Is Man Made Global Warming Causing This Blistering Summer?

Is Man-Made Global Warming Causing This Blistering Summer? Remember the winter of 2010-11? It was one of the coldest winters on record. It had the global warming deniers all saying “Global Warming my ass!! If we are in a global warming pattern, then why are we having one of the coldest winters in history?” To which the environmentalists responded, “We are in a pattern of climate change. You cannot take a few isolated cold months and say that our climate change warnings have been disproved.” Well here we are in the middle of one of the hottest driest summers in 50 years. Now look who’s taking an isolated weather incident by wagging its’ collective finger at the deniers, and saying “See!! See!! We told you this would happen. This hotter than average summer PROVES that man made global warming is true.” Now the reinvigorated radical environmentalist movement hopes to leverage this summer’s heatwave and drought into legislative action on global warming...er, climate change...er, global climate disruption. Now the more liberal government officials and their friends in the media and the entertainment industry, folks such as Jon Stewart, Katie Couric, Rosie O’Donnell, Chris Matthews, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Harry Reid, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and many others in fact, can now again get to make the inherent assumption that man has the power to control the earth’s climate. The Washington Post has highlighted two of many “geoengineering” schemes” that these environmental Nazi’s have dreamed-up that is designed to control the earth’s climate by building artificial volcanoes and growing plankton in the ocean…. Huh? Before we allow them to tinker around with such expensive “pie in the sky” experiments (of course using our tax dollars) maybe we should first have them tell us WHAT they consider to be an appropriate global average temperature. Regardless of what the experts decide, they then have to tell us what atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (co2) is necessary to achieve their temperature goal. The disgraced, data tampering, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wants to keep the atmospheric concentration of co2 under 550 parts per million and various literature cites 450 ppm as necessary to “stabilize” the climate. Why is it that the more liberal a person is more likely they are to believe in this man-made Global Warming theory, and the more conservative a person is, the more skeptical they are of the theory? Of course the liberals believe that they are much more intelligent than the mouth-breathing, knuckle dragging, Neanderthal conservative who is controlled by some huge self-serving corporate big wig. Many conservatives and libertarians, such as myself, look upon environmentalism as a fanatic religion dedicated to Mother Earth, whose’ believers take the “scientific” data being reported to them on sheer faith that what they hear, and what they read is the truth. Ninty nine percent of those that profess to be an environmentalist do not have the access or knowledge in the operation of the scientific instruments needed to gather the facts for themselves to prove that the global warming theory is true or bogus. They are as dependent upon receiving information on what they perceive to be the truth must come from their “scientist/priest”, just as any other religious denomination is dependent upon what their clerics tell them is the truth. Extremism in any religion, including environmentalism, can be counterproductive, and downright coo-coo. Fifteen years ago, the Islamic Taliban of Afghanistan, upon strong religious beliefs, blasted apart and destroyed centuries old statues that Buddhists had carved out of a cliff side, because the Taliban determined that these statues represented a pagan religion with non Islamic ideas. The rest of the civilized world stood by in disbelief as the deed was done. Today it is reported that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt seeks to destroy and level the Sphinx and the Pyramids as pagan symbols of a long ago ancient religion. If it comes to this, again the world will stand by and watch in disbelief as the deed is done. The point is that fundamentalist religious fanatics will