Conservatively Speaking

·      Only Dumb Luck Saved Airliner

·       MAO, Transsexual On White House Christmas Tree

·       Time for More Nuclear Power

·       Tax FIDO And Fluffy Global Warming “Polluters”

In a laughable admission Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed when a Nigerian terrorist on a watchlist with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab tried to use Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) to blow up the airliner over Detroit Christmas Day. PETN is one of the most powerful high explosives known and could have caused great damage on the Christmas Day airliner. Umar was seated directly above the fuel tank. Reportedly about 80 grams nearly 3 ounces of PETN was taped around the leg of the terrorist.

Eight ounces of the stuff in a World War II era 2.36” bazooka rocket could blast a hole in 5 inches of armour plate so 3 ounces would have make short work of the thin skinned aircraft.

 

“Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid had also used 8-10 ounces of PETN along with  triacetone triperoxide (TATP), in 2001 to try to blast that Boeing 767. Neither man successfully detonated their bombs

 

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s father a wealthy Nigerian banker informed authorities weeks ago that his son was dangerous having fallen under the influence of radical Muslims.

The UK denied Umar a new visa to return to his engineering studies there.

Despite both Umar was allowed to fly on KLM to Amsterdam and then on a NWA flight to Detroit. His name appears among 575,000 suspects on an FBI watch list but nothing was done to alert security of give him extra attention..

A passenger subdued Umar. There was no Air Marshal  aboard the flight because Dutch law forbids it.

Congressman Peter King (R) New York the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee has called for a full investigation of the near disastrous security boondoggle. The Obama White House is in the early stages of finger pointing and deflection.

PETN is a white crystalline substance that feels powdery to the touch.

 

PETN is used in detonation cord, blasting caps  and other applications. It is relatively simple to make but, like nitroglycerine is can be unstable turning an erstwhile manufacturer into a red paste spread around the walls, ceiling and floor of the would be bomber’s makeshift lab.

 

But, you need not make it there is a lot of the stuff around. For instance, the IAEA reported it lost track of 12,000 pounds of PETN in Iraq a couple years ago, and it is otherwise easily obtainable from various sources but you cannot buy it at the local Farm Bureau..

Obtaining PETN explosive from the Nigerian terrorist indicates that he has involvement with some big terror groups. The terrorist, who was alleged to have some association with Al Qaeda, has declared to have received training at the Al Qaeda base in Yemen. Apparently the detonator was faulty just as was Reid’s when he failed to detonate his shoe bomb at Christmastime 2001. Iran’s heavily involved in Yemen as a munitions supplier.

 Had either bomb detonated it is likely both aircraft, passengers and crews would have been destroyed.

 

Fewer than 5% of airport screening post have the equipment yo detect PETN and related explosives.

The White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room has been the center of Presidential Christmases since the Harrison administration.  This year though, the tree reflects Obama’s leanings and Anti-Christian philosophy.  The tree does not celebrate a season but includes propaganda and politics.

According to World Net Daily, several ornaments on the tree, depict the extremist views of the administration.  One ornament contains the face of Mao Zedong, who killed many of his country men.  Another a transvestite with rainbows around the ornament.  Another pictures Obama added to Mounty Rushmore.  A Communist, a transvestite, and our most pompous president to date deck this anti-American, anti-Christian tree.

Not only does our President promulgate his Anti-Christian views in America’s home, he also does overseas.  He made one statement in Turkey last April that, ”We [America] do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.”   Other statements are, ”Whatever we were, we are no longer a Christian nation,” and “The Sermon on the Mount [is] a passage that is so radical that our own defense department wouldn’t survive its application.”  These statements are all according to Chuck Norris’s column in World Net Daily.

When Obama first started his presidency last January, he was not even attending a church, something many American Presidents have done as soon as they moved to DC.  He went to the gym instead.

Many Americans are hoping that Santa brings us a new president.  In 2012 those Americans will probably get there wish.  One that is filled with the Christmas spirit.  One who is filled with the American Spirit.  God Bless America!

Missouri troopers seized about 20 pounds of marijuana from a car this week — some of it in luggage, and some in boxes wrapped as Christmas gifts. The Highway Patrol says troopers found the marijuana in the car they stopped for speeding on Interstate 44 near Joplin.Two California women in the car gave troopers permission to search the vehicle. Both were charged Tuesday with one marijuana-related count and released on $1,000 bond.

The Luddite-like opposition to nuclear power in the United States has waned with 60% supporting nuclear power (70% or men and 50% of women). The American public has been led to believe that nuclear power is extremely dangerous and that nuclear waste disposal is an unsolved problem. Those beliefs are based on preposterous distortions by media and environmental extremists.

