August 16th Quietly Celebrated
For many years the Federal Government used sixty-five as the determining age for one to draw full Social Security retirement benefits. But, in the 1980s Congress created a new plan to gradually raise the eligibility age for full benefits to sixty-seven. In my case, I’m eligible at 65 and 10 months, but persons, including my wife, born between 1943 and 1954 will have to wait until they are 66 to collect their full Social Security benefit. Furthermore, persons born between 1954 and 1960 must add 2 months for each year after 1954, staggering the retirement ages, 66 and 2 months, 66 and 4 months, until the maximum age 67, is reached. Many of my generation have long associated Senior Citizen status with that which defined full benefit withdrawals from Social Security at age 65. That’s why my brother proclaimed, all too gleefully I might add, that I’m now a Senior Citizen. I don’t know that the next generation will adhere to a similar guideline, but if they do, then I just got admitted two years too early to the ranks of Senior Citizens. My sister, Sarah, and our truck-driver-friend, Linda Maddox, showed up late for supper at my house Thursday night. It was Linda who asked, "Do you feel any older today than you did yesterday?" Had she asked me the same question, a day before, a week before, or a month or two before, I would have said, "No." But, the morning of my birthday, well before the temperature rose to 105, I chose to trim a few shrubs near the garage. It’s usually my arms that give out from lifting the gasoline powered trimmer higher than my chest, though it’s sometimes my legs from bending down to trim a hedge. Yet, neither was the case Thursday morning. I only worked about an hour before calling it a day. Nope, it was not the amount of work I had done that had me feeling older; it was a pulled muscle in my lower back. And, the curious part was how easily it happened. I had finished trimming a shrub and stepped backward to size up the results. In doing so, a slight pain rifled from right to left across my lower back, just below my beltline. The pain lasted but an instant, and I worked for perhaps another half-hour. An hour later, the muscles of my lower back were stiffening. I took a hot shower and did little the rest of the day except check email on my computer and wash a load or two of clothes. "Yes, I do," I replied to Linda’s question, and explained that my back had gone out on me. "But, apart from my back hurting, I really don’t feel any older." "You can thank Felicia for your cake," Sarah shared. "She called and woke me up, or I would not have gotten it made. I brought you a present; Felicia’s got you one, too, that she’ll get to you later. Actually, I bought this for you last year and forgot to give it to you." We could be Jewish, for all the symbolism my family tosses around. The quickly decorated birthday cake had a cluster of red grapes topping it, the grapes, of course, symbolizing Pontotoc’s Chickasaw name and the heritage of our fair city and county, not to mention that images of grapes adorn each cover of RRN and are printed on the envelopes containing the weekly issues that are mailed. The trio of women sang Happy Birthday to me before asking me to blow out the one candle atop the cake. I’ve long passed the age where it’s considered safe to light a candle for each year of life being celebrated. Anyway, I look terrible with singed facial hair. Presents? At sixty-five does one still get a birthday present? I don’t know whether one should or not, but I won’t rob the giver of the joy of giving by refusing a present. "I hope this isn’t a book," I stated, for my sister’s benefit, as I slipped the ribbon off the small package. Sarah, who has difficulty keeping a secret, shared, "Part of it is." Inside were two gifts; a DVD and a paperback book. The DVD is a comedy titled, "Wild Hogs" staring Tim Allen, John Travolta, and a couple more guys. The paperback is "Fisherman’s Book of Wisdom," something I could have compiled had the notion struck me. I’m sure I will enjoy both the DVD and the book and will likely reference the book more often than the DVD, especially if the book has many quotes similar to the first one to catch my eye. "If fishing interferes with your business, give up your business." – Sparse Grey Hackle (Alfred W. Miller) I received birthday wishes from several friends and family members and appreciated all of them. Some wishes arrived by card, one by e-Card, several by telephone, a few via email, and a handful were verbalized. Elvis Presley received a lot more attention than I did on August 16th, but I’m okay with that; he’s dead and I’m not.
