Who Is Herman Cain? Find Out ...

SEE HERE I like Herman Cain. He's not from Washington! He's a successful businessman who specializes in turnarounds! He's got executive experience! He's his own man! He's the kind of person we need to bring the government back to something resembling sanity.

Here Is Why Liberals Are Not Patriots

SEE HERE Does the law matter? Not if you're a liberal. The only thing that ever matters to a liberal is getting their way. If you thought that the Constitution should mean what it says and you want the government to act that way, then whatever it is you are, you're not a liberal. So stand up and push back!

The Price of Liberty Is Eternal Vigilence

The Susan B. Anthony List on Defunding Planned Parenthood

SEE HERE The defunding of Planned Parenthood is a major objective. How any human being can support the funding using government dollars extorted from all the citizenry to kill children in the womb is quite beyond understanding. It is a total abomination. It is bad enough that it is even permitted at law, but that it be funded with government dollars is to heap immorality upon immorality. Not only is the procedure itself fundamentally immoral, but the act of extorting money from citizens to pay for a fundamentally immoral act that they oppose is itself immoral.

I Don't Think You Can Exaggerate the Hypocrisy of This

SEE HERE Where are the cries of outrage about this from the usual suspects? The hypocrites of the left are quite beyond belief. It has long been my belief that whenever a liberal starts talking about morality or right and wrong it is purely for effect. The like words that have misleading constructions like "sustainability" or "choice" or "environmental quality." What they mean in every single case is more power for government and more control over the citizens with the ultimate objective of total control. If you want to become a slave, just keep supporting liberal causes. You're well on your way.

The Cowardice of the Liberal Mob

SEE HERE Liberals exhibit courage when they attack in mob situations. How brave, how courageous ... how ultimately cowardly. Ann Coulter nails them for what they are, what C.S. Lewis would call "men without chests." They ought to be ashamed of themselves, but wait, that requires them to actually have moral sensibilities. Too bad, but that's just not the case.

Emergency? We'll See More Like This ...

Truth be told! Never let it be said that the NIC looks far from his own nest.

Being Lectured On Immorality By the Immoral

SEE HERE I find it simply astonishing when a liberal lectures me on morality. Given that the liberal mindset is essentially without a moral underpinning, only a commitment to having their way regardless of what it is. This makes them very flexible. They can change position one hundred and eight degrees (that's a complete turn around for the geometrically challenged) in a flash and tell you one minute that black is white and white is black. War is wrong if Bush started it and just fine if Clinton or Obama started it. As for money ... Liberals never found any money owned by a rich man that wasn't fair game. What they don't tell you is that their operational definition of a rich man is anyone who happens to have any money. They're always hell-bent to spend us into prosperity by first beggaring us and then spending the ill gotten gains on whatever hairbrained schemes they've dreamed up to "save the whales or the planet or something or other, diversity, multiculturalism, gay pride ... " any issue will do and whether it's true or not doesn't matter.

ICCC6 — We've Been Noticed By the Alarmists! How Touching!

SEE HERE Being called "pseudoscientists" by Al Gore who isn't a scientist at all is vastly amusing. I'm going up to Washington for ICCC6 and I'll let you all know what went down. My expectations frankly, are that I will see some real science for a change. Scroll down through the comments here and see all the prestigious pedigrees of those who have been labeled "deniers." The simple reality is that what is being passed off as climate science isn't about climate or science but about the biggest fraud in history to try to carry off the biggest con in history. There is not a whit of real evidence that the climate is appreciably different now than it has been for thousands of years. Too bad so many so-called scientists have been bought and paid for. I'll let you know what I discover.

Have We Reached the Tipping Point? — I Hope Not!

SEE HERE Thomas Sowell asks the key question: "Is Democracy Viable?" If the majority is prepared to use their power to strip the minority of their earned property then the answer is a resounding "No!" and that is troubling. Sowell points out "A recent poll showed that nearly half the American public believes that the government should redistribute wealth." This is not a government function. It is the policy of thieves and brigands. Nor does it work except in the very shortest of terms. The relatively quick result is the descent into tyranny and barbarism. Recent news stories about flash mobs robbing stores and terrorizing citizens suggests that the dissolution may well be underway. If in fact the economy seriously tanks, as it may well given the irresponsible policies being followed intentionally by the left, we may well discover how thick the veneer of civilization actually is. I hope we don't have to find out.

Why Does the Government Fund Planned Parenthood?

SEE HERE The story is that they offer health services to women when the reality is that all they do is kill babies. I don't understand why any of my hard earned dollars should be diverted to these murderers. The Margaret Sanger legacy is a legacy of hatred, bigotry, and slaughter.

The Hatred of the Left — These Are the Enlightened?

The left who claim to be the ones who are tolerant demonstrate once again how intolerant they really are. You should learn about the truth from the behavior of these barbarians.

Stand By: The Rural Development Plan or Get Ready to be Screwed

I have to wonder why we need all these heavy hitters on a panel to impose requirements on middle America. What does Washington know about anything? Frankly this is troubling.

Now We Understand Libya

Negotiate With Democrats? Are You Kidding? Get Ready for the Blame Game

SEE HERE I frankly am fed up with the Democrats pretending they intend to negotiation. Red State nails it here. I've watched this morality play my whole life and it's no wonder Joseph Sobran called the Republican Party "the stupid party" because if you play the game and get screwed every time you'd think after a while you'd learn the lesson. But the Republican Party is like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football that Lucy (the Democrat Party) keeps snatching away. Get real folks! Learn how they play the game and then beat them.

Have the Schools Dumbed Us Down This Far?

SEE HERE Walmart's policy of forcing people to work there for average wages that are twice the minimum wage continues. How tragic when the alternative was so simple — Force them all to work for a union and pay union dues regardless of whether it did them any good. Whew! I guess the slavery to free enterprise continues.

