If We Don't Do Something It Is All Over But The Shouting

SEE HERE The fiction that government can control prices is one of long standing. It is a recipe for gluts and shortages. The market sets real prices, so if the government sets the price too high then there is a glut of supply but this means that much of the supply is wasted because the buyers may not want that much (usually don't). So there is a lot of waste. If the government sets the price too low, then only a few suppliers can stay in business and these have a surfeit of business but can't handle the business so shortages ensue. That's just the way it really works in the real world. In the world of "Government knows best" this is always seen as those evil business people undermining the government's attempt to do good. If the government succeeds in this move it will not be too long and there will be no private health insurance, only the one-size fits all government single payer plan. After that, the quality will decline and the death panels will delay care, give poor care or no care to those they adjudge bad risks.

Freedom works better than government every time. You hear all these stories about how good health care is in socialist regimes, but whenever their leaders need health care they have an unusual tendency to fly into the United States or go to special health establishments in their own country that are not bound by the rules that everyone else has to live by. Gee I wonder why!

If we took all the rules and regulations that government has put in place over the past sixty years to "help" us I have little doubt that costs would come down and overall health care would improve. There has never been a thing that government could not make less efficient, less effective, more expensive, and lower in overall quality. Count on it! "We're from the government, we're here to help you." Why is that a laugh line? Ever think about that?

"Why I Hate Lliberals" was the letter ...

SEE HERE A friend sent me this. He's a former state policeman and this kind of thing burns him deeply. You have to wonder what kind of false empathy keeps people expecting career criminals will reform? This is inexcusable and an example of everything that is wrong with the system. What part of three life sentences is it that the parole board and the justice system doesn't understand?

I personally lost a friend who was killed by a prisoner who had been sentenced to life for murder, escaped, killing two guards, then terrorized a doctor's office because the doctor had testified at his trial, proceeded to trap two business men in a hotel room and electrocuted them in a torture thing before getting picked up as a hitchhiker by my friend who was on a business trip, had a gun pulled on him, was forced to drive into the boonies and kneel by the car where this low-life executed him then took the rental car and his credit cards. Countless people would not be dead if we just offed people who think they should be able to kill others with impunity.

Constitution Doesn't Mean Anything. It's Too Hard To Read and Over a Hundred Years Old. — And This Guy's A Wonk?

Standards in wonks have gone way down apparently. It used to be that a wonk had more than 50 neurons, but now it's down to two and those are not firing very fast.

Europe Continuing An Economic Balancing Act: Now It's Italy!

SEE HERE Greece, Portugal, and Spain led the parade of financial dwarfs and now Italy is joining the crowd with debt 120% of GDP. With our own financial irresponsibility coming a cropper it looks very much like if a little "religion" isn't established soon the whole world is going to go down the financial drain.

Supreme Court Case Should Be Interesting

SEE HERE Or is the fix already in? Since this administration has been behaving like Chicago mobsters it is anyone's guess whether the Obama appointed justices will recluse themselves on a matter touching so intimately upon the person who gave them lifetime sinecures in the nation's capital. If nothing else, it should be revealing about the level of honesty that rules on the Supreme Court of the land.

Gee Weren't We Just On This Theme? — The Christian Bashers Are Mainstream!

It can hardly get more offensive than this. The blasphemy that the mainstream is capable of is breathtaking. They'd quake in their boots if they did things like this to Islam. Christians tend to turn the other cheek, but we should all protest this. To protest CLICK HERE
Here's the letter I received from Pepsi:

Thank you for contacting us at PepsiCo to share your sincere thoughts.

We want to reassure you that the commercial you cited was not one conceived and produced by PepsiCo, and it never aired on television. Rather, it was a consumer submission in our web-based Crash the Super Bowl promotion, in which participants can upload their own 30-second spots for Doritos tortilla chips or Pepsi MAX to be considered for broadcast during Super Bowl XLV.
We announced the contest finalists this morning and this consumer submission is not included in that selection. We hope you are further reassured to know that this consumer submission will not be aired during the Super Bowl, nor will it be included in any other Doritos or Pepsi MAX marketing programs in the future.
We apologize if you were upset or offended by this consumer submission, and we will share your feedback with our marketing teams so they can be aware of your concerns.
Thanks again for taking the time to write.

PepsiCo Consumer Relations
Well I should hope so!

Here Is Where We Were: Compare It to Where We Are Now!

This is sobering in the light of where we are now! When you hear the numbers that Reagan uses you need to have a little historical perspective: a dollar in 1964 would be worth almost 7 dollars to day according to the cost of living inflator. But listen to the numbers and notice that expenses in many areas have grown by even greater multiples.

