Recent Comments

1. about 19 hours ago on Non Sequitur

   (continued →)

   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/06/climate-risks-are-making-california-uninsurable-when-will-we-wake-up

   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/climate/climate-change-insurance-wildfires-california.html

   https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2023/05/31/climate-fueled-insurance-crisis-hits-california-00082767

   https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/clee/research/climate/california-climate-action/california-climate-risk/

   https://www.latimes.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/story/2023-06-06/california-doesnt-have-a-homeowner-insurance-crisis-it-has-a-climate-crisis

   https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/06/07/state-farms-california-pullout-what-it-means-for-climate-adaptation-and-communities/

   https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/insurance/florida-s-home-insurance-rates-rising-faster-than-any-state-nearly-triple-us-average/ar-AA1ceqr3

   https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-graphic-truth-the-rising-insurance-costs-of-climate-change/ar-AA1cdBjI

   https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/insurance/uninsurable-america-climate-change-hits-the-insurance-industry/ar-AA1cbLH5

   https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/11/03/with-climate-impacts-growing-insurance-companies-face-big-challenges/

   https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/05/19/as-climate-in-fl-sets-new-normal-cost-of-property-insurance-will-separate-haves-and-have-nots/

   Read ’em and weep.

2. about 20 hours ago on Non Sequitur

   Agreed. However, that is completely aside from the whole set of tools and projects being used by paleo-climatologists as they study borings into Earth’s crust, core samples taken for glaciers, surface samples that have been exposed by the recent melting of Polar icecaps, and similar sources of real, factual, provable, repeatable research.

   Beginning with the advent of the Industrial Age, we have be increasingly altering our environment with complete disregard for the consequences until about 5 or 10 years ago. The Human race still is in denial that climate warming is a real and present danger.

   However, for anyone who has any doubts, here are a few facts to consider:

   - The Earth’s mean temp has increased by more than 5 degrees C in the past 300 years. That is faster than at any time in history, other than during a natural catastrophe.

   - That change is continuing, and it is NOT slowing yet.

   - We did not learn how to recycle effectively. We continue to dump waste into our water, bury it, or burn it with pollution of the Earth beyond its capacity to filter and self-recover its equilibrium.

   - This alarming trend just made itself pointedly clear. The frequency of ‘natural’ disasters has reached the point where insurance companies now are refusing to take on any new property or business liability in all of California and Florida.

   - As business and home owners end their current policies (as they die or move), no replacement ones will be issued at affordable rates. Property in such states becomes worthless, even for inheritance.

   - This financial trend will spread as property close to the equator, major streams, or ocean shores continues to be endangered by climate change.

   This is no personal opinion. It is actual, real fact.

   https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/editorial-climate-change-is-making-california-more-expensive-home-insurance-is-the-latest-bellwether/ar-AA1c2hw0

   (continued →)

3. about 20 hours ago on Mike Lester

   “Equitable you mean …”

   You tried to ‘interpret’ what I meant by using the term ‘equitable’. That’s putting words in my mouth that I not only did not say, I did not mean or intend.

   In the US, judges are empowered with the authority to determine what is or is not equitable. As far as collective reasoning regarding what is equitable, that is in the hands of those who choose to study the issues being discussed, and who subsequently vote on the issues. Majority rules. THAT is equitable. If you don’t like that solution, find somewhere else to live.

   What definitely is not equitable is for a minority (or a wannabe dictator like Trump) to arbitrarily demand that everyone else MUST kowtow to their minority opinion. Not only is it not equitable, it is an unstabile form of government, and it NEVER lasts. The US has lasted for so long because it is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” and it honors both law and order and majority rule.

   So if the majority says that the color of your skin, or your ethnicity, or your personal understanding of your sex, or your choice to determine the outcome of a pregnancy are lawful, legal, and binding, then THAT is what is equitable.

   Done.

4. about 20 hours ago on Non Sequitur

   “Fact checking: …”

   True fact. However, if the Texans can exaggerate, why not the Alaskans?

   I just retold the tall tale as I heard it.

5. 1 day ago on Non Sequitur

   Pardon, Count, but your slip is showing.

   This is an unsubstantiated, unattributed, personalized, itemless attack on my post – otherwise known as ad hominem. It’s a favorite ploy of propagandists.

   Look on line, using any browser you favor, for ‘daily news’. You will come up with literally dozens of reports of schoolbooks being pulled because of a single protest from one parent in a school district, over the objections of dozens or hundreds of others.

   https://www.npr.org/2021/12/06/1061727091/pressure-grows-to-ban-books-at-schools

   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-library-books-banned-schools-rcna12986

   Same situation regarding GLBTQI+ functions and issues.

   https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-far-right-extremists-are-targeting-pro-lgbt-schools

   Same for personal identity issues.

   https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/three-arrested-protests-l-school-board-meeting-pride-month-rcna88153

   Same for sexual health matters and information, especially as they relate to teens.

   https://www.nbcnews.com/education-nation/students-are-walking-school-protest-districts-handling-sexual-assault-rcna8940

   https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/parents-protest-graphic-sex-ed-taught-at-public-schools/

   Same (now daily, many times multiple times a day) for verified and validated reports on mass shootings using ‘assault-type’ weapons’ that should have been banned 60 years ago.

   NONE of that is something where I “make it up”. As usual, your comments are uninformed at best. And so you resort to personal attacks in lieu of any substantial and valid discussion, as the history of your posts substantiates that you are wont to do.

   I am not your research assistant … go do your own fact-finding. Just be sure that, when you come back to post, you don’t attack the person but rather speak to the issue(s) with verified, factual citations.

6. 1 day ago on Mike Lester

   “Equitable you mean someone other than you pay for it.”

   Please don’t try to put words in my mouth.

   equitable (adjective)

   1) Showing or characterized by equity;

   2) Just and fair. synonym: fair.

   3) Of or relating to rights historically enforced in courts of equity. Resolved not simply according to the strict letter of the law but in accordance with principles of substantial justice and the unique facts of the case.

7. 1 day ago on Rose is Rose

   That seems sort’a rude … .

8. 1 day ago on Non Sequitur

   Or the tall tale that put Texas in perspective:

   A Texan in a bar was bragging about how big everything in Texas is. The Alaskan sitting nearby put up with it until the Texan sort of ran down. Then he commented quietly, “I wish he’d shut up. Otherwise, Alaska will have to divide itself in 5 parts and make Texas the 6th largest state.”

9. 1 day ago on Non Sequitur

   Play nicely, kids.

10. 1 day ago on Non Sequitur

    “… it is called his razor because the idea was to cut off anything that was not needed to the explanation.”

    Strange. I always understood it as “Determination of the ‘correct’ answer is balanced on a razor edge.” In other words, the ‘correct’ answer between two (or more) very likely possibilities may be determined by the smallest (simplest) of considerations.