Fruits and Nuts and the New World Order

I am decidedly skeptical about all the conspiracy theorists that are out there. I thought I'd put this up as a disclaimer since I just linked to a Rick Wiles radio piece which contained a lot of interesting material, but also a lot of stuff that seems likely to come from lala land. Are there bad guys in the world? You bet! Are there people who want to create something like a "New World Order"? You bet! Is there some pervasive interlocking conspiracy that every politician is linked into so they can move us towards this utopian vision that would almost surely be a disaster? Probably not.

That being said perhaps some statement of philosophy is in order. Let me say that I take in as broad a range of material as I can from any number of political perspectives because I don't think anyone has a monopoly on the truth. But the sheer amount of nonsense out there is quite pervasive so you have to have your filters on all the time and to me that means something like Ronald Reagan's phrase "trust but verify." There are a lot of sincere people peddling sheer nonsense. But part of the problem is how to verify? I think that is a decidedly serious problem.

A friend of mind in a conversation I had long ago (circa 1965), when I was still only 23, said that his father told him that it was all a game of "Who do you trust?" I think that's exactly the case. You end up having to build a list, not necessarily literally although that's fine too, of people and principles. The people are those that really care about the truth and that you think exercise due diligence in trying to verify what they say. The principles are those that have been tried and tested and shown to be themselves true starting with things like logic, analysis, mathematics, etc.

The problem that gets really sticky is that nuts and fruits are not necessarily nuts and fruits about everything. And on the flip side, the people that are generally solid are not necessarily solid on everything. It is important to cultivate a certain level of skepticism that requires everything to be held only provisionally until it has been validated in some way. "Trust, but verify!"

If you think I've gone off the deep end, please let me know. I want to know more than opinion however. I want reasons. Opinions are not worth much. Truth is something that stands up to the full light of focused attention. Dig down for facts and principles so that you can discover the truth. Test everything.

It Takes Two American Citizens to Make a Natural Born Citizen

SEE HERE Does this mean people are starting to pay attention? Somehow posting a clearly fraudulent birth certificate on the White House web site should be troubling. Why go to the trouble to forge a birth certificate if there's a real one available. But beyond that, if the Constitutional definition of a Natural Born Citizen is having two citizens for parents then Obama clearly doesn't meet that definition. The whole Hawaiian birth narrative appears to be just a distraction from the real issue. What in fact is the definition of a "Natural Born Citizen" within the meaning of the Constitution? MORE ELIGIBILITY MATERIAL but the question is, "How much of this kind of information can you trust, if any?"

Overcoming Adversity Is A Matter of Passion

Discover what you want to do and drive towards it with a single minded fervor. Everything is possible to those who refuse to be defeated.

Gee Fancy That: It's the Smart People that are the Global Warming Sceptics!

SEE HERE It's actually very funny that anyone is surprised by this. It is the lame-brained media and the sheeple that just line up to drink the koolade. A lot of people which scientific training have the audacity to actually read the papers and learn about the science and what they find is a bunch of hooey. If you don't bother to find out the truth you get gulled by the first flim-flam man to come along.

Barack Is At the Bat!

Hope this is prescient! For more CLICK HERE

Meanwhile ... the Manipulation of Oil Prices

SEE HERE The reason for strategic reserves is for strategic emergencies like wars where our oil supplies are cut off, not for fiddling while Washington burns and to fuel reelection strategies. This administration is so transparent, transparently corrupt.

From One Outrage to Another ... Do You Feel Safer?

SEE HERE These amateurs annoy the hell out of me. This is pretend security which has as its primary effect the annoyance of the travelers. One of the commenters asked rhetorically, how many Muslim's they have searched. He guessed none. I wouldn't be surprised. The way security works is that you target your efforts on the high productive targets and only randomly sample the rest. These clowns seem to do the opposite. Let's save a lot of money and close down Homeland Security while we still can.

Corrupt? Washington? ... Really? — Of Course!

SEE HERE It's a little amusing to see someone finally saying that the Emperor has no clothes. Washington has been for sale so long that it's become the accepted practice with no-one seeing the least bit wrong with it except for the fact that Democrats would like to kill off the people buying the Republicans and vice-versa. This should be reformed. Will it happen? Probably only after disaster strikes and it has to, but maybe we'll be luckier than that.

You Have To Wonder What Makes Wirth Think He's Qualified to Comment

SEE HERE The lunatics are still riding the global warming alarmist narrative. ("Increased drought, increasing flooding ... " What? ... connect the dots and what you find is lunatic alarmists.) The problem is that these folks don't bother to look at the facts and the science. They are agenda driven crisis mongers. So lets go after the real scientists that want facts and theories that actually have been demonstrated and not concoctions that are agenda driven alarmism.

One of the disturbing things is that most of the critique you see is coming from journalists and politicians who wouldn't know a differential equation if it fell on them. In fact most of the journalists would be hard pressed to solve a quadratic equation if they even recognized it for what it was. So exactly what is the criteria they use for making their judgments ... oh yeah ... the hysteria quotient. It's about selling papers and generating legislation, control and funding. In short extortion. I'm going to ICCC6 where there are going to be some real scientists.

Don't worry, Ted Turner has it all figured out. ROTFLMAO!

Worst President ... Ever! And Not a Natural Born Citizen Either!

Makes Carter look like a statesman!

Meanderings On A Sunday Morning

It's Sunday, and that's a good day to think about ends. By ends I mean goals and objectives in the philosophical sense. Every action has an end, which depending on the actor may be an end that is intended (an intentional end), or an end that is simply associated with the action (an intrinsic end), or even an end that is unanticipated, i.e. a result that was not, or even could not be anticipated (an accidental end).

I was thinking this morning about what gives life meaning. Why do you care about your life? Are you in a good place? If you are, why? If you are not, why? Somewhere in the bible it says "Without vision the people perish" ... Proverbs 29:18 (Isn't the internet great for that sort of thing).

