Disqus - Latest Comments for Mudd_Pi

Re: ABQJOURNAL UPFRONT: Harrison Schmitt: in His Words

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:30:33 -0000

So what are your educated thoughts on the fact that the man believes assisting non-consumptive alternative energy research and production to be unconstitutional yet says nothing about the enormous tax breaks and subsidies that the oil and gas industry has enjoyed for decades as well as the looking the other way they've profited from when it comes to disposal of their toxic waste products.
Sandia Labs is one of the places that is engaged in alternative research locally fyi.

When was the last time Dr. Schmitt stepped into a research laboratory, collected data, took a course on modern geology or attended a seminar, studied atmospheric science/chemistry, published a peer-reviewed, non-Moncotian scientific article? These are questions I have. I don't doubt that the man was educated, holds a PhD, accomplished a great feat in space, and MAY HAVE taken the much vaunted Big Blue Marble picture, etc. but as the right is often wont to say of scientists of opposing views, a PhD doesn't guarantee you know anything today, especially an old one.

Re: Martinez’s pick for enviro chief: Environmentalists are communists

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:49:13 -0000

Tom Cole at the ABQ Journal has a good piece on Schmitt that exposes some of his more colorful beliefs and policy stands.
http://www.abqjournal.com/u...

I had to laugh when he's said to believe: "Schmitt also says loan guarantees to promote development of alternative energy sources are unconstitutional."
He's curiously silent about the $$$ billions the oil and gas industry have received in subsidies and tax breaks over the years.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL UPFRONT: Harrison Schmitt: in His Words http://www.abqjournal.com/u...
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Re: Martinez’s pick for enviro chief: Environmentalists are communists

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:45:34 -0000

That a man of his standing would call people in the environmental and scientific community "communists" says alot about him as well.

These were his words," “I think that there are individuals, [Obama science czar John] Holdren apparently among them, a very large number who have taken the — shall we say captured the environmental movement and turned it into what was previously considered the communist movement,” Schmitt said in a 40-minute interview with Jones. “And that’s just something that people of common sense are going to continue to have to counter and wake up enough so that they can take control of their government again.”

Later in the interview, Schmitt expanded on the theme saying that this came to be after the fall of the Soviet Union.

“I think the whole trend really began with the fall of the Soviet Union,” Schmitt said. “Because the great champion of the opponents of liberty, namely communism, had to find some other place to go and they basically went into the environmental movement. That’s not to say there aren’t some major and significant environmental issues, particularly at the local level, but they converted environmental activism to a political movement and some would say a religious movement.”

I would ask Mr. Schmitt how one takes ideas of environmental protection that are almost always based on scientific truths and research results aand move them up to policy issues without participation in the political structure of this nation on some level, whether it be local, state or national?? How do we deal with issues of international import on the environmental front without political diplomacy??
As for his religious comment, what happened to ideas that we are a nation of religius people, often opined by the conservative movement?? Whether this is true or not of all or some people, including atheists, do people with religious ideas different from theirs not deserve equal protection and consideration? Most of the denier crowd are very vocal about some mythological "End Time" that they claim as a religious idea - and then one is forced to wonder if their blatant disregard for the future of this planet isn't somehow tied into that fantastical belief.

Re: Martinez’s pick for enviro chief: Environmentalists are communists

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:18:33 -0000

Then why is the governor in a rush to change the Pit Rule and to absolve the dairy industry of responsibility regarding groundwater pollution?
The law they are trying to change back involves lining cow manure/urine pits with a plastic barrier so that seepage into the water table is prevented or at least minimized.
The Pit Rule likewise calls for industry to be responsible for their waste products and not just bury them in so many toxic waste dumps across the landscape. Says an article in the ABQ Journal, "There are at least 421 cases of known ground water contamination caused by drilling pits; most were self-reported by industry. It is unknown how many other cases there are because, until the Pit Rule was implemented, most pits were buried in place and no testing was required."
If the new law is so onerous, do you really think industry did the right thing and cleaned up their mess all along? If your neighbors' cat were using your backyard as a litter box would you object? If you get your water from well water should your neighbor be dumping used motor oil and industrial solvents across the fence from it?
These aren't dire predictions from a crystal ball, they're good old fashioned common sense which the conservative and brown movements claim to have in abundance but is surely retarded in the actual demonstration when putting this governor and her industrial backers up on a pedestal.

