April 28, 2025 • 36 mins
Today on the Jimmy Barrett Show:
- Gregory Wrightstone on climate issues
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what we need is more common sense, the.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Youth breaking down the world's nonsense about how American common sense.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Will see us through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston dot com.
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Now here's Jimmy Barrett.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
All right, let's let's start. By the way, nice to
be back. I spent the weekend in uh in Central Virginia.
I started Central, we'll call it north Central Virginia, Orange Virginia,
and you all know where that is, Orange Virginia. I
have a son, Brian, who lives out there. My son
Matt came down from Michigan. We all met up and
you know, spent some cool Barrett Boyce spent a quality
(00:52):
weekend together, which was a lot of fun. So that's
why I was off on Thursday and Friday. Back today, rested,
refreshed and ready to go and scratching my head over
this Trump idea and the reason. Here's the thing about
President Trump. He'll throw a lot of ideas out there.
Most of his ideas are very very good. Some of
them are excellent. Every now and again, he'll come up
(01:13):
with an idea not so good. Hearts of the right place,
but it hasn't really thought through the ramifications of what
it is he's proposing. I consider this idea of a
five thousand dollars stipend to have a baby to be
one of those ideas not really thought out, and I
(01:35):
understand what it is he's trying to do. We have
a population, a Native American population that's on the decline,
and I'm sure in his mind he's thinking, I need
to do something to encourage Native Americans to have more children.
And by Native Americans, I mean people born in this country,
not American Indians. I mean people born in this country
(01:56):
to have more children. How do I go about doing that?
What if you're really thinking it through, you come up
with more than just the idea. I'll get five thousand
dollars to five dollars five thousand dollars baby bonus to
anybody who's having a baby, because well we'll get into
because here in just a second. But here's the reality
(02:17):
of that situation. If you are a responsible American adult
who's not having children or is limited the amount of
children you're going to have, what are some of the
reasons why you're doing that, and in no particular order.
Here's a couple of ideas. Number One, you feel like
(02:37):
you can't afford it. I guess that's what President Trump's
trying to do here. Uh, if you feel like you
can't afford a child, here's a five thousand dollars stipend
to try to change your mind, because, I mean, truth
be told that when we were young, those of us
who have had kids, When we were young and trying
to make a decision about having children, you know, we
(03:00):
did come up with the idea, well, gee, maybe I
can't afford to have a baby. Maybe maybe I'll never
be able to afford to have a child. And I think,
at least for a lot of you know, people of
my generation, that was true. We had children, even though
deep down we questioned whether or not we could afford
to have the children. We did well. As it turned out,
having kids was a pretty powerful motivator for a lot
(03:21):
of people. You know, you start having kids because that's
what you're expected to do and because you wanted to
have kids, and then you realize, hey, wow, I got
to get out there and hustle. I gotta you know,
I've got to get I got to get to work
on this here. Because you weren't relying on other people
to raise your child for you or to pay for
your children. You were expected to get a job and
(03:43):
make the money necessary in order to be able to
afford your family. I mean, that's how that worked, and
that's what most of us did. And I ended up
having two boys. We decided to was plenty at the time.
You know, I suppose we could have tried for a third,
but at the end of the day, two was plenty.
So there you go. We have two kids and two
and done. But you know, we did our part. We
(04:06):
added to the population. We raised two responsible young men.
One has one child of his own because they just
decided he had no one's plenty for us. We were
both difficult children. We one difficult child because our chances
are pretty good we may have a difficult child, one
difficult child to raise us enough, and the other one
had four so between between the two of them they
(04:28):
average out pretty well. At the end of the day,
I have other than birthday presents and the usual things
that you do as a as a grandparent, I haven't
been asked to or have certainly required in any way
to financially support those kids. So they're doing it fine.
They didn't have kids because they expected the government to
(04:51):
pay for them to have kids. They had kids because
that's the decision they wanted to make, all right. So
affordability factor, Now, let's look at that for a second
from a the standpoint of a five thousand dollars stipend
a baby bonus, if you will. I think most people
who are serious about having kids and put more thought
into it than just I'd really like to have a
(05:12):
baby for whatever reason, bothered to take a look at
what it costs to raise a child. The current cost
to raise a child to approximately the age of eighteen
is somewhere around three hundred thousand dollars. And that's to
the age of eighteen, and that doesn't include you know,
(05:33):
paying for any college or any other things that you
potentially could that's just to get them through high school,
about three hundred thousand, and that number is only going
to go up. So five thousand dollars doesn't provide a
much you know, one time baby bonus of five thousand
dollars isn't going to provide much help. That's the number
(05:54):
one thing. Here's the number two thing about that idea,
and I heard that from some of the talkbacks we
got it. I guess that would be a good time
to play the talkbacks the first woman on this talkback.
And by the way, if you ever want to talk
back to any question that I have or do, you
can go to the iHeartRadio app KTRH, because we do
it in the morning on our morning program, Houston's Morning News.
(06:17):
You can make KTRH number one on your preset and
you can make KPRC number two on your preset, and
that way you can go and you can comment on
anything I say on either one of our shows in
the morning of the afternoon. So if you want to
talk back to this segment, you can just again go
to the iHeartRadio app KPRC. Put us number two on
our reset and then when you hit the button and
(06:39):
you go to our site, it'll take you right there.
You see the talkback button. You hit that, you get
thirty seconds to give me your first name where you're
calling from. In some reaction to this, here's a couple
of the talkbacks from this morning on President Trump's idea
of a five thousand dollars baby bonus.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Good morning and Terry for Richmond.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I'm afraid to kind those people who would have any
for just five thousands of dollars, or the kind of
people you really don't want to happen have a good day.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Does that five thousand go to the mother or the father?
And can I use my five thousand for child support?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Hey, Jimmy Sean from Pasadena, what about those who've already
had kids?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Do we get back paid?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
It would only be fair?
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Okay, So he's wondering if he could make it retroactive.
You know what about the kids I have? Where's my
five thousand dollars? And that's a typical response, right, Hey,
what's in it for me? But I think Terry, the
first caller from Richmond, I think she's the one they'd
had it the most correct. Right, do we really want
(07:42):
to offer five thousand dollars as a stipend to have children?
Because something tells me that is not going to work
out real Well, it just isn't. The kind of people
who would have a baby just to get five thousand
dollars check are the kind of people who are probably
(08:03):
going to be looking for other government resources to pay
for their children. Oh yeah, that might be a bit
of a problem. Then you have the people out there
who need no financial incentive whatsoever to have plenty of kids.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
Think President Trump will give money in arrears because I've
got twelve kids.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Talk to you later, bye, twelve kids. How did she
find time to make a phone call twelve kids? That's amazing?
