November 30, 2015

Turkey Rebuts Obama

Ha! Shut your mouth and shut your own border, then we'll talk.

Establishment GOP taking down Trump. Not.

Lou Dobbs had a recent editorial concerning The GOP establishment and their reasons for wanting to take out Donald Trump.  I'm not exactly for Trump, and I'm not exactly against the GOP, but I do agree that establishment Republicans are not more than marginally better than Obama or Hillary Clinton and we cannot condemn ourselves to another Bush 41, or Bob Dole type candidate.  It's a recipe for failure, either as a party or a movement, or in the unlikely event of a presidential win, as a country.

The leap from Trump winning the nomination to Hillary becoming a shoe-in as the next president has never been explained. Why is he a sure-fire loser against Hillary?  The electorate who would reflexively vote for Hillary includes a number of people who might reconsider, if Trump were the nominee.  That's definitely not so for a Jeb Bush or Kasich nomination.

November 29, 2015

Sunday Verse

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
~2 Timothy 2:15

November 28, 2015

Saturday Learning Series - Short Bio John Locke

A short bio on John Locke.

November 25, 2015

More proof Obama just doesn't get it.

Barbara Streisand gets a Presidential Medal of Freedom from a tone deaf president.
WASHINGTON — The 17 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year are "extraordinary people" who have left their mark on politics, entertainment, athletics and the United States itself, President Obama said Tuesday.

From singer-actress Barbra Streisand to NASA mathematician Katherine G. Johnson to filmmaker Steven Spielberg to recently deceased baseball star Yogi Berra, Obama paid tribute to American originals with the nation's highest civilian honor during a White House ceremony.
Now to be fair it is a civilian honor and it has been given to a number of similar people in the past. But there's also the optics of repaying political friends.  Barbara Streisand has said some pretty acrimonious things about her political opponents in the past.

November 24, 2015

Obama - Evil or Just Dumb? A Discussion

An interesting pair of takes on Obama's failures as president courtesy of PJ Media greats, Klavan and Whittle.

World War III, or World War I all over again?

It's trending on Twitter.  I mentioned it 10 days ago.  This Russian jet shot down over Turkish airspace is just another link in the chain of events caused by a myriad of geopolitical interests in close proximity, and events ratcheted up at every turn and it started with a single terror event (the events in Paris). 


Unfortunately, these are interesting times.

November 23, 2015

Don't celebrate just yet

Via The Week, Obamacare is falling apart;
UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest insurer, announced that it might quit ObamaCare's exchanges next year. Should UnitedHealthcare act on this threat, there may not be enough (red) tape in the desk drawer of even future President Hillary Clinton to put the ObamaCare Humpty Dumpty back together again.

United announced during an investor briefing Thursday that it was expecting a whopping $425 million hit on its earnings this year, primarily due to mounting losses on its ObamaCare exchange business. "We cannot sustain these losses," United CEO Stephen Hensley declared. "We can't really subsidize a marketplace that doesn't appear at the moment to be sustaining itself."
Don't celebrate the death of Obamacare just yet. This is all part of the single-payer plan, and has been all along;
Avik Roy, who serves as GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio's health care advisor, suspects United may just be the first domino to fall. Other commercial insurers, such as Aetna, Anthem, and Cigna, have raised premiums by double digits and still say they can't make the numbers work in their favor. Hence, they have withdrawn from counties where their losses were particularly acute.

For-profit companies that have shareholders breathing down their necks don't have much latitude to absorb losses. But even companies that don't face similar profit-maximizing pressures can't escape the basic dilemma confronting the industry.
This was the agenda all along. You didn't actually believe that if you liked your plan you could keep your plan, did you? Silly American.

November 22, 2015

Ignore this

This is self-serving geopolitics at it's most obvious:
U.S. actions in the Middle East helped Islamic State to gain influence, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said, according to Interfax.

