Recordo

We are a competitive species, for the most part. But one thing we don't fight over is our place in line for going to heaven. If it makes you feel better to believe that we are causing climate change and that we should turn our economy and way of life inside out to satisfy that belief, go ahead. You'd accomplish much more with birth control and education, and as a tourist pointed out, one volcano releases more greenhouse gas than all of mankind. But celebrities can't make money off volcanoes and politicians can't sell tax plans based on lava (although they give it a good try). So if it makes you feel good to curse the industrial revolution that brought you here and provides your lifestyle, go ahead. Just don't be a hypocrite and live off the engine you profess to hate. (Saturday | post #145)

You want someone's attention, appeal to their self-interest. Don't try to improve their minds. I tried to get my daughter to quit smoking for a year telling her all kinds of health horror stories. No dice. Then I pointed out how bad her hair smelled. She quit that day. You can wave Al Gore and melting glaciers around all you want and get the attention of a few who have little or nothing to lose by paying attention. Half of the "science " arguments are self-righteous bursts of arrogance. But when real-estate in marginal sea-level areas is threatened, like South Florida, the lights go on in the upper floors. We have heard proposals for building levies in Miami, making the Keys into floating islands, all kinds of nonsense. All because somebody's property is at stake. If that's what it takes to motivate people, fine. In an earlier post I suggested that we wipe Global Warming off the table and focuse on energy independence instead. The dividends are the same. The difference is that people act much faster out of fear than from any desire to do the right thing. The debate over climate change will continue until the United Nations's first three floors are an aquarium. But switching the planet's energy resources away from fossil fuel under any pretext necessary will benefit the species and it can be done. All our politicians have to figure out is how to keep the cash flow going to China since they haven't got the balls to restore industry to this country. (Saturday Dec 26 | post #132)

Health Care - Miami, FL

It's not as if privately-run health care, aka the Insurance Industry, couldn't do a better job of what they do. Of course they could. And it's not as if millions who need health care have to choose between eating and paying for an office visit. That's a reality. And it's not as if the back door emergency room isn't the most expensive public defender money can buy--it is. Pre-existing conditions don't have to disqualify you from treatment, although they do at the moment. But these are all things that could be fixed WITHOUT hijacking the nation's healthcare system and turning it into a social services revenue engine managed by the fed. The debate is all but over and the "spenders " have conferred the title of "good guys" on themselves. But also notice that even now, with billions in pork hidden between the lines of a 2,000 page circus healthcare bill, nobody will stand up and say just what this is going to cost. Obama has bought his re-election with this bill. The Democrats have renewed their mortgage on the House and Senate. And what have we got to show for it all? A temporary reprieve from gay marriage debates. A momentary switch from nightly Afghanistan programming. Illegal immigration gets a time-out. Iranian nuke production can't be all that bad. China resumes its feast of American industry. Jobs for Slobs as a giant national healthcare administration comes on line. This has to rank as the biggest con ever sold to a nation of morons. But of course IT'S FREE, and doggone it, we DESERVE it... (Saturday Dec 26 | post #205)

Let's say that the Global Warming movement is a terror tactic (which it isn't), but let's just say it is to keep Rush busy and Al Gore on the defensive and this thread humming. Isn't it time to move this country's reliance on cheap oil off the table and quit pouring money into Islamic banks? If the consumption of energy remains in a slow climb, we either cannibalize our own carbon assets, buy from the Arabs, or find another way to light houses, move cars and trains, keep trucks rolling, etc. The Arab world is facing an event horizon of 35 years or so before their window of petroleum opportunity closes and the stuff near the surface just runs out. THAT is why we see the mad scramble for nuclear weapons, political leverage, dragging tribal nations kicking and screaming into fascism. Global Warming is a little too exotic for general consumption so we'll have to invoke national security instead. The cost of keeping the supertankers afloat will only grow year by year in human lives. The ONLY solution is to deflate the market for oil, NOT to transfer wealth. If China believes that its oil imports from Iran are worth sanctioning that country to build a nuclear arsenal, it will happen because of all the US paper in China's hands, not because of any measure of conscience. If this country's politicians are too timid to take back the massive industrial base they GAVE to China, the miracle well of jobs will be paid for by Chinese payrolls. We will be a nation of temps working for a network of retailers selling Chinese goods. Whoops! We already are. The current recession proves that consumerism is smoke and mirrors; that staying on top of the wealth pyramid is an ongoing balancing act, not a divine right. Industry produces wealth; wealth produces jobs; jobs produce industry, and so it goes. If America has entered middle-age and no longer wants to take bold initiatives, at least allow self-interest to have a say in politics and the economy. Quit glorifying mediocrity in the name of diversity; let Natural Selection take its best shot. (Saturday Dec 26 | post #125)

