Thursday, March 10, 2005

 

Actual....Letters to the Editor...!

From time to time we like to listen to the voice of the people to see what burning issues are troubling Americans. So we always look through the letters dept. of various newspapers and our local ones in particular. What better way to ridicule the higher intellegence displayed among us these days.

Believe it or not....the following specimen appeared in the 3/8/5 edition of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Honest.

The full story

EDITOR: We have heard that carbon dioxide and methane are the main greenhouse gases affecting global warming. We haven't heard much about the other major greenhouse gas: water vapor. Yes, the humidity in the air is a greenhouse gas. And there is 20 times more water vapor in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Every time you take a shower, you are emitting greenhouse gases.

I have been in e-mail correspondence with several key NASA scientists, who admit they haven't done much in explaining water vapor's role as a greenhouse gas. I suspect that if the public knew that water vapor was a greenhouse gas, they would realize how futile it is to cut back on carbon dioxide emissions. It would also put a new spin on the Kyoto treaty.

Water vapor is a complex greenhouse gas. When it is a vapor, it acts like a greenhouse gas; but when it rains, and it is in its liquid state, it doesn't. The science of greenhouse gases is very complex, but the American public has been led to believe that since mankind is creating carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels, mankind has caused this global warming. The truth is that mankind is certainly contributing to it, but its contribution is still unknown.

Did you know there is 50 times more carbon dioxide in the oceans than in the atmosphere? When the oceans warm up, they emit carbon dioxide. Next time you read about greenhouse gases and global warming, be suspicious that the media and the politicians are telling you the full story.

FRED ZMARZLY Santa Rosa

~*~ Fortunately a quick response appeared at the head of the same forum on 3/10:

Too Ridiculous

Editor: I don't have a lot of time to listen to the hysterical bleatings from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and other lunatic fringe prophets, but the Tuesday letter from Fred Zmarly was too ridiculous to ignore Apparently, Zmarly believes global warming is now being caused by water vapor. Yes, water vapor. Not the sulpher dioxides and other noxious poisons we pump into the atmosphere by burning fosol fuels, but wator vapor. Well, there you go.

I remember 20 years ago, when another brilliant scientific genius, Ronald Reagan, noted that "80 percent of all air pollution is caused by by plants and trees." Now, it seems water is the real culprit. Trees and water. Unbelievable.

Thank you, Press Democrat, for printing letters like Zmarly's, which so clearly illustrate for us all the tragic consequences of under-funding public education for years.

Steve Maitich Santa Rosa

posted by ~Brahma 7:01 PM

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

 

Brahma Returns

I've been noticing on the sitemeter that various people have been returning here despite the fact that nothing new has been added for close to two months. One can only assume that another entry would be welcomed. Unfortunately other obligations prevent me from composing original thought today, so I offer this story from New York City:

Shops sell dangerous material to undercovers

He tried hard to look suspicious.

But five of eight shopkeepers allowed an undercover detective to buy 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate - a farm fertilizer that can be used to make deadly explosives.

The attempted buys last week were part of an effort by the Suffolk Police Department, the Suffolk district attorney's office and the state office of homeland security to determine whether shopkeepers are vigilant about buyers of this unregulated product.

When mixed with diesel fuel and a few other easily obtainable ingredients, ammonium nitrate forms an explosive with more than half the force of dynamite. It was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, and the 2002 bombing of a nightclub in Bali that killed 192. "We have to get the word out to the public and to the people who sell this dangerous product," Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said.

The shopkeepers who didn't report the sale do not face charges because there are no laws regulating the sale of ammonium nitrate, District Attorney Tom Spota said.

The prosecutor called on state lawmakers to enforce "some sort of legislation, to at least, at a bare minimum, have some sort of registration" requirement for ammonium nitrate sales. Ammonium nitrate purchases are already tightly restricted in Europe.

This is how authorities say the undercover cop tried to appear suspicious while "shopping" at the eight landscaping and agricultural stores: He would park a van right in front, and give a list to the shopkeeper that included 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate - enough for 10 acres of farmland. The list included a Brooklyn home address, where not too much farmland exists. The undercover also acted as if he was "not a native-born American," Spota said.

Two shopkeepers - in Riverhead and East Hampton - notified authorities. And at another store, a customer who witnessed the attempted sale called the FBI with the van's license plate number.

But the five other attempts apparently raised few eyebrows. In one case, the shopkeeper later told detectives that he was suspicious - but didn't contact law enforcement because the customer did not appear "Middle Eastern."

"If anything, Timothy McVeigh [convicted and executed in the Oklahoma City bombing] didn't look like he was from the Middle East," Spota said. "Anybody could do this."
Detectives had earlier visited each of these stores, giving them a list of warning signs, and urged them to call authorities if they had any suspicions.


~*~ Well....at least we're protected from foul language being broadcast over our airwaves...!
~B*

posted by ~Brahma 11:24 AM