The strengthening of Islamic State “became possible partly due to irresponsible U.S. politics” that focused on fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad instead of joining efforts to root out terrorism, Medvedev was cited as saying in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
Unfortunately a lot of Russians will gobble it up.  The reality is that ISIS has a foothold because Obama was naive on Iraq and assumed ISIS was JV and not an issue at all.  So at least Medvedev was right about the irresponsible part.  He just got the details wrong, deliberately.

Sunday Verse

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
~John 3:36

November 20, 2015

Friday Musical Interlude - Top 10 movie theme songs

I had originally scheduled WatchMojo's Top 10 movie theme songs.  But now I'm boycotting them.   So let me do this list instead.  I agree with this list more anyway.



November 19, 2015

Thursday Hillary Bash - Hypocrisy on Minimum Wage vs. Unpaid Interns

A video from back in June, focusing on Hillary Clinton's abysmal hypocrisy on the minimum wage, when she doesn't even pay her own campaign's interns.  I'm sharing it now, because the problem in her campaign still exists.

At some point she should have to answer for this.

November 17, 2015

Mew

France and Russia have promised Holy Hell in retaliation for the terrorist events that affected their nations. Russia probably will back up it's tough talk (so I'll exempt Russia from the remainder of this commentary).  France is flying sorties and bombing ISIS camps. Weak tea, but still it's something.  Britain and the U.S. have denounced ISIS, using ramped-up stern language.  Canada's new Prime Minister is sticking to his election promise of stopping flying sorties in support of combating ISIS and instead will up our training contingent who are training Iraqi's.  Even if we double that effort it's still likely less than 200 boots on the ground, nowhere near combat if they can help it.

Oh and Obama is doubling down on closing Gitmo. 

Bunch of pussy cats.

The absurdity of the absurdity

The woman in the photo is a pastafarian, a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. She won the right in Massachusetts to wear a colander on her head for her driver's license photo.
BOSTON — A member of the “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” is being allowed to wear a colander in her driver’s license picture.

WFXT reported that Lindsay Miller was originally denied the right to wear the colander in the picture, but won the appeal.

Miller enlisted the help of attorney with the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center.
The 'church' to which she belongs, is an anti-religion church.
Pastafarian is a social movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion and opposes the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools.
They're clearly trying to point out the absurdity of religion.  But what they succeed in pointing out is the absurdity of the legal system for entertaining this farce as reasonable.  It's not an issue of freedom of religion, because they are clearly mocking religion.  This is simply  an instance of the state bending over backwards to avoid offending anyone, or at least anyone vocal enough to attract attention to their absurd 'cause'.

November 15, 2015

Did Bernie Sanders really just blame ISIS terrorism on global warming?

 Yes, yes he did. And this guy wants to be president.

“In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism,” said Sanders.

“And if we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say, you’re going to see counties all over the world…they’re going to be struggling over limited amounts of water, limited amounts of land to grow their crops, and you’re going to see all kinds of international conflict.”

Sanders said at the second Democratic debate in Iowa that climate change poses the biggest threat to America’s national security and to security of the world.

Sanders also argued that the growth of national terrorism and instability in the Middle East was caused by the invasion of Iraq.

“I would argue that the disastrous invasion of Iraq, something that I strongly opposed, has unraveled the region completely and led to the rise of Al Qaeda and to ISIS,” Sanders said.
Okay, I know you're old Bernie, but do you not recall that 9/11 and the World Trade Center bombing when Clinton was president and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, etc. all happened before the invasion of Iraq? And don't blame it on the first invasion because countless nations took part in that one, including many Arab nations.

How can someone be that old and still be so sophomoric?

But let me not gloss over the specious global warming link. He's saying that global warming is causing food and water shortages and the unrest that has led to the rise of these terrorist organizations is resulting from lack of food and water. This includes the oil rich countries of Saudi Arabia (for example) where much of this jihadi fundamentalism ferments.

Bernie - this is a radical religious based problem. Period. If you want to throw a progressive spin on it, you're not even doing that right! Try "the problem is religion" or the problem is that "these people cannot get proper education because they are so poor so we need to send them money take in more refugees." (By the way the latter one is racist because you're claiming they are not capable of growing themselves out of poverty).  François Hollande, president of France, is a socialist. He's saying France is going to wage a pitiless war. He may not have always gotten it, but he certainly does now. So you can be a socialist without being a head-in-the-sand fool on terrorism*.

