Saturday, January 28, 2012

JMU Hockey and the "Hockey Stick" manmade global warming theory...

Went to the JMU vs. Radford Ice hockey game last night at the MainStreet Arena in Charlottesville and saw a good game along with reading about Michael Mann, author of the "Hockey-Stick" graph on man made global warming, being in town giving a enviro-talk to the students of UVA...
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Great game with Radford coming out and delivering two massive hits in the first 20 seconds of the first period to set the tone of play. Radford controlled the first period with what must have been a 3 to 1 shots on goal ratio and the first score in the first half of the period. JMU Dukes did get it together towards the end with a score 9 seconds before the end of the period...
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In the 2nd period JMU came out like a new team and continued to crash the Radford net and this resulted in a 5 to 3 lead for the Dukes at the end of the 2nd period. There was a very interesting call where the Radford goalie performed a "Poke-check" in front of the net (No doubt the result of a prior suggestion by fellow hockey fan Chris Green to the Radford coach after a prior game) but lost his stick and pushing the puck away from the JMU player and the Ref granted the JMU a penalty shot which was stopped by the goalie.....
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In the 3rd Radford tied it up after the JMU goalie attempted a poke-check but ended up feeding the puck to the trailing Radford wing who promptly deposited it into the JMU goal. Radford ended up scoring the final goal and winning the game in front of a pretty good crowd of people gathered...
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During one of the intermissions I sat and read an article in the local C-ville about climate scientist Michael Mann had returned to UVA to give a keynote lecture regarding those who question his climate research and conclusion of man made global warming. "“Contrarians
or deniers, I think that there has been some tendency to give those who denythe scientific consensus far too much prominence in the public discourse.”
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Now I was in his backyard and old stomping grounds of UVA where he once was a climate scientist and eventually came up with the famous "Hockey Stick" graph showing the dramatic increase of global temperature that he concludes comes from man made gasses, and I was reading a local weekly C-ville paper, so what should I expect?...
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By Mann's and the C-ville papers definition, I am one of those "deniers" who continues to question the conclusion that global warming is caused by man made gasses. I do not dispute that there is global warming but do question that it is caused to the extent that some claim is responsible for much of the warming now being experienced.
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Anybody remember back in the 70's when we were told of the coming Ice age that would cover much of the U.S. ? If we have made such a dramatic swing in such a short period of time how do you think we could ever slow down or possible stop this "man made" warming? ....
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Friday, January 20, 2012

$14 Trillion or $15 Trillion debt... Who cares?... It makes no difference...



Had a conversation at work the other day and it turned to the next $1 trillion we are about to add to our national debt bringing it to over $15 trillion dollars owed... Now there have been many examples of how much a trillion really is but the conversation got to a point that if the additional $1 trillion is not really felt at the immediate paycheck level what difference does it matter?...
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The average person has not really felt the effects of the last trillion that was added to the debt for it has not hit them directly in their pocket. This is obvious at work for even at the last "Black Friday" we saw a considerable increase in sales over last years numbers and the customers continue to spend as long as the credit card swipes and the approval is instant as it is anymore. I mean let's face it. With the economy as bad as they say it is do you really need to buy that new ratcheting screw driver that works both directions? Thought we did not have any manufacturing jobs in America anymore and who needs a screwdriver like that?....
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It looks like Congress will approve to add another $1 trillion to our national debt this week but will anybody notice? If adding another trillion to our debt resulted in every person seeing $50 missing from their paycheck every week there would be such outrage in the first month we could not imagine. Just look at what happened when Bank of America attempted to raise their fees by just $5 a month...
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Sunday, January 08, 2012

Chairman of the board.....


Both the NewsVirginian and the NewsLeader have coverage of the new Chairman of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors....

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Guest Post: "President Obama, please put JOBS under the Christmas tree this year !!!...