What exactly is "vision" in that sense but an end perceived and understood and motivational. Why do we do what we do? Aristotle says in the Nicomachean Ethics right from the get-go that there is a hierarchy of ends because some things are done on behalf of a larger vision so there are immediate ends that are subordinated to larger ends. The final end is the good because as Aristotle says in the first sentence: "Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim." And if there is a hierarchy of ends all of which aim for some good, then the root of the hierarchy is the highest good. We can go transcendental and say the highest good is The Good, and that The Good can only be God. That might be appropriate for a Sunday, but I'm not inclined to go there today. The highest end for Aristotle is happiness. It is a singularly unfortunate word in a hedonistic age like our own. For Aristotle does not mean pleasure at all but a kind of total fulfillment or satisfaction derived from knowing that you have done all things well.

A person that reaches this state is not someone merely smug and satisfied, but rather someone deeply motivated for the good and this is why Aristotle associates happiness with virtue or excellence. I think I'll leave you thinking about that. It's a good thing to think about on a lovely Sunday morning or any day for that matter.

It's All Your Fault You Nasty Republicans! What!!?

SEE HERE

No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

-- H. L. Mencken

The Democrats seem to think that H. L. Mencken not only had it right about not going broke but even right about not getting caught lying and cheating with their hands in the cookie jar. I am always amazed at what the Democrats have the gall to claim. You have to wonder if they have to feed their followers anything special to make them believe this stuff. Apparently the only thing that counts if you're a Democrat is that your heart is pure and you meant well. The fact that you were flat stupid and that your policies crushed the housing market or ballooned the deficit http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifor caused runaway inflation, that really doesn't matter because you meant well. So since it isn't your fault it most be those nasty folks that keep asking questions like how are we going to pay for this, or saying that something isn't Constitutional. What a bunch of spoilsports. As soon as we can get rid of these Republicans whose fault everything is the sooner everything will be perfect in our utopian dreams. Give H. L. Mencken his due. If you believe that you deserve everything you're going to get.
SEE HERE You gotta watch this video. It's time to face up to the real problems because if we don't we will be going over the cliff soon. We gotta fix it!

Perspective In a Busy World!

Time out for some perspective. It's easy to get into a sort of morbid downer place with all the crazy stuff that has been going on in the country the past several years. More and more the pattern looks like "1984" with controlled speech (Political Correctness), the forever war, what are we up to now? four? Maybe more coming ... Then there's also the whole social agenda and new speak that calls sex love, homosexual unions marriage, federal money giveaways are called tax rebates even though the person being rebated to hasn't actually paid any taxes. We're lied to about every little thing in sight as if it's a crisis and because most people seem to remember so little they don't realize what a huge change this has all been.

But let's at least flip over to the good side. Do you want to know what is going on? Well there has never been a time when you could get so much information (good, bad, ugly, well founded, wrong, right ... every which way) so quickly. I remember back around 1965 when I attended a talk about the coming information age and it wasn't nearly as extensive as the reality has proved to be. Dynabook, a concept that Alan Kay popularized around 1968 is just about here. Now there's an example of a vision that has driven a whole industry in part. The iPad and the various tablet computers are starting to look a lot like Dynabook. So technology has certainly been a positive force, an exciting force in advancing our capabilities.

Our ability to move from place to place has been enhanced from when I was a boy. The interstate highway system and the development of passenger jet aircraft has made it a lot easier. I do miss streetcars though. I went to high school every day on one of Washington D.C.'s streetcars and I don't think the metro or the bus system really is all that much of an improvement.

Books! I'm a book maven and now we can download books to e-readers like Kindles and Nooks, etc. and that's quite exciting for moving information around. We lost some things however. Life is way too organized now and that means it's being lived on a program and that's maybe not all that good. You need to live at your own pace and to your own drummer at least some of the time. Organized sports for kids seems to me to take some of the fun out of the whole thing. It makes it way too much about adults and not nearly enough about just having fun. When I was a kid there wasn't nearly as much organized sports for kids and we all would play games that we made up or we'd have pickup ball games where we'd choose sides and just play at a park.

Just a few things to think about. You can never go backwards and every change likely supplants something. It has good points and bad points and often maybe no points at all. We live too fast these days. There needs to be more time to just kick back and contemplate and appreciate. I think appreciating is really important. It doesn't matter what you appreciate so long as it is something you find meaningful. There is a world of mystery in a dew drop. But to notice it you have to slow down and look. You have to make time for wonder and beauty, and nowadays that's hard. So work at it!

The Last Wizard Cometh: Deathly Hallows Part 2

July 15th

Gearing Up to Steal the 2012 Election

SEE HERE "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." — Joseph Stalin. We should be disturbed at the thrust of elections as the left gears up once more to win elections using fraudulent means.

The Discovery that Values Do Matter

Why Does the FCC Have Anything to Say About the Net?

SEE HERE Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is planning to take on the FCC. We need more courageous men and women to step in and stop the power grabs of the Federal Government that are being spawned in almost every agency. The Constitution is being shredded. We stand up now or we will be telling our children and their children how once in America citizens were free.

The Difference Between the Israelis and their Islamic Enemies

Sometimes you have to recognize that there is a difference between the civilized and the barbarians. The reality of Islam is seen in the things they do, especially to the weak and defenseless. Semper Fi! Defend Israel!

Alan Keyes in Prescient Retrospec

The insanity of the current situation.

Speaking of Discrimination ...

SEE HERE The religion of peace discriminates against Jews ... Is that a surprise? They discriminate against Christians too, but only after they run out of Jews. Actually I'm being facetious. They actually discriminate against Christians all the time too, just usually not as virulently as against Jews. Frankly they need to be seriously outed. They are a loathsome lot.

How Can You Tell a Democrat Is Lying?

SEE HERE All together now ... "His lips are moving!" or just to be gender neutral "Her lips are moving!" although given the Democrat propensity to ignore gender lines it's never been clear they can tell the difference at least when it comes to such fundamental issues as marriage. Sterile unions are a Democrat specialty as is playing fast and footloose with the truth. Hillary Clinton just did it today on the matter of patriotism and the war in Libya. Truth is a meaningless concept to a Democrat. The only meaningful concept is getting their way regardless of whether it makes any sense or not. They are really good at tantrums too. Reminds me of little kids that fall on the floor and pound it with their fists screams and then stop to look around and see what effect they are having. Phonies through and through!

