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Obesity causes Globbal Warming?

Regular readers know that I have lost 75 lbs this year thru a combination of diet and exercise (biking). There were many reasons why I wanted to lose weight: looking better for the opposite sex, health concerns, back pain, etc. Global warming was not one of my reasons.

Overweight people eat more than thin people and are more likely to travel by car, making excess body weight doubly bad for the environment, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine...

They estimated that each fat person is responsible for about one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions a year more on average than each thin person, adding up to an extra one billion tonnes of CO2 a year in a population of one billion overweight people.

The conclusions being drawn from this study by the popular media are idiotic. But we all know that the last people it is okay to make fun or and discriminate against are the overweight. In general, the "fat people" I have known are more likely to be homebodies who stay around the house and don't travel. The extremely thin people I know, on the other hand, tend to be movers and shakers, who tend to drive their SUVs everywhere, smoke like chimneys, and always demand the latest and greatest. Does this mean thinness is a threat the planet? Of course not. But you watch. A "fat tax" is only a few years away.

Calling a spade, a spade

This blog had been largely supportive of President George W. Bush during his years in office. While not all of us supported either the Iraq War or the policies around it, I generally have the president the benefit of the doubt in dealing with a difficult world after 9/11. Most of the pundit class felt free to begin tearing him down as soon as 9/12 was past, and I saw that as disingenuous and naive.

But now, it is time to speak plainly. I condemn the torture policies enacted by President Bush in the wake of 9/11, as shown by recent declassified memos. We knew "something" was going on in Gitmo, but assumed that it was not nearly as bad as what the Left speculated. Instead, it is pretty much exactly as bad as GWB's critics claimed. Regular, intensive, sadistic weatherboarding. Use of subject phobias in methods eerily similar to scenes from 1984. Methods that simply can not be rationalized away as NOT torture. Even in the panicky days after 9/11. And these methods appear to have continued up to a few months before the end of the administration. We have stained the American spirit with these actions in a way comparable to the Japanese internment camps of World War 2. The ends can never justify the means. By meeting evil with evil, you merely increase the darkness and terror in our land.

Being MOD-blog, we try to see both sides. And we have spoken for both sides on this issue. But now it is time to speak plainly, now that all the facts are known. This was a mistake, and a sin of our nation. I challenge anyone who has read the memos to tell me differently. And "You had to be there" is not a sufficient defense.

"Bank Stress Tests" may be too Stressful for the Market

When they were first proposed, the "Bank Stress Tests" that were part of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's economic plan seemed prudent. If the government has a clearer picture of the actual state of troubled banks, then it could react more intelligently. What could be more logical? But now, it appears such revelations could do more harm than good as a jittery market rushes to judgement over the slightest whiff of weakness in a bank's balance sheet.

While weaker banks deemed to need additional capital will be given six months to raise it, financial markets may have little more than six minutes of patience before punishing them if the information is publicly released, one official said...

The economy has worsened since the Treasury announced the tests in February, raising questions about whether the scenarios regulators are applying to bank portfolios are rigorous enough. Officials are considering taking a tougher stance in judging the tests’ results given the job market’s deterioration, the Financial Times reported today without citing anyone.

Under the assessments’ “more adverse” scenario, the unemployment rate is seen rising to 10.3 percent in 2010. When officials designed that scenario, the most-recent jobless rate was 7.6 percent. It has already soared to 8.5 percent since then.

Of course, since the economy - or at least Wall Street - is essentially mass psychology, we have a lose-lose situation here. If the report is released and it contains bad news, then there will be a panic. But if the report is NOT released, it will create additional uncertainty which will drive the market down steadily. Knowledge is power, but knowledge untempered by wisdom is a bull in a china shop.

Bike Shop Report by WSJ

Makes You Think

From here.

Biking Update - April 18, 2009

Not much to report this week, so I'll keep it brief. No biking, due to Holy Weekend activities and long days at work. Weight vacillated between 207.8 and 211.0 lbs all week with nary a reason from looking at either my exercise or my diet. Does this mean I have reached my natural low, or just that I have reached a plateau? Only time will tell.

Chilling Details of Bush-era "Enhanced Interrogation" Released

Some years back, Mod-Blog had a small debate about the morality and legality of using Waterboarding as an "interrogation technique" for terrorists. At the time, some were strongly of the opinion that it was torture, and others were of the opinion that anything went when trying to prevent the death of civilians. I found myself starting off supporting it, and then as I researched more I wound up opposing the practice as clearly torture. But it may not have been the worst practice going on at Gitmo.

The Obama administration has begun declassifying memos from the GWB years showing what they did and did not consider acceptable means of "enhanced interrogation."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/16/us.torture.documents/index.html

I think in the end that George W. Bush will be judged well by history for Iraq and Afghanistan. I think he even may get away from being entirely blamed for the economic collapse. But I think he will be reviled for all time for the introduction of torture into the lexicon of "acceptable means" for extracting information. By introducing "enhanced interrogation" for terrorists, he has opened the door to using it on anyone. And we are already seeing many Bush-era "bent rules" being used against the very people he hoped to protect. We must always remember that the ends can NEVER justify the means, no matter how noble.

This caught me completely by surprise

From here.

Magic with Lasers

Gotta love it when someone finds a way to combine high-energy science with magic! Next time, I want to see fun with anti-matter.

Magic Laser - More bloopers are a click away

Tax Day Cometh

Today is the day that the Federal and State governmentds demand their pound of flesh. They are saying that the economic downturn is causing more taxpayers than ever to be delinquent, but if you have the money to pay, you are better off paying your taxes now or at least filing for an automatic extension. If you have not yet paid and need help figuring out your burden, remember that Intuit offers a free TurboTax edition online for those with simple returns.