Unless you have a high paying government job, and even if you do, you are probably well aware that the majority of American’s are deeply impacted by the ongoing devastation to the United States economy since President Obama took office.
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While overall the unemployment rate hovers close to 9%, minority unemployment remains consistently near 15% and these figures show no indication of significant improvement in the near future. Meanwhile, the current administrations lack of a positive Energy Policy is not only hamstringing companies that could add much needed AMERICAN JOBS to the economy; it is also compromising our long term national security and unnecessarily delaying our economic recovery.
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The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently released a report that shows the U.S. is on track to actually export a net increase in gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels in 2011 for the first time in 62 years. This is due to the fact that while our economy is stalled, the economy in emerging markets is booming. However these record exports are not forecast to continue. EIA is also predicting domestic oil production will fall 240,000 barrels/day through 2012, mainly due to the continued Gulf "energy freeze" imposed by our current administration.
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The United States has the highest standards for environmental protection in the free world. Other countries do not endeavor to protect the environment for future generations as we do, yet their lack of concern for the environment will affect all of us. We have the desire to be good stewards of the environment as well as the technology to extract our resources in a safe and efficient manner. The U.S. also has the most stringent work place safety requirements of any nation. We have the energy resources right here within our borders. If President Obama wanted to put American’s back to work he has an entire industry waiting for the green light to help him turn around our economy.
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I grew up in New Orleans and my Dad worked on the oil rigs. I can attest first hand that oil industry jobs keep food on the table, the lights on and the rent paid. If we simply used the God-given resources we have in our great Nation, many American’s would not be needlessly losing their homes and struggling to keep their lights on and their families fed.
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We still import over half of our oil and petroleum products. Instead of selling our debt to China we should be selling our OIL to China and reducing our national debt. We do not lack the resources in America. What we lack is leadership and the political will to demand our administration put forward an energy policy that is beneficial to Americans and the United States. Let’s start the New Year on the right path. It is time to resume drilling within American borders and stop exporting American jobs.
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Melody Himel Scalley is an entrepreneur and talk-radio show host in Virginia.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Newt tells it the way it has to be said if we expect to get anywhere..

Newt has very much been the whipping boy of the past week or so and many are coming out saying he has too much baggage and would not do well against President Obama if he is the Republican candidate...
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No doubt the man has "History" that tends to make some conservatives a bit nervous when they see him in action, but I am telling you he is out there saying what many of us believe and doing it the only way you will be able to beat Obama...
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As in the past the Democrats will go ugly once they see their guy behind and loosing and the personal attacks, not just on Newt but all Republican\Conservatives, will be vicious and paid for with a Billion $$$ they are expecting to raise...
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The Democrats and Obama don't care about anything but being re-elected and the power it brings and will do what ever it takes. Look at the class-warfare they are using now...
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I fear the GOP will fold if they get to much public pressure on the payroll tax bill and will agree to the removal of the Keystone Pipeline from the bill as the President plays him game that will be trumpeted by the media...
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Newt is right that we need to send the bill to Obama and make him veto as he has promised. Then you send it again and make him veto it again and again until the public understands the real issue and how it effects them and our economy...

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Hokies vs Liberty Ice Hockey...

Went down to Liberty last night to watch the Hokies vs. Flames game and they had a pretty good attendance with a very loud and vile at times student showing. Game started late and had to watch "Human Ice Bowling" for about half an hour before the game started but it was good to catch another live game....
This is the fourth game that I have seen at Liberty and it's nice to be able to find a spot on the 2nd level close to the ice rink with some very nice viewing spots. The officiating the first game or two that I have seen at Liberty was questionable but the third game, which was a playoff game between William & Mary vs. Citadel, it was obvious that the calls were very much one sided. Last nights officiating was almost as bad with several questionable calls going Liberty's way. During the 2nd period a Hokie player ran into the goalie and it appeared that he was pushed by a Liberty player and he received the appropriate penalty for interfering with the Goalie, but there were no penalties when the two Liberty defense men proceeded to beat on the Hokie player as the linejudge stood there and watched... Other then that it was a good game with Liberty winning 4 to 1 and with Liberty player #9 McCombe scoring a "Hat Trick". Very good puck handling and drives to the net did it for him and he was a "Star" of the game...


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