jstol3's Blog

Whether you are rich or poor, conservative or liberal, Democrat or republican, male or female I wish every person on this blogsite a VERY HAPPY EASTER!

I probably didn't word the title on my previous blog provocatively enough. My bad!

I believe that the prevailing theory regarding global warming is that it is primarily caused by an excess of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. The other gas I've heard mentioned most often is methane. The theory says that CO2 is caused by the actions of man - emissions from vehicles which burn gasoline and diesel fuel. The CO2 also comes from the smokestacks of factories and coal fired electricity generation plants. Humans breathe in oxygen and exhale CO2. Plants use CO2 and release oxygen. We have an excess of CO2 because we are producing more of the stuff than green vegetation can process back into oxygen (O2).

First - for the purpose of this blog I want everybody to forget political parties and affiliations, forget individual scientists, authors, filmmakers and organizations that are professionally involved in this debate.

Here is the question and the challange: As a private citizen who has no control over anyone except your self and maybe your family what are you personally doing to reduce the amount of CO2 you generate in your day to day life? What could you do that you are not doing.? Do you have plans to change the way you do things?

Remember - this applies to how you do things - its not a question about how we can change the design of a factory or the automobile (unless you have modified your own automobile) or place new legislation into law. It is strictly a question about what you do and what you are willing to do to reduce the amount of CO2 you create in your day to day life.

If you believe that man is causing global warming please let us know how the individual citizen can combat it.

Normally this blog would belong in the "Traffic" section. Some backround: The city of KCMO is scrambling for money to fill gaps in the budget, ditto the KCMO Police Dept.

Today the funeral was held for the KCMO firefighter who collapsed and died at the scene of a fire which has now been declared as arson. The motorcade for the funeral was made up of fire trucks, MAST ambulances, police cars and motorcycles and some limos. It traveled west on Emmanuel Cleaver Blvd this afternoon. Fine, I'm respectful! We all owe a debt of gratitude to the fallen firefighter and to the firefighters and police in general. No question!

What I want to know is why, given the current fiscal crisis, was it necessary for the police to block off the intersections with 71 hwy at Gregory, Meyer Blvd, 63rd St and on southbound Prospect at Gregory? Why was it necessary to have rolling roadblocks on 71 hwy with 3 police cars accross all of the lanes of 71 hwy both north and southbound?

This seems like a tremendous waste of taxpayer money and terrible inconvenience to motorists on a Saturday afternoon not to mention the fact that all of these police officers time could have been better spent protecting the community!

If anyone can tell me how all of this was necessary please let us all know.

A lot has been written here regarding government wiretapping. Most of it has been written in an attempt to vilify the current administration.

Beginning with the Japanese bombing of pearl harbor in 1941 a precedent was set by the administration of Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt - the mail of U.S. citizens was censored by the government. You might write a letter and, before it reached its intended recipient, portions of the letter were blacked out by the censors. Of course, in the process of censoring the communication, the censor had to read the letter. This of course meant that you were not only censored but that you were also spied upon.

Another thing that liberal Democrat administration did was inter, into prison camps, American citizens of Japanese ancestry in the name of NATIONAL SECURITY. These people were guilty of nothing more than being of Japanese heritage.

When you attempt to vilify the current administration for attempting to protect the country from its enemies stop and think about the actions of those "loveable Democrats" when they were in power!

I have gotten a lot of flak lately from the crowd that believes that "manmade global warming" is happening. A lot of them have verbalized a lot of ideas on the subject and spouted a lot of propaganda.

I would like to know what they, as individuals, are doing to combat this perceived threat to humanity. I'm not talking about contributing to someones campaign or to an organization which propagandizes the issue. I'm talking about taking an initiative in their personal, day-to-day life which they believe will reduce greenhouse gas emissions or reduce their "carbon footprint".

PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU DO!

A conservative is one who adheres to traditional methods or views, a cautious or discreet person. Conservative, conserve, and conservation all stem from the same latin word. Conservatives save - they keep safe - values, resources, etc. We have gotten a bum rap from liberals who are profligate spenders and gobblers of resources. Liberals are wastrels who care not for keeping people, the planet or nature safe from harm. Liberals believe that they can cure all ills and right all wrongs by spending evermore resources and money on problems that don't exist and by overspending money and resources on problems that do exist. Liberals have no common sense - they would kill a fly with a stick of dynamite when all it takes is a flyswatter

I wuz unce a hippie in the 70s. I grew up! I learned what is real and what is not. It was a painful muturation but I made it! Others can too!

