several times Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Climate change second man burning fossil fuels is real

Many in the press, especially those in New York and New Jersey, seem to have woken up after Hurricane Sandy and decided that climate change is real and we need to do something about it right away. Climate scientists have been talking about this for more than 30 years. Personally, I’ve looked at the data several times (2001 and 2007). There are multiple different ways you can look at the data. There is ground temperature data, sea temperature data, glacier melt data and tons more. One of the things that makes the climate change data so robust is that scientists are not depending upon one set of data. Instead, they’re looking at multiple different sets of data and they all are basically saying the same thing. Climate change (man’s burning of fossil fuels causing increased carbon emissions which in turn causes changes in the climate) is real. I sit down and talk with Joe Romm from the Climate Progress blog which is associated with the Center for American Progress. Enjoy.

Joe Romm on climate change [ 15:32 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By ecthompsonmd|2012-11-27T14:42:18-04:00November 26th, 2012|Environment, Podcasts|Comments Off

My Broken Samsung TV, how corporations force you to buy new (Update)

(If you have read all of this before, then skip to the last paragraph for the update.)

I will continue to complain about corporations until corporations fix their basic problem. Simply put – we don’t count. We, American consumers, only count when we’re buying new stuff. Otherwise, we are nothing. Corporations pretend to give service but they really don’t. They waste our time so that we get frustrated and finally buy something new.

So, back in November, I bought this 51-inch Samsung TV. Nice picture. Good size. High definition. Two weeks ago, I sat down to watch some football and the TV turned itself off and on, then off and on again, and then the screen went blank. Nothing. “This isn’t good,” I thought.

I called HH Gregg. I called them because they were the company that I bought the TV from and I had also purchased an extended warranty. After negotiating through multiple different prompts, I get some “service center” who will be happy to send somebody out to look at my TV in five days. Five days? That really doesn’t sound reasonable. Okay, I will wait for five days. Five days later, the serviceman comes out, looks at the TV and decides that the TV needs some new parts. Of course, he doesn’t have the parts. So he’s going to have to order the parts. We are told to call him back when the parts come in. He leaves. He does not give us his name. He does not give us a business card. We get nothing. Five days later, the parts arrive. Now, we get to the good part. Who do we call to let them know that the parts have come in?

I call HH Gregg. That was the company that I called before, so I foolishly thought that’s the company I should call again. After going through multiple prompts, I get to a bewildered service person who puts me on hold several times and asks for a lot of information only to tell me that he’s going to have to transfer me to someone who can help me with my problem. I get transferred back to the initial prompt at HH Gregg. Basically, I’m back to square one. I go through the various prompts once again and I get to another bewildered service person. I give him lots of information only to be placed on hold several more times and then I’m told I need to be transferred to Samsung. Somewhat frustrated, I agree to be transferred to Samsung. 20 minutes have passed. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2012-10-10T06:45:53-04:00October 9th, 2012|Business, General|5 Comments

How big a liar is Mitt Romney?

Well, I would admit that it is hard to quantitate lying. I have talked about Mitt Romney lying several times. Steve over at MaddowBlog has a long list of Mitt lies.

Let’s look that these two statements Mitt Romney said in the recent past. Are they the same or different?

So Mitt gave his foreign policy speech today and said – Finally, I will recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. On this vital issue, the President has failed, and what should be a negotiation process has devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations. In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new President will bring the chance to begin anew.

Mitt told private donors – I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there’s just no way … the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish … [S]o what you do is, you say, you move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem…and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.

I think that Mitt believes that he is on a roll. He is trying to capitalize. He thinks that he can talk foreign policy. He can’t. The Middle East is complex. He is trying to fool Americans into believing that all the Middle East needs is a strong leader and will fall in line. Horse feathers. Wasn’t Bush a strong leader? Why didn’t he get it done? Wasn’t Reagan a strong leader? Why didn’t he get it done? The problem is that the problems in the Middle East run very deep. They run to the core of Israel and Palestine. During arguments folks will whip out the Bible, the old testament, to support their arguments. You can’t fix that with some knucklehead flexing his muscles talking about strong leadership. It simply will not work.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-10-08T19:38:51-04:00October 8th, 2012|Elections, Foreign Affairs, Party Politics|1 Comment