Monday, May 20, 2013

It's okay to kill eagles in the name of Green Energy & Hypocrisy

It is illegal by Federal Law to kill bald eagles and golden eagles, under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940. Unless you're Green Energy...

Really, gang, this should come as absolutely NO surprise. If you're surprised, then you haven't been paying attention to ANYTHING I've been saying these past few years on this site, nor have you paid attention to anything said by any sane, rational human being when it comes to the wanton, reckless, and verily CRIMINAL hypocrisy of The Left in general and the Obama administration in particular.

We're all supposed to pay our taxes, lest the IRS come down on us with almighty wrath. However, Obeezy's cabinet and key staff has been populated, nay riddled, with tax cheats. Hell, Wesley Snipes is fresh outta jail and needs a job; why not make him a cabinet secretary?



The Left hates guns, and wants to control guns, but crime is at its worst in Democrat-controlled zones where they don't allow responsible citizens to exercise their right to self-defense. It's also okay for prominent Liberals to own guns. Do as I say, not as I do. Gun control ain't about the guns. It's about the control.



The Left, especially in Hollywood, hates Conservatives as being violent babykillers, and then deify those in Hollywood who make exceedingly violent films.



The Left hates the rich, unless you're a rich Liberal. Then, it's okay. Those people are worshiped.

 
Most Liberals scream for people to pay more taxes yet pay no taxes themselves because they're sucking the government teat.



The Left claims to be tolerant & understanding, until you disagree with them. Then you're racist.


And, seriously, who's a bigger hypocrite than Al Gore, who has made tens of millions in filthy lucre on his Global Warming scams, lives in a mansion that uses more electricity than some small towns, and sold his failed TV network to an Islamist front organization backed by oil money. Asshole.



It's been a deliciously Schadenfreudian Slip recently watching Obeezy's administration unravel as his scandals catch up to him. No one buys that he and his scumbag lackey Eric Holder knew nothing about Fast & Furious and selling guns to Mexican drug cartels, one of which was used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.



No one believes the administration's lies and cover up over the murder of four Americans by terrorists in Benghazi. That whole situation is FINALLY unraveling on him.




No one believes Obeezy knew nothing about the IRS targeting conservative Tea Party groups.




And now the Mainstream Media, even libs like Jon Stewart, are turning against the White House after it was made public the government was rummaging through the phone records of the Associated Press. The Lapdog know bites the hands of its former master.









I won't even get into the despicable, demeaning act of having a United States Marine be reduced to an umbrella stand. Commander in Chief, my ass.

Careful, Obeezy; shit melts in the rain.


Okay, we've established these scumbags in the White House are hypocrites. But now the hypocrisy stretches even farther to include a tacit okay when it comes to killing eagles. You know, majestic raptors like Golden Eagles, or the symbol of our country, the Bald Eagle....




You see, the Obeezy Regime is turning a blind eye to eagle deaths caused by wind farms. Companies operating industrial-sized turbines that are killing eagles and other protected birds have yet to be fined or prosecuted by the Administration, even though every death is a criminal violation.

The Obeezy Regime has charged oil companies for drowning birds in their waste pits, and power companies for electrocuting birds on power lines. However, it has never fined or prosecuted a wind-energy company, even those that flout the law repeatedly.

The result is a green industry that's allowed to do dark things.




More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.

Getting precise figures is impossible because many companies aren't required to disclose how many birds they kill. And when they do, experts say, the data can be unreliable.

When companies voluntarily report deaths, the Obama administration in many cases refuses to make the information public, saying it belongs to the energy companies or that revealing it would expose trade secrets or implicate ongoing enforcement investigations. Wait, the Obeezy Regime covers things up? Say it ain't so!




Nearly all the birds being killed are protected under federal environmental laws, which prosecutors have used to generate tens of millions of dollars in fines and settlements from businesses, including oil and gas companies, over the past five years. It's okay to bankrupt oil, gas, and coal, while these guys in the Green Sector can do what they want. That's how the Left rolls.

By not enforcing the law, the administration provides little incentive for companies to build wind farms where there are fewer birds. And while companies already operating turbines are supposed to avoid killing birds, in reality there's little they can do once the windmills are spinning.