charge ahead, no matter how self destructive and impracticable their ideas may be. Today’s American environmentalist movement is not only willing, but fully wishes to sacrifice our standard of living to the altar of their true religion, Mother Earth. During the early Twentieth Century, eastern Oregon’s terrene was as arid as that of Utah or Nevada. Then great dams were built to trap the waters of Oregon’s rivers thus creating the great aquatic reservoirs that allowed for the irrigation of the parched land.. This transformed the land of eastern Oregon allowing for the alteration of arid land into lush productive agricultural land. But to the environmentalist, this transformation was against the laws of their religion of Mother Earth. The natural pattern of Mother Earth’s design had been violated by man, and must be reversed to restore the natural order of things. During the latter years of the twentieth century, the environmentalist religion had gained such political strength, that it demanded that the “unnatural” manmade dams that created the artificial lakes and reservoirs must be removed. In the liberal court systems of Oregon, these dams were easily judged to be an impediment to the salmon that by nature was compelled to return to their natural ancient breeding ground. The dams were dismantled and the rivers once again run unimpeded to the sea. Thus hundreds of thousands of farms and countless towns and cities were allowed to die out for the sake of the natural life span of the salmon. In this environmentalist religion, mankind is considered a cancer on this earth, and anything that is considered as progress, and a benefit to human develop, is under attack from this environmental religion. This election year of 2012, the environmental religion has grown strong enough to challenge the very existence of the city of San Francisco. On this year’s California ballot there is a referendum to have a dam removed to allow a river to empty into the sea. Eighty five percent of the San Francisco Bay area’s water comes from the Hetch Hetchy Valley reservoir. In 1913 construction started on the 350 foot high O’Shaughnessy Dam that holds back an eight mile long 300 foot deep section of the Tuolumne River. The dam also has a pollution free hydroelectric power system that supplies San Francisco with twenty five percent of its electric power. The dam is unfortunately perched in the sacred Sierra near the fabled Yosemite Valley. The environmentalist religion wants to turn back the clock on this decision that was made nearly a century ago to flood a granite-walled valley for the benefit of San Francisco and three other Bay Area counties. By demolishing the dam and restoring the valley's meadows and its majestic rock faces, environmentalists yearning to restore the submerged valley will once again be responsible for rolling back progress and creating economic hardships for millions of people, all for the sake that some environmentalist may feast their eyes on something that may provide visual beauty. Of course there is no one alive today that could attest to the lost visual beauty of Hetch Hetchy Valley, but there are plenty of people around today that can attest to the benefits that the reservoir provides. I would imagine that the very uber-liberal City of San Francisco would be horrified at the prospect of losing their access to a plentiful water source, and they may break ranks with their political brethren. Of course we are talking about left of center San Francisco, and the vote will take place in the fruit ‘n nut land of California, so anything is possible. Bankrupt California is dead broke from all its touchy, feely progressive programs,and this woodsy vision of restoring The Hetch Hetchy Valley will be enormously expensive. One study estimated that the bill would run between $3 billion and $10 billion and there's no source of money that has been lined up to pay for the demolition and restoration work. Even if San Francisco is wasting Tuolumne River water by not tapping local sources such as rain runoff, wells and recycled water, the Bay area will have to expand recycling efforts as it tools up a brand new multibillion-dollar update of their water supply system. Watch out Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, Hoover Dam will soon be on their list.

