Oh Dear

We’re always being told how bad Eeeevil Oil is for us, for the environment and of course for the pore likkel beasties in the fields.

First off, we have to stop using oil-powered vehicles and start using Duracell-powered cars and trucks (lol) instead.  Except that it turns out that electric cars are worse for the environment than gasoline-powered ones (see here for the !SCIENCE!).

So if Teslas and Priuses are doubleplusungood after all, then we need to start using “sustainable” eco-fuels like corn-based ethanol because sustainable.  (Even Formula 1 is moving towards using ethanol-only fuel in the next couple of years, the idiots.)

Sounds good, right?  Errrr, nazzo fast, Guido.  Add this little snippet to the “Solution Is Worse Than The Problem” category:

The US biofuel program is probably killing endangered species and harming the environment in a way that negates its benefits, but the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is largely ignoring those problems, a new federal lawsuit charges.

The suit alleges the EPA failed to consider impacts on endangered species, as is required by law, when it set new rules that will expand biofuel use nationwide during the next three years, said Brett Hartl, government affairs director with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which brought the litigation.

Not that we need any further proof that the EPA is to the environment as cancer cells are to the human body, but I digress.

The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set minimum levels of biofuel usage for the transportation sector. The new rule approved by the agency calls for about 15bn gallons (57bn liters) of conventional corn ethanol for each of the next three years, plus an increase from 5.9bn gallons to 7.3bn gallons of advanced biofuels during the same time period. 

About 40% of all corn grown in the US is used for ethanol production, and nearly half is used as animal feed.

While the fuels are designed to decarbonize the transportation sector, their production eliminates wetlands and prairie land that act as carbon sinks, Hartl noted. The EPA in 2018 estimated that up to 7m acres (2.8m hectares) of land had been converted to grow corn for ethanol fuel. 

Ethanol production also pollutes water. Regulations around pesticides and fertilizers used in corn grown for ethanol fuel are much looser, which means much higher levels of dangerous chemicals run into surface and groundwaters. The pollution probably plays a significant role in dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico after pesticides flow down the Mississippi River, Hartl said. 

Read the rest to see how the EPA is ducking and diving to avoid doing anything that might actually, you know, alleviate the problem.

One by one, every single alternative proposed by the Greens (and their lickspittles in academia and the media) is proving to be a complete fiasco:  wind- and solar power generation instead of nuclear, electric vehicles (EV) instead of internal combustion engines, and now biofuels instead of gasoline.

But Oh No! we have to preserve the Gaia Cult — even if it kills us (and Gaia).

Fucking bastards.

Oh, Why Not?

Looks as though Fargo ND dodged a bullet — more specifically, several bullets and a bomb — when they whacked a terrorist of the Religion Of Peace persuasion recently:

When he came upon a fender bender last Friday afternoon, [Mohammed] Barakat was armed with multiple weapons, explosives and grenades and had spray painted the back windows of his car.
“Based on the time and the direction he was going he was either likely to be taking a right when he got to main avenue going downtown and taking a left when he got to main avenue and going to the fairgrounds,” Wrigley said.
Video footage reveals he came upon the crash, circling and casing the scene for about 15 minutes before parking his car and opening fire, killing 23-year-old officer Jake Wallin and critically injuring officers Andrew Dotas and officer Tyler Hawes, as well as, civilian Karlee Koswick (who was involved in the initial car accident).
Barakat was eventually shot by officer Zach Robinson and later died at the hospital.

Given how much the Powers That Be (even in Fargo ND FFS) are keen to downplay the motives of this asshole, I’m surprised the D.A. didn’t describe him as a “street vendor, on his way to peddle his wares at the fairgrounds”.  (That the wares happened to include bombs and stuff are irrelevant, of course.)

Of course, the Fibbies had no fucking idea of this tool’s intentions, they being too busy tracking down terrorists in the Angry Anti-Grooming Parent Brigade.

Just a bunch of incompetent poltroons, the lot of them.

Been There, Done That

This little item brought back a few unpleasant memories:

Three Transportation Security Administration officers were arrested at Miami International Airport for allegedly stealing from passengers during security screenings.

Arrest affidavits show that 22-year-old Elizabeth Fuster, 33-year-old Labarrius Williams and 20-year-old Josue Gonzalez were all arrested Thursday on charges of organized schemes to defraud.