Speaker 4 (08:36):
All right, quick, little raak, we are back with one
in a moment Jimmy Part show. You're running in nine
fifty KPRC. All right, it's a special announcement. Did this
(09:03):
come on a Friday or the weekend? I forget which
day came out, but you may not have heard that
we are going to have a fleet week here in Houston. Now,
if you're wondering what a fleet week is, what the
Navy does is the Navy designates certain ports where they're
(09:23):
going to have fleet Weeek, which is kind of like,
you know, you get a bunch of sailors who come
and they they come in their ships and they open
up the ships for tours and they mix it up
with the public and they hit the town and have
a good time and all that kind of stuff. Fleet
week We've never had one in Houston. I'm not quite
(09:45):
sure why, but Evidently there's a determination with the Navy
now to go to some places they've never been before,
so they can expose themselves so to speak to people
who have not had an opportunity to tour Navy ships
and that kind of s So anyway, here is the
report from Khou eleven on Fleet Week.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
We look forward to bringing the Navy down to Houston.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
With this video call to Houston Mayor John Whittmeier, the
US Navy sharing the big news that Fleet Week is
coming to h town. I'm told it'll take place from
November fifth to the twelfth, just in time for the
Navy's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. And it's historic for
another reason.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
It'll be the first time that Fleet Week is in
the state of Texas, meaning first time in Houston.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
Why Houston if we want to go to areas that
don't have a large presence of Navy and Marine Corps.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
Career Admiral John Hewitt says, it's a way to share
what the Navy does by having Houstonians meet with sailors
and get tours of the vessels, as seen in this
video of Fort Lauderdale. Fleet Week happening right now, and
it's also a way to inspire future sailors. Why is
it so important to connect with the community in that way.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Because we need people to replace guys like me.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
They We need people to wear the cloth of the nation,
to man our ships, to go into the Marine Corps,
and to defend our nation.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
When Fleet Week comes to Houston, I'm told the vessels
will be here at the Port of Houston Turning Basin
as well as here at the Bayport Terminal. It'll be
a unique experience for locals. It's also thrilling for sailors
Quarterwick Walton and Joshua Wilson, who are both from the
Houston area.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
I have my family just come there support because I
know all of them can make it so discally.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
But seeing all my family, are you looking forward to
sharing what you do with your family and friends?
Speaker 4 (11:37):
I am okay. He'll be in November. That's when Fleetwag
is going to be. I should ask my son Brian,
because he's first of all.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
He said.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
He said that to me on Sunday as I was
boarding the plane to come back here to Houston. He
sent me a clip of that that they're gonna have
Fleetwake here in Houston in November. And I should ask
him about that, because as a former member of the Navy,
he would know all the good, the bad, and the
ugly that may occur during fleetweg I mean, you're gonna
(12:11):
have over a thousand sailors here, and you've got to
figure they're gonna hitting the bars in the restaurants and
all that kind of stuff. So I'm sure it's good
for the economy. I'm sure also that it will keep
you know, a lot of folks busy keeping tabs on
those sailors because I'm sure they like to have a
good time, at least I know Brian did when he
was a member of the US Navy, So that'll be
(12:32):
interesting to see how that happens. As as long as
we're on the topic of the Navy, maybe this would
be a good time to throw in a battleship Texas
update for you. Where are we at in the restoration process?
We have evidently they finally got it out of dry
dock and plopped it back into the water. To make
(12:53):
sure that she's seaworthy. And she is seaworthy. Make sure
she's tight, not leaking anywhere. She's tight, She's not leaking
any where. Tony Gregory is with the Battleship Texas Foundation.
Here he brings the folks at our television partner KPRC
two up to date on where we're at with the restoration.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Well, because we're first time back in the water for
eighteen months. We spent the last eighteen months in dry
dock repairing the whole replacing steel, sealing up rivets. It's
a riveted ship, so there's thousands of rivets on the ship.
So we've made her substantially water tight and able to
get back in the water.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, so Tony talk.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
I would just think that we're moving the ship from
the dry dock to another dock in the same shipyard
so we can continue to work on the top side
of the ship.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
And what does that work look like on the top
side of the ship?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Will that entail? It would entail.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
One of the main things that entails is replacing the
complete wood deck, which will take us almost a year.
It's we have to replace it for historic standards. That
will be a pine deck, which is what she had
when she was originally built. And we will also be
repairing the superstructure. I don't know if you can see
the scaffolding the navigation bridge, fire control tower, we will
(14:17):
be putting in new bathrooms, We'll be painting the whole
top side of the ship, and the final step will
be installing the exhibits for the museum part of our commission.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
You know, a lot of people are wondering when Battleship
Texas is going to reopen to the public, but it
sounds like there's still a lot of work to be
done before that will happen.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Do you have an estimated date?
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Well, our goal is late summer twenty twenty five. We
have a lot of things to do on the ship
as well. We have to finalize where she's going to go,
and do the and get her ready to dock.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Okay, I think I'm pretty sure that he misspoke about
the completion date. He said the goal was late summer
twenty twenty five. Well, this is already twenty twenty five
and it is almost May. And they if it's going
to take a year to put it in the new
pine deck and the paint and such that, I'm guessing, well,
(15:22):
first of all, we'll have to put the deck in
before they do the painting. So my guess is is
that you know, once the deck takes about a year
once that's done. That it's going to take several months
after that in order to do the paint job and
all that kind of stuff. So I guess we're talking.
Maybe he meant twenty twenty six, late summer twenty twenty six,
so we have a ways to go, but we are
making progress. I mean, that's just a huge restoration. That
(15:47):
is amazing how much work goes into that. So I'm
glad to see that we're making progress and we know
that the ship's got a place to go now and
we're in good shape. Okay, one more item for this
go around, and let's do this little update on the
Camping World CEO still fighting in many different cities to
(16:10):
keep his for lack of a better term, his big
ass American flag flying his thirty five hundred square foot flag,
and he is refusing to budge, he says, the only
organizations he's interested in hearing from as far as following
the size of the flag and the height of the
flagpoles the FAA. If the Federal Aviation Administration says we're
(16:31):
too close to an airport and it's a danger to
planes and whatever, then that's fine, then we will follow
the FAA regulation. But he's not interested in what these
little town ordinances have to say why it is that
they are making these regulations on the size of flags.
Here he is over the weekend, once again being defiant.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
I think ultimately you have local ordinances that want to
control the marketplace, and you think about what the current
administration thinks about eliminating regulations in business, and I think
the left it's a little too excited thinking that when
we say we want to lessen regulations, we're talking about
things that protect customers. What we're really trying to do
is just give people the freedom to do what they
(17:12):
want to do.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Within the compliance of the law.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
And this whole flag nonsense, quite frankly, is baffling to
me because we use the FAA as our regulator. If
the FAA tells us no, or they tell us it
needs to be lower or smaller, we comply with that.