The Good War, Bad War Game!

SEE HERE This would be funny if it were not so pathetic. We have no very good objective or national interest in Libya and the president has arrogantly ignored the requirements of the Constitution in the matter of starting this war. But now, suddenly, it is a patriotic issue. Where was all this hubris when George Bush was pursuing the Iraq war? On the other side of course! What we have here is political ranting, substanceless we want to have our way rhetoric. Why don't we just stop involving ourselves in other peoples civil wars? — especially when the other people are not only not our friends, but are actively seeking to destroy us.

Chris Matthews — Cherry Picking Their Experts

Did I miss something? Were there any scientists? No! Were there any claims that are scientific? No! This is a rant claiming that some particular scientists trump all the rest. But the problem is that there are thousands of other scientists who say "The data isn't there." This is bunk and hype. Who gave Chris Matthews any credentials whatsoever to talk authoritatively on this topic? The facts are that the science isn't there. But these characters who rather demonize the climate skeptics. Ranting about Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as if there has been any global warming in the past twelve years. There hasn't. This is simply attack journalism, not a shred of data in the whole piece. SEE HERE

We Need A President With A Whole Lot More Class

"Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice?" — Barack Hussein Obama.
A TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO SERVE Semper Fi!

Welcome to the Growing Police State

SEE HERE We increasingly live in a land where citizens are criminalized for trivial or intrusive expansion of police authority based on feel good ideas that often have little or no basis in reality. Many of you probably saw the $500 fine the kids at the U.S. Open faced for daring to set up a lemonade stand. Maybe we need a little less regulation and a whole lot more freedom.

Propaganda Trumps Facts When Public Education Is Involved

SEE HERE The government indoctrination centers continue to add propaganda to the curriculum. The proper role of education is to teach people how to think and not what to think. Increasingly our educational system is ignoring that principle and instead indoctrinating students into the latest group think propaganda whether it be global warming, sustainability as consecrated by the U.N.'s Agenda-21, or green socialism, and any of a myriad of other trendy left progressive ideas created primarily to sustain the world wide power grab. Meanwhile the lack of critical thinking skills and the dumbing down of education overall proceeds apace. Only 30% of students with two years of high school algebra can test out of first year algebra when they arrive at college. Only about the same number can write cursive. The importance of writing cursive and clear handwriting is that it gives you the ability to take notes in a lecture format which is the most efficient format for transmitting information. Other formats are more fun, but they convey less information. You're actually supposed to practice what you learned outside of the classroom, not just play patty cake inside the classroom.

Freedom Breeds Exceptionalism: We Have a Mission! — Take Back Our Country

Wake Up America —While You Still Can!

Do You Feel Safer Now?

SEE HERE I think the TSA should be shut down along with Homeland Security. It's rapidly growing into a Gestapo-line agency that invades the privacy of citizens with unannounced searches and seizures that seem random and unmotivated. The primary result of such things is not to improve our safety but to make us fearful. What I am fearful of is that this is simply a step, ever so incremental, towards tyranny. The central government was never seen as an overarching central power except in the case of enumerated powers. This has been changing inexorably over the past century and if it is not stopped and reversed the whole governmental system of the United States will be transformed in the direction of centralized tyranny. There is no reason for and many against such a thing. Central government is ever insensitive to the people for it is far away in space and bureaucratic and uninformed about local conditions.

This Is What's Coming. Are You Ready?

Islam has always been spread by deception and violence. Be prepared! The conflict is between freedom and religious tyranny. The current Muslim objective is to create an Islamic superstate and to take on the West. This is what they were doing before they were turned back at Lepanto in 1571. This is what they intend and what the West must stop. A nuclear armed Islam will lead to Armageddon. SEE HERE

Tyranny 101: So What's Wrong With Minting Coins?

SEE HERE There is something wrong, very wrong, in the country when a mint that is minting coins that are not legal tender but can be used by people to barter (can't they use anything at all to barter with?) are attacked as counterfeiters. Counterfeiting what? — one might reasonably ask? Nothing the government makes is worth anything except the trust and good faith of the government which is increasingly looking like it isn't worth too much.

This Does Not Bode Well!

SEE HERE It's troubling when the post office does poorly. I remember when stamps cost 3 cents. "Gee you're old" I can hear the echo from grand-children. Then it was 4 cents and then 5 cents and so it went soon it was 10 cents and like everything else the government touches gets more and more expensive or I should say the money gets more and more worthless. Another echo in my head is "In the long run we are all dead." Thank you John (John Maynard Keynes), you're more part of the problem than part of the solution. With this suspension of pension payments the post office reminds us once again of how poorly the government tends to run anything that has something to do with money. They take it and they spend it inefficiently and profligately and irresponsibly as they inflate it and then come back demanding more. When do we close the candy shop?

David Tyree Focuses on Marriage and the Destructive Influence of Gay Marriage

You can't share what you don't have. Gay marriage is unnatural and sterile. It is a travesty of the name "marriage" to so designate a perverse same sex union. "The beginning of our country sliding towards ... anarchy." Actually the very act of considering it seriously already shows how far we have gone down the road toward degradation.

Replace Politicians That Won't Do Their Jobs

SEE HERE You have to wonder why we need them and need to pay them the outrageous sums and benefits they receive if they won't do their jobs. When you won't do your job you should either be fired or your pay should be suspended or both.

Supreme Court Precedent: Obama Not Eligible to be President

SEE HERE We'll see if this makes any difference. Apparently there is a Supreme Court precedent that indicates that Obama is not eligible to be president. I'm no lawyer (perish the thought) but someone needs to make an authoritative ruling. This whole eligibility thing is a sore ulcer. It needs to be completely and authoritatively resolved.