Some on the left have argued that Sanders is actually helping Republicans (because he's supposedly too forward thinking). And there is some thought that he's not really in it to win it but rather to get his issues and views into the national zeitgeist for the future. Sanders saying things like global warming causes terrorism, certainly lends credence to the idea that he doesn't want to win.

*NOTE: For the record, I do not condone socialism.

Sunday Verse

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
~1 John 2:28

November 14, 2015

Eagles of Death Metal, conservatives. Huh?


Yesterday I posted about the band The Eagles of Death Metal, the band playing at Le Bataclan club in Paris that was part of the terror attack.  I mentioned that I had never heard their music.  Listening to it, they are not death metal, they're basically just a rock and roll band. I described their music as harder edged rockabilly but on Wikipedia the refer to them as garage rock.  The music is not bad, in fact some of it is catchy.

In any case, investigating a little further I found this interesting tidbit on Wikipedia regarding the two main members of the band:
In a 2007 interview, bandmate Josh Homme stated "Jesse Hughes and I have a theory; we’re socially liberal but government conservative guys".[1] Hughes has also said "I wanted to be a Republican politician, for God sakes. I’m a conservative, dude".[2]
And also this:
Homme has described himself as "very conservative politically" and "very socially liberal", considering himself a "fallen libertarian".[46] He owns several guns, including a classic Winchester rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, and a Beretta 9mm target pistol.[46]
You never can tell a book by its cover. 

Saturday Learning Series - Short Bio Sigmund Freud

A short bio on Sigmund Freud.

History Repeating: Could the start of WWI instruct us now?

With president Hollande of France speaking in terms last night of a pitiless war, something far more aggressive than the tone taken by president Bush, is France on the brink of a War on Islamic jihad and ISIS in particular? With British Prime Minister stating that France's fight was their fight as well, and Obama (incorrectly) stating that this was an attack on all humanity (really, it's an attack on the West and Western values by another faction of humanity), is an alliance forming, and war inevitable? Are we past the point of no return?

What causes a war? Often the mirror of history looks at simple events first and later complexity is layered in.  The cause of World War I was supposedly an assassination, but the reality around it, and leading up to the events that triggered the war was far more nuanced (excuse the progressive word that dismisses black and white explanations, but in this case it may have been true).
How did WWI start?

The simplest answer is that the immediate cause was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria-Hungary. His death at the hands of Gavrilo Princip – a Serbian nationalist with ties to the secretive military group known as the Black Hand – propelled the major European military powers towards war.

The events that led up to the assassination are significantly more complicated, but most scholars agree that the gradual emergence of a group of alliances between major powers was partly to blame for the descent into war.

By 1914, those alliances resulted in the six major powers of Europe coalescing into two broad groups: Britain, France and Russia formed the Triple Entente, while Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy comprised the Triple Alliance.

As these countries came to each other's aid after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, their declarations of war produced a domino effect.
Perhaps more important than the establishment of alliances is the fact that a singular event can have such a large ripple effect. Whether a war or terror is a good idea or not (and I believe it's simply a necessity at this point), what strikes me now is that this sure looks like history repeating. We would be wise to learn the lessons of history, if for no other reason than to understand the events that envelop us.

Quote of the Day goes to Mark Steyn

Quote of the day goes to Mark Steyn on president Obama's timing regarding his recent comments about ISIS:
With his usual killer comedy timing, the "leader of the free world" told George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning, America" this very morning that he'd "contained" ISIS and that they're not "gaining strength". A few hours later, a cell whose members claim to have been recruited by ISIS slaughtered over 150 people in the heart of Paris and succeeded in getting two suicide bombers and a third bomb to within a few yards of the French president.
Nailed it.  Not just about the president, but the entire complacent, liberal West. Read his entire post, it's well worthwhile.