Yes, we have one planet. It works just fine! It gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer - just like it's supposed to. Sometimes it's hotter and sometimes its colder. Sometimes it goes through warming trends and sometimes cooling trends. It has been doing this for several billion years. Just like it's supposed to!

Enter man, puny man, he thinks he is changing it, he thinks he can change it back! Silly fool! God made this earth - he controls it! Man - who are you? What makes you think that you can change what God ordained? How will you change it? Will you legislate? Will you force legislation? Will your puny self "make it work"? Will God bow to your foolish legislation?

I hear that a lot "make it work". The truth is you are a fool for thinking that you can "make it work". "Make it work" means that you know that it won't work. It won't work because it's not part of the natural order. Make it work means that you think that if you get some piece of misguided legislation passed and it is a law that people have to follow then it is working just because people have to follow it. What fools you are!

"Make it work" is akin to saying "you are in denial". Saying you are" In denial" means that you have run out of legitimate arguments and absent a good argument you have to say something. Telling someone that they are "in denial" is like saying that they are racist - it leaves them with no place to go - they can't deny it because to the accuser it is proof that they are!

"Make it work" proves nothing - it is a statement borne of having no logical place to go with your argument!

I have never been deleted out of a blog's comments section before. I have never been blocked before. Today I learned that there are some on this blogsite who are so desperate to avoid having their point of view challenged that they will both delete and block certain opinions. I attempted to comment on the blog "Fuel Price Redux" and my comment did not appear after I completed it. Based on comments made by the blog's author I have no doubt that my comment was blocked by him but I'm going to write my comment anyway. I refuse to be censored or stifled on this site!

SkookumJim deleted another blogger's comment because he was "childish". This statement was made even though Skookum referred to another blogger in a derogatory fashion and called him 'OdessaCONvict".

In my comment to Skookum's blog I stated that he was correct regarding the increase in CO2 in our atmosphere. I also stated that one of the main contributor's to CO2 emissions was Al Gore. He emits a lot of CO2 by talking about "manmade" global warming. I stated in my comment that the case for "manmade" global warming has not been proven. I believe that it is part of a natural cycle.

In my comment I asked if Saddam Hussein, Muammar Khaddafi, the Ayatollah Khomeni, Mullah Omar, Osama Bin Laden and Yasir Arafat might have had something to do with destabilizing the Middle East despite his contention that George Bush is solely responsible.

I pointed out that, beginning with Jimmy Carter and continuing with Ronald Regan, George Bush I, and Bill Clinton very little had been done to develop alternative energy in this country until the current administration. We now have more than 1500 retail outlets for E85 (ethanol) in this country.

I also stated that I believed that much of his animosity was directed at the current administration because he and many others feel that George Bush stole the 2000 election from Al Gore.

As I said, I've never been deleted or blocked on this site before. I'm glad that I was though because it shows just how far these liberal terrorists will go to avoid being challenged.

Some time ago I wrote a blog about name calling on this site so I won't resort to that tactic here.

Now that Barak has said that his grandmother is a "TYPICAL WHITE PERSON" I wish he would expound on that so I would know exactly what one is. Does it mean that they don"t have rythym? Does it mean that they look down on people of other races? I want to know exactly what it means and I want to hear it from him!

Others may answer with their perception of his statement but I really want to hear it from him!

I have written a number of blogs regarding fuel prices and how to bring yours down. Prices are high and they will go higher, We have some control over our cost and how much mileage we get. Neither the president nor the congress are going to do any thing about fuel prices. They can't! If anyone tries to regulate the price the oil companies will just take their products to China and India and leave the U.S. without!

I do not have any products or services for sale - I am not motivated by a desire to make any money.

Want to get away from gasoline? Buy a flex-fuel vehicle or convert your present ride to E85.