Outside of that, it's the subjective piece. And you know,
I've been doing this for twenty years, as you mentioned,
and I keep saying that to people.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
It's not coming down no matter what.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
It's just amazing how big are these flags, By the way, Marcus,
but the flagpoles there.
Speaker 7 (17:42):
Are one hundred and thirty feet. Then they're universally the
same across the country. And the flag itself is forty
by eighty. It's thirty two hundred square feet. And yes
it is big, and yes it does cost over one
hundred and thirty thousand dollars to put up. Wow, but
it really is representative of me, of my love letter,
my gift back to the people that have served this country,
(18:04):
who have defended this country to allow an immigrant like
me to come here and to have a job and
to employ fourteen thousand people.
Speaker 8 (18:10):
Marcus, are you getting any support from the elected officials?
This has impacted one of your locations down in Greenville,
But the local community is the local elected officials? What
are how are they coming down on this?
Speaker 7 (18:24):
I think people are a little conflicted right now. We
know that we're getting support from the administration. I have
many friends in the Trump administration who support it. There
are state senators and congressmen and US senators that are
encouraging us to do this. And my response to everybody is,
if this is such a great thing, then let's pass
the national bill that allows the flags as long as
(18:45):
you're saith, as long as they comply with the FAA,
as long as they're done so in a way that
doesn't put people in harms. Way, let's pass a national
bill that allows people to display the US flag. This
isn't an opportunity to exploit it to put up you know,
my favorite sports team.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, it's I think it's a little bit more complicated
than that. But the fact that these little local governments
think that they can regulate the size of flags, I mean,
is this really Why is this so high on their
party list other than maybe being some sort of control issue.
All right, little break. Gregory wright Stone's going to join
us here in a few minutes. He's a geologist, executive
(19:22):
director of the CO two Coalition in Arlington, Virginia, and
the best selling author of A Very Convenient Warming, How
Modest Warming and more CO two are Actually Benefiting humanity.
Back with him next. You're on AM nine fifty KPRC
and the Jimmy Bird Show. Love talking to this next guy.
(19:53):
We talk about climate issues all the time, and safe
to say the sum it up in a nuts here.
Gregory Wrightstone thinks if the climate is warming, that's a
good thing. If global warming, that would be the best
case scenario. He's a geologist, executive director of the CO
two Coalition in Arlington, Virginia, and the best selling author
(20:14):
of a very convenient warming, How Warming and more CO
two are Benefiting humanity? How you been, my friend?
Speaker 7 (20:21):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Really good watching. Finally we have something good coming out
of the DC area. And it's all these agency heads
that Trump has appointed are really good.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Yeah, we've gotten a big, big difference here with how
this administration, especially the EPA. Lee Zelden is making a
huge difference. At the EPA.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
He is and even the day before he was approved
by the Senate, they fired all of the science advisors
for the two science boards for EPA, and so the
CO two is that is really the tip of the
sphere of the scientific scientists. Second off, economists, experts. What
(21:10):
we're doing is we've put together a list of some
fifty five top experts and scientists replace them once nominations
are open. That which might might occur this week.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
You know, one of the things I wanted to ask
you about here is you know, we've we've got a
bunch of Trump tariffs that are starting up. One of
these areas impacted by the Trump tariffs, interestingly enough, are
solar panels. The US Commerce Department is going to start
imposing tariffs on certain solar panels obviously not made in
the United States, at a rate of about three and
twenty one percent, do to concerns about how cheap the
(21:43):
quality is. You know, I don't know how you feel
about solar panels. I don't think you mind any particular energy.
It's not like you object to solar energy. But if
these panels are that cheap, what good are they doing?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, well, there's there's been a highly subsidized solar panels
that are in the parts that they're talking about are
going from coming from Vietnam, Cambodia, til End, and they're
going to China, and these are highly subsidized. Of these
Chinese solar panels are just undercutting any American solar manufacturers.
(22:20):
And I don't have a lot of sympathy for these
Americans solar panels because they get a lot of subsidies
as well. I think it should be a level of
playing field upon all the energy types and the three
things I look for good what I call good electricity,
and that is it should be reliable, abundant, and affordable.
(22:40):
Solar isn't any of those neither neither wind is wind energy,
And don't dare call them farms, solar farms, wind farms.
I grew up with my granddad's dairy farm in south
central Pennsylvania. It was none of these solar panel farms
or or are actually not a few call like paradise.
(23:04):
It's an industrial scale energy generation facilities. And if you
look at the recent New end report on endangered species,
the one thing I did agree with in it was
the greatest threat to endangered species is loss of habitat. Well,
what's what's there? What's their solution to a non existent
climate crisis? Pave over thousands and thousands of acres of
(23:29):
American prairie grassland, cut down our forest to put up
these industrial scale wind and solar facilities. No, thank you,
no thank you. It should be all of these these
energy generation facilities should stand on their own and again
if they should be reliable, abundant, and affordable. That's natural gas,
(23:49):
that's coal, and also the nuclear well.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
You know, I hate to say it, but as you know,
we are as guilty as the next. Here in Texas,
we have we have massive amounts of wind turbines to
try to generate power. First of the battery capacity couldn't
keep up with it, and we were wasting a lot
of it. And they've made some improvements there. But at
the end of the day, if the if the sun
isn't out, if the wind's not blowing, we don't have
(24:16):
enough reliable natural gas, coal powered or whatever, nuclear energy,
reliable energy to provide for our needs. And we are
a state that is continuing to grow. So I can't
help but think that we're going to we're going to
reach today when you know, we have a major blackout
because we can't generate enough power to take care of
our needs here in Texas.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, you nearly got there a couple of years ago
during a big winter storm. I forget the name of
it right now, but I'm sure it's ingrained in your
memory where you were out of electricity for quite a bit,
and they blamed it on conventional heating, but actually it
was the wind. The wind stopped blowing and the sun
stopped shining, and there was no no, none of those
(24:59):
unreliable energy sources came through for you in a really
really cold period in Texas. And in fact, I just
spoke down in tile Or, Texas and we took a
look at what's actually happening with temperatures in Texas, and
I looked at the maximum average daily temperature in Texas
has actually been in decline. We've take good data going
(25:20):
back to eighteen ninety five. Also looked at the percentage
of days over ninety ninety degrees fahrenheit in Texas were
really significantly in decline since eighteen ninety five, definite decline.
And as as it flies in the face of everything
you've heard, you're being told that heat waves are increasing,
(25:42):
danger warming of summertime temperatures increasing, and if you actually
look at the data, it's just not so. You're the
hottest temperatures in Texas accord back in the twenties and
thirties during the dust Bowl era. So again, your listeners
are being blied to every day about climate change. And
(26:02):
we talked about warming being good too. That's what history
tells us. If we look back through human history, several
thousand years, each warming period it was warmer than today.
