Free Republic

Washington—In an unprecedented proposal, Obama will end droughts, floods, hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes and heavy pollen. Under the new guidelines he’s proposing, Obama will change the climate, putting an end to what seemed a never ending line of disasters.

Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies. At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in...

WASHINGTON – Nature turned against one of America's early civilizations 3,600 years ago, when researchers say earthquakes and floods, followed by blowing sand, drove away residents of an area that is now in Peru. "This maritime farming community had been successful for over 2,000 years, they had no incentive to change, and then all of a sudden, boom, they just got the props knocked out from under them," anthropologist Mike Moseley of the University of Florida said in a statement. Moseley and colleagues were studying civilization of the Supe Valley along the Peruvian coast, which was established up to 5,800...

Natural disasters 'killed over 220,000' in 2008 by Simon Sturdee AFP 12 29 2008 Natural disasters killed over 220,000 people in 2008, making it one of the most devastating years on record and underlining the need for a global climate deal, the world's number two reinsurer said Monday. What I find particularly funny is, the article talks mostly about non-global warming caused disasters. For instance, 70,000 of those deaths were caused by an earthquake in China: Just days later an earthquake shook China's Sichuan province, leaving 70,000 dead, 18,000 missing and almost five million homeless, according to official figures, Munich...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=52311 Emergency Response Units Won’t Perform Law Enforcement, Official Says By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2008 – The Pentagon’s three new rapid-response task forces will assist civil authorities during possible terrorist attacks or natural disasters, but they won’t perform law-enforcement missions, a senior Defense Department official said here yesterday. Some people have surfaced concerns that active-duty soldiers, who make up the core of the first 4,700-member joint task force established in early October, could be used to perform police functions, which would be in violation of the...

 __________________________________________________ FROM THE MAIL: ELECTION, ECONOMY, 'SIGNS' PUSH PROPHETIC 'PULSE' INTO TACHYCARDIA There's so much transpiring in the prophetic "pulse" that it is hard to track. It is equally hard to discern. It is rapid like tachycardia. There's the economy; this has caused a tectonic shift beneath our feet, a change in landscape (the word: liquidate). There's the election. Suddenly, a change in landscape here too, one that has caused many different emotions (hopefully not racist) to  cascade. For the first time, a white man will not be in the White House, and there will be a liberal regime...

A sermon preached by the Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of Shrewsbury at a confirmation at Christ Church, Shelton and Oxon on 11th May 2008 As Delivered Scripture: Acts 2 1 - 21 There are inevitably two focuses to our worship today. Gathered here are the candidates for confirmation with families and friends. It’s a joyful occasion as we come to celebrate with them this stage in their spiritual life. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we don’t face the fact that the other factor behind our worship today is the plight of those people in Myanmar (the place...

Lloyd's of London warned yesterday that an absence last year of natural disasters or man-made accidents was putting pressure on firms to reduce premiums in 2008. The world's oldest and biggest insurance market said that though the lack of major disasters had allowed firms to push up profits 5% in 2007, underwriting margins were being squeezed. Almost half of the 320-year-old market's business was conducted in the US last year. It is a major insurer of the Florida seaboard and oil rigs in the gulf of Mexico. In 2005, a series of natural disasters culminated in Hurricane Katrina clattering into...

New fires continue to break out around Greece The European Commission will put forward proposals this autumn for a standing EU force to respond to fires, floods and other major emergencies. The commission says the current system has its limits. In 2007, there has been flooding in the UK, a heat wave in central and southern Europe, and now forest fires in Greece, in which at least 60 people have died. But critics say the EU should release financial aid faster, rather than set up a civil protection force of its own. 'Better way' When Greece appealed for help...

I don't DO many vanity type posts, but this subject requires input from folks all over the nation. My wife and I were discussing the HUGE proposed hike of storm insurance rates for us here in Florida due to increased hurricane activity. My genius wife had the BRILLIANT idea that legislation should be passed at the Federal level that would allow such insurance to be tax deductible. Not just the hurricane prone states (which this year runs from Maine to Mexico -- very unusual predictions) but also areas subject to earthquake, forest fire, tornado, etc. Pretty much everywhere in this...