Watching this these many years later puts me once more in mind of the politics of personal destruction exercised by the Democrats against Barry Goldwater. If there was ever a dishonorable campaign it was that waged by Johnson and the Democrats against Goldwater. The slide towards tyranny has continued since then and we are perilously close to the tipping point.

The War Against Christianity

SEE HERE This is just plain strange. Christianity is the largest religion of all the world's religions, but there is a selective blindness and a contrived effort to work against Christianity. In the United States you find it belittled mostly by attacking smaller and fundamentalist Christian groups, and here in the European community an effort to marginalize Christians. I suppose it just may be the sense that the biggest religion is the group that can take care of itself, but it seems more than that, a hostility and a syncretism trying to make religion out to be a personal and private choice taking it out of the discourse of ideas. But religion means nothing at all without truth claims.

Trying to make out all religions to be the same or that they should all be treated the same is to really be saying that religion doesn't matter. That is the subtext underlying these kinds of things. If the claims of religion are true however, then it is more accurate to say that everything else matters very little. This must be a disturbing idea to worldlings. "The one who dies with the most toys, wins!" crowd can find little solace in the idea that the toys don't matter at all. Meanwhile, make no mistake about it. There is a war against religion and the truth. I will make the bold claim that Christianity is the truth, as much of the truth as has been given to us. Those who war against the truth are the friends of darkness. The great struggle in the world is the one between the Light and the Darkness. Ultimately the Darkness is nothing, but those who support the Darkness are not the friends of the Light. Do not be deceived. You are in a war whether you enlisted or not. Ultimately you will also have to take sides. I wish to side with the Light.

Semper Fi! — The Marines Are Forever!

POTUS gets told! The Marine Corps will be here forever. He won't! Semper Fi!

Sometimes You Just Laugh Yourself Silly

SEE HERE I love this piece just because it is so funny. The guy starts by complaining that Dr. William Gray uses ad hominem in his attack on some climate alarmists. He should be using data asserts Fred Johnson the writer of this piece. But then he cites the people who Gray is criticizing as having given evidence, but the evidence was the claim that they agreed with a consensus of other global warming alarmists which isn't data. So Gray's claim that they have been brainwashed is at least plausible since their argument is that they're agreeing with these others (still no data). Then Johnson attacks Gray's credentials because he's only a hurricane expert. Well that's sure related to climate and weather. He complains about the lack of peer reviewed journal articles, but he doesn't cite any himself, moreover if he checked into the Climategate correspondence he'd have to conclude that the global warming alarmists were stacking the deck on publications. Then he completes his article with a string of ad hominem attacks on the global warming skeptics which is conjectures are on Dr. Gray's side. So is there any data here? The guy isn't even very good on identifying fallacies. Then in the midst of his own fallacies he lectures Gray on science. That's a riot! As far as I can see, without saying a word Gray comes out looking better here. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Oh Those Charitable Leftists: They're Always Happy To Give Your Money To Their Causes

SEE HERE Ann Coulter shoots a bulls eyes with this one, but it's a cheap shot since it's been pointed out so often. I remember seeing this kind of information about Walter Mondale for example. The point of liberal generosity has always been their generosity with your tax money. No Democrat voter should fail to be subsidized. That's what Democrats do, they buy votes with your tax money. It's what immigration amnesty is about. It's what all the concessions to unions are about. Find a pocket of liberals and buy their votes. It's really the Achilles Heel of democracy. We are already at the point where 50% of the wage earners only pay about 3% of the income taxes total leaving the other 50% to pay the remaining 97%. Once the large minority understand they can vote for government to take from their neighbors to subsidize themselves the future of democracy is a descent into servitude and dissolution. The tipping point seems near.

Morality Is Offensive to Apple: Maybe You Should Get a Different Phone

SEE HERE Apparently the fact that gay immorality offends the world's Christians isn't as important as the fact that Christianity offends the worlds gays and probably adulterers, murderers, and any number of cheats, liars and moral offenders of all kinds as well. CHECK OUT MANHATTAN DECLARATION

Apparently being against sin is a hate crime these days. I think however that there has been a confusion about who is doing the hating. Christianity teaches that we should hate the sin and love the sinner. Most of the sinners just want to hate people who disapprove of their sins. HERE's MORE APPLE's TAKE

You'd Think History Would Be More Reliable

SEE HERE It seems as though the textbooks have an awful lot of errors. You'd think that they'd be noticed more instead of only flagged when a politically incorrect error happens to be noticed. I have little doubt that some black people participated on the side of the Confederacy, but large numbers seem unlikely. SEE HERE This sounds like the "fact" that triggered the review which discovered quite a few more errors. This just highlights that you can't really trust much of anything you read unless you've done a little research yourself to get a better sense of how well established the "fact" is. WIKI
MORE Be sure to read the comments with this one.

