Government Propaganda at Comic Con?

I do not care about Comic Cons but I worry about government propaganda. The Department of Energy, which has an agenda and makes policies based on that agenda, is holding a panel at the Baltimore Comic Con to "discuss the interplay between science and cinema."

You do realize this means that tax dollars are being used to send government employees to Comic Con? If the government needs a presence anywhere it is Comic Con. If the IRS can make a Star Trek video why not the Department of Energy at Comic Con?

So who is going to be on this panel? A Minorities in Energy Champion, two employees from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and an employee from the Office of Environmental Management. The Office of Environmental Management is quite legit since it is for the cleanup up of the "nuclear legacy" from government nuclear research. The others try to force the world into the agency's world view.

There is another member on the panel not listed on the DoE's announcement and that is Marius Stan. You can find this at the Comic Con site. He is listed as a DoE Senior advisor and actor from Breaking Bad; he is also a scientist.

Maybe I'm making something out of nothing. It is not like they are handing out propaganda, unless you consider handing out a children's coloring book, Get Current, that promotes only renewable energy. You know. Teach kids it's a good idea to turn food into fuel when people are starving in other countries or even at home.

No chance of propaganda here.

• Department of Energy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• Baltimore Comic Con
• IMDB
• YouTube

Rant With Jeff

Go to Rant With Jeff NOW!

Who cares? [ Your pathetic distractions ]

Watch the Super Bowl?

Who cares?

Team so-n-so passed and kicked a ball more than team such-n-such!

Who cares?

Our President threatens to violate the law of the land to write into law what HE thinks should be law.

Who cares?

Famous actor blah-blah-bloffman died!

Our President lied to us over and over to pass a health care law that so far has netted people losing health care; a majority of those that have not lost it now pay more. The effects are opposite of the promise.

Who cares?

Singer you-know-who did an inappropriate performance at an awards show. Let's all get upset and talk about it!

Our President lied to the nation AND the United Nations about why four or more Americans died in Benghazi.

But who really cares?

Really?

Your liberties are slowly being chipped away but you still have your general comfort level; you still can enjoy your pop culture distraction.

Who cares?

Obviously you don't!

Who cares?

That one percent, no, not the rich, those that serve. That one percent that promise their lives so that you may be free. That one percent that actually lose their first amendment rights to protect yours. That one percent that some frame as the evil military. That one percent that is a paradox of what some think means freedom.

Who cares?

Help the poor! Those that care about the poor care! Take from the rich!

Who cares?

We all should. This desire to protect the poor shifted care coming from the people to care coming from the government. But the government sucks at it! Charities must abide by certain guidelines, but the government that imposes these guidelines fails at these guidelines in their own welfare programs.

Who cares?

I care.

That is why I am telling you too many of you are idiots.

How can you care better?

Very simple.

When you vote, are you voting for someone that supports personal liberties or the common good?

Vote for personal liberties. That will increase the common good.

Voting for the common good is a vote for government control; the government can not do anything right. You've seen that, right? DMV, ACA?

Vote for singularity, not group control.

Do you care?

Energy Independence : What a Crock

I am sick of this "Energy Independence" that the politicians talks about. One set of people mean as switching to renewable energies : solar and wind. Another set of people mean it as drilling for oil and keeping it for ourselves. Granted, this is an over-simplification.

Renewable Energies

If renewable energies were good the companies would not keep going bankrupt! The government has been dumping too much of our money into them. The government has no business doing that!

They can not legislate physics to do what they want!

This means no matter how much legislation you make you can not make renewable energy perform better. Only scientist and research can make it better and only if it is possible. Dump all the money you want into research, it does not mean you will find a way to make it cost effective.

More Oil

Yes, it would be nice if we drilled for more oil. It would mean more jobs here. However, it does not necessarily mean the price of oil would drop. The price of oil is pretty much set by the global economy. The US buying power helps us to purchase it at a reasonable price compared to other countries.

Energy

This energy independence talk is just ridiculous. Our energy is produced here. There are no wires coming in from another country powering us. We produce the energy ourselves.

The issue is fuel. By continuing to talk about "energy" we screw up the conversation. Energy needs to be reframed as different concepts.

• Fuels
• Production Methods

Independence

Are we talking about isolation? The independence talk eludes to the idea we will not buy fuel from the global market. Why?

We are not food independent nor manufacturing independent! Why do we have to be energy independent?

Any leveraging another country might exert against us may drive prices up, but we do have many forms of producing energy. If oil prices worry us, look at what is happening now. So far gas is high and we have a bad economy, but we are still here and we are not rioting like other countries.

We can get through and come up with a way. Chances are at some point private industry may ignore government and just do what must be done. Damn the regulations and step up and provide the country what it needs. More energy, not more laws.