Romney Not Exactly a Powerhouse: Trounced by Either Christie or Perry in Head to Head Race

SEE HERE All this media nonsense about Romney being the front-runner when the election is still just under a year and a half away is crazy. Here a Zogby poll shows that Romney's support isn't all that significant if other leaders that are less RINOs get into the race.

The Dumbing Down of America and Why It Matters

SEE HERE Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I don't remember who said that, but it's certainly true. There are a lot of other true things that need to be learned as you're growing up and it's not happening the way it should be. Moreover it's not happening worse in some sub-populations of out citizenry. Pat Buchanan points out the consequences and they are anything but good.

The China Story

SEE HERE Peter Navarro is my favorite guy on financial matters. I listened to his Little Professor course on Big Picture Investing, and thought as I listed "Here's the real deal." Good course, sensible, matter of fact, and not overblown with hubris. Peter combines sound fundamentals and sensible technical analysis to give well rounded and insightful advice. Here he talks about the economic engagement between the United States and China.

Liberal Zombies: Not To Be Confused With Thought

This is a hoot! The scary thing is that it is so accurate. Having argued with lots of these folks the standard strategy, totally severed from any thought is: Liberal 1) make an assertion, 2) when facts are presented by your interlocutor make an accusation, or 3) assign a motivation to your interlocutor and dismiss their views, or 4) Change the subject and accuse your interlocutor of something citing something they never said, if pressed to the wall 5) accuse your interlocutor of PICK ONE [ Fascism, Homophobia, Racism, Nazism, Right Wing Extremism, etc. ] 6) Return to (1) and continue.

The one requirement is not to actually engage in anything resembling discourse. I've developed quite a collection of experiences talking to these folks in internet discourse and it pretty much plays out that way. If they actually respond directly to a point it is exceptional. It is occasionally fun to do them back at them because it really gets them mad, but I suppose that is not very charitable, but then you don't get any points from them for being charitable, even fewer for being right.

It's All Spin and Propaganda

SEE HERE My mantra continues to be "Show me the data." And I never see real data and the few times I've seen some real data it turns out to be either "cherry picked" or "fraudulent." The cherry picked data is data culled from a larger set where you only pick the data that supports your position. BUZZZZZZ... (Bad Science!) and the fraudulent data is data that has been cooked usually either by being just spun up from someone's guesses (Greenpeace activists, other environmental wonks who just state their "fears" without substantiation.) The latest is claiming the oceans are rising and we'll all be flooded out soon on the coasts when in fact there is no data to support it, but then there's a claim that the landmasses are rising at the same rate (What!? Are you serious?) Now I don't have a whole lot of time for nonsense. If there is a problem show me some real data and corroborate it from multiple sources. If you have satellite data then how does it correlate with terrestrial data? If you adjusted the data, please explain why and show some, any, justification. The reality is that most of what seems to be climate science looks very much like spin to achieve an agenda. I find it very hard to buy. Just suck it up and "Show me the data." After you show me the raw data, you can pretty it up and explain why you have to "adjust" it to be more accurate or something. I'm really tired of being gulled by things like the Mann Hockey Stick. Give me a break!

The Slippery Slope Down Gold, Silver, Paper to Paupered Lane!

SEE HERE Inflation, nostalgia style! How long does it take before you figure out you've been had?

Rick Santorum Speaks With NewsMax

The Killers: The Truth Is All That Matters

Michael Voris recounts an encounter with his senator. There is nothing that much matters in this world but the truth, and the truth is that the killing of unborn children is a great evil that cries to heaven for justice. It is sad indeed that so many of our elected officials have such moral blindness. On judgment day they will have no excuse.

What Do You Think About Rick Perry?

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The first video is of Rick Perry in New Orleans on June 18th 2011. The second is a message Rick Perry delivered on May 31st to a special session of the Texas State Legislature. Sounds like a leader to me! On the other hand FOLLOW UP This piece published on June 21st says that only 4% of Texans would vote for him for president? Is that a typo? It certainly isn't a ringing endorsement.

A Rose By Any Other Name ...

Red State got me thinking this morning about being a "Conservative." SEE HERE and while I self-identify as a conservative, I'm not all that comfortable with labels. We are all very much too complex to be easily compartmentalized by a single word. It is unfortunate that we've become so accustomed to single word labels. I want to talk about that a little ... but right now I have to run!

It's Time to Stand Up and Be Counted: Draw A Line In the Sand

SEE HERE It may already be too late. It is quite certain that if we continue down the yellow brick road of business as usual, negotiate and cave, ever increasing and unsustainable debt that the demise of the republic will become a date certain and not in some distant future, but within a decade or two. We have to stop all this craziness and become responsible adults. I know it is hard when the candy shop has been open for so long, but buck up you can do it! While you're at it you need to reform education so we stop generating class after class of trained slaves for the socialist machine. We want stalwart, principled, "can-do", do for themselves and others Americans. We need to remember who we are and once more become the men and women the world looks to as a shining city on a hill, the way it should be and can be done. Don't wimp out!!

The Glitter Attack On Bachmann: Yeah that's the Ticket! What are these folks nuts?

So now the lefties are throwing things at people. At the end a lady with some common sense gives the loony lesbian what for! I love the Minnesota accents. We lived in Minnesota for eleven Winters as we say, but they are great people out there.

Welcome to Health Care Government Style

SEE HERE This is why you don't want government health care. This will be everyone's fate if the system of government care is put in place. Long waits. Denial of care. Poor care. Huge fraud and abuse. This is what you always get when the government gets involved. The worst possible way to get goods and services of any kind is through the government. It's one source provider with no options. This leads directly to poor and incompetent and generally unavailable, slow and delayed care. Just go to any government service agency and see how quick and friendly and helpful the service is and then multiply by some large number.

"An Official Waste of Money" ... Obama Working Vacations ROTFLMAO!!

Chutzpah!! In Spades ... This is called in your face boondoggle! You gotta laugh because otherwise you'd cry. This is the most unpresidential presidency on record. Let's bill the vacation with the kids and the cousins as public outreach ... or something official or other. I wonder what the whole bill is? Does anyone even know?