November 13, 2015

Recent ISIS activity - more than just France

A day prior to the attacks in Paris, ISIS perpetrated 2 suicide bombings in Lebanon.



And there was a possible ISIS attack on the Russian Airbus recently as well.



Is ISIS starting a major offensive, or is it a coincidence? One thing is certain, the group is not JV.

Who are The Eagles of Death Metal?

Some of the terror attack in France was at an Eagles of Death Metal concert. I'd heard the name before but could not place any of their songs.  So I went to look at their videos to see.  They're not actually death metal, they sound a bit more like a little bit of a harder edged rockabilly.

In any case my prayers are not only with all those in France and their families but the band and their crew and their families as well. It was just reported all of the band members are confirmed safe. Hopefully the same can be said for as many in that concert hall as possible.

Here's a video of their song I Want You Hard from 2008. It's not much of a way to show support, but I'm not sure what else I can do at this moment.


UPDATE - 7:15 p.m. EST. Fox just reported 100 people dead in that concert hall. Truly tragic.

ISIS no longer JV

What is currently going on in France is horrific. One arrest has been made and the suspect claimed to be from Syria, with others and recruited by ISIS.  That is not Junior Varsity, that's an al Qaida level of scary.  The president's prior dismissive remarks on ISIS, for political purposes, was clearly and is now indisputably wrong.

If I were in Germany now, I'd be really worried about the welcome provided Syrians by Angela Merkel. Frankly, anywhere in Europe right now, I'd be quite nervous. Not just today, for the foreseeable future. 

It's about time the West draws a line in the sand on ISIS, and by in the sand, I mean somewhere in Iraq and/or Syria.

Terror Attack in Paris

Multiple terror attacks have happened in Paris, in the last hour or so, with up to 30 reported dead so far.

Below is some preliminary footage of some of the aftermath:

Boycott WatchMojo, eyes on

Earlier I suggested a boycott of the Youtube channel, WatchMojo because of their fluff piece in support of Bernie Sanders.  I suggested they do not deserve our eyes on their content.  But maybe they deserve our eyes on them.

WatchMojo is a Canadian-based, privately held video content production company, founded by three co-founders, the primary of whom seems to be Ashkan Karbasfrooshan (who had this to say about Republicans - scroll to the comments section to see).  He's also had some disparaging things to say about Veteran's Day on his Facebook page and judging by the undertone of his comments, he seems taken by the notion that America is a warmongering country.

There's no doubt on which side of the political spectrum his loyalty lies.  Take a look at his Twitter feed.  Here are some examples;


And this,



And this,


Look, Ashcan Ashkan is entitled to his opinions, and he is freely entitled to share them. I am entitled to not listen and knowing what I now know about his politics, I will choose to not watch WatchMojo going forward.

Boycott WatchMojo

I've viewed and enjoyed WatchMojo's Top 10 lists many times. They're one of Youtube's largest channels.  I think I've even posted some of their videos.  No longer.  I am asking readers to boycott WatchMojo going forward.

This video is very, very disturbing.  Ir's disturbing not because WatchMojo shouldn't be allowed to share their opinions, but rather because there is so much misinformation in it that will mislead people into supporting Sanders erroneously. And they've done so under the guise of entertainment and a Top Ten list.


The gushing is truly sickening as well. So is the tacit endorsement of socialism, without any sort of explanation of what it really is, glossing over the truth about what socialism is, as if it were accepted fact that socialism equals compassion.

Like I said, I support their right to state their opinion.  I also support everyone else's right to boycott them as  a statement of their own opinions too.

Interestingly, they also had a backhanded slap of Hillary Clinton using a Top Ten list of why she 'may not win' the presidency.  The timing, about a month after the gushing over Bernie.

It's awkward to be including these videos in a call for a boycott, but I think it's necessary to explain why I believe that WatchMojo doesn't deserve our eyes on their pages.

