They Forgot To Repeal The Law Of Unintended Consequences

A bipartisan debacle from the late Bush era:

Palm Oil Was Supposed to Help Save the Planet. Instead It Unleashed a Catastrophe.

A decade ago, the U.S. mandated the use of vegetable oil in biofuels, leading to industrial-scale deforestation — and a huge spike in carbon emissions.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and we will drive down it in bio-diesel cars.

Comments

[daddy]

is palm oil from Brazil Nuts?

[Jim Eagle]

When I was in Indonesia, the big bet for a lot of ventures was Palm Oil, in Malaysia. lots of money was pouring in back in the mid 80's. Look how therir bus has pulled in.

[henry]

Jerusalem Post

BREAKING Iran threatens U.S. bases and aircraft carriers within missile range dlvr.it/QrpJfY

https://twitter.com/jerusalem_post/status/1065353180916023297?s=12

[Extraneus]

World’s most expensive Thanksgiving dinner costs $150G

For some, Thanksgiving means spending time with family – but for others, the holiday is all about opulence. At least that’s what Old Homestead, a steakhouse in New York City, thinks.

This year the restaurant is offering a $150,000 Thanksgiving dinner – nearly double the $76,000 dinner it offered last year – in honor of its 150th anniversary.

The expensive meal feeds 12 and is made with the finest ingredients available including a 25-pound free-range turkey basted in imported olive oil and covered in edible gold, bread and pork stuffing made with $475-per-pound pork from Japan and served with gravy infused with a $3,300 Pappy Van Winkle bottle of bourbon.

(Click to open pic.)

[Extraneus]

Just kidding.

But it’s not the only thing this bird is stuffed with – nestled inside the crispy turkey seasoned with Middle Eastern spices is a set of keys to a 2018 Maserati Levante, which goes for over $75,000.

[matt - deplore me if you must]

Our turkey this year is a 4H champion raised by a friend's 10 year old daughter. It ate only the best, was well cared for, free yard, and will be fondly remembered.

OK, the Maserati is reasonable, as long as it blue.

[lyle]

Gonzaga taking it to Dook.

[Extraneus]

I knew about Kobe beef, and reported here about my big Japan adventure a few weeks ago, but $475/lb Japanese pork? How good could it possibly be?

What's the most expensive American pork? Has anyone tried it?

[Jim Eagle]

Ex,

Pork in America. How about $1.7 billion a year?

[Jim Eagle]

Titus Welliever lives well my watching toniight.

[Jane]

Everything is better with bacon!

[Narciso79]

Well except chocolate that's all sorts of wrong.

[Jim Eagle]

I have a chocolate pecan pie for tomorrow.

[Thomas Collins]

Re the Old Homestead Thanksgiving dinner: See, OL, L'Espalier is a bargain!

[Extraneus]

Gutfeld on Trump's response to Khashoggi

[Extraneus]

Kashoggi was a fairly ugly dude.

[Extraneus]

For daddy:

Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient Found in Glass

We are all, quite literally, made of star dust. Many of the chemicals that compose our planet and our bodies were formed directly by stars. Now, a new study using observations by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reports for the first time that silica — one of the most common minerals found on Earth — is formed when massive stars explode.

Look around you right now and there's a good chance you will see silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) in some form. A major component of many types of rocks on Earth, silica is used in industrial sand-and-gravel mixtures to make concrete for sidewalks, roads and buildings. One form of silica, quartz, is a major component of sand found on beaches along the U.S. coasts. Silica is a key ingredient in glass, including plate glass for windows, as well as fiberglass. Most of the silicon used in electronic devices comes from silica.

And of course, silicon is the reason we have transistors, which is how we made computers. And SiO2 is a useful insulator in any semiconductor process. All from stars!

[Extraneus]

I hate to be the only one here, but I can take it.

Rudy Giuliani: Mueller Did Not Ask Trump Any Questions About Obstruction of Justice

[Extraneus]

Female Genital Mutilation: Five Lessons U.S. Lawmakers Can Learn from Europe

[Narciso79]

Well they are a parody at this point:

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=378258

[Narciso79]

Obama's ramble reminds me of this:

https://youtu.be/fEkWH8DB7b0

[Captain Hate]

How did I miss this?

https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/31/the-unmasking-of-the-weekly-standard/

[Captain Hate]

ChuckGrassley @ChuckGrassley
Chief Justice Roberts rebuked Trump for a comment he made abt judge's decision on asylum I don't recall the Chief attacking Obama when that Prez rebuked Alito during a State of the Union

Again, to hell with Roberts, another enduring Bush stain on the country.

