A Word From Alice Finkel

Being the Al Fin blog's assistant administrators has not been easy over the years. Mr. Fin is extremely demanding and often petty in his expectations. Still, I remain at my job because I believe this blog provides a valuable service to select individuals who choose to look ahead. As Mr. Fin often says, "what we call the present is only a smoke screen of illusion. We must develop vision capable of penetrating the charade."

Yes, Fin comes across as very haughty and pompous at times. He is certainly not as smart as he thinks he is, I can tell you that. I myself am much smarter, although I patronize him, and let him think he's right if we can't agree on something. Why-what part of the meaning of the word "assistant" don't you understand?

Anyway, I have strict instructions from Mr. Fin for situations like this. If he ever goes incommunicado, I am to make sure that the main blog, at least, continues to post articles at least a few times a week. Valerie posted an article yesterday, but the poor android's so frantic with worry over Mr. Fin that I had to put her in hibernation so she wouldn't burn her circuits.

So I thought I'd write about Senator Barack Obama's plans to regulate Carbon Dioxide as a dangerous pollutant. Most ordinary people do not realize or understand how such a move would affect the US economy and US energy availability and costs.

Jason Grumet is currently executive director of an outfit called the National Commission on Energy Policy and one of Mr. Obama's key policy aides. In an interview last week with Bloomberg, Mr. Grumet said that come January the Environmental Protection Agency "would initiate those rulemakings" that classify carbon as a dangerous pollutant under current clean air laws. That move would impose new regulation and taxes across the entire economy, something that is usually the purview of Congress. _WSJ

Most of you won't understand how startling this development is. Obama's spokesman is saying that if Congress won't cut the throat of the American economy, then Obama will take care of it himself. Whether this is Obama the "smoke blower" or Obama the genuine "tough guy" remains to be seen.

In the real world, Arctic sea ice is accumulating at unprecedented rates, putting the sea ice anomaly years ahead of schedule in a chilly return to "normalcy." And for some reason, the planet seems to be getting colder all over, not just in the Arctic. This global cooling's been going on since about the turn of the last century. You won't read about it in the lame mainstream. You have to go to first-class websites like WattsUpWithThat, Climate Science, Icecap or Climate Audit, to get the real story.

I used to believe in all this climate catastrophe claptrap that Al Gore and his drones in the press keep pushing. Then I looked closer and started studying the complicated way that climate shifts and changes in the normal course of things. You'd have to have some kind of lobotomy not to be curious enough to look closer. What is that Mr. Fin keeps talking about? Psychological lobotomy? Or is it Academic Neoteny? Don't tell me, I'll google it.

Well, it's been fun subbing for the boss. Things are pretty quiet lately, without all his demands to "research this" or "document that." Almost too quiet. I know I'm only supposed to update this blog, but "Al Fin, You Sexy Thing" has been crying out for a woman's touch. Maybe I should slip a little femme-bomb into the works over there?