This is CNN:
As tornadoes continue to batter America’s heartland, on Tuesday evening “Piers Morgan Live” invited Bill Nye and Bjorn Lomborg to join the program for an impassioned discussion on the environment, and climate change.
Noting that it’s impossible to persuade Mother Nature once a natural disaster is underway, Nye suggested that the goal should be to improve the ways in which such events are planned for, and dealt with, all with a mind towards limiting trauma and tragedy:
“We could, for example, pass laws making it difficult or undesirable to build fragile houses in the path of tornadoes,” said the gentleman forever known as “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” “I’m not sure we disagree about that.”
Every spring tornadoes hit the Midwest. Every summer fires hit the Southwest and hurricanes hit somewhere along the Atlantic and/or Gulf Coasts. Every winter blizzards hit the Northeast. Every few years a major earthquake hits somewhere along the San Andreas Fault.
Every year natural disasters strike at various places around the nation. The destructive power of Mother Nature is awesome to behold. I was an eyewitness to the Loma Prieta earthquake back in 1989 when Big Mama shook the whole map like a Polaroid picture. (I’m pretty sure she was PMSing that day.) Every year we spend a lot of money repairing the damage she causes.
Over the past several decades California has spent hundreds of billions of dollars retrofitting or replacing bridges, buildings, stadiums, dams and other structures to make them earthquake resistant. This is in addition to some very strict building codes for all new construction. (Notice I said “earthquake resistant”. That’s because nothing is earthquake proof.)
We could do that same kind of thing all across the country. We could tell people in Oklahoma they can’t build nothing that ain’t tornado resistant. We could tell the people in NOLA that their houses and businesses have to be able to handle a category-5 hurricane. We could pretty much ban mobile homes everywhere.
Of course that would price some people right out of the housing market and it would dramatically change the appearance of architecture around the country. I’m sure there would be other unintended consequences as well. But we could do it.
The question is, do we want to?
Where do “common sense building codes” cross over into nanny statism? We have helmet laws and seat belt laws and smoking laws and laws regulating the size of soft drinks. All of them were passed for our own good. So where does it stop?
Let’s not forget, every single one of those laws restricts our freedom just a little bit.
How much is too much?
The Crawdad Hole 
Hobbit holes would make nice tornado resistant homes.
It would in effect depopulate large sections of very productive parts of the country. Did the Science guy say New Jersey and large parts of NYC should be rebuilt using building practices of nuclear missile silos? No. This is what you get from “experts” who know about one thing. Nye knows science. It is obvious he doesn’t understand anything else. He might be some kind of idiot savant.
And hobbit holes flood. Then they would bitch about that.
Actually, trolls under a bridge are a lot safer.
I live in a very old house. We have a lot fewer problems when blizzards and torrential rains hit than the brandy new houses a block away. We don’t need a sump pump because the part of the floor that used to be the coal bin still has a dirt floor, and it’s lower than the rest of the basement floor. The basement is fieldstone, and cracks in between the huge granite stones are easily repaired. It’s not “air tight” so the guys with the fancy radon abatement systems have nothing to sell us. People have been living surrounded by granite here for a long time without radon exposure being a problem because our houses “leaked” air. Before someone could sell me on “new technology” to deal with the kind of natural disasters we get in the Northeast, I’d have to be convinced it worked.
Obviously , this planet is a hostile environment and uninhabitable . Let’s send Bill Nye and Piers Morgan to explore the moon , or Mars .
🙂
ASAP 🙂
Our states really don’t want to pass such laws. Example is the CA earthquake insurance scam. CA inhibits Home Insurers from including EQ and other disaster coverage in basic packages but pushes the pricey state policies from a different (well connected) carrier. It’s the kickback motive, not the true protection politicians crave.
VDH:
Ba-rock is now fair game. Swaggering while saying he knows nothing about anything is now obvious. Empty suit, empty chair, empty head is not cool. He prances while reading what someone else wrote for him. I noticed that the laughter at his little mean jests is getting hysterical. I thought the noises accompanying his last speech was a 1970’s cartoon laugh track. Freaked out, nervous squawking from your thralls is not a good sign.
I have a bumper sticker that says, “Nobody says nothing like Barack Obama” on my back door. It drives my neighbors crazy.
(it’s a Freedom fairy original.)
Hoping this will work:
NoEmptySuits @NoEmptySuits 8h
Most excellent!! RT “@mindchangez: THE PREZ LIE DISPENSER pic.twitter.com/zRrzMRdlAX”
View photo
Try again by clicking on the time stamp, then copy and paste the web address that’s in your url bar. Voila, you should get a tweet to post!
darn
LOL,Oh man, don’t even get me going about building codes! Yes, we’d price people right out of housing and other unintended consequences, but the real problem is the ineffectiveness of bureaucracy. Where I live we have to tie down mobile homes with hurricane ties, even though we don’t have hurricanes here. We have to put ice guard on our roofs, even though we don’t get icicles like they do in North Dakota. There are dozens of building codes that have no basis in common sense, at least for the area we live in. Locally we have some issues with flooding and landslides, but we don’t really have any codes about building your house on a riverbank or the edge of a cliff.
