Creationists and Warmists

(Published as a letter to the editor of the Gualala Independent Coast Observer)

Alice noticed that anthropogenic global warming and creationism are both belief systems, not science. She’s right. Creationists believe God created everything in the past 6,000 years, and you can’t disprove acts of an omnipotent God. Warmists believe current warming is unprecedented, explainable only by mankind increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Fortunately for we skeptics, science is on our side. The current warming began over 300 years ago, ending the Little Ice Age. Unfortunately for mankind, the current warming has stalled out, with none the past 17 years.

Historically, warming benefitted mankind, while cooling was detrimental. Civilization flowered after the end of the Ice Age just over 10,000 years ago, particularly during the Holocene Climate Optimum of 8,000 to 3,000 years ago. Global temperature then was three to eight Fahrenheit degrees warmer than now, and lakes and rivers abounded in what, beginning about 3,000 years ago, became deserts. However, mankind by then had developed agriculture and animal husbandry and was able to adapt to worsening cooling conditions.

The evidence of previous periods of greater warming globally is incontrovertible and easily demonstrated.  There are large stumps in northern, southern, and high altitude regions far from where such trees now grow which have been carbon-dated to the Holocene Climate Optimum. Similarly, retreating glaciers are now uncovering human habitation of the same period.

This only scratches the surface of natural climate change science. In opposition the warming alarmists have Michael Mann’s thoroughly discredited “Hockey Stick” based on small samples of tree rings from less than 15% of the Earth’s surface. It can’t even identify the Little Ice Age, and barely touches the Medieval Warm Period. The Hockey Stick covers only the past 1,000 years,  and features enormous error bars. It’s a foundation of beliefs built on sand.

Mike Combs

Gualala

UTOPIAN ELITE

(Published in the Independent Coastal Observer)

Apparently some local liberals are of the misguided opinion that the electorate has not been paying close attention to the ineffective leadership of President Obama and his minions over the past three years. Why else would they spend their time and effort trotting out laundry lists of false (or stolen) accomplishments for the President while ignoring the colossal failures of his administration?

The President, they say, has led us out of the recession. Really? Early on, his “stimulus” package, combined with the economic uncertainties of ObamaCare and the heavy-handed anti-business regulations of Dodd-Frank and the EPA, helped drive unemployment toward double digits. Today government unemployment statistics remain well north of 8% . The real numbers are probably closer to 17%!  In just three years, the President and his Democrat accomplices have added a  staggering 5 trillion dollars of debt to our economy without passing a budget! 

And let’s not forget the hundreds of billions of dollars this Administration has thrown at “green energy” debacles, selected automobile companies, and other “crony capitalism” boondoggles designed to use the heavy hand of government (i.e.;, the Democrat Party and its interests) to further their “share the wealth” compulsion.

Such utopian dreams are not new, but history has shown they always end in a nightmare of limited freedom (if not outright enslavement), economic misery, and a dim, grey future. Oh, the utopian elite will do very well thank you. They will spend their time, energy, and vast resources preaching equality while continually expanding  a central government that doles out rewards to their friends (those who support more power for them) and punishment to their enemies:  those greedy folks who clamor for more freedom and long for a time when government did not control every aspect of their lives.

Think about it.

Jim Littlejohn

Concerned Coastal Voters

Gualala, CA

Just Talking the Talk

(Published as a letter to the editor of the Gualala Independent Coast Observer)

The Liberal outcry concerning Rush Limbaugh’s remark is only exceeded by their hypocrisy concerning foul-mouthed Democrat supporters such as Bill Maher. Obama has counseled civility and condemned harsh language about women, yet his allied super PAC -- Priorities USA -- has accepted a $1 million pledge from Maher. What did Maher say?

Fortunately, since this is a family newspaper, I can’t precisely report what he said. That’s why *’s are the most used tool when reporting remarks about conservative women made by Liberal “entertainers.” About Sarah Palin, Maher called her "a bully who sells patriotism like a pimp, and the leader of a strange family of inbred weirdos." That was mild compared to Maher calling her a MILF (Mother I’d Like to F***, a ‘dumb t**t,’ joking that her Down Syndrome baby was a result of her having sex with John Edwards, and calling her a c***. Maher called Palin and Congresswoman Bachmann ‘boobs’ and ‘two bimbos.’’ He recently made a joke about Rick Santorum’s wife using a vibrator. Imagine the same joke told by a conservative comedian during the 2008 primary with Michelle Obama’s name in it.

Unlike Maher, Rush was wrong and he admitted it and apologized.

When Maher was asked if he had any regrets about what he said he replied:  “I’m not trying to hurt somebody’s feelings. But if you want me to say ‘I’m sorry, what I said was wrong,’ no, sorry, I can’t go there.”

From a news report: “Former White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, the man who runs Obama’s super PAC, did not reply when asked if he will be returning Maher’s $1 million donation.”

About Maher, and many others, all we get from Liberals is the deafening sound of silence.

Mike Combs

Gualala