Friday Musical Interlude - Stand Back

Stevie Nicks' hit Stand Back (1983):

November 12, 2015

Amnesty vs Trump (and Cruz)

GOP Debate #4, Via PJ Media:

Ridiculousness on racism

No, black people cannot be racist - and if you try to claim they can be, you'll just get shouted down:
Students at a “safe space” at Claremont McKenna College in California shut down an Asian woman who was describing racial harassment by a black man, booing her when she declared, “black people can be racist.”

She then recounted a time when she and a group of friends were walking down the street, and a black man pulled over and shouted, “go back to your home!” She said a “white lady” stopped to ask if the young women needed police assistance.

“The point I’m making here is that we should not distinguish people by their race or gender or anything. Black people can be racist,” she declared, at which point a black woman holding a sign that reads “It’s too late to say sorry” approached her.

“Oh no honey,” someone in the crowd said over a chorus of boos.
The lesson:  when decrying racism, you are only allowed to focus on white racism.  As a corollary, do not distinguish people's attitude individually, paint all people of a color with the same racism brush. You know, because that's not racist. 

November 11, 2015

Full Fox Business GOP debate

It says something about Fox Business channel that I found the entire debate more easily on Youtube than on their channel website.  In any case, here is the entire debate from a Youtube playlist I found, starting with the under card debate, which I partially posted earlier.







Switching sources, the entire Main Debate in a single video:


Have a thoughtful Veterans' Day

Remember those who served, sacrificed and gave, for our freedom.  In Canada we have Remembrance Day today and we will be doing the same.




Fox Business GOP under card debate

Lat night the GOP debates continued on Fox Business channel.  Like many people, the channel is not available from my cable provider.  I'm sharing them here for those who were not able to watch.

This is the under card debate.

November 10, 2015

Obama's false comparison on the CNBC GOP debate

President Obama recently jabbed the Republican candidates saying that if they couldn't handle the CNBC moderators then how could they be expected to handle Russia's president Putin.  That's disingenuous and a patently false comparison. here's why.


November 9, 2015

Shut up with your white privilege crap. All Americans are privileged.

I haven't really been following the story behind the University of Missouri protests. However, when the first demand posited to the university president is that the he acknowledge his own white privilege, then whatever the reason for the original concern, no matter how well it may have been founded, has gone off the rails.
We demand that the University of Missouri System President, Tim Wolfe, writes a handwritten apology to the Concerned Student 1-­9-­5-0 demonstrators and holds a press conference in the Mizzou Student Center reading the letter. In the letter and at the press conference, Tim Wolfe must acknowledge his white male privilege, recognize that systems of oppression exist, and provide a verbal commitment to fulfilling Concerned Student 1-9-5-­0 demands. We want Tim Wolfe to admit to his gross negligence, allowing his driver to hit one of the demonstrators, consenting to the physical violence of bystanders, and lastly refusing to intervene when Columbia Police Department used excessive force with demonstrators.
Really? Really?  Shouldn't the gross negligence piece far exceed the concern about white privilege of the president? Apparently not - it comes after the white privilege in the first of many demands. By the way, why does each demand have 12 sub-demands in it?

Having little background so far, I will not defend the president of the university. Perhaps every other demand is legitimate, I don't know. But the white privilege statement is simply ridiculous.

Everyone living in America is privileged not to be living in Bangladesh, or Syria. Everyone living in America is privileged to be living in a country with so much opportunity - if not at the University of Missouri the somewhere else. You don't like the university, leave. If enough people do, it will simply go out of business. Everyone in America is privileged to have so much freedom that simply does not exist elsewhere to the same degree. You want to renounce that privilege and feel shame for being American too? Leave. I for one, along with literally millions of other people of every color, would be happy to take your place as a citizen in America. Unfortunately we can't. 

The inclusion of that among all of the other demands diminishes all the rest of them. Racial issues should be dealt with on the face of the specific issues.  Saying that every white person has an inherited advantage is ridiculous.  It hasn't helped me one bit.  And there are white people far poorer and less well off than I am.
 Trying to  make someone feel guilty for being born white does not advance racial harmony one iota.  It does not engender empathy at all from anyone other than those who already agree with you. It puts someone on the defensive and immediately creates an adversarial interaction. You are in a sense restricting change by taking that approach. How is that not self-evident?