The USA gets less than 20% of its electricity from nuclear plants compared to world leaders France 76%; and Belgium 54%. But, the USA produces more megawattage than any other country or course it proportionately uses more power too.

One of the biggest distortions concerns the disposal of spent fuel rods. While any waste has to be disposed of properly ash from coal fired power plants is far more hazardous that such rods primarily because there is so much of it. Scientific ignorance and self-serving hysteria has kept the USA dependent on hydrocarbon power for decades.

There has not been a new nuclear power plant built in the USA or Canada for 30 years. New applications are moving with glacial serenity though the NRC permitting process.

It would be relatively easy to triple US nuclear power production while all alternative fuels (wind, solar, tidal, geothermal) does not now appear to offer anywhere near such potential at least in the forseeable future.

Uranium is very prevelant in the Earth’s crust. Of course it also provides the heat making the planet’s core molten and contributing to the habitability of the Earth. Because the innocuous dull gray metal (see photo inset) is the feeder fuel for nuclear weapons it also fuels the profits of professional naysayers costing the nation its dependence on foreign oil and the dictators many of whom  who rob us and hate us.

 

Sooner or later it had to happen. Man’s best friend is being tagged as one of the environment’s worst enemies, according to a new study which says the carbon pawprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle.

Farm animals have already been flagged for their flatulence and corrective proposals vary from affixing filters or collectors to their posteriors.

But the revelation in the book “Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living” by New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale has angered pet owners who feel they are being singled out as troublemakers.

The Vales, specialists in sustainable living at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand analyzed popular brands of pet food and calculated that a medium-sized dog eats around 164 kilos (360 pounds) of meat and 95 kilos of cereal a year.

Combine the land required to generate its food and a “medium” sized dog has an annual footprint of 0.84 hectares (2.07 acres) — around twice the 0.41 hectares required by a 4×4 driving 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) a year, including energy to build the car.

To confirm the results, the New Scientist magazine asked John Barrett at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York, Britain, to calculate eco-pawprints based on his own data. The results were essentially the same.

“Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat,” Barrett said.

Other animals aren’t much better, the Vales say.

Cats have an eco-footprint of about 0.15 hectares, slightly less than driving a Volkswagen Golf for a year, while two hamsters equates to a plasma television and even the humble goldfish burns energy equivalent to two mobile telephones.

But Reha Huttin, president of France’s 30 Million Friends animal rights foundation says the human impact of eliminating pets would be equally devastating.

“Pets are anti-depressants, they help us cope with stress, they are good for the elderly,” Huttin told AFP.

“Everyone should work out their own environmental impact. I should be allowed to say that I walk instead of using my car and that I don’t eat meat, so why shouldn’t I be allowed to have a little cat to alleviate my loneliness?”

Sylvie Comont, proud owner of seven cats and two dogs — the environmental equivalent of a small fleet of cars — says defiantly, “Our animals give us so much that I don’t feel like a polluter at all.

“I think the love we have for our animals and what they contribute to our lives outweighs the environmental considerations.

“I don’t want a life without animals,” she told AFP.

And pets’ environmental impact is not limited to their carbon footprint, as cats and dogs devastate wildlife, spread disease and pollute waterways, the Vales say.

With a total 7.7 million cats in Britain, more than 188 million wild animals are hunted, killed and eaten by feline predators per year, or an average 25 birds, mammals and frogs per cat, according to figures in the New Scientist.

Likewise, dogs decrease biodiversity in areas they are walked, while their faces cause high bacteria levels in rivers and streams, making the water unsafe to drink, starving waterways of oxygen and killing aquatic life.

And cat poo can be even more toxic than doggy doo — owners who flush their litter down the toilet ultimately infect sea otters and other animals with toxoplasma gondii, which causes a killer brain disease.

But despite the apocalyptic visions of domesticated animals’ environmental impact, solutions exist, including reducing pets’ protein-rich meat intake.

“If pussy is scoffing ‘Fancy Feast’ — or some other food made from choice cuts of meat — then the relative impact is likely to be high,” said Robert Vale.

“If, on the other hand, the cat is fed on fish heads and other leftovers from the fishmonger, the impact will be lower.”

Other potential positive steps include avoiding walking your dog in wildlife-rich areas and keeping your cat indoors at night when it has a particular thirst for other, smaller animals’ blood.

As with buying a car, humans are also encouraged to take the environmental impact of their future possession/companion into account.

But the best way of compensating for that paw or clawprint is to make sure your animal is dual purpose, the Vales urge. Get a hen, which offsets its impact by laying edible eggs, or a rabbit, prepared to make the ultimate environmental sacrifice by ending up on the dinner table.

“Rabbits are good, provided you eat them,” said Robert Vale.