OT The real reason for "global warming" Ba ha ha

His _Skeptic_ book adorns my shelf. He's the opposite of Muller, in that he was a greenie and became a skeptic.

-- It takes as much energy to wish as to plan. --Eleanor Roosevelt

According to the 10th amendment, Romney-care done by a state, or several states or all states is fine, but Obama-care is not in the purview of the Federal Government.

We are being frugal, but the Federal Government isn't. It's going to lead to much worse conditions for individuals than a little frugality.

Why can't we go on the way we have been going? Either GW is beyond our capacity to influence it and we have to adjust to the result or we have to revert to a time of lesser energy use.

If the former, we build dikes around costal cities and take similar steps to mitigate the effects. If the latter, we regress to a time when life was painful, brutal, and short.

The WORST reaction is to act as if GW was caused by civilization but find out later that GW is natural and beyond our ability to do anything about it.

I'll play: Why is living frugally a Good Thing(tm)?

Consider the chap who harkens to your definition by buying a canoe instead of a yacht. Dozens of yacht builders don't get the work, ship's chandlers, able-bodied seamen, and others are likewise missing out on employment, and so on.

Or perhaps the family who opt for a teepee instead of a mansion; again, no home builders, suppliers of materials, no tax revenue, on-and-on.

Bottom line: If one is convinced that living off of nuts and berries is sufficient, what happens to innovation, improvements in the human condition, and the future of humanity?

Lomborg is rational. In essence, most of his work centers around priorities.

For example, the amount of money spent to prevent 3 cancer deaths a year by eliminating some obscure chemical from refinery smokestacks would be enough to test EVERY newborn black baby for sickle-cell anemia, thereby saving THOUSANDS of lives per year.

Doug Winterburn wrote in news:5015ef67$0$8432$c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:

It was only a 5-4 decision by the SCOTUS, but it was ruled constitutional, so your opinion is only that, your opinion, not legally useful (sorry).

Yes, indeed. We are frugal too, and Congress isn't. That is because too many "constituents" scream when their earmarks are attacked. So it is almost everyone around that is NOT frugal when congressional largesse is seen as a handout.

"HeyBub" wrote in news:fbKdndLs_5zg6IvNnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

How about a middle way? We WILL need to build defenses like the Dutch around some of our habitats. But we can also try to minimize the CO2 (etc, etc) we produce.

Didn't know you were a Keynesian spendthrift ! Spend and inflate, or spend and tax? which will it be? While I do think that just firing everyone who could possibly be missed might also not be a good thing, going the Spanish route of (very temporary) "prosperity" by borrowing and spending on all kinds of luxuries is definitely a recipe for disaster. That is playing out in Europe and Florida.

One can be frugal without being miserly, methinks. We are being frugal by only having 1 car, a 2005 Grand (well ...) Caravan, but we went on an Alaska vacation earlier this year ...

"HeyBub" wrote in news:eYedneEXUukb64vNnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

I like that idea of testing for hemoglobin S. I did that in a research project in the middle '60s, I believe in 1967. it is really cheap. Now what are you going to do when you find HbS in a baby? There still is no good cure or treatment for sickle cell anemia ...

It was a narrow ruling on the mandate as unconstitutional under the commerce clause but valid as a tax (which the authors explicitly denied). The validity of the whole law under the 10th wasn't part of the pleadings.

Earmarks are to satisfy a relatively small number of folks who give big campaign bucks. The "constituents" you mention get frightened when any talk of social program reforms are mentioned, even though our current tax receipts don't cover SS, Medicare and Mediacaid. Some of these and all other Federal spending are borrowed including Obaba-care.

Ditto Huber. If I had to choose a "best book" regarding ecology and sanity, it would have to be Huber's _Hard Green_.

Some people abort when they test early and find gross genetic flaws. I'd be pissed forever at my parents if they'd allowed me to be born with 3 legs, no eyes, or a lead crowbar in my back pocket.

-- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. -- Thomas Paine

(comparing Paine to the current CONgress )

No need to be frugal if you have always lived with in your means and planed for times like these.

My wife and I lived in our first starter home for 30 years. We refinanced it 6 years in and paid an additional $300 per month for 6 years. The house was paid for in 1995 and as a result we have been debt free ever since.

We always looked around us and wondered why we were still in this same starter house 25+ years after moving in and saw people driving very expensive cars and buying huge homes.