According to the affidavits, the airport federal security director for law enforcement at MIA contacted a Miami-Dade Police detective regarding thefts that occurred at Checkpoint E involving TSA officers. The investigation revealed that three officers, while on duty, were seen on surveillance video conspiring together to distract passengers as they were being screened and stole money from their belongings.

This has happened to me too, only it wasn’t at Miami but at Jan Smuts O.R. Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, at the end of my last [sic]  visit to my hometown.  After unloading my pockets to go through the security cameras, I was (very politely) asked to open my carry-on bag for “extra” security checking.  I did all that, then redressed (shoes, belt etc.) and went off to get some coffee before takeoff…

…only to discover at the coffee bar that all the cash had been stripped from my wallet — about $200, £250, R300 and €50 all told.  Nothing to be done, of course — cash is untraceable, so I had no proof that I’d arrived with any cash in my wallet.

Plus, this was Johannesburg so what else could I expect?  South Africa wins again.  Bastards.

Down The Blue Sinkhole

Illinois has joined California (and not for the first time) in their blue-state legislative insanity, and IlGov Fatboi is leading the charge:

Starting January 1st, 2024, Illinois landlords will be required to rent or sell property to illegal aliens. Illinois Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed SB 1817 into law in late June, which will add “protections in the Illinois Human Rights Act for housing regarding immigration status protection and discriminatory advertising.”

Did I mention that Illinois also passed legislation, which Pritzker also gleefully signed into law, extending standard driver’s license privileges to illegal aliens?

Illinois Democrat State Sen. Ann Gillespie led the effort to expand housing rights to illegal aliens, absurdly claiming that the bill will ensure that illegals aren’t “unjustly denied housing.”

“Someone’s background should not disqualify them from buying or renting property.”

Almost without reflection, I can think of five reasons why illegal residence (which has nothing to do with “background”, by the way) is a very valid reason for disqualification.

To my Ill-Annoys Readers (and I think you know who I’m talking to):  it’s time to leave the state, or actively start seeking employment- and residential opportunities elsewhere so that you can.  Your state is fucked, California-not-so-lite, and that’s the beginning and end of it.  As I say to recalcitrant South Africans:  you don’t want to be in the line for a seat on that last helicopter on the rooftop;  get out while you can.

Look, I know that it’s not an easy decision:  I myself decided to flee Chicago only after much thought, soul-searching and anguish, especially as Connie really didn’t want to leave.  We even looked at northern Michigan for a while (I wouldn’t now, but that’s a different discussion), but eventually decided on Texas because Texas.

Ultimately, we were driven out by the combination of horrible gun laws, high taxes and a Marxist congressional representative (Jan Schakowski), but even when we lived in the NW burbs, our state senator was… the above-mentioned Ann Gillespie.  All those factors forced us to leave.  And that was then.  Now?  Huh.  Like a flash.

Uneven Surfaces

I see that the Climate Loonies have been playing their little games again, this time in Germany:

Climate activists blocked flights at two German airports for several hours Thursday in protest against the most polluting form of transportation, and to demand tougher government action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The group Last Generation said several of its members entered the grounds of Hamburg Airport around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) and glued themselves to the runway on the first day of the school vacation in the north German city.

Dozens of flights were canceled and 10 arrivals had to be diverted to other airports, Germany’s dpa news agency reported.

Well, you can’t have airliners taking off over these human speedbumps, of course, so I propose some remedial action, toot sweet:

Or, if that tears up the surface of the runways too much, there’s always this option:

That’s called “crowd control with a schmear”.

Even better, we could use those as practice runs for bigger protests.

Just Stop Oil are planning their most annoying action yet as the eco-zealots said they will ‘paralyze London’ with slow-marching columns 10 times bigger than anyting they have previously done.

The climate activists are set to travel to London from all over the UK to disrupt the capital during rush-hour on Monday.

I’m thinking that crushed bone would make an excellent pothole filler.

Pants, Pants, Burning Bright

Here’s one who should go close to the head of the line when it comes time for visiting the Great Tree:

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed that he doesn’t know how many assets his agency had on the ground on January 6—or whether there were any at all.

I’m old enough to remember when it was a crime or something to lie under oath.  “Perjamas”?  “Purgeworthy”?

Whatever, this asshole should hang third from left.