November 8, 2015

Sunday Verse

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
~Proverbs 13:20

November 7, 2015

Watch Trump on SNL - you know you want to...

Comedian Jim Norton knows you want to watch Donald Trump on SNL, and he said so at Time online recently, and he covered some salient points about Trump.
Donald Trump is hosting Saturday Night Live this week, and love him or hate him, you have to admit he’s the only candidate who will actually do it well. SNL’s present cast is excellent, and Trump has hosted before. Watching any of those other painfully banal candidates attempt to deliver punch lines would be excruciating at best...

Maybe I’m just biased because I like Trump and intend to vote for him. The thing that attracts me to him is what a wonderful mirror he is to how bad the other candidates are. It seems the best way to observe how flat and dead most politicians are is to put them in close proximity of someone who is alive. That doesn’t mean I think he’s always right; I just think he’s honest...

One of my favorite qualities about Trump is he seems to be the only person in either party with enough of a spine to push back against the endless, deafening whine of American hypersensitivity. Even the most seasoned politicians should take note; Trump’s unwillingness to be cowed for his opinions is a more respected quality than any of their takes on any of the issues.
There's not much there with which to disagree.  Maybe I'm just biased because I'm a fan of Jim Norton's truly unique (a  polite term for it) comedic musings. But  I can believe every word of what he's written because he could be writing about himself in those last two paragraphs.  I'm sure there a lot of other people who feel the same way.

Does that mean I'm rooting for Trump? Yes.  Not necessarily to win, but certainly to continue doing what he's doing because there's traction in it and that means there are people out there who get him, and get his honesty and his unwillingness to be 'cowed for his opinions'. That matters.

Saturday Learning Series - Short Bio Machiavelli

A short bio on political animal Niccolo Machiavelli.

November 6, 2015

Friday Musical Interlude - Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams' early hit Cuts Like a Knife (1983):

7 years a blog

My very first post, Nov 6th, 2008 was a lamentation about the 2008 presidential victory of Barack Obama. There had been no introduction of myself, I just jumped right in to my thoughts on events.  It's because the blog was a continuation of emails I had been sending friends of my analysis of the politics and implications of the election. The blog was intended for consumption by only 4 people.  It grew beyond that.  Not by a huge amount but I can still generate posts that get seen by a couple of hundred people from time to time.

It's been a full 7 years that I have been blogging now and much has changed, while little has changed.  Certainly my level of impact has been quite small. Obama is still president, so 2012 was a bust. On the other hand there's now Obamacare, a Tea Party, SCOTUS approved gay marriage, China issues and Russia issues that are somewhat different than before (and yet somewhat the same,)  and a new level of national debt even more obscene than under president Bush.

My level of confidence is the greatness of possibility tied to the original intent of the American founders is unshaken, in fact probably even stronger.  Yet my level of faith in the American people to understand what is right and to act accordingly has been profoundly shaken.  While there are many who have been awakened to the nature of the world and their own government, as well as the Constitution, there seem to be more who wish to distance America from it's success and distinct greatness.  That is as sad as it is maddening. Americans have been given a distinct gift that they seem in too large part, willing to squander or even reject entirely.

But I have come to understand that the ideas of the framers cannot be destroyed.  Just as Marxism will likely never be eradicated, the idea of a prosperous and strong America founded in liberty and justice for all (not just special interest groups) cannot be destroyed. Even if we are at an ebb of those ideas, they will flow again.  My part, as is the case with tens of thousands of other bloggers, continues to be to point out what is happening and what we believe to be good or bad with that.

4000+ posts and 7 years later, having accomplished far less than I had both imagined and hoped to achieve, I foresee no need to quit, only to get better going forward.

November 5, 2015

Did you know? Islamic extremists blew up historic Palmyra


Palmyra is definitely a historical site. But it's not an Islamic one, and apparently, that was the problem. So it's being ruthlessly disassembled.
The Arch of Triumph was "pulverised" by the militants who control the city, a Palmyra activist told AFP news agency.