[Extraneus]

Good for Grassley.

[Extraneus]

So Trump has the perfect opportunity to appoint whoever he wants as AG. The whole point of Whitaker is to fill in until the replacement AG is confirmed. If Trump's choice isn't confirmed, Whitaker stays for 210 days, and can be extended for another 210 days.

I wonder who he'll appoint. Hardly anyone is even guessing about this.

[henry]

I suppose he will appoint someone I haven’t heard of. Time will tell.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Someone asked about the ~870 missing due to the Camp Fire.
Almost always those are the result of someone going to a shelter or a friend's house and taking some time to be located.
The number was close to 1300 a few days ago and has shrunk by 500 with the actual death toll only going up 15 or 20.
I hope I'm not wrong.
Our pastor's wife was raised in Paradise and her relatives lost at least a couple of homes but no lives.
The local churches and relief organizations already have so much donated stuff they can't take anymore and are now just asking for cash and gift card donations.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

A very reasonable analysis of climate change's influence on the Camp Fire[pretty much none] from a guy who is actually a bit of a global warmer.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

John Hussman is a bit of a prog who still has many good insights on the economy.
He even finds a few Galbraith quotes that don't induce automatic dry heaves.
In any event, lots of wheat among the chaff.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Well, if everyone else left, then I'm leaving too. :)

[henry]

Nice articles. Thanks Ig!

[Narciso79]

I suspected as much, but I didn't have access to the data.

[Narciso79]

Thanks ig.

[Another Bob]

Apparently the Clinton Foundation 2017 report is online.

2015 Total Contributions: $182.5M

2016 Total Contributions: $135.4M

2017 Total Contributions: $22.8M

You don’t suppler it was a pay-for-play laundromat? Nah.

[Narciso79]

if. Problem is all downturns are driven by imbalances in economy, going back to 1873 at least if not 1837.

[Another Bob]

suppler > suppose

[Narciso79]

The smoot Hawley tariff surpassing fordney macomber did cauterize capital flow on each side of the atlantic.

[Pinandpuller]

You think that's bad? I just saw some weave lying on the pavement looking like a dead squirrel. Yuck.

I think I missed a Cat Fight.

[Pinandpuller]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/tax-bono-harming-world-poorest-glastonbury-avoidance-paradise-papers

[MissMarple2]

My suspicion is apparently shared by others:

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐡 𝐓𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐓𝐨𝐜𝐤
⏰
🇺🇸
🎸
🌴
‏ @LeahR77
1h1 hour ago

Justice John Roberts twisted the Constitution like a pretzel to get Ocommie-care passed .. CLEARLY he knows full well the concept of Judicial Activism .
Question is why does he suddenly feel the NEED to get publicly defensive ?
Wonder what “they” have on him ?

[Narciso79]

Beto and mittens seem to suffer from the same category error, re the kingdom how does that happen?

[Narciso79]

The next post columnist:

https://mobile.twitter.com/davereaboi/status/1065424030872887297

It was bin laden's favorite network after they fired olbermann

[Pinandpuller]

If I had white spray paint I could have a little fun.

We used to go to church with a taxidermist. He managed to seal the deal with a lady friend despite telling her her hair was reminiscent of a skunk.

Skunk fur is soft if you aren't familiar.

[Narciso79]

So the head of the gru is dying from a longstanding illness, they don't fool around over there.

[MissMarple2]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/21/exc-mi6-battling-donald-trump-release-classified-russia-probe/

[Narciso79]

Fascinating isn't it, well they would have a whole lot of egg on their face.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Jeepers Orvis is a clip joint.
Ordered a couple of hats and decided to apply for the veterans 10% discount.
I jump through their hoops and sign my affydavey that I am a boney fide vet and click on continue for my delightful discount. My choices were to pay them either 5 bucks per month to get my discount or 10 simoleans a month for my super dooper discount.
With friends like these....

[Narciso79]

Those words they are using...shirley they can't be serious.

