The Importance of Cars; The Irrelevance of Transit

Speaking of mass transit, while I was catching up on my reading at the The Anti-Planner, this article jumped out at me, The Importance of Cars; The Irrelevance of Transit.

This quote says quite a bit:

People in wealthy economies drive more; people who drive more live in wealthier economies.

So as we Ohioans are pushed toward the mass transit scheme being cooked up by the statists in Columbus, who desire nothing more than to control your life, it might do us well to remember that mass transit has a distinct and negative effect on the economy of a community; it makes you poor.

If we put mass transit on top of what the republicans have done to the state for the last 15 years, the democrats should have us back to riding horses. No that wont happen, HSUS contends livestock animal cause 50 percent of all green house gases, so it will likely mean mass transit bicycles built in China.

Boston Transit System Near Collapse

As the collectivist/statists in Columbus continue pushing the State of Ohio toward their benighted mass transit scheme, headlines such as this should be carefully considered: Boston Transit System Near Collapse.

Pandemic? What flu pandemic?

Slowly, some in the media are beginning to realize there wasn’t a flu pandemic.

The 2009 swine flu pandemic may turn out to be the weakest in history. It is spreading more slowly than expected and the latest figures show a flattening, or even a dip, in new infections. It is mild in most people but severe in a few and, while it readily infects children, it appears to spare the elderly. With the vaccine being rolled out, its impact should be further curbed.

So far in the UK, 154 people have died from the virus, around half of whom were under 45. In addition, 1,431 were admitted to hospital with swine flu last week. But in comparison with previous pandemics – or even seasonal flu epidemics – this is a relatively low toll.

It amazes me just how gullible and ill informed the average US citizen is, and how they’ll line up like sheep and let some government bureaucrat inject them without knowing what’s in the vaccine or even the reason for taking the vaccine in the first place.

But in the end of this so-called “pandemic,” this is what we have to show for all of the hype: the drug companies got billions of tax dollars world-wide; the government media complex promulgated the propaganda raising the level of hysteria and also reaped millions in advertisement revenue; elected officials spent the billions of dollars from the over-taxed citizenry and tallied up political gain for the next election; and all the while the citizenry went blindly along, and yet there was no threat, there was no pandemic.

Well I hope you are ready for more of these little episodes created by the US Government’s Theater of the Bizarre, because the only way they’ll be able to keep this fascist government mandated health care relevant, while they spend the money we don’t have, will be to seasonally create another episode of high anxiety. Next season Antarctic penguin flu! This should really get the soccer moms all up in a tizzy . I can’t wait.

Sheriff Mack Power of the County Sheriff

There are five parts to this series, here are the first two.

MUST READ: Soros’ Own Words!

To all remaining freedom loving people in Ohio, you must read this article written by the chief architect, George Soros, of the contemporary global social-fascism scheme being thrust upon the United States of America, and I dear say, you’ll be mad as hell after reading this.

While international cooperation on regulatory reform is difficult to achieve on a piecemeal basis, it may be attainable in a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order. A new Bretton Woods conference, like the one that established the post-WWII international financial architecture, is needed to establish new international rules, including treatment of financial institutions that are too big to fail and the role of capital controls. It would also have to reconstitute the International Monetary Fund to reflect better the prevailing pecking order among states and to revise its methods of operation.

In addition, a new Bretton Woods would have to reform the currency system. The post-war order, which made the US more equal than others, produced dangerous imbalances. The dollar no longer enjoys the trust and confidence that it once did, yet no other currency can take its place.

The US ought not to shy away from wider use of IMF Special Drawing Rights. Because SDRs are denominated in several national currencies, no single currency would enjoy an unfair advantage.

The range of currencies included in the SDRs would have to be widened, and some of the newly added currencies, including the renminbi, may not be fully convertible.  This would, however, allow the international community to press China to abandon its exchange-rate peg to the dollar and would be the best way to reduce international imbalances. And the dollar could still remain the preferred reserve currency, provided it is prudently managed.

One great advantage of SDRs is that they permit the international creation of money, which is particularly useful at times like the present. The money could be directed to where it is most needed, unlike what is happening currently. A mechanism that allows rich countries that don’t need additional reserves to transfer their allocations to those that do is readily available, using the IMF’s gold reserves.

Reorganizing the world order will need to extend beyond the financial system and involve the United Nations, especially membership of the Security Council. That process needs to be initiated by the US, but China and other developing countries ought to participate as equals. They are reluctant members of the Bretton Woods institutions, which are dominated by countries that are no longer dominant. The rising powers must be present at the creation of this new system in order to ensure that they will be active supporters.