It is thought to have been built about 2,000 years ago.

IS fighters have already destroyed two ancient temples at the site, described by Unesco as one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
By the way, this happened weeks ago. But it doesn't look good on Obama, especially when he's trying to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo. So while you can hear it on the BBC, not so much on the American mainstream media.

Good news: Antarctic ice is safe

Unfortunately, not everyone is happy:
Antarctica is growing not shrinking, the latest satellite records show.

You might think this would be great news for all those scientists who have been warning us over the last few years about the impending horrors of “man-made global warming” but in fact they are not happy about it, not one bit.

Here for example is Dr Jay Zwally, the lead author of this week’s surprising Nasa study that confirms that the Antarctic is gaining far more ice than it is losing.

“I know some of the climate deniers will jump on this and say this means we don’t have to worry as much as some people have been making out. It should not take away from the concern about climate warming.”

Does that sound to you like a neutral scientific opinion? Do you sense any relief at the good news that the climate apocalypse of melting ice caps and rising sea levels may not be quite so imminent after all? No, me neither.
Melting ice means a stream...of revenue for many climate scientists.  So I'm not surprised they are not thrilled by the news.

November 4, 2015

How the Washington Post sees the GOP wave of victories yesterday is, unsurprising

The Washington Post warns the GOP, don't assume you actually won, really:
But, but, but: Turnout was VERY low across the country. Republicans could over interpret the results at their own peril. The presidential election, exactly one year way, will have dramatically larger and more diverse turnout, which works against the GOP. Serious structural problems persist: the Grand Old Party is still too white, too male and too old. Hillary Clinton’s political director, Amanda Renteria, tweeted a photo of a “Vote Here” sign overnight and wrote: “Wish more people did this today.”
Another landslide, another fleet of excuses. There's no doubt the GOP have a tougher row to hoe during a presidential cycle. But that's less true if there isn't charisma at the top of the Democratic ticket (i.e. Bill Clinton or Obama, not Hillary).

The old saw about too white, too male is garbage.  Compare the Democratic nominees to the Republicans.  The GOP has as many women candidates, more Hispanic and African American candidates, more outsiders and more youthful candidates. 

Hopefully Democrats take solace in the fact that traditionally, presidential cycles favor them, and they rest on their laurels, while the GOP takes heed. The GOP always needs to work harder - fair weather or foul weather - than the Democrats to get the same results. So they should do just that.

Hillary pre-pardons herself

I first saw this on Legal Insurrection:


I wonder if she's referring to Bill, Barack or herself when she talks about former criminal presidents.

November 3, 2015

School Choice is a moral imperative

Via Reason TV:

Anonymous wrong on KKK memberships

The group Anonymous clearly has a political agenda that is pretty far left of center. So far left, they can't be bothered to stick to the facts, and even gone so far as attacking some pretty liberal Democrats. They've supposedly outed a number of prominent U.S. politicians who are members of the Klu Klux Klan (aka the KKK). Except there have been a swath of denials.  That's to be expected and Anonymous claim they will release their data.

Obviously they have confidence in their data.  But clearly there are problems with it. Here's one example - the Mayor of Knoxville who happens to be facing an election today. She responded to the list's publication.
I’m not even sure this is worth responding to, but for the record: There is a list circulating online purporting to “out” elected officials as members of the KKK. For reasons unfathomable to me or anyone who knows me, my name is on the list. Given my background, my interracial family, my public record and my personal beliefs, this would be hilarious except that it is probably being seen by a lot of people who have no idea who I am.

So, just to be clear, for anyone who doesn’t know me: Don’t be ridiculous. I began my political career working for the rights of farm workers with Cesar Chavez. I have spent decades working for causes of social justice and equality...
oops.

Now, this is not to say that Democrats can't be racist. The most racist comments about president Obama came from Bill Clinton. And former Senator Robert Byrd was a member of the KKK.  But that's not the point with these unproven allegations.  Here's the problem with Anonymous - they're outing people, likely very erroneously and doing so from behind a mask. They don't want to be outed themselves, and that's hypocritical. So in summary:  probably wrong, and definitely hypocritical.

