Indiana 641 an example of skewed state priorities

I was reading the newspaper today, and I noticed two front page stories that seem to show the lack of priorities in our state government.

The top story was regarding the number of jobs eliminated at Indiana State University due to budget cuts. The other story was regarding the last portion of the new Indiana 641 bypass. The amount of money that has been invested in this bypass is unbelievable. For the life of me, I cannot see how this bypass will benefit anyone traveling south on U.S. 41 (Third Street). I also wonder how many commercial vehicles will still find it necessary to continue northbound U.S. 41 to the Indiana 63 interchange on the way to Chicago. Did anyone talk to the truck drivers or trucking companies that have to deal with Third Street in Terre Haute at least weekly, and sometimes daily?

I can assure you that many drivers that I have talked to say that Terre Haute is by far the worst and most dreaded traffic snarl that they have to deal with in Indiana.

I guess I am not very intelligent regarding the way government works. In our city, we cannot seem to get the railroads to repair railroad crossings, block crossings at their convenience, and ignore anything that would benefit the city.

A couple of examples that come to mind are the clustered intersection at 19th and Margaret, and the rail crossing on North Fruitridge. Anyone who drives this on a daily basis knows what I am talking about.

Another example of inexcusable neglect is Lafayette Avenue from Fort Harrison to Haythorne. I was informed by reliable sources that plans were drawn up over 15 years ago to fix this, but it always gets pushed on the back burner. I doubt that I will ever get an intelligent answer to these issues.

I do know that it has always been like this in Terre Haute, and it will continue to be that way in the future. Maybe some of the voters will take the iron fist approach at election time. I personally prefer the iron boot approach, but I don’t know the right people to get away with it.

I guess that I will continue to buy new tires for my car, and do my part to stimulate the local economy. I might even take a drive on the new bypass if I live long enough to see this completed.

— Randy Coverstone

Terre Haute



Time to play Whack a Mole with climate change falsehoods

It would appear my simple demonstration of the reality of global warming drew blood. I guess it’s just too easy to understand the meaning of 1909 and 1958 newspaper reports of U.S. Navy explorations of a solidly-frozen ice pack, and a 2007 flag-planting at the North Pole by a Russian surface ship claiming economic rights to a soon-to-be melted Arctic Ocean. Evidence that’s easy to understand blows their game plan.

Mssrs. Sherrill (Jan. 24) and Poe (Jan. 25) provide good examples of the strategy pioneered by the tobacco lobby to confuse the public and block regulation needed to protect public health and safety.

Danae in Wiley’s “Non Sequitur” comic (2007) explained it well: “Just take all that [scientific] research, then say the exact opposite in a press release with some geek-speak mixed in to make it sound sciency, and presto, the media gives it equal weight.”

Alas, too true. Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite were the last journalists who tried to sort truth from fiction and not hide behind “balance.” So, all Big Tobacco or Big Oil has to do is confuse the issue with a blizzard of false information, accuse its opponents of nefarious hidden agendas, and throw in some scare tactics. The average Joe and Jill are busy earning a living and don’t have time to dig out the facts. Confusion breeds paralyzing fear and brings responsible science-based action to a halt.

Part of the “Tobacco Strategy” is to make the scientist play “Whack a Mole.” False claims pop up faster than the poor scientist can whack them down with correct data and explain why it’s correct. Example: I now have to answer two letters, both longer than mine. Well, look out moles, here goes. Unfortunately, you readers will have to look up my references for the details.

Mr. Sherrill concentrated again on irrelevant ad hominem attacks, to which the proper response is, “So’s ya muddah!” The “climategate” e-mails (Science 326:1329, 2009) basically relate to being able to predict whether there will be a bad 4F increase or horrendous 15F increase in the 2000s.

The closest Sherrill got to science was asking where I got my global average temperature data. It’s on the Web: data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts.txt. Download it onto your spreadsheet program and do all the averages and plots you like, or let Oak Ridge National Laboratory do it for you at cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/temp/hansen/graphics/gl_land.gif. You’ll see a steepening upward trend since 1880 with yearly variations and several temporary reversals of the trend. The last 10 years are consistently the hottest on record, show no trend reversal, and give no support to Sherrill.

Mr. Poe at least recognized recent warming has occurred, but his bulleted “facts” are false. Climate variations are not ignored, but are in fact the main subject of scientific interest because they test our ideas so the predictive climate models can be improved.

Arrhenius’ predicted a cause-effect relation between CO2 and global temperature (Philosophical Magazine 41: 237-76, 1896). This was later confirmed by the discovery of parallel fluctuations in CO2 and a global temperature indicator in an Antarctic ice core sample covering the last 160,000 years (Nature 329:408-414, 1987).

These data also show that we live in the warmest period in the last 120,000 years.

The general pattern of past global temperature fluctuation is now well known, and accurately explained by periodic variations in the earth’s orbit that change the amount of sunlight absorbed. Current orbital variation means we should be in a cooling trend. Indeed we were, but it abruptly reversed in the mid 1800s at the start of the coal-burning industrial age (Science 325: 1236-1239, 2009).

Yes, it was warm in Europe, Iceland, and Greenland during the medieval age, but this was due to an unusual regional weather pattern (Science 324:78-80, 2009). Global temperature is, well … global. The average temperature of the whole planet during the Medieval Warm Period was well below the current values (Science 326:1256-1260, 2009).

If you don’t have time to go to the library, or if you want independent non-governmental, non-international information, try the American Institute of Physics site for the general public at www.aip.org/history/climate/index.html.