The system cannot survive in its present form, and the US has more to lose by not being in the forefront of reforming it. The US is still in a position to lead the world, but, without far-sighted leadership, its relative position is likely to continue to erode. It can no longer impose its will on others, as George W. Bush’s administration sought to do, but it could lead a cooperative effort to involve both the developed and the developing world, thereby reestablishing American leadership in an acceptable form.

The alternative is frightening, because a declining superpower losing both political and economic dominance but still preserving military supremacy is a dangerous mix. We used to be reassured by the generalization that democratic countries seek peace. After the Bush presidency, that rule no longer holds, if it ever did.

In fact, democracy is in deep trouble in America. The financial crisis has inflicted hardship on a population that does not like to face harsh reality. President Barack Obama has deployed the “confidence multiplier” and claims to have contained the recession. But if there is a “double dip” recession, Americans will become susceptible to all kinds of fear mongering and populist demagogy. If Obama fails, the next administration will be sorely tempted to create some diversion from troubles at home – at great peril to the world.

Obama has the right vision. He believes in international cooperation, rather than the might-is-right philosophy of the Bush-Cheney era. The emergence of the G-20 as the primary forum of international cooperation and the peer-review process agreed in Pittsburgh are steps in the right direction.

What is lacking, however, is a general recognition that the system is broken and needs to be reinvented. After all, the financial system did not collapse altogether, and the Obama administration made a conscious decision to revive banks with hidden subsidies rather than to recapitalize them on a compulsory basis. Those institutions that survived will hold a stronger market position than ever, and they will resist a systematic overhaul. Obama is preoccupied by many pressing problems, and reinventing the international financial system is unlikely to receive his full attention.

China’s leadership needs to be even more far-sighted than Obama is. China is replacing the American consumer as the motor of the world economy.  Since it is a smaller motor, the world economy will grow slower, but China’s influence will rise very fast.

For the time being, the Chinese public is willing to subordinate its individual freedom to political stability and economic advancement. But that may not continue indefinitely – and the rest of the world will never subordinate its freedom to the prosperity of the Chinese state.

As China becomes a world leader, it must transform itself into a more open society that the rest of the world is willing to accept as a world leader.  Military power relations being what they are, China has no alternative to peaceful, harmonious development.  Indeed, the future of the world depends on it.

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, the world is facing another stark choice between two fundamentally different forms of organization: international capitalism and state capitalism. The former, represented by the United States, has broken down, and the latter, represented by China, is on the rise. Following the path of least resistance will lead to the gradual disintegration of the international financial system. A new multilateral system based on sounder principles must be invented.

UK Scientists Conducting Climate Modeling Experiment on Peyote

Have a couple of dopey English scientists take little peyote before developing a computer enhanced model...then with a bing and a bang and a boom…a nice little piece of propaganda before Copenhagen.

The map has been launched by the UK Government, in partnership with the Met Office, and was developed using the latest peer-reviewed science from the UK’s national weather service, the Met Office Hadley Centre and other leading impact scientists.

It highlights some of the impacts that may occur if the global average temperature rises by 4°Celsius above the pre-industrial climate average.

The poster shows that a four degree average rise will not be spread uniformly across the globe. The land will heat up more quickly than the sea, and high latitudes, particularly the Arctic, will have larger temperature increases.

The impacts on human activity shown on the map are only a selection of those that may occur, and highlight the severe effects on water availability, agricultural productivity, extreme temperatures and drought, the risk of forest fire and sea-level rise

Agricultural yields are expected to decrease for all major cereal crops in all major regions of production. Half of all Himalayan glaciers will be significantly reduced by 2050, leading to 23 per cent of the population of China being deprived of the vital dry season glacial melt water source.

The UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband said “We cannot cope with a four degree world. This map clearly illustrates the scale of the challenge facing us today – climate change is a truly global problem that needs a global solution and it is a solution we have within our grasp.

He said that to tackle the problem of climate change, foreign ministries, environment ministries, treasuries, departments of defence and all parts of government and societies, must work together to keep global temperatures to two degrees.

“It is only by doing this that we can minimise the huge security risks presented by a future four degree world,” he said.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said “This map shows that the stakes couldn’t be any higher at the Copenhagen talks in December.

“Britain’s scientists have helped to illustrate the catastrophic effects that will result if the world fails to limit the global temperature rise to two degrees. With less than 50 days left before agreement must be reached, the UK’s going all out to persuade the world of the need to raise its ambitions so we get a deal that protects us from a four degree world.”

