The Sky Turns

Extremely
Britons may remember 2012 as the year the weather spun off its rails in a chaotic concoction of drought, deluge and flooding, but the unpredictability of it all turns out to have been all too predictable: Around the world, extreme has become the new commonplace. (NYT, 1/10/2013)

Also extreme: the time that Europe was covered in glaciers and the Sahara desert was underwater. Unfortunately Al Gore and Bill McKibben were not around to warn humans.

And then there is this:

It was no anomaly: the floods of 2012 followed the floods of 2007 and also the floods of 2009, which all told have resulted in nearly $6.5 billion in insurance payouts. (NYT, 1/10/2012)

Previous floods also include the Johnstown flood and the great flood of the Bible. One or both of which could be called "extreme."

And finally there is this:

The year was also exceptionally dry; by July, about 61 percent of the country was experiencing conditions that qualify as “drought.” On a cheery note, the situation was not as bad as the Dust Bowl droughts of the 1930s. Less happily, the lack of rainfall in 2012 exacerbated wildfire activity. “The Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs, Colo., destroyed nearly 350 homes and was the most destructive fire on record for the state,” NOAA reported. (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 1/10/2013)

Let's dissect the Liberal thought process here. Goes like this: There are lots of droughts and it's because of all that carbon dioxide. It's not as bad as the 1930s though when there was much LESS carbon dioxide being emitted. Do you follow? We don't either.

More Liberal logic: Climate change is resulting in much more property damage. Just look at Colorado Springs. And it has nothing to do with the fact that homes are being built closer to areas that experience forest fires. 


Grappling Hook
Moreover, the number of workers who are grappling with long-term job loss is probably far larger than the official number of long-term unemployed, as it does not include 1.1 million discouraged workers who want a job but are not currently looking for work, and many of the 1.7 million workers who have joined disability rolls because they cannot find a job. (Laura D'Andrea Tyson, NYT, 1/11/2013)

An economic advisor to Bill Clinton theorizes on stubborn long-term unemployment and favors Obama remedies (e.g. more Federal spending). That's of less interest to us at the moment than the stunning admission above. As Republicans told us during the campaign, unemployment is much higher than the Liberal media or the Obama campaign would ever admit. And yes, many workers were shunted to the disability rolls to obscure the truth. Cynical about politics?