Well back in 2008 the answer came and as a result we were able to finally afford/pay cash for a bigger new home.

We are still debt free.

It is a great feeling owing no one, but that only comes from only buying what we can truly afford. I will add that we will finance short term if the interest rate is "Zero" and if we can pay cash to begin with. We have been very lucky to have had the wisdom and patience to wait until we have truly earned what we choose to buy, this methodology has been rewarding.

I'm sure you won't believe him either :-).

Too bad you didn't bother to read the thread, or Muller's study. Admittedly incomplete, it was thoroughly discussed a few posts back. :)

Geeze, Larry, we (Wreck) just had this discussion. Pay attention.

-- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. -- Thomas Paine

(comparing Paine to the current CONgress )

Doug Winterburn wrote in news:50168a8a$0$44608$c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:

The SCOTUS (Roberts) bent backwards to make the law constitutional. I believe that the generalities of the law are good, while some specifics couls probably be done better, but that's my "leftists" opinion, as well as Romney's on the Mass law that served as example. You are correct that the 10th amendment has been successfully outmaneuvered/evaded. While I agree that the US is a Republic of States, it's been some 150 years ago that the opponents lost in a damn bloody war. Get over it. We are better off as a single country rather than conflicting states. Ask the Europeans how that feels nowadays. Sorry if I have offended sensitive souls.

Earmarks I mentioned as an example of Congressional largesse. The whole budget is nowadays made up out of whole cloth. In spite of all the screaming about responsible spending etc. We need to stop pandering to the unions for their featherbedding (if ny), we need to stop spending on unnecessary bureaucracies (wherever they are), and we need to make everyone more responsible for their actions (with effective penalties, not slaps on the wrist and bailouts). And paying for what we do indeed want will require raising taxes. Can't be any other way.

Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I am keeping the HELOC with $75K outstanding and 2.24% interest, for the moment. I'm ready to pay it off when I decide to. That and the revolving charge cards that get paid off every month is what I owe. It is indeed a good feeling to not be in hock. Now I have to get the kids in that same situation/frame of mind. Of course, we have been very lucky with well- paying employment, but we did spend according to income, while saving up for this retirement thing ...

Larry Jaques wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

This is out of the realm of prenatal testing. It was a research project to see whether sickle cell hemoglobin had independently evolved in tropical America, as it had in Africa. The theory was (and is) that HbS in heterozygotes (1 normal gene, 1 for HbS) affords a defense against malaria, which also occurred in the Americas. We tested indigenous Indians in Surinam who had had little if any exposure to whites or African blacks. None tested had HbS, indicating that HbS is an "African" "disease". While there have been many attempts with treatments to correct in one way or another HbS, or to prevent the sickling of the red cells that is the hallmark of the sickle cell disease, none that I know of have really succeeded. It is a horrible disease when you get really afflicted.

"Mike Marlow" wrote in news:7733a$5016d18f$4b75eb81$ snipped-for-privacy@ALLTEL.NET:

OI likely stands for Osteogenesis imperfecta. Osteo- means bone- related, genesis means formation, imperfecta means it doesn't work properly. See . Paul grew up in the house next to the one we occupied for 18 years. He was the cheeriest of people (or however you'd like to express that). He died rather horribly, but the ADA is his legacy ... And that has done a lot of mostly good to a lot of people.

My personal feeling is that if there is a chance you can prevent a lifetime of suffering, for instance by in vitro fertilization and checking whether the embryo does suffer from a genetic defect, then you should consider that. But it is REALLY FAR from me to say anything more, considering the luck that we have had in our lives.

"Mike Marlow" wrote in news:ba22a$5016fb39$4b75eb81$ snipped-for-privacy@ALLTEL.NET:

I have not been personally involved, and once there is a child I'd likely do anything to help that child, but read up on OI, and the suffering involved. I am not sure that the disease is really inherited, more likely a "sporadic" mutation, so you wouldn't know until it is too late. OTOH, there are tests for Huntington's and other diseases. If that were to run in a family, I'd want to know and take precautions so my children wouldn't get it. As I said, I'm beyond the stage where would need to make decisions (even my kids are finished procreating, AFAIK). But I'd urge people with family history to do some planning. Then they have the facts to make their own decisions, and they should be respected no matter what. You'll find no inducement for eugenics from me.

If you pay it off today you will be earning 2.24% more on that money.