We're hugely beneficial for humanity. It was the cold periods
that were horrific. Yeah, so some of these other people
might get to go, oh that Wright Stone, he's a
(26:24):
science denier. I would say, Okay, their history deniers, because
they're denying what history tells us. History tells us we
should welcome the warmth and fear the cold.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Yes, well, nothing else. We have learned that the planet
goes through cycles, and we were like every other time
in our history, we're going through a cycle now. And
y'all I'm old enough, Gregory to remember when we were
being warned about the coming ice age back in the
nineteen seventies. They were talking about a coming ice age.
Is the problem that could potentially creep up with our weather?
(26:57):
What do you think? What kind of a cycle do
you think our planet is in right now? Where do
you think it's going?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Well, we know, we know it's been warm. I don't
disagree that, But if you look back over the warming
started more than three hundred years ago, and that period
of the nineteen seventies, let's think about that for a moment.
We started adding a lot of CO two to the
atmosphere in the mid nineteen fifties, and just as we
started adding CO two to the atmosphere, we went into
(27:28):
a thirty three year cooling period went from nineteen forties
to the late nineteen seventies, and I remember I was
in school at that time, there was a lot of
talk about the next coming ice age because we did
thirty three years of decline now then started warming back up.
So this is this is cyclical. But if we look
(27:50):
back through time through the Medieval Warm period, the Roman
Warm Period, the Minoan Warm period, again, we know that
these periods were all warmer than today. That was much
cooler there back three hundred plus years ago. It was
called the Little Ice Age, and there's lots of historical
data showing that it was really very much cooler than
(28:15):
it is today. And so yes, we should we are
in a warming period and we should be thankful and
blessed for that.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
How long do you think that warming period lands?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know what, I don't know. We might be going.
We might already be in a cooling trend. We may
sea warming for another twenty thirty fifty years, but sooner
or later it will return to a cooling trend, which
would not be good. Again, the previous really big cooling
(28:47):
trends were associated with crop failure, famine, pestilence, and masty population.
It won't be as bad. The next warm cooling trend
won't be as bad as in the past because we're
not moving food or around with ox cards. We have refrigeration,
we have things. But if you have if you have
crop failures, there's not much you can do about that.
(29:10):
So the next cooling period will be a time that
will test us and test well if we're actually going
to be able to continue with the where we are
today with you know, with great crop growth. We've seen
this been fueled by more CO two.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Yeah, there you go. Bottom line from Gregory Wrightstone. Warming
is good, Cooling is bad. Thank you for being a guest, sir,
good to talk to you appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Thank you you bet.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Gregory Wrightstone, geologists and executive director of the CO two
Coalition in Arlington, Virginia, and the best selling author of
A Very Convenient Warming, How Modest Warming and More CEO
two are benefiting humanity back with more in a moment,
Jimmy Verchow here an am nine fifty KPRC. All right,
(30:16):
before we call it to day, here, before we wrap
it up, a couple more things to talk about. Let's
start with this one. Why high school seniors rejection cake
trend is viral on TikTok hang on what a rejection cake.
(30:36):
Videos of emotional college acceptances and elaborate school themed parties
fill high school as social media feeds, so some seniors
are putting a spin on the emotional letdown of getting
denied from colleges with rejection cakes. In one TikTok video
with more than five million views, Nita Massachusett High scho
(31:00):
senior CC Scala and her friends cheer this is our
rejection cake as they present a cake decorated with miniature
flags from all the top schools that rejected them. Scala,
who applied to twelve colleges and was waitlisted from her
top choice, says the trend is a way to make
fun of the daunting and stressful college admissions process. In
(31:22):
the video, her friends placed rejection pins from Yale, usc
as in Southern California, Harvard, the University of Virginia, Dartmouth,
the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, and Boston College. She said,
if you're applying to a hard college and you're seeing
all these acceptance videos, it's going to hurt because it's like,
(31:45):
am I the only one rejected? Am I not good enough?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Well?
Speaker 4 (31:50):
The answer is yeah, you weren't good enough. Evidently, Scala says,
you don't see all the videos of everybody else getting rejected.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
So evidently for.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
People who are rejected to go to their favorite college,
they they're celebrating the rejection somehow to try to to
tell others, c I got rejected too. I mean, do
you remember back to your I mean for those who
did go to college. And I did go to college.
(32:20):
I applied. I only applied to two schools, actually, and
I got accepted to the one I knew i'd get
accepted to. And I didn't even get a rejection letter
from the other one, which I guess unless my parents
intercepted it in the mail and were just trying to
spare my feelings. I did apply for a very very
(32:43):
highly thought of, academically prestigious school, even though I was
a solid three point student, and they don't take any
three point students unless unless they're offering you a scholarship
to play football or basketball or some other sport. Then
maybe they'll take a three point student, but they're not
(33:05):
just going to take a three point student otherwise. And
I knew when I sent in that application that the
chances of me being accepted were slim and none, you know,
white male, you know, from a relatively privileged I guess,
in other words, not economically disadvantaged family applying to a
(33:29):
school he's got no business applying to. And I knew
that going into it. So the fact that I never
even got a rejection letter did not surprise me. They didn't.
I mean, that's how bad it was. Not like, did
they not think I was worthy of being included in
their student body. They didn't think I was worthy of
(33:50):
actually sending a rejection letter. And they thought, oh, come on, man,
then this kid's got to know. There's no way we're
letting his butt in the door. So there you go.
I just is this just some sort of an ego
saving thing. I mean, first of all, you have to
send in a check with an application fee, and I
(34:10):
don't know what the average fee is now, fifteen hundred
bucks whatever it is. You apply to twelve schools, let's
say it's one hundred bucks. That's twelve hundred dollars just
to be rejected. I mean, if you are rejected at
all those places, I mean, don't you kind of know
going in what your chances are of actually being accepted
(34:32):
in that school? I mean I find that pretty hard
to believe that that they wouldn't know better.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
There's just no way rejection letters.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
You know, rejection is a part of life, and it's
something that we in the last at least two generations,
maybe longer, have not done a very good job of
teaching our kids. We've taught them all that the special
and everybody's special, and you're you're as smart as anybody else,
(35:07):
You're as talented as everybody else. The fact of the
matter is you're probably not. We all have our own talents, well,
we all have our own abilities, but we also have
our own limitations. The key to success in life is
to work around your limitations and do the best you
can with what you've got. I think we need to
(35:27):
do a better job of teaching that to people. It's
okay to get rejected. It's okay to lose, it's okay
to not like losing, and it's okay to pick yourself
back up and start all over again with something that
maybe makes more sense. And somehow I think we got
(35:50):
to get we got to figure out a way to
get back to teaching that rejection cake. So you kidding me?