New York warned to prepare for hurricanes NEW YORK (Reuters) - A hurricane with only moderate intensity could wreak havoc in New York City because it has been years since the nation's financial center faced severe weather, government forecasters warned on Tuesday. "The first time we get hit here with a Category 2, it's going to be disastrous," said meteorologist Michael Wyllie of the National Weather Service, referring to the scale used to rate hurricane strength. Wyllie said powerful storms have missed New York in recent years, unlike parts of the Gulf Coast, where periodic storms "thin out the trees...

Bill forbids taking of weapons during emergencies By HOWARD FISCHER Friday, February 17, 2006 8:25 AM CST PHOENIX -- State lawmakers want to make sure that state officials do not take your guns the next time a hurricane strikes Arizona. Or an earthquake, flood, invasion or pandemic. The Senate Government Committee approved legislation Thursday that would specifically make it illegal for the governor or any official to confiscate legally kept firearms during a state of emergency. The 5-2 vote sends the measure to the full Senate. Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, said this isn't some academic exercise. He said that in...

The destruction from hurricane Katrina unleashed a disaster like our nation has never encountered. Like a guided missile, Katrina executed a mission of utmost devastation. Despite our advancements in technology, computers, satellites, healthcare and tons of mind-boggling innovations – the nation stood speechless and helpless. It seemed everything that could go wrong – went wrong. The breaking of the New Orleans levees; the thousands of trapped victims; the incessant looting; the perverse crime; the escalating gas prices; the complete collapse of the nation’s infrastructure for disaster aid – each day after Katrina brought new nightmares – each day after Katrina...

Hurricane victims in Florida and along the Gulf Coast have to be asking themselves something survivors of tornadoes, blizzards and earthquakes also wonder: Is there any place you can go that is safe from natural disasters? The West has earthquakes and wildfires. Move to the Midwest and you could find yourself in Tornado Alley. The Northeast? Blizzards, ice storms and heat waves. Experts say trying to escape catastrophic weather is a little like trying to escape from, well, the weather. Short of building a new Biosphere, it is pretty near impossible to completely avoid quakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards or heat...

Equal Earthquakes with Unequal Results December 29, 2003 By Rabbi Daniel Lapin President, Toward Tradition Our television screens fail to convey the full horror of the recent earthquake in Iran that inflicted terrible deaths on over twenty thousand souls. America has once again led the international relief effort. It might seem callous to analyze thisdisaster even before all the victims have been buried, were it not for one timely parallel. Only a few days earlier, a small town on the California coast also endured an earthquake. Even taking the logarithmic nature of the Richter scale into account, from an objective...

Deforestation and logging do not increase the risk of major floods, according to a new report. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor) say the evidence shows no link. Loss of forest cover does play a role in smaller floods and in the loss of fertile topsoil, it says. It accuses Asian governments of blaming floods on small-scale loggers and farmers to deflect criticism. Widespread but wrong The belief that deforestation causes major floods and increases the damage which they do appears to be widespread. China's catastrophic floods of 1998, when the...

The Peruvian authorities have begun to evacuate at least 1,400 people - many of them tourists - stranded at the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu by a mudslide. On Wednesday, the railway line leading up the Andes mountains to Machu Picchu was covered by a mudslide more than three metres (9.8ft) deep. Peruvian officials said the slippage of mud and rocks was caused by snow melting on a nearby mountain peak. A spokeswoman for Peru Rail said no-one was hurt in the incident. The trapped people were being brought to safety by bus. Many of those trapped at the site...

Experts studying the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina say the breach of key floodwalls might have been caused by soft soil under the walls, a problem the Army Corps of Engineers had been warned about. Engineers from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the University of California at Berkeley said Friday there was no evidence that the floodwaters surged over the tops of the floodwalls at 17th Street or London Avenue Canals, as previously thought. Instead, they said, soft soil may have given way underneath the walls - a danger a contracting company pointed out to the...

China will no longer regard natural disaster death tolls as a state secret, reversing a practice that has been standard for years. The Chinese government describes this switch as part of an effort to improve transparency. However, the government continues to maintain tight control over information most other countries consider public. Official news media report China will declassify figures and documents regarding natural disasters. The report explain that the move will help disaster prevention and relief work, and will also help build a transparent government. Normally, China announces death figures from disasters such as earthquakes, flood, and typhoon through government...

I've decide that from this date forward I will no longer donate to any national calamity in any of the so called "Blue States".They don't deserve my help, and afterwards I don't feel they appreciate my help anyway.