Wind farms are clusters of turbines as tall as 30-story buildings, with spinning blades as wide as a passenger jet's wingspan. Though the blades appear to move slowly, they can reach speeds up to 170 mph at the tips, creating tornado-like vortexes. They look like giant pedestal fans. However, where your pedestal fan at home has a screen assembly to keep your fingers from getting sliced off, industrial wind turbines lack any protection whatsoever.



 The Obeezy Regime has proposed a rule that would give wind-energy companies potentially decades of shelter from prosecution for killing eagles. The regulation is currently under review at the White House. (That implies people actually read stuff at the White House before it gets approved and implemented, unlike, say, Obamacare that had to be passed before they'd tell us what was in it.

The proposal, made at the urging of the wind-energy industry (gasp! Lobbysists!!!), would allow companies to apply for 30-year permits to kill a set number of bald or golden eagles. Previously, companies were only eligible for five-year permits.

In exchange for the longer timetable, companies agree that if they kill more eagles than allowed, the government could require them to make changes. (Could. But likely will just ignore it to protect windmills) But the administration recently said it would cap how much a company could be forced to spend on finding ways to reduce the number of eagles its facility is killing. If it was an oil or gas or coal company though, they'd gleefully bankrupt them in the process and then deny them out of spite.

The Obeezy Regime said the longer permit was needed to "facilitate responsible development of renewable energy" while "continuing to protect eagles." Or, if you read between the lines, it allows us to keep scamming people with windmill technology from the 1300s while calling it futuristic. A similar explanation was given when the Fish and Wildlife Service recently authorized the killing of a single California condor, an endangered species, by a proposed wind farm in California.

That's because without a long-term authorization to kill eagles, investors are less likely to finance an industry that's violating the law.

Typically, the government would be forced to study the environmental effects of such a regulation before implementing it. In this case, though, the Obama administration avoided a full review, saying the policy was nothing more than an "administrative change."

Hypocrisy. You see, capitalism and making investment money is bad, unless it suits our agenda...

Under both the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the death of a single bird without a permit is illegal.

But under the Obama administration's new guidelines, wind-energy companies — and only wind-energy companies — are held to a different standard. Their facilities don't face additional scrutiny until they have a "significant adverse impact" on wildlife or habitat. I do beg to point out that a pile of dead birds that are already endangered is pretty significant and pretty adverse.

In the meantime, birds continue to die. The golden eagle population in the West, prior to the wind energy boom, was declining so much that the government's conservation goal in 2009 was not to allow the eagle population to decrease by a single bird.

The reason boils down to biology. Eagles take five years to reach the age when they can reproduce, and often they only produce one chick a year.






But what else would you expect from a government that gave billions to Solyndra to allegedly make solar panels only to watch it go bankrupt and spent billions to prop up the Chevy Volt that no one wanted? Is it such a shock that they'd sacrifice our eagles to prop up a wind industry that costs more per kilowatt hour to produce than the industries they'd rather kill?







Thursday, May 2, 2013

Taking a look at Top 40 music again



It's been quite a while (August maybe?) since I last perused the Billboard music charts to see what passes for popular music these days. As we all well know, I tend to avoid Top 40 radio like Taylor Swift avoids long-term commitments. Occasionally, however, I punish myself by listening in to at least stay somewhat current and feel less like the middle-aged guy who clings to his 80's New Wave with white knuckles.

So, I decided to check the Billboard top 40 chart and see what dreck & drivel the empty suits at the record labels are currently passing off on the masses.
 

Selina Gomez-- Come And Get It
Forever tainted by the evil touch of Satan, ie: Justin Bieber, Gomez has been performing this track on any show that will book her, from the MTV Movie Awards to Ellen to Dancing With The Stars and in pretty much every case she's in some mock Indian sari getup with dancers of various ethnicity decorated with a bindi, because all you need is a red dot on your forehead to make you an authentic Indian in Gomez' world. I'll assume the reason for the pseudo-Indian garb is the bhangra beat to the chorus. The song isn't completely terrible but honestly, if I want Indian I'll go authentic with the 2000 track "Darshan" by B21.Selina, dear, stay away from that Bieber chick. She's trouble.