The AIP is the scientific society for American physicists, and physicists brought you the science that makes your computer, iPhone, and other teensy gadgets work (and suck money out of your pocket). So they’re not dependent on climate change funding. Rather, they are patriotic American scientists concerned for America’s future.

— George Bakken

Biology Department

Indiana State University



And now another dose of ‘reality’

This rebuttal is a fact-check rebuttal in response to a seek-and-destroy rebuttal written by William Shaw, who signed his letter Msgt. Retired, USAF. His tirade on Pam Rogers’ accurate account of 9/11, and the Iraq war fiasco, falling on the shoulders of Bush/Cheney, was full of hypocrisy.

The title of his article was, “Writer out of Touch with Reality”.

What you are seeing there is some reverse psychology from Msgt. Shaw, because “out of touch with reality” is what he and the entire GOP want you to be. He doesn’t want you to believe what your eyes have seen, and your ears have heard, and what history has documented.

I am not quite sure why he felt compelled to end his whitewash of the Bush/Cheney Iraq War and the 9/11 tragedy with such a signature, but I’m guessing his intent was to establish that he’s more qualified, and has a better perspective than a woman who he suggests is a Democratic lackey.

His biased and half-truth account of history is the same line we’re getting from the national GOP assassins. That being that Bush/Cheney bear no responsibility for 9/11, and did not repeatedly lie to start the Iraq “war”.

The Msgt. starts out by trotting out the old line the GOP used after 9/11, that it was “Clinton’s fault.” He says that as far back as 1995, Clinton knew that terrorists were wanting to use aircraft to attack America. That’s probably true, and what’s also true is Clinton advised Bush of that when Bush took office. Bush had over eight months to figure out how to avoid letting that happen. Terrorists with terrorist-sounding names took flying lessons here in the U.S.A. to fly the planes involved in the attack. But there were no red flags, and it went undetected.

Mr. Shaw attempt to scapegoat the CIA, FBI and NSA for not keeping Bush briefed about a potential attack. The fact is the people who were in the close inner circle of the Bush Dictatorship were telling him exactly that, every time they had a meeting. How much warning did Bush need? Bush not only ignored those warnings, he fired the people who told the public that he was repeatedly warned.

The Iraq War that bankrupted America was, is, and always will be a product of the Bush Dictatorship. The blood of 4,500 or so military personnel is on their hands, and no amount of spin or denial will wash it off.

Mr. Shaw claims that the entire intelligence community, worldwide, believed Saddam had WMDs. That’s not true. An international, independent team of inspectors scoured Iraq from one end to the other. When they released their finding that Saddam had no WMDs, Bush dismissed them as untrue. Then Bush/Cheney brought out the mushroom cloud scam, sold it to Congress and sent Colin Powell to NATO, to try to sell the war to them. When NATO wouldn’t buy it, Bush/Cheney launched the attacked that started the war. If the entire intelligence community worldwide believed Saddam had WMDs, why did America have to go it alone, and do most of the fighting?

Bush used the Iraq War to anoint himself a war-time president, and used that position to break the law and violate the very Constitution that Msgt. Shaw, myself and a multitude of others, took an oath to defend. But that violation didn’t seem to draw any objections from anyone on the GOP side.

The effort by Mr. Shaw and the entire GOP is to absolve Bush/Cheney from any blame from 9/11, the Iraq War, the failed economy, the collapse of the banks and Wall Street, and anything in between.

The GOP has obstructed any and all efforts to create jobs, revive the economy, and reform health care. They will vote no on regulating the banks and Wall Street. They’ll vote no on a green economy that will reduce our dependency on foreign oil and create jobs. They’ll vote no on climate change, they’ll vote no on card check, because they know unions will protect the middle-class worker, and they’ll do everything they can to fulfill the oath they’ve signed in blood, to make Obama fail.

Then if they are elected in 2010, they’ll ask you to trust them to correct everything they voted no on. I’ll close with this reminder, “Don’t lose touch with reality”!

— Ron Hastings

U.S. Navy Veteran, Retired

Clinton



Great help on trip fundraisers

The sixth-grade class at Rosedale Elementary held a Santa Shop fundraiser for their Chicago field trip. I would like to thank the parents and students who worked this event and also teacher Rhonda Sudduth for her advice and set-up plans.

We had exceptional parents securing donations for our school, and we thank the following business/individuals for assisting us with our fundraiser:

Organ Law Office, WTHI, Bogey’s, KFC/Taco Bell, Papa John’s, Kerasotes Cinema, Baskin Robbins, Mike’s Car Wash, Paradise Bowling, Dairy Queen, Gander Mountain, Trish Loomis (Avon rep), Norma Organ, and Larry Noorlag.

I wish to thank all the parents who donated gift bags for the Santa shop. I especially want to thank school treasurer, Jamie Mager, who helped me with the accounting.

I would also like to thank the parents who have chaired fundraisers this year: Tina Livers (Walmart Car Wash), Trish Loomis (Avon, Zumbathon, Beef House rolls), Tammy Oxford (GFS bean dinner, Covered Bridge Ice Cream, GFS Sales, Zumbathon, Beef House rolls), Norma Organ (Beef House rolls), Karla Noorlag (McNight, basketball concession stand, Santa Shop), Holly Hazzard (Strawberry Fest, spaghetti dinner), and Wendy Huxford (Rosedale school dance).

Thanks again to teachers Mrs. Organ and Mrs. Relford for teaching our students and helping plan the field trip to Chicago this year.

— Karla Noorlag

Santa Shop chairperson

Rosedale Elementary