Regulations

We can stop talking about energy independence by talking about regulations. Regulations are out of control.

People believe the regulations protect us and keep the environment clean in regards to mining and extracting fuel. The problem is that there are two tipping points in regulations that end up hurting us and cause production to move out of country:

• Regulations that deny fuel extraction
• Regulations that make fuel extraction no longer cost effective

We are hurt in two ways.

• Loss of jobs
• Dirty environment

The loss of jobs is obvious, but dirty environment? That is what happens. The countries that end up accessing the fuel do not have as stringent environmental policies as the US. This becomes a case of "not in my backyard" solutions that still affect us.

The environment is supposed to be global, so it does not matter where the pollution happens. In the end by us not having a more reasonable set of regulations we let someone else do it in a dirtier method.

Energy independence. What a crock. No one is making sense.

Fat Heads Support Fat Tax

I was going to go ahead and rant on this, but I don't really need to.

A story out of Indianapolis cites a study that says a "fat tax" could help curb obesity. Who did the study nor the name of the study is cited, just "a study." Now that's good journalism!

The story uses alcohol and tobacco taxes as a reason to tax fatty foods. The other taxes reduced use of those sin products which theoretically means it could work for fatty foods. A 20% tax is recommended in the article. Not kidding. 20%!

So why am I not going to rant? Go read the article and the comments. You can see all the ranting that needs to be done is in the comments. I don't how the journalist found someone to support this tax, but the readers are pissed!

Overwhelmed

Do you want to be overwhelmed by climate change news? Watch ...

"What's Up With That?"

Excellent site. But still overwhelming.

Immoral Tree Planting

FairWarning.org has a pretty interesting article about Robert, a whistle blower, suing Lamar Advertising Co., a billboard company, about an unjust firing. In turn the billboard company is being investigated for illegally killing trees.

According to the article it looks like the company broke the law. The article is written to make Lamar and other billboard companies look bad. However, if you really pay attention, it is the state that is acting completely and wholly immoral.

Trees, the environment, and other touchy feely green things are touted as more important than companies today. Government wastes our money on this stuff. Remember the recent story of California moving a bush at a cost of over $200,000? Well this billboard issue is not about spending money on nature, but extorting money from companies by leveraging the touchy feely trend.

In brief, this is the problem. Billboard companies are killing trees so that you can see their billboards. Sound evil? Well ask yourself, why are there trees in the way? The state planted them!

So now we have destruction of state property. But as I said, this is a scam. These trees are part of beautification projects for the highway. If you want to have beautification of the highways, why not stop licensing billboards?

This is why.

1. Company pays fees, licensing, and/or permits for billboards
2. State plants trees in front of billboards
3. State extorts more money from company because
   • Company pays for a tree trimming permit
     and/or
   • Company gets fined for killing trees

Even if a company gets a permit to trim trees they may still end up killing them. The image below is an image from the article that shows trees that were neutralized in relation to a billboard. Remember that when sitting in a car your line of sight is lower than when standing. If you were to trim a tree so that you could see the billboard you would have to "top" the trees.

Topping is bad for trees. It can be very unhealthy for the tree. If the state was truly concerned about the trees they would not allow trimming to make billboards visible. Killing the trees is less expensive than "topping" that produces sick and hazardous trees.

The article also mentions that wild trees are killed. That is worse, right? If it is bad then how bad is it that our tax dollars were used to destroy many more trees to make the highway. The billboards companies are just participating in the exact same practice that we funded the state to do.

Due to this illogical and immoral campaign of planting trees in front of billboards by the state, the billboard companies take measure to remove them. Robert, the litigant mentioned at the beginning, had the job of killing trees. He suffered a back injury and insisted that he needed a light duty job and could no longer kill trees. He no longer works at Lamar. Lamar claims that they did not fire Robert. The article does not clarify this any further.

Robert should sue the state, not Lamar. The state's extortion practise put him in the position of filling an "illegal practice" job. Now he has no job since he refuses to do it. His whistle blower status gives him protection. I can only assume Lamar never thought Robert would do this for fear of prosecution for participating in the illegal activities.

In the end I would be willing to bet that Lamar will be fined and the state will get a windfall of cash. I am sure the state will let Lamar continue to operate billboards. The state has too much money to make from permits, fines, and lawsuits.

Don't Speak Before You Have All Of The Facts

Sounds like I'm about to make a commentary on the Trayvon-Zimmerman conspiracy, right? Wrong! I am going to talk about Cher.

Why am I talking about Cher instead of politics? Because it is a good example of "rush to judgment" by the press and political figures without having to be controversial. It shows how the press and political figures have political diarrhea of the mouth. It shows lack of vetting of a story.

