President Obama's approval ratings are so low now, Kenyans are accusing him of being born in the United States." –Jay Leno
George Rebane
Republican Bob Turner wins over a century of Democrat incumbency in New York Nine. It turned out to be issues instead of long time party loyalty, and Obama lost on the issues. Oh yeah, the defeated Democratic candidate was State Assemblyman David Weprin, but everyone knew that he was just a sock puppet. No doubt our liberal friends will claim ‘it don’t mean a thing’, and explain it all to us.
One of my recent talks was to South County Rotary yesterday morning (hard to believe that those people intentionally start their meetings at 7am). I talked about SESF’s TechTest merit scholarship program, and how it is all coming down to encouraging our kids to consider STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) majors, because almost all other majors are counting for fewer and fewer (non-government) jobs. Giving the background data for this eye-opener did not start the day off with a happy dance for those Rotarians who did, however, show much interest in the state of our educational system. Maybe some of them will even send a check.
Speaking of STEM, Europe’s economic powerhouse Germany is in trouble – they are running out of engineers. In the September IEEE Spectrum we read that the country has 76,400 vacant engineering jobs, and importing high tech talent is no longer working. In a declining population – 1.38 births per mother (2.1 is steady state) – this shortage will not be made up soon if ever. Math is the stumbling block to all STEM careers, and it seems that Germany’s young people are catching the American disease, no one wants to do numbers when there are easier ways to get a check – at least until the government runs out of other people’s money. Liberal sustainability advocates are invited to stay tuned.
And we keep running into this damned income inequality all over the place (see Gini Index). Those uppity educated people go out there and start businesses and get outlandish raises for performance, and you know the drill. The income curve just keeps getting skewed no matter how hard the socialists try to even things out. Problem is that the bastards won’t stand still for higher taxes and then do all kinds of things to end run those hard working government planners and accountants. These high earners have literally no sense of social justice at all – clearly stronger measures are needed.
Oh yes, in the politically correct department we have the IEEE assuring us in an article on manufacturing robotics that they “won’t displace humans but rather work alongside them – and alongside one another.” What the maven forgot to explain to us is who worked alongside the human manufacturing worker before the machine came along. Machines replacing humans? No, no, no, not in this Age of Jobs.
It appears that the UN’s IPCC is beginning to crumble faster and faster. It’s arguments for man-made global warming were bought and paid for by politicians who now see that they may not get a return on their investment (Al Gore call your office). Add that to the growing spate of green technology company bankruptcies – yep, they ran out of other people’s money – and you have a real embarrassment on your hands. We capitalists call it insufficient ROI.
To really twist the tail on this anthropogenic global warming, new evidence is pouring in that extra-terrestrial phenomena like cosmic rays and solar winds have always and will continue to swamp the puny efforts of man to change earth’s climate – it does it all by itself, thank you very much. Soon the Agenda 21 people will just have to fess up and say ‘this climate crap was all a ruse, we just want to create a global government for other reasons, so suck it up and play ball, or else.’ For more details on things to do with global warming and climate change, our own Russ Steele’s The Next Grand Minimum blog will keep you right up to date on the latest turns in this brouhaha. Get ready for a bit of global cooling.
[16sep2011 update] Another scientist balks at the global warming bums rush that the politicos have ginned up for us. Physicist and Nobelist Dr Ivar Glaever resigns over the American Physical Society's "incontrevertible evidence" claim for AGW. As anyone trained in science knows, "incontrevertible evidence" is something that real science takes a dim view of. Glaever joins a rapidly lengthening list of scientists who have changed their minds as new evidence against AGW pours in almost daily. Anyone have any names of former skeptics who now want to join Team Gore and the Debate-Is-Over chorus?


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