All right, listen, that's it for today. You all have
a great day. Appreciate your listening. I will see you
tomorrow morning bright nearly five am over our news radio
seven forty k t r H. We are Backyar at
four on AM nine fifty k p r c
Well, what we need is more common sense, the.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Youth breaking down the world's nonsense about how American common sense.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Will see us through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston dot com.
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Now here's Jimmy Barrett.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
All right, let's let's start. By the way, nice to
be back. I spent the weekend in uh in Central Virginia.
I started Central, we'll call it north Central Virginia, Orange Virginia,
and you all know where that is, Orange Virginia. I
have a son, Brian, who lives out there. My son
Matt came down from Michigan. We all met up and
you know, spent some cool Barrett Boyce spent a quality
(00:52):
weekend together, which was a lot of fun. So that's
why I was off on Thursday and Friday. Back today, rested,
refreshed and ready to go and scratching my head over
this Trump idea and the reason. Here's the thing about
President Trump. He'll throw a lot of ideas out there.
Most of his ideas are very very good. Some of
them are excellent. Every now and again, he'll come up
(01:13):
with an idea not so good. Hearts of the right place,
but it hasn't really thought through the ramifications of what
it is he's proposing. I consider this idea of a
five thousand dollars stipend to have a baby to be
one of those ideas not really thought out, and I
(01:35):
understand what it is he's trying to do. We have
a population, a Native American population that's on the decline,
and I'm sure in his mind he's thinking, I need
to do something to encourage Native Americans to have more children.
And by Native Americans, I mean people born in this country,
not American Indians. I mean people born in this country
(01:56):
to have more children. How do I go about doing that?
What if you're really thinking it through, you come up
with more than just the idea. I'll get five thousand
dollars to five dollars five thousand dollars baby bonus to
anybody who's having a baby, because well we'll get into
because here in just a second. But here's the reality
(02:17):
of that situation. If you are a responsible American adult
who's not having children or is limited the amount of
children you're going to have, what are some of the
reasons why you're doing that, and in no particular order.
Here's a couple of ideas. Number One, you feel like
(02:37):
you can't afford it. I guess that's what President Trump's
trying to do here. Uh, if you feel like you
can't afford a child, here's a five thousand dollars stipend
to try to change your mind, because, I mean, truth
be told that when we were young, those of us
who have had kids, When we were young and trying
to make a decision about having children, you know, we
(03:00):
did come up with the idea, well, gee, maybe I
can't afford to have a baby. Maybe maybe I'll never
be able to afford to have a child. And I think,
at least for a lot of you know, people of
my generation, that was true. We had children, even though
deep down we questioned whether or not we could afford
to have the children. We did well. As it turned out,
having kids was a pretty powerful motivator for a lot
(03:21):
of people. You know, you start having kids because that's
what you're expected to do and because you wanted to
have kids, and then you realize, hey, wow, I got
to get out there and hustle. I gotta you know,
I've got to get I got to get to work
on this here. Because you weren't relying on other people
to raise your child for you or to pay for
your children. You were expected to get a job and
(03:43):
make the money necessary in order to be able to
afford your family. I mean, that's how that worked, and
that's what most of us did. And I ended up
having two boys. We decided to was plenty at the time.
You know, I suppose we could have tried for a third,
but at the end of the day, two was plenty.
So there you go. We have two kids and two
and done. But you know, we did our part. We
(04:06):
added to the population. We raised two responsible young men.
One has one child of his own because they just
decided he had no one's plenty for us. We were
both difficult children. We one difficult child because our chances
are pretty good we may have a difficult child, one
difficult child to raise us enough, and the other one
had four so between between the two of them they
(04:28):
average out pretty well. At the end of the day,
I have other than birthday presents and the usual things
that you do as a as a grandparent, I haven't
been asked to or have certainly required in any way
to financially support those kids. So they're doing it fine.
They didn't have kids because they expected the government to
(04:51):
pay for them to have kids. They had kids because
that's the decision they wanted to make, all right. So
affordability factor, Now, let's look at that for a second
from a the standpoint of a five thousand dollars stipend
a baby bonus, if you will. I think most people
who are serious about having kids and put more thought
into it than just I'd really like to have a
(05:12):
baby for whatever reason, bothered to take a look at
what it costs to raise a child. The current cost
to raise a child to approximately the age of eighteen
is somewhere around three hundred thousand dollars. And that's to
the age of eighteen, and that doesn't include you know,
(05:33):
paying for any college or any other things that you
potentially could that's just to get them through high school,
about three hundred thousand, and that number is only going
to go up. So five thousand dollars doesn't provide a
much you know, one time baby bonus of five thousand
dollars isn't going to provide much help. That's the number
(05:54):
one thing. Here's the number two thing about that idea,
and I heard that from some of the talkbacks we
got it. I guess that would be a good time
to play the talkbacks the first woman on this talkback.
And by the way, if you ever want to talk
back to any question that I have or do, you
can go to the iHeartRadio app KTRH, because we do
it in the morning on our morning program, Houston's Morning News.
(06:17):
You can make KTRH number one on your preset and
you can make KPRC number two on your preset, and
that way you can go and you can comment on
anything I say on either one of our shows in
the morning of the afternoon. So if you want to
talk back to this segment, you can just again go
to the iHeartRadio app KPRC. Put us number two on
our reset and then when you hit the button and
(06:39):
you go to our site, it'll take you right there.
You see the talkback button. You hit that, you get
thirty seconds to give me your first name where you're
calling from. In some reaction to this, here's a couple
of the talkbacks from this morning on President Trump's idea
of a five thousand dollars baby bonus.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Good morning and Terry for Richmond.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I'm afraid to kind those people who would have any
for just five thousands of dollars, or the kind of
people you really don't want to happen have a good day.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Does that five thousand go to the mother or the father?
And can I use my five thousand for child support?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Hey, Jimmy Sean from Pasadena, what about those who've already
had kids?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Do we get back paid?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
It would only be fair?
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Okay, So he's wondering if he could make it retroactive.
You know what about the kids I have? Where's my
five thousand dollars? And that's a typical response, right, Hey,
what's in it for me? But I think Terry, the
first caller from Richmond, I think she's the one they'd
had it the most correct. Right, do we really want
(07:42):
to offer five thousand dollars as a stipend to have children?
Because something tells me that is not going to work
out real Well, it just isn't. The kind of people
who would have a baby just to get five thousand
dollars check are the kind of people who are probably
(08:03):
going to be looking for other government resources to pay
for their children. Oh yeah, that might be a bit
of a problem. Then you have the people out there
who need no financial incentive whatsoever to have plenty of kids.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
Think President Trump will give money in arrears because I've
got twelve kids.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Talk to you later, bye, twelve kids. How did she
find time to make a phone call twelve kids? That's amazing?