Setting the Record Straight: The Democrats Had to be Dragged Up Out of Racism by Republicans

SEE HERE and HERE There is something truly ironic about Democrats posturing as not being racist and always accusing the Republicans of being racist. The reality is quite the opposite. Check out the National Black Republican Association HERE.

The Top 1% — The Super Rich In America

SEE HERE One of the great things about America is that you can become super-rich if that is what you want to do. The whiners out there seem to think that the rich somehow don't deserve their wealth. The big question I suppose is how do they know that. There are really only very few "super-rich" if you mean folks that have a net worth in the billions. There are a lot of rich-rich, making over a million dollars a year as double income or single income families. There is some idea in people's minds that this is some stable population but that's not true. What is true is that America has more rich than anyplace else because in America most of the wealth is generated in a relatively free market. But from year to year and decade to decade the composition of the rich changes as some people drop out and some new people are added. The only think you have to have to become rich in America is talent and drive. Becoming a millionaire is just not that difficult if that is what you want to do, but you really have to want to do it. Most of the time people can get along quite comfortably with a lot less than that. So unless that's what you want more than anything else (a rather self-destructive goal on the whole) you might not do it. But if you want to, in America, you can.

Sure I'm Pro-Life! As Long As I Don't Have to Do Anything.

SEE HERE Interesting and revealing I think. Pretending to be pro-life has been a fairly common feature with politicians, especially those from very moral and religious constituencies. But follow through has been seriously lacking. That suggests that a lot of hypocrisy is involved. It's time to start standing on principle. It looks like Romney and Cain and Johnson struck out in round one. Well that takes them off my plate. I'm so sick of hypocrites I could just spit.

Global Cooling A Greater Threat

Don't count on global warming. It's a dead letter and was always sheer bunkum, but there's a track record on this and it's back to the 1970s according to Bastardi.

Taking Our Country Back: That Is the Mission!

I can't remember a time when there were so many Republican candidates for president that I could wholeheartedly support. Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin (unannounced), Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, and more ... There are real people with real principles. Unfortunately there are some RINOs in the mix. Still I think that with all these solid candidates the RINOs will be shown up for what they are.

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Stand With Israel

Gutsy lady!

The Last Refuge of Scoundrels and Liberal Progressives

The amusing thing about liberal progressives is that they so quickly descend to the "N"-word. "Nazi" and this time it's the governor of New Jersey. How dare the people of the state of New Jersey demand that unions be reasonable. How dare there! Unions, especially public worker unions are long ago stopped playing by anything resembling equitable rules. Public service unions in particular should be required to engage in collective bargaining. My whole life I've watched unions engage in thuggery, violence, striking not against their employer but against the people in general whether it was the Teamsters doing truck slowdown on the interstate or these kind public service unions holding those they serve hostage. Right to work laws should be made Federal and unions should be required on a vote of the membership to engage in collective bargaining. They should probably also learn how to think and not throw the "N"-word around so loosely.

Judge Napolitano talks with Sarah Palin

Game changer! The genuine article ... Yes she is. Straight from the shoulder common sense from an authentic human being. It's about the message: What the middle class desires in their government? Get out of the way! We can take care of ourselves.

Sunspot Cycle 24 Revised Downward

SEE HERE Global cooling may be in the offing and if so that's a good deal more troublesome then a little global warming.

I'll Bet You'll Really Line Up For This ... Tastes Like Beef!

SEE HERE OMG! Can you believe this? This seems to have a vector similar to soylent green. I bet you can't wait!

Ann Coulter Nails It — The Liberal Mob Hates Conservative Women

SEE HERE Why? Because of the mob mentality, because as one of the commenters suggested: "Conservative women such as Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, etc. are smart, articulate, principled, and, quite frankly, attractive. In other words, they are everything that liberal women are not. It's hilarious and rather pathetic to see all of the wussy liberal men on PMSNBC(Chris "tingly leg" Matthews, Lawrence O'Dumbbell, Ed "Sargent" Schultz) constantly attacking them. Keep up the good work, ladies. You have the pansy males on the run."

It's the principled part that floats my boat. I can't go with the left because the left is unprincipled. The truth of that was just illustrated by the Anthony Weiner exit MALKIN ON WEINER
the point being that if Weiner has to go then so does a long line of others that didn't like John Kennedy or Bill Clinton and probably a dozen more. The left is full of hypocrites while the right is just full of sinners who at least have the grace to be ashamed when their sins are revealed.

Welcome to the Help from Distant Bureaucrats

Just in case you think the government will help you through the adversities of life, be they natural disasters or problems with your health care, then maybe you should consider this rather straightforward case. "I'm from the government. I'm here to help you." These are words that are ironic at best. The government's idea of help is only rarely helpful. But never fear, the TSA and BATF and FEMA will undoubtedly grope you, shoot you, or deny you emergency aid. It's what they do!

Freedom! How Free Is Your State?

SEE HERE Virginia ranks 9th in personal freedom among the 50 states. If you want to check out this study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University you can CLICK HERE for the pdf of the study.

Free Up Education and Let Parents Decide

SEE HERE This is an emblematic case of parents finally getting fed up. Inferior schools in the inner cities often condemn the children that go there to poor educational outcomes. It isn't just the teachers' fault of course. There are a variety of reasons. Being forced to hang out with bad companions might be one for example. I remember how my mom always said "Birds of a feather flock together" whenever she was pointing out that some folks I knew were trouble. When almost all the birds are trouble you might have more than the usual problem steering clear. My own view is that teacher's unions have largely destroyed education, not to mention useless administrators. We would do far better with more and smaller schools run by parents.

"We're At A Disadvantage With the Stupidest Voters"

Ann Coulter points out that the Democrats pander to the stupidest voters. But she also points out how the Republicans get gamed by their opponents. The Liberals are the spirit of the L.A. riots, the psychology of the mob. Want to argue about it, then get "Demonic." I think Ann is onto something here.

