We were fighting these beetle infestations back in the 70's when we were worried about global cooling. The beetles are not new, their presence is not a result of global warming but rather of our meddling with natural burn patterns for so many years.

In un managed forests a fire sweeps through every couple decades killing off the beetle killed trees and most the beetles in an area, the healthy trees are singed but not really harmed and are thus protected by the killing of most the beetles. In managed forests where we basically stopped all fires as soon as they started, the beetles killed a few trees, then a few more then a lot more and so on. After several years a dead tree might finally fall over allowing new growth to come up in it's place but mostly they just stood as forests of reddish grey dead trees.
Now we try to allow some burns, manage others and intentionally set many management fires each year. But thanks to the decades of mismanagement managed and natural fires are frequently getting out of control due to the massive swaths of beetle killed trees.

Once burned those forests will at last begin to naturally regenerate. Not right back to the forests of standing conifers, but through the natural stages often first of grasses and shrubs then deciduous trees like quaking aspens and scub oak and then over decades back to conifers. Depending on the water cycle in the area. Other areas with more moisture will get back to the conifers more quickly.

Agreed, Looking at the map around where I live. Almost all the pink is the result of fires the last few years. And it takes a while but those trees are growing back. Intentional, accidental or natural wildland fires, they are all recovering nicely, the new growth thriving on the ash enriched soils. It will be decades before the end stage forests that burned return to that point but the natural process is proceeding nicely.

And I for one, welcome our new Lame Aprils Fools day joke overlords!

The "OMG Ponies!" day was the best, but I'm liking the posts so far and found this amusing. If you don't like it, go read something else. It's not an easy task to build a full day's stream of funny.

But with the exception of the very first generation of recipients that is NOT what it was meant to be. It was supposed to be a forced investment towards retirement with a little extra to aid the first generation of recipients. But then congress repeatedly raided that huge stockpile of money leaving it now little more than a vault full of IOU's and turning it into how you described it. But it was not supposed to be the way it is.

If shot straight up yes. But if shot at an angle, that bullet can and likely will retain deadly forward velocity at the end of it's parabolic arch. It's not common but people have been killed by bullets fired into the air.

Actually it's very efficient, if it were a one package for one truck relationship you would be right. But it's actually more commonly a 400+ packages many weighing up to 75 or more pounds (let's see the "efficient drone that can deliver a 60" flat screen TV). And they don't just deliver they usually have a pick-up route as well that can easily equal or surpass the delivery count.

I drove for UPS this last holiday season. Most days I went out with about 400 items and because of my pickup route (they gave me a mostly commercial route) I was often bringing 700 to 800 items in. Many pushing the 75 pound standard limit. Residential routes were going out with 600 to 700 items to deliver and coming back mostly empty. But that was the holiday season. The normal volume is about 400 out and roughly the same in. Every day.

Further it's extremely safe, accidents involving delivery trucks are quite rare considering the number of miles they drive every day, regardless of the weather. Even in heavy snow they are usually able to deliver. Can the drones handle a blizzard or high wind situation a human driving a package car can.

And then there is the sheer volume. And the widely varying weights of the packages. Oh and not all packages are neatly balanced something you have to be aware of when flying with cargo. Balance and shifting contents. A driver can handle a package that has most the weight at one end, or one that has the contents shift with little problem since the package just sits on a shelf in the vehicle until delivery.

Yet the implementation of this aspect of the 1st has very little relation to the wording in the amendment. "Congress shall make no laws regarding the establishment of religion." Absolutely nothing about the separation of church and state. Simply that congress shall not try to establish a state religion. or prohibit a religion.

Whereas some try to justify rules and regulations and out right bans on various firearms based on the Well regulated militia clause but there is not much ambiguity to the "The right of the people to keep and bear arms." is pretty straightforward and clear.

He is, he has his own network TheBlaze. He is not on Fox anymore. He's as credible as any other talking head. More so in some ways, less so in others.

McCarthy investigated mostly people outside congress, and a law (I don't recall the act name) was passed in response to his witch hunt. Congress critters cannot be prosecuted for performing normal legislative actions. i.e. proposing bills to repeal other bills.

It doesn't work that way. A congressman cannot be investigated for doing his job as a legislator.

Despite media claims (mostly left wing media at that) about the crowning of Jeb, he has not been nominated and is actually very unlikely to get the final nod. While he's a good leader many conservatives recognize that the left and middle will be very hesitant about yet another Bush, and we ourselves are leery of a Dynasty.

I doubt he'll get the Nomination.

<quote><p>There is a pretty big difference between performing espionage and doing a false flag operation.
A false flag operation actively tries to destabilize the relationship between other nations. </quote>
No a false flag operation plays on the friendship of two nations to allow a third to collect information. A and B are friends, A does not like C. C sends an agent claiming to be from B. The agent is thus able to collect the information on/from A because A thinks he is from B. That is a false flag op. It can destabilize relationships but that is not the active goal or target.

Actually it is hypocrisy, Because everybody spies on everybody. if not for military threats then for political and economic espionage reasons. The Germans complaining about it is very hypocritical because in the world of intelligence and espionage there are no perfect allies.

The American intelligence community assumes that the BND, MI6 and everybody else we work with every day is trying their darndest to wiretap the Oval Office. And for all we know they do have a successful tap running. Amused, not really because it means our counterintel efforts failed. But not surprised or really upset either.

Those schlubs do require a current DOT card and fall under DOT driving regulations and limits and have to maintain a clean driving record. (i.e. 60 hours per week max, no more than 14 hours in a single day etc.) And they are monitored like crazy. Seatbelt buckled when moving, back and interior bulkhead doors closed, backing too much, total distance driven during the route (and compared with the computer estimated route and times). And let's see that drone deliver 60" flat screen TV's.

I drove for UPS this last holiday season, and I really doubt UPS is at all worried. The amount of volume a single schlub driving a package car can deliver and pickup in a single day is quite surprising. The swarms of drones that would be required just for smaller packages would be overwhelming, let alone being able to handle large and odd shaped packages, envelopes and large volume deliveries and pickups.