Former astronaut scoffs at global warming

The actual solutions being posed are comical. Birth control via global transfer of wealth? Even Obama would laugh that one to death. Taxing the formation of CO2 molecules? Nice work if you can get it but a con just the same. Weaning the planet of primary reliance on fossil fuels for energy by building wind and tide generators? You're asking the world to abandon the industrial revolution, have no more babies than it can feed, give up greed and immediate gain in favor of conscience... When WHAT freezes over? If we're destined to die in our own filth, so be it. Go ahead and argue the fine points; you're shoveling shit against the tide. (Saturday Dec 26 | post #1341)

Cuban Americans In South Florida

Sounds like ImpotentMaxx lost another fan. The famous sentence "It's none of my business, but..." should stop before the first comma. When you argue with dogs over scraps, you become a dog. Why not argue over something honorable like Marco Rubio or the Second Coming, or what the colors of the Miami flag should be after it secedes from the Union and invades Cuba? Every issue that appears in this and similar Cuban threads always ends in juvenile insults, playground games and toothless dog fights. If you have such dire personality problems take them to a priest and ask forgivenss for all those around you who brought your innocent, lily-white ass to Miami. But quit trying to sell genetic engineering with all the problems you seem to have. And please, quit cursing in Spanglish. (Friday Dec 18 | post #2863)

"That's not fair," scream the Muslims, "we deserve our fair share of the petroleum pie." And so the short-lived wealth pyramids come tumbling down. And what's the fallout on our next generation? Quieter cars, windmills everywhere, tidal generators on beaches, statues erected to Al Gore, movies, digital books, etc. But the same evils that brought us here will continue to be with us: over population, greed programmed into our DNA, a violent chimpanzee nature, and false prophets on every street corner. We can live with that. We have for the past hundred thousand years as icebergs came and went, glaciers froze and melted, volcanoes spewed and frogs fell from the sky. So lighten up and keep your powder dry. (Friday Dec 18 | post #58)

You hear psychophants cry "The earth is warming, the earth is warming," and you look at the magazine racks and you see girls in bikinis. I guess the earth MUST be warming, huh... Al Gore and his robots claim that human industry is responsible for this dilemma and that we have 15 minutes to turn things around or else. Or else what? Our cable bills go up? Our broadband costs more? Those smart little hybrid cars that are so "right" to drive are coming down in price??? If this was correct, which it isn't, the ice caps of Mars would not have melted away over the last 15 years. Mars has no pollution, no ozone depletion, no petrochemical industry. So how come Mars has no ice, either???? Is it a trick the oil companies are playing or does Al Gore have only one eye in that big head of his? Chickens habitually cry "the sky is falling" because that's what they know. Now a new breed of chicken, possible a mutation, is telling us that it isn't the sky that's falling, it's the oceans that are rising. I'm not denying the change in temperature or the rise of the oceans or the shrinking of the poles--here or on Mars. I'm just fed up with being told what to do by chickens. (Thursday Dec 17 | post #57)