The Field

Just before last week’s July, 2011 heat wave drove us Danville, Illinois folks to the inside comfort of air conditioning, my kids and I, ages 10 & 5, ( I being considerably older than them …will keep my age out of the story)…anyway we took an early evening stroll from our home in the 1600 block of N. Gilbert Street for the half mile walk to the Edison Grade School playground. I, of course, being a good and responsible parent, kept both kids within arm’s reach at all times, least some pervert hiding behind a hedge row might reach out and molest one of them. When we crossed the busy intersection of Vermilion & Winter Streets, I responsibly pressed “the button” that would grant us safe passage across Vermillion Street between the painted crosswalks. (There is a lighted digital sign visible that counts down the 30 seconds that we are allowed to be within this crosswalk.) With both of my children’s hands safely nestled in mine, we crossed Vermilion street… a distance we covered with 15 seconds to spare! I then pressed “the button” that would allow us safe passage across Winter Street and access to the Edison School playground. We took our usual rout to the playground equipment to the rear of the school across the back parking lot, but found that all the gates to the playground have been padlocked shut for the summer months.
I knew that the fence that surrounded most of the playground had not been entirely enclosed yet, and that the side facing Vermilion Street still had free access to the playground . So we took the detour across the front side of Edison, and receive passage to the school playground. We were the only ones present using the playground equipment. My 5 year old son hopped on a swing and started swinging, while his older sister took to the bars and started to practice her gymnastic routines’. Being an old fellow, I sat down on the bench that was there for old people to rest while they watched their children or grandchildren play.
As I sat there watching my young ones play, I couldn’t help but notice how the playground had changed from my youth at Edison. The new swing sets were in the same locations, but not as tall and with a much shorter swing span. Gone was the 15 foot tall slick metal slide as well as the” Jungle Gym” where I could still see the concreted patches where it was once located. Also gone were the ‘monkey bars” where my buddy Bob Jones fell off in third grade, breaking one of his arms.
Within ten minutes of our arrival at the Edison Playground, I noticed a very rare occurrence for the year 2011...There were four boys between the ages of ten and twelve years,riding their bicycles up Jackson Street and crossing that street IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BLOCK….a place where there was no marked crosswalk! On top of that they did this deed WITHOUT ANY ADULT SUPERVISION! They entered the Edison Playground between the fence and a hedgerow….clearly an unauthorized area of entry. After crossing the otherwise unchanged Edison softball diamond of the Edison School of my youth,they left their unattended bikes on the ground while they participated in an unsupervised game of wiffle ball.
What type of neglectful parent would allow this sort of behavior in 2011? I almost dialed 911 on my cell phone to report this bridge of parental neglect. Not one of these boys wore the required biking head helmets, or the recommended knee and elbow pads, and there was not a single parent accompanying them to insure their safety. I wondered if their parents even knew where their kids were. Those boys were indeed 21st century rebels’!!!.
But then I came to my senses and thought back to my youth. This scene was a common occurrence when I was their age. My generation didn’t have 24/7 parental supervision. We didn’t wear bike helmets, knee or elbow pads, let alone seat-belts in cars… and we actually rode in the back of pick-up trucks…how did we ever survive those years? One would think that the death toll from those years would have been staggering! But somehow 99.9999999% of my generation survived their youth.
Back in the summer of my tenth year I was out the door by 8 AM. Most the kids of my neighborhood played and biked in a field on the banks of Stony Creek. There must have been 15 to 20 of us on any given day ranging in age from 4 or 5 to 12 & 13.
There was once a tree that grew on a hill that overlooked our play field. During one thunderstorm that tree fell across our field… its’ top branches crashed in a knee deep pond (that was always filled with toads) This fallen tree became the center of our activities for summers to come. The tree’s roots were high enough on the hill where the massive trunk of the tree was six foot above the ground level, room enough where we could race our bikes right under the fallen tree. The kids of my neighborhood would climb the hill and then hop on the trunk and walk out over our field to the center of the pond climbing out on the branches that spread in every direction. The massive crater that was left in the hill side where the tree once stood became a new play area where many a battle between the "green plastic army men" was fought.
About noon, the moms of the neighborhood started to yell-out, blow whistles or ring dinner bells to tell their kids it was time for lunch. For about a half an hour the field would clear out as everyone returned home for lunch….but we were soon back at play…many of us staying out until the lightning bugs came out.
That was fifty years ago. I took my kids there for a hike one afternoon. I was interested to see if any of that tree was still there. Alas, Mother Nature had taken whatever was left of that tree and returned it to the earth. Our play field had also returned to nature. What once was a treeless meadow was now a thick forest of trees and brush. Clearly no kids played there no longer. Well of course they don’t ….what sort of responsible parent would let their 21st century kids free to roam the wilds of Stony Creek?
But back to those four boys on their bikes. Think about it….how often do you see kids out riding their bikes any longer? To me it was a rare and nostalgic moment, A moment rare enough to take the time to take out my cell phone, I snapped the (above) photo of the four boys playing ball with their unattended bikes…To me it was a nostalgic image, but to the boys playing ball I heard one of them shout out a warning to the others, “Hey there’s an old guy taking pictures of our bikes….let’s get out of here!!!”

Me and Redd Foxx

Most people that remember Redd Foxx know him as Fred Stanford from the 1970's 80's sitcom "Stanford & Son" However back in the 1940's & 50's Redd was a black comedian who was considered to be cutting-edge and very risque. He had a series of "underground" record albums known as "Laff of the Party" Back in the late 50's my parents owned one of Foxx's "Laff of the Party" albums which they kept hidden on the top shelf of our hallway linen closet to keep me from listening to it.

My parents usually went out on Saturday evenings and left me with a sitter (who actually didn't watch me...but did watch a lot of TV) I was free to retrieve the Redd Foxx album from the hallway closet and play it on my record player in my room. Redd performed his stand-up routines in front of a live audience. His humor was full of euphemisms & innuendo...AND the humor was WAY over the head of an eight year old kid...but listening to the record I could tell from the audience laughing over the things he was saying that this was funny stuff. Redd wouldn't actually use any true dirty words, and by standards of today....his routines was pretty tame stuff...but back then, the F-word was never spoken in any medium. One routine was called "The Wonderful New Soap" and Redd performed as if he was a salesman pushing a new soap product spelled F-U-G-G...and it's related product called SUGG. The routine ended with Redd saying "So if you can't FUGG it....SUGG it" (The audience went wild when Redd delivered that punch line...so it was funny stuff...right?)