[Narciso79]

So vanity affair hired le carres brother, that of Hitler's Pope to do a poison pen profile of Benedict, he does obliquely mention archbishop vigano.

[Narciso79]

You can't make this up:

https://mobile.twitter.com/alimhaider/status/1065368748419371008/photo/1

[Narciso79]

And tenure has not improved drezners impulse controls re graduate students and their poor grammar.

[MissMarple2]

Bedtime for me.

Nytol!

[Another Bob]

Orvis is a waste of time and cash Ig.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

They had a couple of fly fishing caps for half price and third price so I couldn't resist, ABob.
Plus when I was a kid their Battenkill rods and reels were the sine qua non bees knees [didn't wanna sound like the typical Orvis snob]. :)

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

When you read something like Narc's 9:56 you gotta wonder if man is really God's last word.
Maybe the world would be better off ruled by something not nearly so irrational as the nekkid ape...like maybe cockroaches.
Or tigers. They could dig Burmese human being traps. If they dug only Academic human being traps and ate the world's entire supply of half witted profs I'd be happy to welcome our new feline overlords.

[Narciso79]

Romans explained it all 1950? Years ago, if one denies the truth, than God will leave ones to their petty passions hangups at al.

A BBC publication of all things discussed the butterfly effect, one example was a comet in 312 ad that appeared around the time Constantine was fighting maxentius, its presence convinced him higher powers were at wotk.

[Narciso79]

I was catching Patton, which they were running for the umpteenth time and they showed two scenes which aren't usually referred to, one was the Turkey shoot as kasserine pass, so to speak, the second was part of the Sicily campaign might have been messina, it illustrated what Sherman said about war.

[Narciso79]

There was a film about this clash dubbed into Spanish:

http://www.livius.org/articles/person/maxentius/

[Narciso79]

It was called decline of an empire and it was Peter o'toole last film, he was also the most well known of the cast which included Edward fox (the jackal) and Joss Auckland (tinker tailor)

[Narciso79]

I am watching infermal affairs which is the film that the departed ripped off and edited rather extensively it's a much more complex series which flashes forward and back, with more characters and a plausible plot.

[MJW]

I found Robert's comments today irksome, but the idea that he's the equivalent of Souter is ludicrous. Souter was an outright liberal; Roberts is a conservative who occasionally strays. Consider Citizens United, Heller, his dissent in the gay marriage case, the recent union-dues case, and on and on. Even in the Obamacare case, he joined the opinion limiting the Commerce Clause, something I can't imagine Souter doing.

[Narciso79]

Hew mjw, how have you been yes they aren't equivalent he's more a berger than a Scalia type, the fact is they always have to admonishing the right, soecially in light of recent events.

[Account Deleted]

a reminder from last year:

'It's the honorable thing to do': Controversial Virginia imam who once called on Muslim men to fight in the jihad is filmed calling for female genital mutilation to prevent 'hyper-sexuality'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4577098/Imam-advocates-female-genital-mutilation-lecture.html

Imam Shaker Elsayed is the Imam from The Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia.

Narciso reminded me that - "Awlaki was the previous imam, he was blown up in Yemen in 2011"

Also my Congressman Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., met with him in 2015 after the San Bernardino jihadist massacre in 2015.
(that was the Muslim jihadist massacre when the coworkers that threw the guy a baby shower were slaughtered)

Usually politicians meet with groups that were slaughtered.....but Beyer, Eleanor Holmes Norton & others went to meet with people that were fellow worshipers of Allah.

Maybe some Democrats could disavow some of their voters for a change.
Are Democrats for FGM like Imam Shaker Elsayed?

[Account Deleted]

Democrats Visit Mosque In Virginia To Show Support To Muslims (But Mosque Has Terror Ties)

2015 link with a picture of my Congressman there - https://www.weaselzippers.us/243705-democrats-visit-mosque-in-virginia-to-show-support-to-muslims-but-mosque-has-terror-ties/

[jim nj]

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/11/21/white-house-approves-use-of-force-some-law-enforcement-roles-for-border-troops/

Lethal force.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/yes-trump-really-has-authority-to-use-military-force-at-the-border

Reasons why the Posse Comitatus Act does not apply here.