Mayor Regalado promises revitalization of Miami

When a "refugee " makes landfall, he becomes an "immigrant. " If he works hard, learns the language, uses his head and stays honest, he becomes a "citizen. " If he stays in the dirty bathwater of his mother country and whines about injustices there, he becomes an "asshole. " It's not that studying history is wrong or that patrimony is a worthwhile pursuit, just that time travels in ONE direction. Accept this or live with the consequences. You might read a little Edmund Burke while you're at it, even if he wasn't a Cuban. (Thursday Dec 17 | post #66)

San Francisco: The Worst-Run Big City in the U.S

I like the new noun "Warmist. " That reminds me of my 3 year-old nephew being offered corn chips with "hot sauce," to which he replied, in sincerity, "I want cold sauce." (Thursday Dec 17 | post #50)

San Francisco, CA

If you think San Francisco is so bad, you haven't been to Miami. Not that there's anything wrong with utopias, just that after visiting Disneyland or Disneyworld, you're supposed to remember that you're LEAVING, not taking the fantasy with you. San Franciso, like so much of California, is collapsing in on itself after so many years of buying its own liberal hype. Now the only ones making money are the drug dealers and the HIV clinics. Well, that's entertainmnet. Or evolution... (Thursday Dec 17 | post #526)

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco: The Worst-Run Big City in the U.S

California got very, very rich off of agriculture, oil, aircraft and the movies. Then it began to believe its own cover story and built up the largest utopian welfare system in the country. While half of the state worked to stay afloat, the other half didn't even speak English and had no plans to. When it was finally audited, so to speak, California's utopia was broke. Busted. Flat on its golden ass. Its municipal bonds have junk-bond ratings and the state now issues IOUs because it has no other currency. California will have to give up its largesse and go back to work, if it remembers how. The underground Mexican railroad will have to close. Gay marriages, financial aid to whomever, and other non-essentials will have to go on hold while California and its showcase Amsterdam - San Francisco learn how to make an honest buck without printing presses. Oh woe! (Wednesday Dec 16 | post #102)

You have been BOUGHT, you imbecile, and the price was too low to even be considered a bargain. YES the surface is warming. YES ice is melting. YES sea levels will rise. YES coastal real-estate will have problems. NO is isn't man-made, and NO it isn't going to be fixed by Boy Scouts. Warming and cooling are normal cycles on this and other planets. Neither you nor Al Gore can turn off the carbon dioxide being poured into the atmosphere by volcanoes, thermal vents, or other NATURAL phenomena. But Al Gore and an army like him can make BILLIONS off mindless drones like you who are ready to believe that the sky is falling, the oceans rising, the mountains crumbling... etc. The convenience of Global Warming is to initiate a divorce from oil as the primary source of energy and nuclear war. Can't you see that??? (Tuesday Dec 15 | post #9)

Cuban Americans In South Florida

ONCE UPON A TIME during the Cold War the CIA needed a champion to go out and fight communism. So they put used body parts together and built a monster. It was supposed to get a dog's brain so it could smell out communists, but as the storm was rising, they mistakenly gave it a Cuban brain instead. It woke up, smiled and screamed (in perfect Spanish) "Down with Castro!" and the CIA knew they had succeeded. So they bought it housing, new cars, weapons, gave it credit cards, and brought plenty of young girls to its door. It refused to learn English so the CIA convinced the schools to teach its children in Spanish, made bilingualism the law in hospitals, government offices, banks... Every time the Monster crashed a car, robbed a store, raped a woman, stole from the elderly, it would scream "Down with Castro!" and it was excused. Soon the Monster had taken over the Port of Miami, the Airport, the local government, the zoning boards, the police... Its children carried knives to school and had guns in their cars. But the Monster was on the move. Convinced that Global Warming was about to wipe out the beaches and destroy what was left of its real estate, its handlers looked to other American cities to settle into. They had to be rich, fat, and easy pickings. The Monster learned some basic mythology: it wasn't really built from body parts--it was a direct descendant of the Court of Spain. It swore allegiance to any country, place or thing that paid it. It accepted speaking engagements, wrote books, remembered to periodically cry out "Down with Castro!" and it prospered. (Tuesday Dec 15 | post #2755)