Anonymous garbage.

November 2, 2015

D-bag says what?

The CNBC moderator of the GOP debate took a swipe at Republicans after the debate according to The Hill.
CNBC anchor John Harwood took a shot at Republicans who accused him of asking unfair questions at the GOP’s third presidential debate on Wednesday night.

Harwood said in a tweet on Thursday that co-moderating the unruly debate gave him an appreciation for Republican leadership in the House trying to maintain party unity in a divided caucus.
Pretending to be the adult in the room is an absolute fail when anyone who watched that debate could not fail to see Ted Cruz's point that the moderators were anything but impartial. Shame on you John Harwood for trying to defend the indefensible by attacking yet again.

Just a note that if I'm not mistaken this is the first time I've ever resorted to an insult, which I've done in the title. I hereby retract the insult because it does not add anything to the discourse.  However, I will not retract the sentiment behind it.

The unholy alliance against gridlock

This is a recipe for a perfect storm of hyperbolic deceit (a.k.a deceit), and a prime example of liberalism.  (1) People hate gridlock. (2) A new liberal federal government is coming into power in Canada that wants to build infrastructure and wants to runs deficits to do it (3) A relatively new liberal provincial government in Ontario wants to spend money but raise money any way it can to do it (as in tax and spend liberals) (4) A naive centrist mayor in Toronto wants to expand public transit.  And finally (5) this suspiciously timed report:
It is long past time that Canada’s congested cities began putting a price on some of their most precious real estate, says a new report from Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission.

We’re not talking about toney residential enclaves, gleaming office towers, retail districts, industrial parks or condominium complexes, but rather the thoroughfares that join them.

“We’ve got a very scarce commodity called road space during peak times, and it’s unpriced,” Chris Ragan, the McGill University economics professor who heads the private ecofiscal think tank, said in an interview.

“We don’t price road access, and the cardinal rule in economics is if you have an unpriced resource it gets over-used.”

Traffic congestion is the subject of the latest commission report, “We Can’t Get There From Here: Why Pricing Traffic Congestion is Critical to Beating It.”
Ecofiscal Commission? It's being billed as bi-partisan but anything bi-partisan would not have that name.

That aside, roads ARE PRICED. It's called taxes. The real problem is the clearly 'economist' in the room,
Ragan says part of the problem may be that governments look at tolls strictly as revenue generators, rather than a way to alter driving habits and encourage use of public transit. Combine that with an impulse to fight congestion by building more roads and the problem never gets solved.
Alter driving habits? That's not economics, it's social engineering. The government is there to keep people honest, not pick winners (public transit) and losers (cars)
It’s the second major study from the privately funded, non-partisan group of 10 economists backed by a cross-partisan advisory board that includes the likes of Reform party founder Preston Manning, former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, Suncor CEO Steve Williams and B.C.’s former NDP premier Mike Harcourt.

With less than a month to go until a key international climate change conference, Canadians may be bracing for an economic hit of some sort as the new Liberal government has promised a more aggressive international stance. As Ragan notes, however, “congestion pricing” fits into a suite of solutions that make as much economic sense as environmental.
Oh yeah, (6) a global climate summit is part of the perfect storm. What it boils down to is that they are changing our High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes to High Occupancy Toll lanes. More money for government under the guise of ecofiscalism. Not a happy time to be a Canadian.

November 1, 2015

On Fred Thompson's passing



Former actor, U.S. Senator (Tennessee) and presidential candidate Fred Thompson passed away today. He was 73.  He was impressive as a Senator and an actor.  He might have made a good president but his candidacy ran out of steam.  I've always liked his films and I recall seeing him in Senate videos on C-SPAN (I think that's where I saw him).  My thoughts and prayers are with his family.  He will be missed.

God and atheism

Dinesh D'Souza on why he knows God exists.

Sunday Verse

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations. . . .
~Deuteronomy 7:9
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