Feel This Moment-- Pitbull featuring Christina Aguilera
One has no hair, the other has hair like old straw. One wears a tailored suit, the other looks like a leather sausage. This sounds pretty much like the last Pitbull song I heard, the same rap cadence of lines over a remixed sample of a classic song. Last time it was Mickey & Sylvia's "Love Is Strange" and this time the creativity is provided by A-ha's "Take On Me". At least Christina keeps the caterwauling to a minimum and refrains from yodeling vocal runs.



Justin Timberlake--Suit & Tie
Christ, this song is inescapable. On a good day my car radio can pick up five or six Top 40 and/or A/C stations and I swear to Gawd, I heard this on every single one of them in a 30 minute span. I think JT is a decent actor and a very funny guy, and I respect him musically but this new throwback soul style is utter crap. Plus, I detest Jay-Z.



Rihanna featuring Mikky Ekko--Stay
There seems to be an unwritten law that says every 90 days there must be a new Rihanna single whether we want one or not. A ballad, damn near a funereal dirge, pretty enough but after a bit it just seems to drag. Never heard of this Ekko fellow before (born John Stephen Sudduth) but his voice is actually a bit higher than hers here. At least she's spending time with a guy who isn't using her as a punching bag...



Psy--Gentleman
Well, we all thought Park Jae-sang, better known as Psy, was going to be a one hit wonder after Gangnam Style took the universe by storm last summer. While not as instantly catchy as his last single, this one's video is just as amusing, with Psy being basically a dick to everyone he meets.



Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz-- Thrift Shop
This song is effing ridonkulous but gets in your head & stays there like a recurring yeast infection on a 2-dollar hooker. A rapping white kid going on about buying second-hand clothes at Goodwill. He does make the valid point about a-holes wearing $50 designer t-shirts thinking they're unique till they see 5 others wearing the same shirt at a club.



Pink featuring Nate Ruess-- Just Give Me a Reason
I've always adored Pink. She's badass. This is one of her finest vocal performances, with help from the guy who sings for the band fun., whom I have previously  been wrong about when I guessed they'd fade into obscurity as quickly as they appeared. However, like all Pink songs, this is getting played ad nauseum, so I'm already bored with it.



Icona Pop--I Love It
I just heard this song for the first time a couple days ago and really liked it. It's great technopop dance music from Sweden and hopefully it won't get ruined by overplay. Finally, something on the Top 40 chart I can get into. I dare you to sit still while listening.



So.....what else SHOULD you be listening to?

Capital Cities-- Safe and Sound
Found this gem by accident listening to Sirius and it was love at first listen. Great beats, catchy hooks, impossible to sit still while listening. This is my new jam for Spring. Even features live trumpet instead of a sample, and it really makes the song. This is just one of several clever videos out there for this song.




The Airborne Toxic Event--Timeless
Another accidental finding on Sirius. A few years back I fell head over heels with their song "Sometime Around Midnight" and even named it one of the best songs of 2008. This one grows on you quickly.



Radioactive/It's Time--Imagine Dragons
Took me awhile to finally get into these guys. I've been let down by so many newer alternative/modern rock bands that I'm reluctant to get into bands that are heavily hyped on alternative radio. Both of these songs are really great.





Tegan & Sara--Closer
Twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin have been around awhile, an indie staple and a closely guarded secret of sorts.  I think I first heard them in 2004 with their song "Where Does The Good Go". This is a great pop track that should break them huge. Catch them opening for fun. this summer.



And, of course, there's new Depeche Mode.....

The new album is called Delta Machine, and while I'm sad that it wasn't close to the glory that was "Violator" there are some good tracks on it, and the new single is in my opinion the best track of the whole CD. Whereas the first single "Heaven" was an austere minimal ballad, "Soothe My Soul" is a dancefloor stomper with a dark, murky, sensual edge, just the way a Depeche Mode song should be. Play it LOUD, friends, and see what a 32-year career as the cutting edge of music brings to the table.







And if you want to read savage and scathing reviews of previous Top 40 offerings, go here, here, here, here, here, and here.