What Global Warming?

So John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel, wants to sue Al Gore for fraud as a way to settle the argument over alleged global warming. Sounds like an excellent idea to me! The former VP has won accolades and made moolah for himself by advocating drastic curbs of carbon emissions, thereby undermining our industry and way of life, in order to “cure” a phenomenon which many respected scientists say does not exist.

The weather constantly fluctuates. The idea that it has been warming consistently in modern times isn’t supported by solid evidence. In fact, recent data suggests there is a cooling trend going on, and the Winter that is now ending has been exceptionally cold. The idea that man is responsible and should pay for a phenomenon that probably does not even exist has all the earmarks of a scam.

So I say sue Gore, let scientists testify on both sides, and settle the issue before we do irreparable damage to our economic system and way of life. Gore always impressed me as something of a nut. Let’s find out.

Blame Bush

If you are a Republican, as I was until very recently, and are less than happy with the GOP presidential candidate this year, blame George W. Bush. Usually I am not one for piling on, and Lord knows there is PLENTY to blameBush for, but I must mention something which I haven’t heard cited before, and that is his failure to select a running mate in 2004 who was fit to succeed him in the oval office (as if Bush himself was fit…oh well…).

Out of consideration for the party, Presidents running for re-election usually have that in mind when picking a VP, but Bush apparently didn’t feel adequate to govern without old government-hand Dick Cheney at his side (though I for one don’t see where Cheney has given him a hell of a lot of help in any area).

Consequently the Republicans entered an election year without an heir apparent, since Cheney is obviously not fit to seek four or eight years as president and is disliked by most of the electorate anyway. Both of the party’s qualified candidates (Giuliani and Romney) fell by the wayside, having failed to catch on with the voters, so the GOP is now stuck with a 71-year-old war-booster who has never run anything (as governor, CEO or whatever), is irascible, erratic, and just plain odd if you observe him closely. In saying this, I am in no way disparaging John McCain’s service to his country as a naval flyer or the suffering he endured while a prisoner of war, but those in themselves are not qualifications to be president.

So thank you, Mr. President, for not thinking of the country and the party before making your vice-presidential choice just as you failed the same test when you blundered into Iraq and when you left our southern border inadequately secured for seven years though you had all the authority you needed from day one to STOP illegal immigration.

The Bush legacy is awesome to behold!

Examples of Arrogance

The current news provides two stunning examples of arrogance leading to disaster. First there is Hillary Clinton who was so sure she would have the Democratic presidential nomination locked up by February 5th that she didn’t prepare for any campaigning after that date and consequently allowed Barack Obama to surge past her and amass what may be an unbeatable lead in elected delegates. Also, her people let the Demo party write Florida and Michigan out of the race over a dispute concerning primary election dates, and now she desperately needs the votes of those states.

The other example has just been provided by Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York who thought he could get away with anything and now stands disgraced, his career in ruins.

Will the mighty ever learn that fame requires humility rather than hubris?

BBC from Thailand

Got up this morning and tuned in the BBC World News on an old familiar frequency, 5975 kiloHertz, from their relay station in Thailand. Yes, it came all the way through the air from Thailand to my little radio in my den in Southern California. I know. Everything is available by computer now, but I still prefer to snatch distant signals right out of the air. I have a rooftop antenna, which is required for weak stations, but this one was strong enough so that the whip antenna on the radio would have sufficed.

The receiver I am currently using is a Kaito KA-2100, designed and produced by the Redsun Company of China, which I actually prefer to my considerably more expensive Icom R-75. The Kaito has much better sound quality, is rock solid in tuning, and fun to operate. Anyway, the BBC came in fine at 7 am my time here in Southern California, which is 1400 Universal Time. There was slight interference from Voice of Vietnam in Hanoi, which uses the same frequency but at much lower power than the BBC relay.

After the news at 7:06 am, they launched a news feature program called “Outlook”. The first story dealt with the very cold winter in Afganistan where the people are so hard-pressed to survive that some are selling their children. Awful!

Incidentally, this 5975 frequency for the BBC is supposed to be for Winter only, but they are still using it even though the Summer time change has occurred, at least here in the U. S. I will do a follow-up on this.

Happy listening to the miracle of Real Radio which entertains and amazes me as much today as it did when I was a kid…and that, my friends, was a long time ago.

Clocks, Kilohertz and Obama

Today in most parts of the U. S. we again practice the silly ritual of changing our clocks so we will have an extra hour of daylight at the end of each day during the Spring and Summer months. Okay. I’m all for that. But why not an extra hour of enjoyable daylight every day of the year? Why just in Summer? I say make daylight time standard time from here on out and quit forcing us to change our clocks every March and October. So the farmers don’t like it? Well, they’re outnumbered.

Something else, of interest to shortwave enthusiasts, happens when the time changes, and that is that many SW stations change frequencies and schedules to accommodate different propagation conditions during the Summer months. I’ll hve more to say about that later after I have a chance to do some band scanning and confirm the new times and frequencies.

Oh yes…and Senator Barack Obama said yesterday (or almost said) that he would NOT run for VP on a ticket headed by Hillary Clinton. Smart! The last thing in the world that this very bright, young up-and-comer should do is to ally himself with a politico of the past when the entire theme of his presidential quest has been change. He has time. What he needs to do, in case he doesn’t achieve the Democrat nomination for president this year, is to run for governor of Illinois at the next opportunity, get himself some executive experience and creds, then launch a winning drive for the presidency. This man is a genuine phenomenon. He is going to change the country! If this is not his year, 2012 will be…or 2016.

I am not saying I support Obama, understand. I haven’t yet decided what I am going to do this Fall, but I am saying that Obama is a remarkable young politician, and I believe he will make history if all continues to go well for him.

 Happy Daylight Savings Time!

Hello World!

Hello! I am retired, living in Southern California, USA, and I use the web-name of Hewho because it can preface a lot of things, as in He who does…or says…or whatever. In that spirit, this blog will deal with a lot of things. I may express some outrageous (or mundane) views on politics, baseball, lifestyles, and life in general, and will talk about my lifelong passion of listening to the radio and logging distant stations which is a hobby known as dx-ing.

For now I will just let a greeting suffice and invite you to stop by again. I will endeavor to make at least one post each day. Please feel free to comment on anything that interests you.