In South Florida new homes have to be built of cinderblock which really jacks up the price and why so many of those homes are “underwater”. Ironic, isn’t it 🙂
here’s the page: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BKZ7xdlCUAAr6cI.jpg
Also, I used to like Bill Nye, back when he was serving science. That man’s transformation into Obot is now complete. I feel like he’s been absorbed into the Borg and really won’t be coming back.
People must be protected! From nature! From others! From themselves!
But not from the government!
This message brought to you by the Bloomberg Bubblewrap Burea (no actual bubblewrap used; we banned that too)
My mother ,bless her soul , was a very early bubble wrap addict .She just could not stop popping .
Once you pop, you can;t stop.
The kids fight over bubble wrap around here.
Bill Nye would shit a brick and vehemently deny this, but he makes the same mistake that the young-earth, man-walked-with-dinosaurs type creationists do.
What mistake is that? Both include an assumption. Their assumption is that the Bible is literally true. His assumption is that the prog worldview is absolute truth.
Both factor this “absolute truth” into their interpretation of scientific facts. Neither sees this as corrupting the science, not at all. In their minds, it is true science to work around and incorporate known facts, and their worldview IS a “known fact” (to them.)
Nye is just as married to his progressive worldview as a “known fact” as any religionist is to their biblical literalism. It warps his interpretation of data.
You are so right. You can’t be a good scientist if you don’t have an open mind, at least to possibilities.
Great article from a former child star
http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-child-stars-go-crazy-an-insiders-perspective/
she seems to have her act together. One of the lucky ones
I’m a fan of the TMZ “Where are they now?” types of articles, and about 90% of those cute sitcom kids seem to be screwed up adults now.
I think Ron Howard (Opie) is one of the more successful and grounded child stars ever.
That’s because as a kid he worked with Andy Griffith & Don Knotts not a bunch of drugged out weirdos who now pass for “actors” in LA these days.
Amen to that!! 😉
GMTA almost verbatim!
It was the egg rolls. Not easter egg rolls. He was delivering egg rolls with lo mein in his part time job as chinese food delivery man.
One of the popular premises of science fiction is the perfectly planned city or world, where everything is designed for maximum efficiency.
That was Walt Disney’s original premise for EPCOT’s future world.
Sometime in the 60s the utopian ideal city got replaced by dystopian prison city though.
Utopia and dystopia are the same thing, just before and after.
Check out Daily Caller’s chart on how often Shulman was at the WH compared to other Cabinet members
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/29/irss-shulman-had-more-public-white-house-visits-than-any-cabinet-member/
wonder how many times Kal Penn has been to the WH hmmm…
That is seriously SHOCKING… The IRS commissioner during Bush’s term visits ONCE, and Shulman visits 157 times…. more than his SOS, SOD… come on!!!!!
When is the media going to place that information for the public to make their own judgement?
… and who was he visiting that many times?
There is just no other plausible reason for him to be there that many times other than to inform officials about what he has learned about people/opponents/etc at the IRS.
What are the chance this gets thoroughly investigated….?
As my husband says, they’ve been killing each other for over 2500 years and no matter what we do, they’ll continue killing each other for the next 2500 years. Sigh.
I agreed with the Reagan policy of encouraging Iraq and Iran to maul each other to death.
Amen 🙂
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/disturbing_pattern_obama_puts_our_enemies_above_us.html
backtrack’s pattern of putting our enemies above us
of the many examples this one is just disgusting. by called Ft Hood workplace violence the victims get screwed and the shooter gets paid.
Retired Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, shot seven times in the Ft. Hood terrorist attack, is stuck with paying his own medical bills. The shooter, Nidal Hasan, has been paid $278,000 while awaiting trial.
I wonder what the hold up is for Hasan’s trial ? Some Marines got worse punishment for peeing on corpses 😦
And I would approve that appointment 😀
Our military leaders are being neutered by this administration too. Relieving commanders for disagreeing with Obama is sending a message, kiss my ass or you’re out. Not good, not good at all.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/the_betrayal_of_hillary_clinton.html
backtrack’s betrayal of Hilary Clinton
http://freebeacon.com/uncertain-times/
This officer makes some good points
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/05/breaking-lois-lerner-told-republican-in-1996-promise-me-you-will-never-run-again-and-well-drop-this-fec-case/
lots of stuff coming out about lois lerner. no wonder she took the fifth
From Keith Koffler, at Politico:
Why the Dems might reject Hillary in 2016
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=582D2892-9D79-4379-ADB6-D0D0B0FACED4
I think he reads this blog 😀 A very good read and a peek at Biden’s chances being the nominee.
many who supported Hilary in 2008 will not be there for her in 2016. that includes me.
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/30/russia-delivers-air-defense-missiles-to-syria-as-opposition-rejects-geneva-conferences/
this is not looking good
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/05/30/mooch-hobnobs-with-anna-wintour-vera-wang-and-other-elitist-fashion-snobs/
those damn 1%ers that are the cause of all the problems of this countrt
Did you see this one ? Who talks like this?