Vicky Pope, Head of Climate Change Advice at the Met Office, said “If emissions continue at the current rate the global average temperature are likely to rise by 4°Celsius by the end of this century or even substantially earlier.

“The science tells us that this will have severe and widespread impacts in all parts of the world, so we need to take action now to reduce emissions to avoid water and food shortages in the future.”
Ahead of December’s international climate change talks in Copenhagen, the UK Government is aiming for an agreement that limits climate change as far as possible to 2°Celsius as it says increases of more than two degrees will have huge impacts on the world.

Wow, they didn’t get the Al Gore memo, it’s not about global warming any more it’s about “global climate change.”

Senator Wong attends climate talks in Bareclona

I have no idea how I came across this web page, but who is Senator Wong?

Minister for Climate Change Senator Penny Wong has attended ministerial talks on climate change in Spain.

Hosted by the Danish Government, the Barcelona Ministerial Meeting was held between 29-31 October in Barcelona.

Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen highlighted the Meeting as an opportunity to kick-start the last remaining week of formal UN negotiations prior to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.

“We are just weeks out from Copenhagen and at a critical stage in negotiations,” Senator Wong said.

“This is an important opportunity for countries to make progress on key issues central to achieving consensus in Copenhagen.”

Australia has put forward a proposal that would see a common framework for the mitigation efforts of all countries based on the use of national schedules. This approach would retain economy-wide targets for developed countries and require developing countries to record a suite of actions in line with their national circumstances.

Um, I wonder what an “economy-wide targets for developed countries” means?

Police Prepare Drill for Plague at School

I have to wonder, when is the public going to realize that all the hype the Department of Homeland Security stirs up is just that, hype. This country is amidst a recession and this city in Illinois is having a military style exercise encompassing a “plague.” How much did that cost the taxpayer?

Citizens infected with a fictitious pneumonic plague will line up outside Lincoln Prairie Elementary School on Saturday to help test the site as a medication dispensary in case of an emergency.

The Lake in the Hills Police Department is carrying out the test as part of a grant from the McHenry County Department of Health for its emergency health plan. In case of a biological terrorist attack or widespread disease outbreak, the site would be able get medicine to the community, Lake in the Hills Chief of Patrol Services David Brey said.

“This is just a functional test of the site,” he said.

The event will use volunteers pretending to have been stricken by the plague to help test the flow of the site, from initial triage through receiving proof of being medicated.

“We picked the plague on purpose so it would have nothing to do with the swine flu,” Brey said.

Please, this stuff is as useful as playing a round of Dungeon and Dragons…it’s all fiction. At this point I’d expect Nancy Pelosi to fly in to the Illinois town on one of her new acquired Congressional helicopters (Congress One). She could hold a news conference drawing attention to the factoid that a government mandated health care system would do a better job of taking care of the people after “a biological terrorist attack or widespread disease outbreak” than the private sector.

Artificial scarcity and the anatomy of the 2009 swine flu pandemic

Thanks to the good folks at the Ohio Freedom Alliance.

Here’s a small snippet from the Live Leaks site:

This video exposes how the corporate health industry met at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and expressed concern that Americans are refusing the unpopular H1N1 swine flu vaccines.

This video also documents the strong case that the media is hyping an artificial scarcity of the vaccine to trick concerned parents into lining up like cattle for the flu shot.

Five minutes into this recording a participant recommends lying to the public to get them to take the shot. (Are you getting the picture?)

Note: I had trouble embedding the video; go to this link to listen to the conference.

Germany’s Merkel Calls for US to Give Up Sovereignty

Last year when Barrack Obama won the Democrat Party’s nomination for president he went to Berlin to announce his victory. And now almost a year later Germany’s Chancellor Merkel comes to the United States demanding capitulation from the American people. Is any of this starting to add up to you?

In a speech to a joint session of Congress this morning, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Congress that there was “no time to lose” in the fight against global warming. “We need an agreement at the climate conference in December in Copenhagen,” she said. “That requires the readiness of all countries to accept binding international commitments.”

Binding international commitments means one thing, giving up our sovereignty.

Our founding fathers told us through their writings to steer clear of European entanglements. We do not require any agreements with them now or in the future for that matter. We mustn’t get involved with this madness. This is our sovereignty, our ability to govern our own country, not any global community Merkel, or for that matter Obama, represents. We, the US citizenry, govern our own country.