Beware of Unneeded Antibiotics

Doctors have been warning us for years about using antibiotics for every sniffle, cough, and headache that comes along, but thousands still demand them at nearly every doctor's visit. The problem is that using antibiotics kills off everything except the few bugs that are resistant, and who can NOT be combatted with traditional medicine. This argument has been poo-pooed by hypochondriacs and overprotective parents, but now a real outbreak has begun of a bug that is actually HELPED by antibiotics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/health/14well.html?em

If you are feeling sick, be a wise consumer and listen to your doctor. Demanding your own way on these kinds of things can sometimes be the worth thing you can do.

Lego Jesus?!

When I think of ways to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, showing the defeat of Death, and the inauguration of a new era of history, I have a lot of ideas. I have to admit that a Lego Jesus statue is not one of them.

Churchgoers had donated nearly 30,000 Lego bricks to build the 1.78 metre (5.8 foot) high statue, said Per Wilder, the pastor of the Oensta Gryta Church in Vaesteras, about 110 kilometres (70 miles) west of Stockholm.
"This work began a year and a half ago so we saw that the initiation date was fitting in well (with this year's Easter holiday)," Wilder said....
The model was based on Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsens's 19th century work Christus, which depicts the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Being from a Protestant New England tradition, I have to say my first reaction is iconoclastic. But I guess that is an overreaction to something which in the end is pretty much just silly.

Phillies announcer Harry Kalas dead at 73

I am sure he is thankful that he lived to see them win the World Series again. May he rest in peace.

Hard Cases: Church "outs" an anonymous blogger

It is not unusual for someone to have a problem with the leadership of their local church. Leaders - including pastors and elders/overseers/trustees/deacons/etc. - make mistakes or often are doing the right thing and simply not explaining themselves. My own church has been moving from a pure Congregational model to a more closed model in a way which has been disturbing to me. Scripture has fairly clear guidelines for dealing with such concerns, which generally goes, "talk to the problem person singly, then with one other person, then with the elders, and then before the Congregation." (Yes, Seminarians, I am aware there are many more verses and a whole history here. Feel free to expound in the comments.)

But what happens when a church dispute comes up against anonymous blogging? Should church leaders honor the unspoken agreement of the internet and let the blogger remain unknown? Isn't such a move in line with First Amendment rights of free speech? Or should church leaders seek out the blogger and discipline him/her for not following scripture.

In the case linked above, church leadership erred on the side of control and had a police officer (who also worked church security) seek out and expose the blogger. The blogger was then expelled from the church, as per 1 Corinthians 5:4-5.

To me, this seems like a hard case. On the one hand, the blogger clearly was not following scripture. On the other hand, it appears the pastor himself - in his zeal to discipline - clearly crossed the line to find the offender. Either way, Christ's name is being dragged through the mud, and the gospel becomes a laughing-stock among the world.

What would you do, as either the pastor or the congregant?

Green Law pays Paper companies to increase use of fossil fuels

Thomas Paine once said, "That government is best which governs least." This saying is widely quoted among the Conservative community to justify smaller government. But Conservatives have not done a great job in the last decade to really illustrate why Big Government is a bad idea.

Enter the paper industry and George W Bush. During his administration, a law was passed giving tax credits to companies who made use of alternative energies in place of fossil fuels, or to companies who combined an alternative fuel with a taxable fuel. The paper industry - depressed by the current economy and the use of paper amidst eBooks, internet advertising, and the fall of newspapers - has begun adding diesel fuel to a fossil-fuel-free process in order to claim a tax credit.

Despite the obvious contrivance of the procedure, Wrobleski is unapologetic: "The credit is supposed to encourage the use of green fuel." Sure, I said, but isn't it a bit weird you're now adding diesel fuel to the process in order to take advantage of it? "It is what it is," she said.
Others are less charitable. "You use the toilet every day," said one hedge fund analyst who's been closely following the issue. "Imagine if you could start pouring a little gasoline into the bowl and get fifty cents a gallon every time you flushed."
No one in Congress seems to have anticipated this creative maneuver. This past fall the Joint Committee on Taxation computed the cost of extending the tax credit for three months and projected it would cost a manageable $61 million. It now appears that the extension (which was passed as part of the TARP) could cost as much as $2 billion before the credits expire at the end of this calendar year.

This needs to be reported in every major paper in American. It hardly makes me hopeful that President Obama's complex stimulus plan will accomplish the aims it was designed for. More likely, it will be misused by a number of companies to accomplish their own means at the expense of the tax-payer.

HE IS RISEN!

Biking Update - April 10, 2009

The last few weeks have been reasonably good for biking, but the weight loss has been pretty much flat. As of today, I am still holding between 208 lbs and 211 lbs. I seem to spike up over the weekend (when I am eating a bit more) and then lose the weekend weight during the week. I am not yet sure if I have reached my natural low, or if I have just reached a plateau and need to shake things up. We'll see as the weeks go on.

Biking-wise, it was a decent start to the week, with a ride on the Trumbull Trail. I rode with Crchair, Nick, and Nora. They have significantly expanded the trail this year. Last year, it went from downtown Trumbull near the old Town Hall to the Victorinox Office. Now, it goes around that same office, up the hill, along a development, and over to Purdy Hill in Monroe. Soon, the Monroe and Trumbull Trails will be one long ride. I can't wait!

The rest of the week was a bust for riding due to cold and rain. April showers have truly arrived. But then, you need the April showers to have the May flower (and Spring allergies in general). I'll be enjoying Easter tomorrow, and hopefully will enjoy some riding opportunities to come.

Exteme Shepparding- So Cool!!!

Good Friday