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/302481-first-lady-urges-dem-donors-to-max-out
I wonder if “max out” is code for “audit”. Or exposing their horrific working conditions in sweat shops ? Wouldn’t put it past the Obamas…..hmmm.
Wish she would have begged like this for the victims of Sandy, Boston and Moore, OK.
I wish she had just a tad more dignity.
No, no, you guys! She absolutely nailed it. Baller means a thug or a gang banger that made it into the big time. Completely undeserving, but living large.
yttik – well she sure talks whack like a baller. She also thinks food stamps are necessary to “spread the wealth” (as long as the wealthy give her all their money?)
You know they all be havin’ fat sacks up in those phat cribs..
she is so used to maxing out other people’s credit cards that she thinks it is normal. when is the last time she had to pay for anything?
It’s no secret both Obamas’ message to their donors is if they can’t keep the Senate and take back the House, they can’t help them.
Bling bling!
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57586763/whats-going-on-between-the-irs-and-true-the-vote/
the IRS and True the Vote
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/gop-requests-benghazi-emails-between-obama-s-reelection-campaign-and-state-department_731969.html
now this could get real interesting.
GOP requests the Benghazi e-mails between backtrack’s reelection campaign and the State Dept
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55565
the obamacare meltdown begins
.
this is something that is being drowned out with all the scandals
http://www.kdrv.com/man-attempts-to-stop-felon-with-firearm/
it has gotten to the point that your are not supposed to defend your self in this country.
BTW
this is the same state that a woman got assaulted because there was no police response
there seems to be a pattern in the country today. you not only get preyed on by criminals but the government seems to be on their side.
from Fort Hood to Oregon, there is open season on Americans with no help from the government that we pay
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/05/30/poll-obamas-approval-rating-among-independents-tanks-to-only-37/
only 37% approval for backtrack among Independents. I think that is high
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-29/meanwhile-big-investors-quietly-slip-out-back-door-housing-stupid-money-jumps?source=Patrick.net
housing going to take another hit???
https://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2013/05/30/trashing-tea-partier-mrcs-top-10-most-vicious-anti-bachmann-quotes
trashing Michele Bachmann
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3644/britain_wants_its_guns_back
Britian wants it’s guns back
Charles thinks the White House missing hours were spent concocting the story too !
GOP is requesting emails between the WH and Obama’s re-election committee the night of Benghazi. Didn’t see the subpoena word used, but they should.
when the video becomes available I just found my Just Because for today.
Air Force Pilots climb Mt Everest.
they used their own leave time and financed it themselves
is a story on Fox today.
here is an article on this story
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021037807_everestairforcexml.html
Our local terrorist support organization :
http://www.mdcoastdispatch.com/articles/2013/05/24/Top-Stories/NEW-FOR-THURSDAY-Ramadans-Plead-Not-Guilty-Held-In-NY-Without-Bond…
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/05/30/obama-state-department-says-it-may-not-comply-with-congressional-subpoena-of-benghazi-documents/
has anyone else noticed that the backtrack must get a crick in their necks from holding their noses in the air? I am thinking about praying for a deluge in DC to see if they drown
Off-topic:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/05/30/tiny-wash-high-school-gets-palin-as-graduation-speaker/
good for them
Ugh, the comments are nasty. Must be a pocket of OFA media trolls up there. Even the author snarked the ending.
Sarah will give an inspiring and age appropriate speech. I look forward to reading the transcript of it …. and compare it to Michelle’s /snork.
Seattle is Obot/OFA territory. The whole Puget Sound region.
(My #2 Son and DIL live in Olympia.)
My guess is that Sarah won’t say that failure is okay, (unlike the message that MO gave.)
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/05/30/irs-agent-who-signed-intimidating-letters-sent-to-conservative-groups-gets-promoted-to-supervisor-role/
wow want to get promoted? target conservative groups
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/30/top-10-man-caves-of-all-time-slideshows/man-cave-590×393/
there is a man-cave for MYIQ in the top ten
LOLOLOL
btw, there’s a gun store not far away from us that’s right next to a liquor store.
There has to be a pawn shop nearby.
And a vasectomy clinic. My brother says one should be next to the courthouse.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-guns-boy-scouts-20130530,0,3573485.story
California gets nuttier by the day
Great video rant
More Ricin letters. I wonder what kind of impersonator will get arrested this time – Michael Jackson?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/30/bloomberg-guns-ricin/2372183/
IRS timeline
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/30/the-irs-and-fbi-breach-of-fait/print
I’d be interested to how all of the “no regulations” folks feel about government funded disaster relief. IMO, if the government is going to be expected to pay for disaster relief then they can damn will set regulatory requirements. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you agree that disaster relief is necessary then you need to pay the piper already.
Now that Obamacare is the law of the land I guess the government can set regulations over our personal diet and exercise too. We can ban unhealthy lifestyles.
People with certain genetic conditions could be prevented from having kids, along with people with family histories of diabetes, alcoholism, cancer, mental illness, etc.
I’d be okay with a law that says to qualify for a federally-guaranteed home loan you have to buy disaster insurance too.