Education? Explain to me what it is before you have the federal government get involved ...

SEE HERE What passes for education in the United States, especially at the elementary and secondary levels is pretty sad judging from the product we're getting. Most students come out brainwashed and slavish and unable to do fundamental things like write cursive, like understand basic algebra and do any sort of calculations without a calculator, or parse a sentence or discern the difference between an assertion and an argument. Education is a disaster area and it's arguably due to the homogenization and politicalization of it by the public schools. Contrast the abilities of home schooled kids with those of the public system and you'll quickly see that there are fundamental problems. The nation got along without public schools for a long time. In the interests of a free society we need an educated citizenry, however accomplishing that with centralized government mandated and regulated machinery is a recipe for poor quality, politically motivated indoctrination. The more centralized the more problematical. HOME SCHOOLING

Education is the responsibility of the parents. The principle of subsidiarity is a principle that holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization. SEE ACTON INSTITUTE When we move away from this principle we strip intervening institutions of their rights, especially the family which is the only unit that has an ingrained natural right and responsibility to pursue the education of their children. When the state intervenes, especially with compulsion, they are violating the rights of families except in situations that can be shown to be abusive or neglectful and then only with safeguards for the state is no guarantee of rectitude. Tyranny is most easily spread by distant power.

Dick Morris on the Republican Debate

Dick Morris is generally an interesting analyst. He offers a fascinating perspective on the candidates.

Marco Rubio's First Senate Address

Coulter on the Debate .... and Demonic!

Generally speaking I am always amused and informed by Ann Coulter. She is simply witty and brilliant, but sometimes she pushes the envelope. On politics the conventional wisdom is certainly what she was pushing with O'Reilly about the character of presidential hopefuls — There is no doubt that generally they need to run from the Senate or from executive positions of political leadership like governorships. It is rare that a congressman or someone from the private sector can win. I think that's certainly the conventional wisdom and it's one of the problems with the system. Essentially that means you can't be president unless you come from a long lineage of political positions. No wonder we have such a jaded and phony political elite entrenched in Washington. We need to change that. I liked all of the candidates in the CNN debate, even Ron Paul and I say "even" because I agree that Libertarians are a bit over the top. HERE's ANN's COLUMN

Cyber-War?

SEE HERE Increasingly the vulnerability of our internet communications and computer systems is hostage to both individual and international cyberwarriors. We don't really know who all these folks are. Some appear to be private individuals, but it is likely that some are actually info-war agents of foreign governments. The security of our systems should be designed to be able to handled cyber attacks while still providing the most open communications possible.

Green? Electric Cars? Nonsense!

SEE HERE Not only are electric cars not green, generally speaking they are poor excuses for cars, overly expensive and complex nightmares with high repair costs. Don't get sucked in by the propaganda. This only works on a model that includes government coercion.

This Should Be Interesting

If there was ever a dumb idea, this is it! It is also an example of how stupid running things out of Washington can be. We need to trim back the Feds to limit the stupidity. It's something in the water in Washington. Hope the Congressional Committee makes some progress on kicking a little butt here. This was predictably a bad bad idea.

Terry Lakin: An American Martyr Seeking Only the Truth

I continue to be outraged that this courageous Army officer has been jailed for the reasonable request to have the commander and chief show he holds his office legitimately before obeying orders that may be illegal. Instead he was railroaded. We should stand with Terry Lakin who has stood up for principle. The behavior of the government throughout this situation has been shocking. Meanwhile the POTUS is showing a clearly forged birth certificate as if it is authentic. The actions of the government throughout this affair have been disgraceful.

The Birther Thread

SEE HERE So is he or isn't he? The story that will not die is the question of whether Barack Obama is Constitutionally eligible to be president. There seem to be several threads to this story: 1) One theme is that being born in Hawaii would make him eligible, 2) One theme is that he's definitely not eligible because both his parents are not American citizens, 3) But then there's also the thread that his parents were never married, and 4) the question about whether the person supposed to be his father even is, and again the thread that 5) he was really born in Kenya or 6) the thread that his citizenship was renounced. Then of course that are a zillion collateral threads about whether he really went to the colleges he's supposed to have gone to and whether he received scholarship aid as a foreign national and all sorts of other things. Without doing more research I can't even keep up with all the speculation. But in any case here's a long list of links that let you explore to your heart's content. Whatever he is, he's a lousy president.

I'd Worry More About Global Cooling Than Global Warming

SEE HERE People are always compulsing about something. It's probably an indication of too much leisure and not enough real work to do. So manufacturing crises is a wonderful way of keeping up your anxiety level and imagining that you're doing something useful as you react to phony causes. "Green" this that and the other thing. "Sustainability" as if the status quo is all that matters. Nothing has ever been sustainable. If we focused on sustainability we'd still be in caves sharpening sticks on rocks. Then there are all the other things that are non-events to worry about like global warming when facts be known the general state of the world is much colder than it is right now. I think we need more nuclear power plants myself. If we do run out of oil we have coal for a long time. CO2 is a vital plant nutrient that if we managed to double the CO2 concentration (don't hold your breath) plants would grow much better. We may well need all the global warming we can get pretty soon now.

With luck the cooling won't settle into a new ice age, but given the history of the world, that has to start sometime. We're still a bit up in the air about all the factors that cause ice ages. You'd think before running off on a rant about global warming the scientists would bother to figure out the whole thing. Let me tell you a secret however — It's political and not scientific at all. If we scare everyone to death we can pass wonderful laws that will force everyone to pay more for energy and line the pockets of those in the in-crowd while also swelling the power of the governmental elite. Get it? That's why it's always a bad idea to waste a crisis, even a manufactured one.

The Not-So Hidden Agenda

SEE HERE Sustainable Development — Right! Whenever the agenda is packaged in nice sounding rhetoric, be ready to run! This is sheer propaganda. When they are through you'll have no freedom left. Why are we listening to anything that the U.N. is involved in? One government tyranny and not even in much of a disguise — Have we lost our judgment with our minds? I think it would make far more sense to just kick the U.N. out of the country and stop paying their bills. This is an organization of petty tyrants that hates us and we pay the majority of the way. Why? So we can pretend that there is a world-wide consensus on ideas that our own proto-tyrants want to push? Let's get real.