[jim nj]

https://www.foxnews.com/world/german-teen-loses-driving-license-just-49-minutes-after-passing-driving-test

I should say something witty here - nah, I got nothin'

[Barbara]

President Trump, the First Lady and Barron arrive in Florida for Thanksgiving. A huge cheering crowd greeted them!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NLyjgYI4Cfo

USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸 USA

[jimmyk]

Roberts is a conservative who occasionally strays.

He strayed when he was the decisive vote in a huge case. Voting with conservatives in a 7-2 case isn't so meaningful.

I agree he's not a liberal. The complaint here is that he sanctimoniously defended activist, partisan judges, essentially saying the emperor's clothes are stunning, when everyone can see the obvious. Worse, as Grassley pointed out, he remained silent when Obama criticized the SC. In that way he's like W, who refused to say anything negative about Obama, but is all too happy to break the code to criticize Trump.

[Pinandpuller]

Norm Macdonald had an old joke about how Michael Jackson was teaming up with Saudi investors to open up a chain of wedding chapels. What were they called, Forever Nine?

[MJW]

Speaking of the supreme court, an important forfeiture case will be argued next week. The primary issue is whether the 8th amendment's prohibition of excessive fines extends to states. The Indiana state supreme court held that it doesn't, so that seizing a car in a fairly minor drug case was allowed, even though the vehicle's value was about four times the maximum fine for the offense. An earlier U.S. supreme court case held that the excessive-fine prohibition applied to property seizures by the federal government, as long as there's some element of punishment associated with the forfeiture (as there almost always is). They haven't yet clearly said whether that also applies to states.

The amicus briefs almost all oppose Indiana's position that the 8th amendment doesn't limit state fines and forfeitures, and are of the "strange bedfellow" variety -- everyone from the Chamber of Commerce, the Cato Institute, the ACLU, Judicial Watch, the SPLC, and others of both sides of the political spectrum.

Hopefully, the court will rein in the corrupt and abusive process of using forfeitures as a revenue-raising strategy.

[jim nj]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-21/opec-s-worst-nightmare-the-permian-is-about-to-pump-a-lot-more
oil

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/21/investing/oil-prices-trump-saudi-arabia/index.html

Two articles on falling oil prices, both mention that the US is now the largest producer nation. The charts in the articles are very illuminating.

[jim nj]

MJW,

Some of the forfeitures are useful, but most don't pass the smell test.

IMO, the "cash" forfeitures are the worst. The ones where a driver gets pulled over with an "unusual" amount of cash and it's seized because of suspicion of its' origin.

That to me is a huge no-no. If I had 200K in cash in my car rather than my bank, I should be "quirky" not "criminal."

[Narciso79]

So guess who was 'badmouthing' Facebook none other than Jeb's man godfrey, Tim miller.

[jim nj]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/silent-and-simple-ion-engine-powers-a-plane-with-no-moving-parts/

Model-sized, but it worked, until it hit a wall.

[jim nj]

https://hotair.com/archives/2018/11/21/mexico-deporting-caravan-members-get-chance/

Mexico is deporting caravan troublemakers.

[MJW]

He strayed when he was the decisive vote in a huge case. Voting with conservatives in a 7-2 case isn't so meaningful.

I believe each case I mentioned was 5-4.

[Barbara]

I believe it was an ion 'engine' that powered the space ship in Andy Weir's book, The Martian.

[jim nj]

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/25050/canadian-auditors-slam-surplus-aussie-hornet-buy-describe-fighter-force-in-collapse

Stupid, just because Trudeau got caught up in a trade dispute over Bombardier'e C Series aircraft and the US decision to impose a 219% tariff on it.

So Trudeau, in a fit of pique, refused to buy new fighters from Boeing, since Boeing had brought the complaint about Bombardier, and bought older model used planes from Australia.

Australia, in the mean time, is buying Boeing's latest version of the FA-18 and F-35s.

[jim nj]

Barbara,

Ion engines are already being used in spaceflight. The collective opinion was that they wouldn't work in our atmosphere.

Interesting what happens if you buck collective opinion.

[Barbara]

I didn't know that, jim nj. I was fascinated by Weir's description of the ion engine.

Thanks for the information.

