The documentable changes in the energy put out by the sun, the source of almost all the climate’s heat, correlate to historical changes in climate, solar scientists say. The sun’s effects easily overwhelm the small role carbon dioxide might play. To folloiw Algore over a cliff would be luncy. I report, U decide.

WASTE in the health care system costs America upwards of $1 trillion per year. Much of this waste is generated or justified by the fear of legal consequences that infects almost every health care encounter. The good news is that it would be relatively easy to create a new system of reliable justice, one that could support broader reforms to contain costs.

Times Topics: Medical MalpracticeThe legal system terrorizes doctors. Fear of possible claims leads medical professionals to squander billions in unnecessary tests and procedures. “Defensive medicine” is so prevalent that it has become part of standard protocol — for example, mandatory pre-operative exams even where the patient record is current, and even for minor procedures.

Like a cancer, this legal anxiety corrodes relationships with patients. Doctors and nurses don’t want to speak up for fear of assuming legal liability, and this causes unnecessary errors. Under instructions from lawyers, they don’t apologize or offer explanations when things go wrong. They sometimes conceal errors in an effort to avoid a legal ordeal. Even in ordinary daily encounters, an invisible wall separates doctors from their patients. As one pediatrician told me, “You wouldn’t want to say something off the cuff that might be used against you.”

Legislation proposed to control trial lawyers is influenced by the fact that the Trial Lawyers Association of America give 97% of their political donations to the Democrat Party. Democrats vote on party line against legislation to control trial lawyers.

GOP HAS A RIGHT TO ATTACK OBAMA I notice an increasing number of complaints that Republicans are always attacking President Barack Obama‘s policies of reckless spending.

Just because a party is elected into power does not mean all dissent ceases; the last time I checked, we were not a one-party country.

And if memory serves me correctly, Democrats were non-stop Bush-bashing for the past eight years--even on policies that actually worked, e.g., the surge in Iraq.

So my recommendation to Democrats: Quit whining. Criticism is part of our two-party system. And remember, what goes around, comes around

There are problems with compact flourescent light bulbs that were not expected. The problem is that for no good reason some will have a much shorter duration of life. They are designed to use one-fourh the power and last ten times longer then the standard bulbs. Some experts that study the issue blame the government for the quality problems,saying an intensive regulation to lower the the price essentialy backfired by encourging manufacturers to use cheap components. There is also a problem of disposal due to the mercury content of the bulbs.

Wind, solar, biomass and other so­called green sources of energy oper­ate on the fringes of our energy economy precisely because they are more expensive and less reliable. And this comes despite decades of generous subsidies.
The U. S. Energy Information Administration calculates that tax­payers subsidize solar and wind energy at more than $ 23 per megawatt-hour of electricity pro­duced. Yet they are still too costly to be competitive: Combined, they produce less than 1 percent of the nation’s power.
Compare the green subsidies to the energy sources reviled by envi­ronmentalists, such as natural gas (25 cents per megawatt-hour in subsidies), coal (44 cents), hydro­electricity (67 cents) and nuclear power ($1.59).