Want better gas mileage? Get rid of your SUV, van, pickup truck or 4 wheeler. Get rid of your automatic transmission. Buy a car with a stick shift. Take the ton of junk out of your trunk. Put it in the car only when you need it - otherwise store it in your house. Keep your tires inflated, better yet carry a couple extra lbs of air in them (I carry 42lbs). Drive 55 mph - most cars are most efficient at this speed. If you have gotten that stick shift coast downhill with the clutch pushed in. If you see a red light up ahead take your foot off the gas - don't race up to the light so you can stop quicker.

There is more and I will be glad to share it! Make sure your front end is aligned, keep your engine tuned. Don't ride the brake. Make sure your fluid levals are correct. Change over to synthetic oil (its slipperier).

My car is rated 26 mpg from the factory. I get 40+ with gas and 30+ on E85. I know what I'm talking about. Some of these tricks cost money, some don't. I'm not a mechanic but I've learned these things along the way.

Do you know that in most newer cars your AC compressor runs when you have your defrost or panel heat on? This uses more gas. You can install, or have a mechanic install a cutoff switch on your dash so you can choose whether you want your AC compressor to run when you have your defrosters on (in summer or on humid winter days you do want it on so the compressor will remove the humidity so your windows won't fog up). There is more and I'm working on it. I want my car to get 50+ mpg!

I have heard 5 different stories about why the bars in the Power & Light District closed early:

1." There weren't enough customers". But an eyewitness on Fox whose face wasn't shown was saying that there were a lot of customers left.

2. "There were too many customers." What bar owner closes down early because it is too busy?

3 "The crowd was too rowdy." Where is the story about a police sweep through the area to clean the place out?

4. "People were violating the dress code." Please, if someone had violated the code they would have been asked to leave - the bars wouldn't have shut down! Besides, it was St. Patrick's Day - lots of people dress for the occassion!

5."The employees were too tired." When does a bar owner close down because his employees are tired? Also, ask your self - what is the liklihood that the same malady struck all of the bars at the same time?

So, why did the bars close early?

I visited this exhibit on Sunday, March 16th. It was interesting. As a lay person I was not able to appreciate it as much as a medical student might have.

I have no particular moral problem with the exhibit of human bodies but I had to ask myself if the exhibit could have been done with replicas which were all plastic. I believe that the answer to my question is yes. With todays technology the display could have been all plastic. I believe that plasticising a real human body to put on display was done for purely sensational reasons so large numbers of people would come and pay a good price to see the exhibit.

At the end of the actual exhibit you are exited into a souvenier and gift shop where you can purchase plastic replicas of human body parts in the form of keyrings, plastic skeletons, plastic depictions of various systems within the body, etc. I found the purposeful exit into the gift & souvenier shop to be both ghoulish and greedy.

I really don't think that Kansas City needed this exhibit!

I know that I can't be the only one who sees through this thinly veiled grab for money. The reentry policy has very little to do with "safety" and very much to do with money. THEY WANT YOU TO BUY THEIR HIGH PRICED JUNK FOOD AT THE CENTER!!!  If you leave the Center to eat your meal elsewhere they are going to punish you for not buying their junk. Ditto the policies at the Royals and Chiefs games about bringing in coolers, food, & drink.

Anyone who attends these events is getting ripped off.  Protesting the policies after you have bought your ticket and paid for your parking is the wrong time to protest. Quit buying tickets and tell them that you won't buy tickets again until they treat people fairly. THEY WILL COME AROUND! Why? Because they would rather have some of your money instead of none of your money!

I'm 61 years old (very soon to be 62) I saw both my parents retire early at 62 (social security doesn't pay much at that age). Mom lived to be 86 and Dad lived until 85. I saw them struggle for a long time. I tried to help out where I could. I wasn't able to do too much because I studied Political Science and Economics when I went to college. That degree and a buck might buy me a cup of coffee. I have decided to go back to school. I'm going to study computer science and information technology this time around. In order to do this I have to apply for social security at 62 in order to finance my education. I'm not thrilled about the prospect but I hope that my earnings afterwards will make up for the reduced social security benefits. If my health holds out I might just make it.

Its a helluva choice but I wasted my GI benefits on what was popular in 1971. Those benefits are now long gone but I don't have any choice!