[jim nj]

Counter-intuitive, but,

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-breakingviews/breakingviews-cox-trump-is-surprisingly-popular-in-china-idUSKCN1NQ0OP

Many Chinese businessmen believe that Trump's external efforts will spur internal reform that will benefit them.

[jim nj]

Barbara,

It's a corollary to my, "Science advances one funeral at a time."

One scientist with an aversion to the consensus can make breakthroughs that nobody else foresaw.

[jim nj]

There were quite a few posts about Kashoggi, but I will add this which I particularly like,

https://spectator.us/trump-right-saudi-arabia/

[Pinandpuller]

It wouldn't surprise me if one of Al Sharpton's many meetings at the Obama White House was getting Brazil nuts banned from import.

[jim nj]

Whoa, speaking of Brazil

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/11/21/new-brazilian-foreign-minister-climate-change-is-a-plot-by-cultural-marxists/

[jim nj]

That's gonna sting.

[jim nj]

https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2018/11/21/james-woods-invites-you-to-watch-obama-dismiss-every-political-figure-hes-dealt-with-in-the-entire-world/?utm_campaign=twitchywidget

Rad the comments too.

[Pinandpuller]

Roberts is a points shaver

[jim nj]

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/11/new_yorks_subway_riders_are_going_galt.html?fbclid=IwAR07d0k_ftapm8nMTbxoKchvQyYkFZb6W1Dk4VA5j9YNji7zCWpIWBT9lsg

I haven't been on a NYC subway for some years. It's a great way to travel quickly, but not if it's mis-managed or you have to keep your head on a swivel.

jimmyk, anybody else want to comment?

[jim nj]

Pin, you got a link?

[jim nj]

via Insty,

http://electroverse.net/professor-valentina-zharkova-breaks-her-silence-and-confirms-super-grand-solar-minimum/?fbclid=IwAR0UrPm-Jkg0TBzdi3oyTbmRHfpEiyv9_uL8aVzHk-2CpZFVLHD2fXC9mDo

[Pinandpuller]

How did the UK get as racist as the US?

[jim nj]

via Insty,

https://www.earthlymission.com/russia-wants-bulgarians-to-stop-painting-soviet-monuments-to-look-like-american-superheroes/?fbclid=IwAR1Rt962uoGHnLTlNOmXF_Ju0s9Qmbx58usSx4RoppWRbE8U26277ReZcx0%C2%A0

[Pinandpuller]

Once upon a time, 4,000 to 8,000 years after humanity invented agriculture, something very strange happened to human reproduction. Across the globe, for every 17 women who were reproducing, passing on genes that are still around today—only one man did the same.

"It wasn't like there was a mass death of males. They were there, so what were they doing?" asks Melissa Wilson Sayres, a computational biologist at Arizona State University, and a member of a group of scientists who uncovered this moment in prehistory by analyzing modern genes.

http://awakeningtimes.com/8000-years-ago-17-women-reproduced-for-every-one-man/

[Pinandpuller]

The original source:

https://psmag.com/environment/17-to-1-reproductive-success

[jim nj]

https://www.dw.com/en/no-winners-in-us-china-trade-spat-says-who/a-46372019?fbclid=IwAR0e4GYstln2PQoiLcUnfar6NvIcHJUOILWW8LK9mM0MNIrnl1xNl2NKyH0

Interesting, this seems to suggest that supply chains are moving out of China.

[jim nj]

Thanks for the citations Pin. Interesting theory. Needs more work, but rich men, even now, seem to have no problem attracting women.

[Pinandpuller]

Interesting as well

[jim nj]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/head-of-russian-spy-agency-accused-of-british-poison-attack-dies/ar-BBPXYXu?li=BBnbfcL

I think somebody referred to this earlier without going into details.

[daddy]

Ion engines are already being used in spaceflight. The collective opinion was that they wouldn't work in our atmosphere.

Interesting what happens if you buck collective opinion.

Jim nj,

I don't know why you don't read the New York Times in order to learn yourself better:

The New York Times, January 13, 1920:

After the rocket quits our air and really starts on its longer journey, its flight would be neither accelerated nor maintained by the explosion of the charges it then might have left.[1]

The New York Times, January 13, 1920. The Times offered a retraction on July 17, 1969, as Apollo 11 was on its way to the moon.

Big night at Kilroy's Miss M. Wish u was here:)