Speaker 4 (08:36):
All right, quick, little raak, we are back with one
in a moment Jimmy Part show. You're running in nine
fifty KPRC. All right, it's a special announcement. Did this
(09:03):
come on a Friday or the weekend? I forget which
day came out, but you may not have heard that
we are going to have a fleet week here in Houston. Now,
if you're wondering what a fleet week is, what the
Navy does is the Navy designates certain ports where they're
(09:23):
going to have fleet Weeek, which is kind of like,
you know, you get a bunch of sailors who come
and they they come in their ships and they open
up the ships for tours and they mix it up
with the public and they hit the town and have
a good time and all that kind of stuff. Fleet
week We've never had one in Houston. I'm not quite
(09:45):
sure why, but Evidently there's a determination with the Navy
now to go to some places they've never been before,
so they can expose themselves so to speak to people
who have not had an opportunity to tour Navy ships
and that kind of s So anyway, here is the
report from Khou eleven on Fleet Week.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
We look forward to bringing the Navy down to Houston.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
With this video call to Houston Mayor John Whittmeier, the
US Navy sharing the big news that Fleet Week is
coming to h town. I'm told it'll take place from
November fifth to the twelfth, just in time for the
Navy's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. And it's historic for
another reason.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
It'll be the first time that Fleet Week is in
the state of Texas, meaning first time in Houston.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
Why Houston if we want to go to areas that
don't have a large presence of Navy and Marine Corps.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
Career Admiral John Hewitt says, it's a way to share
what the Navy does by having Houstonians meet with sailors
and get tours of the vessels, as seen in this
video of Fort Lauderdale. Fleet Week happening right now, and
it's also a way to inspire future sailors. Why is
it so important to connect with the community in that way.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Because we need people to replace guys like me.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
They We need people to wear the cloth of the nation,
to man our ships, to go into the Marine Corps,
and to defend our nation.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
When Fleet Week comes to Houston, I'm told the vessels
will be here at the Port of Houston Turning Basin
as well as here at the Bayport Terminal. It'll be
a unique experience for locals. It's also thrilling for sailors
Quarterwick Walton and Joshua Wilson, who are both from the
Houston area.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
I have my family just come there support because I
know all of them can make it so discally.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
But seeing all my family, are you looking forward to
sharing what you do with your family and friends?
Speaker 4 (11:37):
I am okay. He'll be in November. That's when Fleetwag
is going to be. I should ask my son Brian,
because he's first of all.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
He said.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
He said that to me on Sunday as I was
boarding the plane to come back here to Houston. He
sent me a clip of that that they're gonna have
Fleetwake here in Houston in November. And I should ask
him about that, because as a former member of the Navy,
he would know all the good, the bad, and the
ugly that may occur during fleetweg I mean, you're gonna
(12:11):
have over a thousand sailors here, and you've got to
figure they're gonna hitting the bars in the restaurants and
all that kind of stuff. So I'm sure it's good
for the economy. I'm sure also that it will keep
you know, a lot of folks busy keeping tabs on
those sailors because I'm sure they like to have a
good time, at least I know Brian did when he
was a member of the US Navy, So that'll be
(12:32):
interesting to see how that happens. As as long as
we're on the topic of the Navy, maybe this would
be a good time to throw in a battleship Texas
update for you. Where are we at in the restoration process?
We have evidently they finally got it out of dry
dock and plopped it back into the water. To make
(12:53):
sure that she's seaworthy. And she is seaworthy. Make sure
she's tight, not leaking anywhere. She's tight, She's not leaking
any where. Tony Gregory is with the Battleship Texas Foundation.
Here he brings the folks at our television partner KPRC
two up to date on where we're at with the restoration.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Well, because we're first time back in the water for
eighteen months. We spent the last eighteen months in dry
dock repairing the whole replacing steel, sealing up rivets. It's
a riveted ship, so there's thousands of rivets on the ship.
So we've made her substantially water tight and able to
get back in the water.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, so Tony talk.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
I would just think that we're moving the ship from
the dry dock to another dock in the same shipyard
so we can continue to work on the top side
of the ship.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
And what does that work look like on the top
side of the ship?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Will that entail? It would entail.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
One of the main things that entails is replacing the
complete wood deck, which will take us almost a year.
It's we have to replace it for historic standards. That
will be a pine deck, which is what she had
when she was originally built. And we will also be
repairing the superstructure. I don't know if you can see
the scaffolding the navigation bridge, fire control tower, we will
(14:17):
be putting in new bathrooms, We'll be painting the whole
top side of the ship, and the final step will
be installing the exhibits for the museum part of our commission.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
You know, a lot of people are wondering when Battleship
Texas is going to reopen to the public, but it
sounds like there's still a lot of work to be
done before that will happen.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Do you have an estimated date?
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Well, our goal is late summer twenty twenty five. We
have a lot of things to do on the ship
as well. We have to finalize where she's going to go,
and do the and get her ready to dock.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Okay, I think I'm pretty sure that he misspoke about
the completion date. He said the goal was late summer
twenty twenty five. Well, this is already twenty twenty five
and it is almost May. And they if it's going
to take a year to put it in the new
pine deck and the paint and such that, I'm guessing, well,
(15:22):
first of all, we'll have to put the deck in
before they do the painting. So my guess is is
that you know, once the deck takes about a year
once that's done. That it's going to take several months
after that in order to do the paint job and
all that kind of stuff. So I guess we're talking.
Maybe he meant twenty twenty six, late summer twenty twenty six,
so we have a ways to go, but we are
making progress. I mean, that's just a huge restoration. That
(15:47):
is amazing how much work goes into that. So I'm
glad to see that we're making progress and we know
that the ship's got a place to go now and
we're in good shape. Okay, one more item for this
go around, and let's do this little update on the
Camping World CEO still fighting in many different cities to
(16:10):
keep his for lack of a better term, his big
ass American flag flying his thirty five hundred square foot flag,
and he is refusing to budge, he says, the only
organizations he's interested in hearing from as far as following
the size of the flag and the height of the
flagpoles the FAA. If the Federal Aviation Administration says we're
(16:31):
too close to an airport and it's a danger to
planes and whatever, then that's fine, then we will follow
the FAA regulation. But he's not interested in what these
little town ordinances have to say why it is that
they are making these regulations on the size of flags.
Here he is over the weekend, once again being defiant.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
I think ultimately you have local ordinances that want to
control the marketplace, and you think about what the current
administration thinks about eliminating regulations in business, and I think
the left it's a little too excited thinking that when
we say we want to lessen regulations, we're talking about
things that protect customers. What we're really trying to do
is just give people the freedom to do what they
(17:12):
want to do.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Within the compliance of the law.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
And this whole flag nonsense, quite frankly, is baffling to
me because we use the FAA as our regulator. If
the FAA tells us no, or they tell us it
needs to be lower or smaller, we comply with that.