When Does This Become Treason?

SEE HERE This is disquieting. One worlders may think it is just fine, but those of us who actually respect the Constitution may see it as akin to treason. When members of the government are conspiring to combine the nation secretly to "integrate" the continent then you have to ask embarrassing questions like: "Did they have any intention of telling the people who are sovereign in a democratic republic?" Perhaps we should thank Wikileaks for this insight into the planning of those who imagine they are our rulers and not our servants.

Obamanomics? Theft, Immorality, and a Drive Towards Collapse.

Obama has so accelerated the economics problem that we are quickly approaching a disaster, that at least before, was further out in the future. Michael Voris notes also that much of the stolen money (i.e. money taken for no other reason than to redistribute it) is going for purposes that are fundamentally immoral and violations of the Natural Law. Fifteen trillion and rising! The whole wealth of all the world is only sixty-five trillion. This simply can't go on. Sensible people know this which means that either those in Washington are not sensible people or they are actively trying to cause the economic collapse of the nation.

Seriously! The Lame Stream Media Strikes Out

SEE HERE There is something cynical and malicious about the lame-stream media. I'm convinced that it's a matter of Projection — they imagine that what they would do is what is done by others. So the feeding frenzy over the Palin emails can only mean that the media moguls are always sending their own embarrassing stuff Wiener-like over the net. But then they run into someone fundamentally decent like Sarah Palin. Someone ought to write a book about this. It might well be a best seller. I'd vote for Sarah Palin in a heartbeat. She's a real person and I'm so sick of the phonies that I want no part of someone with "Washington experience." I'd equate that term with "already corrupted." Here's the Daily Beast's treatment of the Palin emails ... shocking! I found it rather humorous.

The Growth of Tyranny

SEE HERE The power grabs coming out of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) suggest that it's long past time to rein in the growth of unchecked pseudo-legislative power propagated by the growth of government regulation of all aspects of our lives. The government is always coming up with nice sounding things that are generated with the best of intentions and they almost invariably go wrong somewhere along the way, often leading to unintended consequences. How did we possibly survive all these years without all this help? Well we did and we thrived. That seems to be something being reversed as fear of everything is instilled in us and then we're invited to sign up for nice sounding measures to protect us. These cost money and jobs, but don't worry all will be well, government only has your best interests at heart, here drink a little of this it will calm you down. Pretty soon you have helmets and seat-belts, and explosive devices in your cars, and warnings on everything some of which are hilarious. You're warned about this and that and everything else, often things that people used for generations without serious ill effect. I suppose it ends when we're all wrapped in a cocoon at birth and fed with a intravenous tube will visions of sugar plums are piped into our sensory system.

The question isn't whether individually some of these measures aren't effective. Some are. The question is whether government should be involved in this overwhelming effort to protect you from yourself. Where is the scope for personal responsibility and the discipline of learning how to take responsibility? Everyone is a victim now and everything is someone else's fault. That's nonsense of course, but just watch the panorama around you as everyone is transformed into a whiny-butt. As a free citizen of a free country the government isn't chartered to take care of your every need. You're supposed to grow up sometime and take care of yourself. The government needs some serious push-back as they rob you of your rightful dignity as a human person and tell you how to live your life. Who gave them the right?

Where Does Oil Come From Anyway?

SEE HERE Just in case you thought that oil came from dead dinosaurs you need to see THIS which is the first link in a six link portrayal of how oil comes to be. Oil is dead critters, but the critters are tiny and distributed over all the waters of the world. Meanwhile, harvesting the oil is a challenge which calls for great ingenuity. Oil has the advantage of being the most compact and easily accessible mobile source of energy. Electrical vehicles are still a long way from being particularly practical and the notion that they are "clean" energy is simply nonsense. What they do is more the source of energy creation from the vehicle and it's hydrocarbon engine to a more remote power station, but then you have to pay additional costs in the inefficiencies of power line transmission and conversions for charging the batteries and the inconvenience of very short range and relatively long recharge times. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch — "TANSTAAFL"

Nothing Is As It Seems!

SEE HERE If you have not realized already then perhaps you should reflect on the fact that you're constantly being manipulated by phonies as Holden Caulfield would have called them. Organizations spring up with names like "Free Press" or ideas like "Net Neutrality" and when you look into them they are sometimes almost the opposite of what they present themselves to be. You're being flooded with disinformation and propaganda all the time and if you're like me, then most of the time you're too busy to pay enough attention, "Bad move!"

A Sobering Bit Of Stupidity

SEE HERE Apparently the liberals of the West have a death wish. Reality involves studying the lessons of history and learning from them. Islam is a totally intolerant religion which has almost always been spread by violence and subjects those of other religions to intolerance, subjugation, suppression and bigotry and generally persecution and violence. The only peace produced by the religion of peace is the peace of the grave. There is a reason the crusades were fought and it wasn't the intolerance of Christendom.

The Intolerance of Liberals

SEE HERE The fact of the matter is that liberals are among the least tolerant of individuals. That talk of tolerance, but their tolerance is selectively applied only to those who will extend their influence and give them points for the appearance of tolerance. Then they go back to their usual bashing of whomever they choose to demonize.

The Demigod Tendency of Liberal Nutniks!

More of the Ann Coulter interview about her book. The contradictions on the left are deep and irrational. Ann seems to have hit on it when she describes it as mob behavior. The left is simply nuts. You can't call them on it because they are in denial.

Oops! You Can't Be Too Careful About Picking Your Friends!

SEE HERE What is it about Obama that seems to have this affinity for marxist/communists? There is a quite long list of folks in his administration that have more direct links to marxism than Leon Panetta, but this is quite damning. We used to take security clearances away from folks that had these kind of associations. I wonder whatever happened to that?