My View

Random ruminations from your resident curmudgeon...

Remember all the dire predictions about global warming, and how our everyday lives were creating a climatological catastrophe? According to "scientists" if we didn't destroy our standard of living and go back to living as we did hundreds of years ago, the earth's climate would eventually heat up to the point where we would all be cooked. Well guess what, ladies and gentlemen, the very same "scientists" that have said we are inexorably marching on toward unstoppable global warming have said that ...wait...what?...uh... new temperature data has revealed that the planet has actually COOLED over the past 15 years, not gotten hotter. According to readings from over 30,000 measuring stations, the London's University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit confirms that the last year for an increase in global temperature was in 1997. Yes, this is the same University of East Anglia whose data was so famously touted by Al Gore and other green shills to "prove" that the planet was overheating. Yes, this is the same University of East Anglia whose climatological researchers were caught falsifying data to make their case for global warming. And yes, this is the same University of East Anglia that stood to reap millions in research grants to continue to research "global warming". In fact, the recently released data reinforce what many mainstream scientists have said for years: the earth's temperature is more dramatically influenced by solar activity than the level of man made CO2. It's always important to remember the View's Prime Directive- Follow the Money- to really understand what is happening. The global warming scam made hucksters like Al Gore and others a lot of money. Next time someone declares a "crisis" and it will cost you money to solve, find out who is going to benefit. Always follow the money.


My wife will buy anything that is marked down. Last week, she bought an escalator.


The Obama administration has spent billions of our taxpayers dollars to jump start the "green energy" industry. This has been in the form of loans, grants, tax credits, and other incentives. With the high level of government backing, all these "green energy" companies should be running along spectacularly well, doncha think? Well, let's see how they are doing, shall we. Perhaps the highest profile of the green companies to fail was Solyndra, a fiasco that cost the taxpayer- you and me- over $500 BILLION dollars, while benefiting investors with heavy ties to the Democratic Party. How about Beacon Power, which was trying to create industrial sized batteries to back up green energy power generators (these types of batteries are needed because green energy production is so unreliable)? Beacon filed bankruptcy, leaving the government on the hook for a $39 million loan guarantee. Last week Ener1 filed for bankruptcy protection. Ener1 makes lithium batteries for electric cars. Ener1 received $130 million in stimulus funds and a $480 million loan from the Department of Energy. The company promised to deliver 1400 jobs to their plant in Indiana, but actually created 275 jobs. You may recall that a year ago, Vice President Joe Biden said at an event celebrating Ener1,

"This administration made a judgement. We decided it's not sufficient to create new jobs, we have to create whole new industries." 

That's a fun game to play when you are using other people's money, Joe, but the reality is that the marketplace decided it didn't need the green energy industry with its unreliability and higher cost. And no matter how much money this administration throws down this rat hole, that fact will not change.


My wife and I recently stayed in a hotel that had a water bed. Or as I like to refer to it: the Dead Sea.


All of you are aware that the venal and mendacious Warren Buffett says that millionaires like himself should be taxed more. Readers of this blog also know that Buffett has established three foundations and funded them with the maximum allowable amount of Berkshire Hathaway stock and placed his children at the head of each of these foundations. All perfectly legal, and a nice way to insure they get a handsome income as long as these foundations are running. You may also recall that Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway holding company have been fighting a federal tax bill for 10 years. Sounds like the call for millionaires to pay more taxes may have just been a political ploy designed to ingratiate Buffett with the current administration. Why do I think this? Last week, President Obama stonewalled the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would deliver 590,000 barrels of oil daily from Canada to refineries on the U.S. gulf coast. Obama's delaying tactics, while costly to the you and I as consumers, do have one distinct beneficiary. Wanna guess who it is? If you said Warren Buffett, you are a winner (not to mention ahead of the all the population that gets its news from the main stream media). Denying the construction of the pipeline means that oil produced in Western Canada now must travel to U.S. refineries via railway. One of the largest railways in the U.S. is the privately held Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail line owned by... you guessed it, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway. Other rail lines will benefit as well, but one has to think this was a sop thrown out to Buffett by this administration for being the front man for higher taxes. And Burlington Northern stands to make a lot of money hauling crude oil that could be more economically transported through a pipeline. Remember, friends, ALWAYS follow the money.


My wife and I always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.


And that, my friends, is my view.