Outside of that, it's the subjective piece. And you know,
I've been doing this for twenty years, as you mentioned,
and I keep saying that to people.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
It's not coming down no matter what.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
It's just amazing how big are these flags, By the way, Marcus,
but the flagpoles there.
Speaker 7 (17:42):
Are one hundred and thirty feet. Then they're universally the
same across the country. And the flag itself is forty
by eighty. It's thirty two hundred square feet. And yes
it is big, and yes it does cost over one
hundred and thirty thousand dollars to put up. Wow, but
it really is representative of me, of my love letter,
my gift back to the people that have served this country,
(18:04):
who have defended this country to allow an immigrant like
me to come here and to have a job and
to employ fourteen thousand people.
Speaker 8 (18:10):
Marcus, are you getting any support from the elected officials?
This has impacted one of your locations down in Greenville,
But the local community is the local elected officials? What
are how are they coming down on this?
Speaker 7 (18:24):
I think people are a little conflicted right now. We
know that we're getting support from the administration. I have
many friends in the Trump administration who support it. There
are state senators and congressmen and US senators that are
encouraging us to do this. And my response to everybody is,
if this is such a great thing, then let's pass
the national bill that allows the flags as long as
(18:45):
you're saith, as long as they comply with the FAA,
as long as they're done so in a way that
doesn't put people in harms. Way, let's pass a national
bill that allows people to display the US flag. This
isn't an opportunity to exploit it to put up you know,
my favorite sports team.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, it's I think it's a little bit more complicated
than that. But the fact that these little local governments
think that they can regulate the size of flags, I mean,
is this really Why is this so high on their
party list other than maybe being some sort of control issue.
All right, little break. Gregory wright Stone's going to join
us here in a few minutes. He's a geologist, executive
(19:22):
director of the CO two Coalition in Arlington, Virginia, and
the best selling author of A Very Convenient Warming, How
Modest Warming and more CO two are Actually Benefiting humanity.
Back with him next. You're on AM nine fifty KPRC
and the Jimmy Bird Show. Love talking to this next guy.
(19:53):
We talk about climate issues all the time, and safe
to say the sum it up in a nuts here.
Gregory Wrightstone thinks if the climate is warming, that's a
good thing. If global warming, that would be the best
case scenario. He's a geologist, executive director of the CO
two Coalition in Arlington, Virginia, and the best selling author
(20:14):
of a very convenient warming, How Warming and more CO
two are Benefiting humanity? How you been, my friend?
Speaker 7 (20:21):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Really good watching. Finally we have something good coming out
of the DC area. And it's all these agency heads
that Trump has appointed are really good.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Yeah, we've gotten a big, big difference here with how
this administration, especially the EPA. Lee Zelden is making a
huge difference. At the EPA.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
He is and even the day before he was approved
by the Senate, they fired all of the science advisors
for the two science boards for EPA, and so the
CO two is that is really the tip of the
sphere of the scientific scientists. Second off, economists, experts. What
(21:10):
we're doing is we've put together a list of some
fifty five top experts and scientists replace them once nominations
are open. That which might might occur this week.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
You know, one of the things I wanted to ask
you about here is you know, we've we've got a
bunch of Trump tariffs that are starting up. One of
these areas impacted by the Trump tariffs, interestingly enough, are
solar panels. The US Commerce Department is going to start
imposing tariffs on certain solar panels obviously not made in
the United States, at a rate of about three and
twenty one percent, do to concerns about how cheap the
(21:43):
quality is. You know, I don't know how you feel
about solar panels. I don't think you mind any particular energy.
It's not like you object to solar energy. But if
these panels are that cheap, what good are they doing?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, well, there's there's been a highly subsidized solar panels
that are in the parts that they're talking about are
going from coming from Vietnam, Cambodia, til End, and they're
going to China, and these are highly subsidized. Of these
Chinese solar panels are just undercutting any American solar manufacturers.
(22:20):
And I don't have a lot of sympathy for these
Americans solar panels because they get a lot of subsidies
as well. I think it should be a level of
playing field upon all the energy types and the three
things I look for good what I call good electricity,
and that is it should be reliable, abundant, and affordable.
(22:40):
Solar isn't any of those neither neither wind is wind energy,
And don't dare call them farms, solar farms, wind farms.
I grew up with my granddad's dairy farm in south
central Pennsylvania. It was none of these solar panel farms
or or are actually not a few call like paradise.
(23:04):
It's an industrial scale energy generation facilities. And if you
look at the recent New end report on endangered species,
the one thing I did agree with in it was
the greatest threat to endangered species is loss of habitat. Well,
what's what's there? What's their solution to a non existent
climate crisis? Pave over thousands and thousands of acres of
(23:29):
American prairie grassland, cut down our forest to put up
these industrial scale wind and solar facilities. No, thank you,
no thank you. It should be all of these these
energy generation facilities should stand on their own and again
if they should be reliable, abundant, and affordable. That's natural gas,
(23:49):
that's coal, and also the nuclear well.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
You know, I hate to say it, but as you know,
we are as guilty as the next. Here in Texas,
we have we have massive amounts of wind turbines to
try to generate power. First of the battery capacity couldn't
keep up with it, and we were wasting a lot
of it. And they've made some improvements there. But at
the end of the day, if the if the sun
isn't out, if the wind's not blowing, we don't have
(24:16):
enough reliable natural gas, coal powered or whatever, nuclear energy,
reliable energy to provide for our needs. And we are
a state that is continuing to grow. So I can't
help but think that we're going to we're going to
reach today when you know, we have a major blackout
because we can't generate enough power to take care of
our needs here in Texas.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, you nearly got there a couple of years ago
during a big winter storm. I forget the name of
it right now, but I'm sure it's ingrained in your
memory where you were out of electricity for quite a bit,
and they blamed it on conventional heating, but actually it
was the wind. The wind stopped blowing and the sun
stopped shining, and there was no no, none of those
(24:59):
unreliable energy sources came through for you in a really
really cold period in Texas. And in fact, I just
spoke down in tile Or, Texas and we took a
look at what's actually happening with temperatures in Texas, and
I looked at the maximum average daily temperature in Texas
has actually been in decline. We've take good data going
(25:20):
back to eighteen ninety five. Also looked at the percentage
of days over ninety ninety degrees fahrenheit in Texas were
really significantly in decline since eighteen ninety five, definite decline.
And as as it flies in the face of everything
you've heard, you're being told that heat waves are increasing,
(25:42):
danger warming of summertime temperatures increasing, and if you actually
look at the data, it's just not so. You're the
hottest temperatures in Texas accord back in the twenties and
thirties during the dust Bowl era. So again, your listeners
are being blied to every day about climate change. And
(26:02):
we talked about warming being good too. That's what history
tells us. If we look back through human history, several
thousand years, each warming period it was warmer than today.