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:03:54 -0000

If her gunning for the new dairy regs is any indication then fresh air and acceptable water standards could be qualities Gov Martinez is willing to sacrifice. Consider that the lawyers for the "Dairy Group" tried to help her run around the proposed new dairy rule.
"The dairy rule in question would require dairy owners install synthetic barriers to stop groundwater contamination from cow waste.

Now what is so damned complicated about that? Just like her opposition to the pit rule, it means that you have to protect your industrial waste products from entering the environment and negatively impacting your neighbors, municipal and other downstream users of water supplies, and wildlife populations. In plain English, you can't use the land as a sewer system. Other states have enacted this rule. Many midwestern states have and have even issued moratoriums on any more CAFO type operations. California found their groundwater, as precious as it's gotten, in danger from dairly operations and added these rules. Why do you think that they're all moving here and to Texas?? We haven't been confronted by this nemesis and have little to no rules, which we're trying to change, Martinez be damned! Texas already has their tall, slick version of Martinez in office and this is what the results are:
http://www.txpeer.org/toxic...

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:46:06 -0000

Common sense as in having a governor who oversteps his/her boundaries and assumed she could issue an executive order to halt publication of pending and proposed regulations relating to the dairy industry or a rule related to capping greenhouse gas emissions?
According to court documents, representatives from the dairy industry in New Mexico helped Susana Martinez with language in her presumptuos ececutive order. I guess her protection of the "little guy" ended with her first speech.
.

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:37:41 -0000

CO2 is only beneficial to plants up to a certain point and scientific research has shown that with increased CO2 concentrations plants begin to metabolize in different ways, some reducing the amount of proteins produced and increasing sugars. Other effects on nutritional values were observed as well as compounds such as cyanide in cyanogenic plants that are commonly used either for animal forage (like clover) or vital human food staples (like cassava) known to us in the west as tapioca, but whose flour is widely used in other parts of the world. Increases in cyanide in cassava already affect people in Africa where it has been linked to paralysis.issues.
This planet is a complex and dynamic system. You can't just look at your own backyard and make blanket statements about states of atmospheric chemistry, nor can deleterious effects be poo-poo'ed away. with wishful thinking and mythology. Our planet is not some titration study and many scientists believe that once we see indications of the crisis of such magnitude that removes *all* doubt, it will be far too late for 20/20 hindsight and remorseful backpeddling..

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:15:14 -0000

Nice trotting out of the Nazi paintbrush. The governor has some real winners in her circle.

I think you're referring in part to Hitler's adoption of the oak leaf and oak trees to symbolize his strength and co-option of the forestry movement already quite established in pre-Nazi Germany. Symbols are powerful but don't often tell the whole story. I just returned from India and there the swastika is quite evident in temples and shrines. This has nothing to do with Hitler or fascism. Hitler borrowed that symbol as well, and to their credit, the original Vedic culture has not shirked from it or repudiated it but simply expected the rest of us to have enough sense to realize that it has a completely different association. That is true of the conservation movement as well, and of the Green movement and Green Party. It might be titillating for you to ascribe links but then again I can do that to Jesus Christ, Christianity and real communism.

As for global warming, how do you know it's a fraud and that Cap and Trade would undermine the economy?? Do you study economic models and trust in those who invent them more than those scientists who study and formulate climate models?

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:59:07 -0000

Charming, Silverdutchman. I'm glad you spend your energy despising people like me, like Schmitt calls us "communists." Meanwhile, we're looking out for your ass and that of your children, because you can't breathe, eat, or drink money, especially if it never trickles down to you in the first place.

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:54:44 -0000

So Bob, you're saying that if a state decided to pass no laws restricting pollution then their pollution would reach the state line of another state that did pass such laws and just what, stop?
Air pollution and often water pollution too fall under interstate commerce clauses. There is no big bubble keeping pollution from entering or leaving the Land of Enchantment. Likewise pollution is also an international issue. IF New Mexico had a coastline it would attract all kinds of debris from across the globe and the state of NM alone would be helpless to act, Bill Richardson not-withstanding!

