentionally to stir the pot. But people on the Right believed much of it. FEMA Camps, UN invasion, and many others. Now, there was plenty that was true. Obama wanted to "fundamentally remake America" and he was partly successful in that.
Now, it seems even more pronounced. "Russia". It is likely that Russia interfered in the last Presidential Election, but there is zero evidence anyone from the Trump campaign or administration was involved. Yet nearly everyone on the Left continues to promote "Russia, Russia, Russia". The Left said the results of the last presidential election "must be accepted". Then Hillary lost. The left forgot anything about accepting the results and immediately went into "Resist". "Resist"....what? And when pressed, they can't even tell you what Trump policies they are resisting except the Wall. Resist detention and deportation of illegal immigrants? Obama policy. I got nothing else.
The country was going to end up "The Handmaid's Tale" because Brett Kavanaugh became a SCOTUS justice. The hand-wringing and wailing and gnashing of teeth was endless. Women embarrassed their gender (we will get to that later) by publicly "free bleeding" among other absurd protests. The women brought forward to discredit him were obviously lying or not credible or politically motivated. But few on the Left could see it.
This idea that there are more than 2 genders is equally absurd. There are not 58 or 63 or 87 genders. Only 2. And the proof of that is the way in which those other genders are presented. The terms are either behaviorally based ("advocate"....not a gender) or use the term "gender" in the new "gender" (trans-gendered). But people who believe this, believe it with a religious fervor in spite of the evidence. They have even changed the definition of the word "gender" to fit their insanity.
This brings us to "Global Warming" or "Climate....whatever" and the headlong rush into "green" energy. I have written many times in this blog on this particular subject. Simply stated, wind and solar are unreliable. The available energy density is not sufficient to supply an advanced industrial/post-industrial civilization. This will only result in higher energy prices and lower availability with no discernable change to the climate. No discernable change, you ask? Yes. No discernable change. We are about to doom our economy and maybe even our lives here. The notion that a 30% change in 0.04% of the atmosphere is catastrophic defies any kind of logic. It is much more likely that this climate is cycling and we are about to enter a cooler period. But the beliefs persist, again with a religious fervor.
There are plenty of other examples of this inssanity; these are but few. I don't know where this is going or why it is what it is, but it is worrisome.
Sunday, July 21, 2019
(Alleged) Climate Change and Big Oil
The Beer: a Peach Cream Ale we shall call "Peaches and Cream"
The Bicycle: Between a medical procedure and a broken rib, it's been a struggle, but I'm about ready to try it again.
The VRWC: So, what is all this climate hype about? There is zero chance it is actually about the demise of humanity. Anyone who can't see that needs their head examined. Then why? What is the underlying driver for all of this and why the rush?
Since the dawn of the age of petroleum, "Big Oil" has been a bogeyman, a whipping boy, a bad guy, a bully profiting off the consumer. For decades, politicians have excoriated "Big Oil" for too much revenue, too much profit. Rockefeller and the other oilmen were "robber barons". Forget their philanthropy, their charitable works with that money. "Robber Barons". During WWII, the work of these oilmen was a key factor in winning the war. Nobody complained. The, in the second half of the 20th Century, we were "running out of oil". Fear gripped the nation and the world. We still had plenty of petroleum to fight a war, to fuel military ships and aircraft. Claims of "Peak Oil" persisted well into the 21st Century. It wasn't possible to use petroleum at the rate it was being used indefinitely. Wells would run dry as if this vast reservoir of petroleum emptied into our gasoline tanks. We would all have to stop driving and soon. Car pool. Take mass transit. Never happened. Presidential Administrations locked up large tracts of land and sea to prevent oil from being pumped. The government and media openly criticized the oil companies for making too much money and openly used the pejorative "Big Oil". Now, here we are in 2019, with an indirectly, yet highly regulated oil industry, making less profit per sales dollar than Nike and Starbucks being criminally charged with changing the climate. The call goes out (again) to stop using "fossil fuels" before we all die. No clarity in how we will die, or even when> "Only 10 years left". "We need to implement a carbon tax".
Wait...what? Now, the hand is shown. There is no plan for how this carbon tax will be used to prevent or mitigate or reverse climate change. There is no goal for what the correct climate looks like. There are many other clues and you can find them. Suffice to say that the point that this is all a power grab. Money is power and with a carbon tax or even an attempt to nationalize the oil industry , money will flow to the government at a rate not seen. Ever. Money to buy votes, choose winners and losers, manipulate the lives of the constituents and keep them docile.
It's not about climate change. The climate has always changed and always will. It has been warmer and colder in human history and we have not perished. Nor will we this time.
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