It was at this time when my third grade teacher asked for three volunteers who would like to be in a "talent show" for the upcoming PTA meeting. She asked us to prepair something for the show....you know.... sing a song, play a musical instrument, do a dance....or tell jokes. Heck...by this time I had Redd's "New Soap" act down pat...right down to his raspy black dialect...(you know where I'm going with this story) ...About 2 minutes into the routine....the part where I said... "Her can smelled so bad, he decided to FUGG it right there and then" (I thought I was talking about a garbage can getting soaped out)...my third grade teacher finally stood up, stepped in and stopped my act before I got any farther....But that was okay with me because I could tell I was bombing-out because there wasn't ANYONE laughing at the points where Redd had 'em all in stiches.

When I saw my mom's red face buried in her hands....and my schools principal frowning & giving me his stern stare....I knew I was in trouble.

It was a bad night at home that evening.

How many of you remember Lowell M Volkel

I   didn’t know that Mr. Volkel was not with us any longer. I had never heard of his death until yesterday. He was my all time favorite teacher. Many of us will remember his years in the Danville School system from Edison Grade to North Ridge to DHS. This belated news of his death is like “Mr. Chip’s has passed on. He was only 56 when he died.

LOWELL M. VOLKEL

Born in 1936, Lowell Volkel was a Danville, Illinois High School teacher whose interest in genealogy began at an early age. He moved to Springfield in 1970 to become an archivist at the Illinois State Archives. Few know how much influence he had with his work there. From the time he joined the Archives staff in 1970 until his death, he worked with the Illinois State Genealogical Society, the Illinois State Archives, and various record keepers, to make Illinois records available for research. He set a precedent for other states to follow and influenced their attitudes towards record access.

In addition to his many publications, Lowell was also founder and first president of the Illinois State Genealogical Society, and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1993. He taught genealogy classes and was a frequent genealogy speaker and lectured in the 1970s at the National Archives Institute on Genealogy in Washington, DC. He died in 1992 at the young age of 56, but his efforts for over three decades had an impact that would shape the future of records access nationally.

Bob Hope

When I was a kid a Bob Hope movie playing on TV was always a special event for me. My two favorites were “Ghost Breakers” with the beautiful Paulette Goddard and “My Favorite Brunette” with his “Road” gal pal Dorothy Lamour.

I was lucky enough to see Bob Hope in person at NYC’s Waldorf Astoria’s Grand Ballroom in November of 1976. He would have been 73 years old at the time and still at the top of his game. His live shows contained a little more risqué material that we’d ever see on TV and his movies. Outside of seeing tricky Dicky Nixon give a campaign speech here in Danville in 1960 (my dad got that on 8mm) I’d say Bob Hope was the most famous person that I had ever got to see live.

You know…in a way it’s a shame that Hope lived to be 100. By the time he died he was like a relic of the past. My wife Brenda (20 years younger than I and being from a different generation.) asked me “Was he some sort of big star at one time?” (She also has no idea who Red Skelton, Jack Benny or John Wayne were) If Hope had died in his 80’s…his send off would have been majestic….like some sort of god had passed ….the TV networks would have had pre-emptied Johnny Carson and the other late night shows for special tributes to Bob Hopes life. As it was….living 20 years too long…Bob Hope got some mention on the evening news and some space on most newspapers front pages….but little more. I was very disappointed in the coverage of Hope’s passing. There’s a little known Dick Van Dyke movie titled “The Comic” and it starts off with Van Dyke’s character doing a voice-over for his own pitiful, sparsely attended funeral procession and laminated how it would have been if he had died at the peak of his fame instead of living well past his prime. That movie’s opening scene proved to be so true with Hope’s passing.
                                                                                                   

Fecker Brewing, Danville, illinois 1903 to 1939

                                                                            

The Fecker Brewing Company Plant which was purchased in 1903, although the owner Col.

Ernest Fecker embarked in brewing business under the name Fecker Brewing Company since

1890 at another location on Dudley and Bloomington Road.

According to the 1940 Danville City

Directory the Fecker Brewing Plant was located at 329 E. North and brewed old exported beer,

and Fecker’s Pilsener Beer. As per the HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY, VOL. II, by Williams, Col. Ernest Fecker Jr.was the owner and President of Fecker Brewery in Danville. He served as President of the company until his death on November 25, 1925, in Missouri.

Herbert S. Fecker succeeded as President of the Fecker Brewery, and sold the plant to the Lauhoff Grain Company in 1940.