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:41:56 -0000

I might remind skeptical folks that the Bald Eagle is our national symbol and poisoning these magnificent birds is akin to stomping and burning our US flag.

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:40:16 -0000

Do you think that if our Founding Fathers had been in the position to witness the Cuyahoga river burning or what transpired at Love Canal or countless other toxic towns that they might have actually moved to create a federal authority as a matter of common sense??

You worship these men and their ideas but please remember, they knew nothing of cancer treatment and their basic medical response to many health crises consisted of bloodletting and the administration of heavy metal poisons! If you want to go back to their exact scientific authority then perhaps we should model our health care system on these practices as well?

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:30:39 -0000

Are you of the opinion that issues that the EPA addresses somehow magically stop at the New Mexico border? I know this place is referred to the "Land of Enchantment" but use a little common sense.

Thankfully we have great scientists at work at UNM, the HSC and the DOH, sadly unlike the numskulls being placed in positions of authority for energy and environment under this new administration.

Re: Martinez axes all Environmental Improvement Board members

Mudd_Pi — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:26:55 -0000

Yes, but is she thinking with them or her brain?

Re: Embattled Block edges out Lass in PRC race

Mudd_Pi — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:39:39 -0000

I'd speculate they had other motivation here.

Re: Rally featuring Mexican heartthrob for McCain canceled

Mudd_Pi — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:28:55 -0000

Good, maybe he took my advice and stayed home to organize a tour to focus his anti-abortion viewpoints on the male responsibility end of the unwanted pregnancy crisis!

Re: Al Gore group says ABC won’t air its ad

Mudd_Pi — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:02:55 -0000

This is ridiculous.
We, the audience, are barraged with ads from every oil, coal, plastic, and nuclear outfit going.
Why is ABC afraid to open up the debate, let other positions, other options, have a voice.
You can be sure I'll be checking out what I'm reluctantly going to miss on the boob tube from their station if they keep up the censorship and general undemocratic attitude.

What I won't be missing is their drama series called, Another ad from the myth of Clean Coal!

Re: Mexican actor to campaign in Cruces for McCain

Mudd_Pi — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:51:41 -0000

I'd like to know the last time Verastegui spent any time using his position to persuade the men of his or this nation to use birth control or generally do their part to curtail the necessity of abortion in the first place! I'd also like to know whether he features the sperm donor anywhere in his graphic video!

The anti-choice movement often conveniently forgets it takes two to tango!

Against abortion, then don't have one. Yet vocal mouthpieces like Mr. Verastegui can't even find themselves in the position of experiencing a pregnancy in the first place!
Instead of putting the emphasis of his criticism on women seeking abortion, they should be working on their own sex, barraging them with moralisms, and trying to prevent unwanted pregnancy and promoting reproductive responsibility by men first.

I'm glad he has "vowed only to work on “meaningful films that have the potential to touch people’s hearts and minds,” but he should keep his political intentions away from women's bodies.

Re: PRC on TV: Two candidates for N.M.’s most powerful (if little-known) regulatory agency make their case

Mudd_Pi — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:46:52 -0000

I'm sorry you couldn't bring yourself to vote for Rick Lass. He is not "anti-Democrat." He works for the improvement of our democracy across the board. But he, and our party in general, have found it an uphill road. He has seen fit to endorse both Ben Ray Lujan and Barack Obama, and I presume will vote for them.

I don't live in his district but rather PRC District 1. I'm voting for Democrat Jason Marks, even though, as a Green Party member and officer, the Democrats have been virulently anti-Green on a number of fronts, seeking to limit our participation in the electoral process time and time again, here and across the nation.

If I had your attitude, I would be leaving quite a few races blank if I could not stomach voting for Democrats. As it stands, I am proud of my Green Party and will continue to fight for our inclusion on ballot lines, in debates (the lack of this most un-democratic), and in the public square, But I believe in working across party lines and seeking not merely a bipartisan, but a multi-partisan system in this wonderful diverse nation we have.