Global Warming An Update It is all too easy to believe some of what is "preached" about global warming, when the temperature in north Mississippi climbs above 100 degrees for several consecutive days, as was the case this week. Climate change occurs far too slowly for anyone to be sure of what’s really happening at present. However, that doesn’t stop pseudo-scientific speculation from everybody’s favorite election-looser, Al Gore, his left-media supporters, and the glitz squad of Hollywood’s acting community. Mark Alexander wrote a comprehensive piece on Global Warming last February and this week provided what he describes as a "talking-point summary of developments regarding global-climate trends that have been collected," since that article was published. RRN is proud to share the following with its readership: Most of the evidence concerning U.S. temperature trends is collected by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, which gathers information from about 1,200 weather observation stations across the nation. These stations are small wooden sheds with thermometers, which are read at intervals, mostly by volunteers. Many are located in sprawling urban and industrial centers, known as "heat islands," and are subject to higher readings than stations in rural areas where temperatures are subject mostly to "land use effects." Most of the recent global-warming alarmists use 1998 as the benchmark for the hottest year on record, but it turns out that their reporting is flawed, the result of a math blunder. In fact, 1934 was the hottest year on record, and four of the ten hottest years in the U.S. were recorded in the 1930s. The second hottest year on record was 1998, but the third hottest was 1921, not 2006. Notably, six of the ten hottest years occurred prior to 90 percent of the economic growth associated with increased greenhouse-gas emissions. H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, reports, "Much of the current global-warming fear has been driven by [NASA scientist James] Hansen’s pronouncements, and he routinely claims to have been censored by the Bush administration for his views on warming. Now that NASA, without fanfare, has cleaned up his mess, Hansen has been silent—I guess we can chalk this up to self-censorship." New climate reports: In the winter of 2007, NASA satellites indicated that water temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska were dropping, suggesting that cooling Pacific waters may be a precursor to the reversal of a 30-year warming trend. The cooling resulted in the coldest season of Arctic air the lower 48 have seen in more than three decades. Additionally, Reuters "News" Service reports, "Australian scientists have discovered a giant underwater current that is one of the last missing links of a system that connects the world’s oceans and helps govern global climate. New research shows that a current sweeping past Australia’s southern island of Tasmania toward the South Atlantic is a previously undetected part of the world climate system’s engine-room." This, of course, raises an all-important question: How can the climate debate be "settled" if we still don’t know what we don’t know? Climate modeling: The computer models cited by Albert Gore and company are outcome-based, depending on how a programmer varies some of the five million input parameters or the multitude of negative and positive feedbacks in the program. Scott Armstrong is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and one of the world’s foremost experts on long-range forecasting. He is author of "Long-Range Forecasting," the most frequently cited book on forecasting methodology. Armstrong and Kesten Green of New Zealand’s Monash University examined the IPCC’s report, and, at the 27th Annual International Symposium on Forecasting, they concluded, "Claims that the Earth will get warmer have no more credence than saying that it will get colder." Armstrong bet Gore $10,000 that he could provide a better climate forecast than that of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which Gore cites regularly. "The methodology was so poor that I thought a bet based on complete ignorance of the climate could do better," said Armstrong. "We call it ‘the naive model’." Gore’s office replied, "Please understand that Mr. Gore is not taking on any new projects at this time." The warming Solar System: As it turns out, there are some other planets in our solar system which are experiencing global warming—and these planets don’t have SUVs. Mars is getting hotter. NASA scientist Lori Fenton reports that the Red Planet has warmed by around one-half degree Celsius in the last three decades, which likely contributes to the retreat of Mars’s southern polar ice cap. According to Habibullo Abdussamatov, director of space research at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, "The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars. Man-made greenhouse warming has made a small contribution to the warming seen on Earth in recent years, but it cannot compete with the increase in solar irradiance." On Neptune, MIT researchers say that planet’s largest moon, Triton, has heated up significantly since 1989, when the Voyager space probe sent back readings from the planet. Astronomer James Elliot and colleagues from MIT, Lowell Observatory and Williams College report, "At least since 1989, Triton has been undergoing a period of global warming. Percentage-wise, it’s a very large increase." Imke de Pater and Philip Marcus of the University