Archive for June 8, 2021

Leave Mother Nature alone

Posted: June 8, 2021 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

I don’t claim to be a climate expert, but a recent trip to what’s known as the Pennsylvania Wilds demonstrates how Mother Nature does a pretty good job of taking care of herself.

In the rolling hills and valleys of north-central Pennsylvania sits Pine Creek Gorge, known as The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. See https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/LeonardHarrisonStatePark/Pages/default.aspx

A friend who has traveled throughout the world said as she looked over the landscape: “That’s a wow!”

Indeed, it is.

According to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, an estimated 90 percent, or 31,000 square miles of the state, was covered with forests before William Penn and his fellow Quakers settled the state. By the American Revolution, lumber became one of the leading industries in Pennsylvania. Trees were used to furnish fuel to heat homes, wood for construction, furniture, and barrel making. Rifle stocks and shingles were made from Pennsylvania timber, as were a wide variety of household utensils and the first Conestoga wagons.

By the mid-19th century, up to 20 million board feet of timber floated from the area to the West Branch Susquehanna River and to sawmills near Williamsport, a few miles from my new home. At the time, Williamsport boasted the highest number of millionaires per capita in the country.

But the timber barons cut down too much lumber and did not replenish what they had harvested. On May 6, 1903, a local newspaper ran the headline “Wild Lands Aflame” and reported landslides throughout the gorge. The soil was depleted of nutrients, and it became known as the “Pennsylvania Desert.” Much of the wildlife died or left the area.

Fast forward to today. Left to its own devices, Mother Nature has replenished the forests, renewed the land, and wildlife has returned.

The area is part of a state forest, but nature, not humans, did the bulk of the work.

As I said, I’m not an expert. But could you examine if you had all of today’s climate doomsayers trying to intervene in reviving the forestland? I’d rather leave the work to Mother Nature and God!

Counting to 50 Why the MSM Joe Manchin Noise Means Nothing

Posted: June 8, 2021 by datechguy in News/opinion, politics
Tags: , ,

I have always known how to count

Tip O’Neill

I don’t often agree with Joe Scarborough these days but there is something he said a bit back that really stuck in my head.

He was commenting on people on the right who wanted to purge Susan Collins from the GOP and noted that if you want a majority and all the advantages that a majority entails you need to keep a Susan Collins on board even if she votes against you now and again. It’s something Stacy McCain has written about repeatedly even as far back as 2008 concerning Pam Geller:

 Pam is a good person and I would suggest that this guilt-by-association “urge to purge” is antithetical to the best interests of conservatism. You can’t build a movement by the process of subtraction.

And as recently as 2019 concerning Pat Buchannan:

the targeting of Buchanan is an example of the “urge to purge” that has so often damaged the conservative cause. Buchanan’s decades of loyal service to the Republican Party — he was a key adviser to both Nixon and Reagan — ought to have entitled him to a certain amount of deference, even from such an eminent figure as Buckley, and as I’ve often said, you cannot build a successful movement by a process of subtraction.

If you do a search of Joe Manchin online today you can find all kind of items about pressure being put on Joe Manchin.

Let’s cut to the chase, there is a lot of talk about pressure on Joe Manchin but there is actually NO pressure on Joe Manchin because Both Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden can count to 50.

Right now Manchin is most powerful pols in the country and he knows it. Unlike Kyrsten Sinema he could change his party affiliation tomorrow and if every Democrat in his state retaliated by voting against him next time he would still hold his senate seat for life. He knows it, and while they won’t admit it, both the media and the Democrats know it.

As long as Manchin is the 50th vote he is the boss and no amount of press angst will make a difference.