The issue is that "the Key to the City" of Adelaide, Australia went up for auction on Ebay on April 18th at 14:00:51 PDT. Cher received the key in 1990 and has had it for 22 years.

On April 21st we get the story[1][2] about this auction and that Australians are angered by this.

The press gave us a quote from Stephen Yarwood, the mayor of Adelaide :

It must be very embarrassing for her if she is selling it because she needs the money.

We also got a quote from the former mayor that gave her the key, Steve Condous :

I'm disappointed. I would have thought that getting the key to a city like Adelaide would have had some value to her, but obviously it doesn't because she wouldn't have got rid of it.

Story does not have any comments from Cher, Cher's consignor that runs the auction, or mentions that neither could be reached for comment. That's funny because the Ebay auction page has a questions section. There are no question before April 22nd in that section.

After this story breaks the auction page is updated. This is added to the auction's description:

On Apr-21-12 at 16:19:58 PDT, seller added the following information:

Cher has a Charitable Foundation.

Proceeds of items sold go towards charitable endeavors.

The next day we get another update on the description:

On Apr-22-12 at 11:43:00 PDT, seller added the following information:

I have many questions as to why Cher is auctioning this item... in answer to this question:

Cher receives many awards and gifts from all over the world. And she is always humbled and touched by these gracious gestures. At certain times she goes through her huge collection and decides to share many of these special treasures with her fans, with all the proceeds going to Cher’s Charitable Foundation. Please know that the proceeds for this auction and everything on Authentic_Cher are helping people all over the world through Cher’s charitable and humanitarian endeavors. I think the city of Adelaide should be proud of what this plaque & key are doing for those in need or suffering. Cher is incredible, kind and generous and in no way meant to slight the people of Adelaide. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerest regards, Linda, Authentic_Cher

In the questions section for the auction, in response to one of the questions we find out this is not the first key to go up for auction, but the first to stir up controversy.

Next, on April 23rd, Cher tweets about the auction:

Im upset 2& trying 2get2 bottom! I Think my office fkd up?RT @bettyann329 key 2 Adelaide on Ebay upsetting the peeps in Aussie esp the Mayor

The Huffington Post has an update on April 24th in which they mention that the money goes to charity. In turn we have an updated quote from Condous on this fact :

It's our key, so I believe the money should come back here.

Can you see what has happened? Everyone is on the defensive or offensive front. Can you see the orchestration by the press?

I can not say a bad thing about Cher or the mayors. I see no evidence that the press tried to talk to Cher or her consignor. They only mention her tweet. I also can't help but feel that the quotes from the mayors are cherry picked. I wonder if there is a more full interview, or if they were commenting on a "fact" thrown to them by the press.

This is not a controversy. The key was given to her. It is hers and no one else's. She held on to it for over 20 years. She could toss it in the trash and no one would be any the wiser. Instead she is using it to raise money for charity. The item went for $95,900. Good for her.

The press just loves to tear people down for the hell of it. They are lazy sick bastards that can't seem to do their job correctly anymore.

Cher has done no wrong.

1 2

It's Earth Day

So What!

♁

Screw the Earth

Yeah. I said it. Screw the Earth.

Today at 8:30pm is "Earth Hour." Turn off all of your electricity. Light a candle. Why? Climate change, or global warming awareness, or some horse hockey like that. Show how freaking sensitive you are by turning off your lights. Gimme a break.

What has the Earth done for us? Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, fires, tornadoes, droughts, and volcanoes. Check out this list of death tolls by natural disaster. And you feel like man is a threat to the Earth?

Screw the Earth.

Do you want to make the Earth a better place? Use electricity! It improves YOUR quality of life and produces CO₂. Do you know what likes CO₂? Plants! Without it, they die! Without plants, we die! Plants are food. I like food. Bring on the CO₂.

Screw "save" the Earth mantras. My selfishness is helping it.

Save the Earth. Really? You cannot save the Earth. Some day the Sun is going to burn out, explode, or cease to exist at any beneficial level. Then where will the Earth be? Dead. That's where. Before then, the Earth might get hit by a global killing asteroid. In fact, tomorrow an asteroid will be passing by relatively close.

We need to get off of this rock. To do this we need to invent. We need to produce and use energy. But what is happening?  Bass-ackward morons are trying to limit use. People tout wind and solar. What good is wind technology going to do for you in space? What good is solar when you leave the solar system? These people are dooming us to stay earth bound and die with the Earth.

You cannot save the Earth. You can only save yourself.

Do you want to know what I am going to do at 8:30? I'm going to go outside, dig a modestly sized hole, and then guess what I am going to do.

That's right.

Screw the Earth.