of California, Berkeley, report that Jupiter is growing a new red spot. "The storm is growing in altitude," de Pater says, which indicates a temperature increase in that region. The researchers think that, near term, the temperature on Jupiter may increase six degrees Celsius in large areas. University of Hawaii astronomer David Tholen and his colleagues report that even though Pluto was closer to the Sun in 1989, they are not surprised by a warming that began this year. "It takes time for materials to warm up and cool off, which is why the hottest part of the day on Earth is usually around 2 or 3 p.m. rather than local noon," Tholen said. "This warming trend on Pluto could easily last for another 13 years." They predict Pluto’s temperature will rise two degrees Celsius before its next cooling trend. The Climate Inquisitors: If you are a scientist, politician or journalist, and refuse to comport with Albert Gore’s eco-theological orthodoxy , you’d best put on some body armor. Speaking to Al Gore’s minions during "Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis," Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said of political leaders who suggest global warming is not predominantly manmade, "This is treason and we need to start treating them as traitors." Junior added, "Get rid of all those rotten politicians we have in Washington, DC." We presume his bloated uncle is excluded? The University of Oregon’s George Taylor is that state’s official climatologist, but Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants to strip Taylor of that title because his skepticism about CO2 as a primary factor in global warming interferes with Oregon’s goals to reduce CO2. Elsewhere, the Weather Channel’s Dr. Heidi Cullen is demanding decertification of weather reporters who dare question global-warming orthodoxy. Academicians who express their skepticism about global-warming causes are at high risk of losing research grants. Conversely, those who advocate for CO2 causation are in line for some big-money handouts. Thus, when academicians say "green," they aren’t necessarily referring to the environment. "Journalist" David Roberts is setting his sights on the "denial industry," proclaiming, "When we’ve finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we’re in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards [read: ‘skeptics’]—some sort of climate Nuremberg." Nonetheless, some of the most ardent global alarmists are starting to change their tune. In 2005, Chris Mooney wrote "The Republican War on Science," a thorough indictment of the GOP’s attempt to discredit scientific work on climate change. When he started research for his latest book, "Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming," he assumed it would be more of the same. Then, after meeting with leading climatologists, he concluded, "There’s a wide range of respectable positions here. In the end, I had to write a completely different book." Quote of the week: "The world meat industry produces 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, more than transportation produces. A gallon of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream requires electricity guzzling refrigeration, and four gallons of milk produced by cows that simultaneously produce eight gallons of manure and flatulence with eight gallons of methane. The cows do this while consuming lots of grain and hay, which are cultivated by using tractor fuel, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, and transported by fuel-consuming trains and trucks." —George Will
Bodock Beau Leno - It Wa So Hot A few more "groaners" sent by Bob Jackson follow:
"Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but, when it comes to global warming, the experts prefer to stick the thermometer where the sun don’t shine." —Mark Steyn Jay Leno: It was so hot today I was sweating like a Chinese toy salesman. ... It was so hot in North Carolina even John Edwards had a bad hair day. ... This week, the government announced a new operation to crack down on the hiring of illegals here in Los Angeles. It’s called Operation You’re Going To Have To Cut Your Own Lawn and Raise Your Own Kids. ... Next week, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will work a shift as a nurse at a Las Vegas hospital. And you thought your doctor’s hands were cold. ... Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney say they will not participate in the Republican debate next month in Florida. John McCain said he will be there—if he can get a ride. ... Elizabeth Edwards is speaking out again. She says the problem with her husband’s fundraising campaign is she can’t make him black, and she can’t make him a woman. That’s the same problem with Michael Jackson’s people. Source - Patriot Post Patriot Vol. 07 No. 33 Copyright © 2000 - 2007 RRN Online.
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When my older brother, Fred Carter, phoned
to wish me Happy Birthday on August 16th, he commented that I was now officially
a Senior Citizen. Yikes! I’ve been trying to avoid that moniker for
several years, as there seems to be a general disagreement on the age at
which one is truly a Senior Citizen. The folks at AARP will happily bestow
membership on anyone age fifty or older, but I don’t know any
fifty-year-olds who think they are Senior Citizens. Certain restaurants and
retail grocers define "Seniors" as being age sixty or older. The aforementioned
all have a financial interest in lowering the age requirement for a Senior
Citizen.
