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CNN has reported that the U.N. is putting the brakes on funding wind farms in China under a carbon credit scheme that has all the appearances of a scam.

With the knowledge that scientists have been cooking the books and that carbon credits are nothing but a giant Ponzi scheme, one wonders how long the charade can last.  Politicians are lining up at the trough.  In the West, they have to leave the government to really make the big bucks, which is where we see Al Gore.  Theft through taxes was not enough for these guys.  So there is collusion between the West, the East and countries in between.  A new way to get money away from the people and into the pockets of dictators and corrupt regimes.  If you’re like China, you can get huge sums of money to ensure that you go along with any other climate change talks.

Don’t believe that a lot of money is involved, then take a look at this:

China has earned 153m carbon credits, worth more than $1bn and making up almost half of the total issued under the UN-run programme in the past five years, according to a Financial Times analysis. The credits are currently trading at about $10-$15 each.

Will anything be agreed in Copenhagen next year?  Follow the money and it will tell you that economic disaster will be the result…and yes, the politicians are already bought and paid for…stories like this will be buried within a couple of weeks.

Adam Storch is the new COO that the SEC selected due to his experience as a Goldman Sachs executive.  At the age of 29, I’m sure that he has tons of real-world experience to be a top rate government servant.  He’s been touted as having “a great deal of background” in technology and managing processes.”  He’s not particularly web-savvy given the screenshot for his support of Bill Clinton in 2008!  I’m sure it was tongue-in-cheek, but that doesn’t help his credibility in my mind of having a lot of experience.  It seems more in line with what a college student might have on their website.

Government never seems to desire older, more mature leaders.  Perhaps it’s because I’m getting older and am in my mid-30’s that I don’t consider anyone in their 20’s as having sufficient real-life experience to do the job justice.  I’m also worried about the amount of influence that Goldman Sachs executives have in the government right now.  Goldman Sachs was a huge recipient of funds from the AIG bailout.  The amount of taxpayer funds that have helped keep that industry afloat is not my favorite topic…it gives me a lot of heartburn.  Those leaders that caused the problem are now promoted throughout the government.  It sure looks like a case of favoritism and cronyism.

Everyone should be aware of the dangerous side effects of flu vaccines.  This is from the Washington, D.C. Fox affiliate.

This year’s Peace Prize winner is Barack Obama as can be seen on the Nobel website. Am I the only one that sees the irony of selecting a head of state whose nation has armed forces in 135 countries and is managing several wars. The Nobel Committee will award a peace prize to someone based on their speeches not their actions. In his campaign speeches he attempted to sound pro-peace and anti-war. In action, he has been a warmonger. It’s another sad day in Nobel history.

What a dilemma…if the government steps in and takes a larger role in healthcare more money will be needed by the great behemoth.  It is said that government needs to step in because costs are escalating.  “I know what we can do!”, said one senator.  “Let’s put a tax on medical care items and we’ll have our money!.”

Unfortunately, this is the logic that is lurking in the greatest minds that we elect and send to Capitol Hill.  The good news is that there is bipartisan support against such proposals.  The bad news is that it will probably pass with some exemptions for items under $100.  The really bad news is that it will increase the cost of health care.  No, I do not have a degree in Economics…just putting two and two together.

Take a read if you’d like.

I waited several weeks before going back to Dell’s Windows 7 Upgrade site and checking to see if Dell corrected the version of Vista that was displaying.

They had not, so I fired off another request using the Outstanding Issues link that allows you to insert the old case number.  The technician replied back the next day and stated that he had re-registered the Service Tag and that all was well.  All was not well and I replied back with another screenshot of the problem and copied what the email had shown was his manager’s e-mail address.

His manager replied the next day and apologized for the inconvenience, ensuring me that he would track the problem down.

Someone called yesterday and said that she could not change it in the system but that she could have it corrected after I re-register the Service Tag.  I’ll give her a couple of weeks and see if the correction has been made.

The good news is that they finally read what I wrote, looked at the screenshots and confirmed that they are experiencing the same problems when they try to register!

Update: Three days later and the entry is updated! It took almost three months but Dell figured it out in the end.

Word 2007 has been driving me mad!  Since getting a Vista machine and installing Office 2007 on it, I’ve generally had a good time.  I actually like Vista and believe that the problems have been way overblown.  But…the problem that was driving me crazy was that I couldn’t open a Word document through a web browser or through Windows Explorer or off the desktop without first having Word open!

Word would launch just fine…but the document could not be found by Windows…or so the message said.  I though perhaps it was because Works shipped with the computer and was still installed.  Removed it and the problem was still there.  I read a post that said that it was probably caused by plug-ins.  Removed them all and the problem continued.

I finally ran across a great blog that had the solution!  A few minutes working with the registry and all was fixed.  I can now launch Word and have the document open up without having to click on it a second time.  This fix was for the z-order of open windows, but resolves the problem that I was experiencing, perhaps it will help you if you have the same problem.

The blog shows how to disable the DDE keys in Word for both .doc and .docx and inserts the “%1” parameter for the file to open.  A hearty thanks to Rafael for posting this on his blog!  Here are the links:

Taming Microsoft Word 2007’s File Associations and Document Windows, Part One

Taming Microsoft Word 2007’s File Associations and Document Windows, Part Two

William Kostric is to be commended for keeping his cool while under attack by Chris Matthews.  History continues to show that when rights are not exercised they are taken away.  Here’s the clip from Hardball:

Here’s the original report from MSNBC:

It’s amazing what some people will say on camera.  I would hope that the Lt. Col. would have showed some restraint and waited on the facts. 

The Bill of Rights is something that we should support.  An execution should never be called for by someone who swore to uphold and defend the Constitution.   I prefer to think the best of people until proven otherwise.  In my opinion, the Lt. Colonel has proven his characteristics.  My heart goes out to the soldier’s family.