We're hugely beneficial for humanity. It was the cold periods
that were horrific. Yeah, so some of these other people
might get to go, oh that Wright Stone, he's a
(26:24):
science denier. I would say, Okay, their history deniers, because
they're denying what history tells us. History tells us we
should welcome the warmth and fear the cold.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Yes, well, nothing else. We have learned that the planet
goes through cycles, and we were like every other time
in our history, we're going through a cycle now. And
y'all I'm old enough, Gregory to remember when we were
being warned about the coming ice age back in the
nineteen seventies. They were talking about a coming ice age.
Is the problem that could potentially creep up with our weather?
(26:57):
What do you think? What kind of a cycle do
you think our planet is in right now? Where do
you think it's going?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Well, we know, we know it's been warm. I don't
disagree that, But if you look back over the warming
started more than three hundred years ago, and that period
of the nineteen seventies, let's think about that for a moment.
We started adding a lot of CO two to the
atmosphere in the mid nineteen fifties, and just as we
started adding CO two to the atmosphere, we went into
(27:28):
a thirty three year cooling period went from nineteen forties
to the late nineteen seventies, and I remember I was
in school at that time, there was a lot of
talk about the next coming ice age because we did
thirty three years of decline now then started warming back up.
So this is this is cyclical. But if we look
(27:50):
back through time through the Medieval Warm period, the Roman
Warm Period, the Minoan Warm period, again, we know that
these periods were all warmer than today. That was much
cooler there back three hundred plus years ago. It was
called the Little Ice Age, and there's lots of historical
data showing that it was really very much cooler than
(28:15):
it is today. And so yes, we should we are
in a warming period and we should be thankful and
blessed for that.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
How long do you think that warming period lands?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know what, I don't know. We might be going.
We might already be in a cooling trend. We may
sea warming for another twenty thirty fifty years, but sooner
or later it will return to a cooling trend, which
would not be good. Again, the previous really big cooling
(28:47):
trends were associated with crop failure, famine, pestilence, and masty population.
It won't be as bad. The next warm cooling trend
won't be as bad as in the past because we're
not moving food or around with ox cards. We have refrigeration,
we have things. But if you have if you have
crop failures, there's not much you can do about that.
(29:10):
So the next cooling period will be a time that
will test us and test well if we're actually going
to be able to continue with the where we are
today with you know, with great crop growth. We've seen
this been fueled by more CO two.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Yeah, there you go. Bottom line from Gregory Wrightstone. Warming
is good, Cooling is bad. Thank you for being a guest, sir,
good to talk to you appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Thank you you bet.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Gregory Wrightstone, geologists and executive director of the CO two
Coalition in Arlington, Virginia, and the best selling author of
A Very Convenient Warming, How Modest Warming and More CEO
two are benefiting humanity back with more in a moment,
Jimmy Verchow here an am nine fifty KPRC. All right,
(30:16):
before we call it to day, here, before we wrap
it up, a couple more things to talk about. Let's
start with this one. Why high school seniors rejection cake
trend is viral on TikTok hang on what a rejection cake.
(30:36):
Videos of emotional college acceptances and elaborate school themed parties
fill high school as social media feeds, so some seniors
are putting a spin on the emotional letdown of getting
denied from colleges with rejection cakes. In one TikTok video
with more than five million views, Nita Massachusett High scho
(31:00):
senior CC Scala and her friends cheer this is our
rejection cake as they present a cake decorated with miniature
flags from all the top schools that rejected them. Scala,
who applied to twelve colleges and was waitlisted from her
top choice, says the trend is a way to make
fun of the daunting and stressful college admissions process. In
(31:22):
the video, her friends placed rejection pins from Yale, usc
as in Southern California, Harvard, the University of Virginia, Dartmouth,
the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, and Boston College. She said,
if you're applying to a hard college and you're seeing
all these acceptance videos, it's going to hurt because it's like,
(31:45):
am I the only one rejected? Am I not good enough?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Well?
Speaker 4 (31:50):
The answer is yeah, you weren't good enough. Evidently, Scala says,
you don't see all the videos of everybody else getting rejected.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
So evidently for.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
People who are rejected to go to their favorite college,
they they're celebrating the rejection somehow to try to to
tell others, c I got rejected too. I mean, do
you remember back to your I mean for those who
did go to college. And I did go to college.
(32:20):
I applied. I only applied to two schools, actually, and
I got accepted to the one I knew i'd get
accepted to. And I didn't even get a rejection letter
from the other one, which I guess unless my parents
intercepted it in the mail and were just trying to
spare my feelings. I did apply for a very very
(32:43):
highly thought of, academically prestigious school, even though I was
a solid three point student, and they don't take any
three point students unless unless they're offering you a scholarship
to play football or basketball or some other sport. Then
maybe they'll take a three point student, but they're not
(33:05):
just going to take a three point student otherwise. And
I knew when I sent in that application that the
chances of me being accepted were slim and none, you know,
white male, you know, from a relatively privileged I guess,
in other words, not economically disadvantaged family applying to a
(33:29):
school he's got no business applying to. And I knew
that going into it. So the fact that I never
even got a rejection letter did not surprise me. They didn't.
I mean, that's how bad it was. Not like, did
they not think I was worthy of being included in
their student body. They didn't think I was worthy of
(33:50):
actually sending a rejection letter. And they thought, oh, come on, man,
then this kid's got to know. There's no way we're
letting his butt in the door. So there you go.
I just is this just some sort of an ego
saving thing. I mean, first of all, you have to
send in a check with an application fee, and I
(34:10):
don't know what the average fee is now, fifteen hundred
bucks whatever it is. You apply to twelve schools, let's
say it's one hundred bucks. That's twelve hundred dollars just
to be rejected. I mean, if you are rejected at
all those places, I mean, don't you kind of know
going in what your chances are of actually being accepted
(34:32):
in that school? I mean I find that pretty hard
to believe that that they wouldn't know better.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
There's just no way rejection letters.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
You know, rejection is a part of life, and it's
something that we in the last at least two generations,
maybe longer, have not done a very good job of
teaching our kids. We've taught them all that the special
and everybody's special, and you're you're as smart as anybody else,
(35:07):
You're as talented as everybody else. The fact of the
matter is you're probably not. We all have our own talents, well,
we all have our own abilities, but we also have
our own limitations. The key to success in life is
to work around your limitations and do the best you
can with what you've got. I think we need to
(35:27):
do a better job of teaching that to people. It's
okay to get rejected. It's okay to lose, it's okay
to not like losing, and it's okay to pick yourself
back up and start all over again with something that
maybe makes more sense. And somehow I think we got
(35:50):
to get we got to figure out a way to
get back to teaching that rejection cake. So you kidding me?
All right, listen, that's it for today. You all have
a great day. Appreciate your listening. I will see you
tomorrow morning bright nearly five am over our news radio
seven forty k t r H. We are Backyar at
four on AM nine fifty k p r c
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