Lets Get the Global Warming Alarmists and the Global Cooling Alarmists In A Ring to Duke It Out

SEE HERE ... or maybe just a war in the press since nobody wants to listen to the science. It's a better human interest angle when you get the government funded global warming alarmists shouting at the global cooling crowd who currently have the home field advantage of ice and snow and record cold spells. Since I just drove down to South Carolina and back and saw snow the whole way and chatted up a few gas station convenience store attendants I can present informal survey data that it's colder than usual. "It must be due to global warming" is the laugh line of the month.

Security or Stupidity: Take Your Pick

SEE HERE The idea that this pilot violated security or revealed sensitive information shows the essential stupidity of the TSA in my opinion. I've flown on hundreds of flights in my time. The barest of observational skills would quickly reveal the kind of things that this pilot pointed out. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to observe ground crews scanning access doors with cards and going out directly to aircraft on the tarmac. The point is that the TSA seems to think that the only risk to aircraft is from passengers. I think that's pretty stupid when baggage handling and aircraft maintenance are easy targets, essentially neglected by the TSA. That's the point and it isn't a difficult one to ascertain. Just hang out at airports and watch and you'll see it and figure it out. Security is not enhanced by terrorizing those who point out the deficiencies in the system.

Chris Matthews Calls For Obama to Release His Long Form Birth Certificate: What!

SEE HERE This gets funnier and funnier. First of all we've never had such a secretive man in the White House. He's spent almost two million dollars it is said keeping his records of all sorts, records most people have to supply to get passports, to get social security, to apply for jobs ... ordinary things birth certificates, school transcripts, I just had to provide my college about a year ago with transcripts of my undergraduate degrees, my graduate study and degrees, all in all four institutions and just to give the college documentation when they are reviewed for certification. How come the president can get away with telling no-one anything? It is funny. But it is serious too.

Free Enterprise Is The Engine That Has Made America The Greatest Nation On The Planet

SEE HERE I prefer not to call it capitalism. The main reason is that I think capitalism is a misnomer which calls to mind the much maligned "Captains of Industry" and "Greedy Traders of Wall Street" and other images that liberals have worked so hard to insinuate into the American psyche. Walter Williams in an insightful column which was in today's newspaper HERE makes the distinction between "free" and "fair" trade. Free trade involves both parties seeking freely their own interests (which isn't greed just in case any liberals read this post). Fair trade is the moniker that those who wish to interpose the state into transactions to further their own interests apply. Some third party decides what "fair" is and it isn't generally in your self-interest but someone elses.

That's the problem we have today. The government has become the arbiter of "fair" and at the serious expense of "free." The problem is that there is a reasonable penumbra, an area where the state has an interest in preserving honesty. I always call it the truth in advertising, truth in labeling element. If you buy something and it says 8 ounces, then it ought to weigh something pretty close to 8 ounces. If it says that there is caffeine in it then that's what should be in it. If it says "pasteurized cheese product" that means it isn't really cheese, just a reasonable facsimile. So there is a place for government. But when it gets in the way of our legitimate freedoms to make bargains with people each furthering their own interests and imposes instead the interests of arbitrary third parties that government wants to favor, then "fair" has become a myth because "fair trade" is neither free nor fair, it is manipulated for some third party's interest, a party that is generally not even involved in the transaction.

A little more "fairness" and we'll all be impoverished.

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave: A Long Time Ago Now

SEE HERE You ought to be disturbed about this. If you aren't it must be because you're one of those proverbial frogs slowly being boiled to death. By the way, that isn't true — the frogs will jump out of the pan. But it might be true for people. We've been slowly conditioned to a web of unreasonable and unconstitutional and frankly crazy laws that have turned the world upside down. When I was a boy everyone I knew carried a scout knife. Today you can be suspended from school for possessing a scout knife. That's crazy! Freedom includes the freedom to do things that other people don't always like or think are crazy as long as you're not endangering them. "Mumbly peg" would be illegal today I guess. The argument that not wearing a seat belt or a helmet might increase my insurance costs and things like that are not a reasonable basis for limiting my freedom. That is just a cost of freedom. Do you really want to live in the locked down, uptight, ultimate nanny state where they are metering your breathing to make sure your carbon footprint is within spec? That's the track we're on if we don't wake up. I don't seriously think we'll get there. The whole system will collapse first. Government is like a huge flywheel on the engine of collective productivity. Once it gets too large it stalls the engine and everything else stops working. We're pretty near the stall point.

The Irony of Facts Meets Academic Posturing

SEE HERE "Of course we've got to be green," is the kind of mantra one finds in all sorts of liberal venues these days. Of course exactly what "green" means is usually up for grabs. Green means "recycling" regardless of whether recycling makes any economic or even environmental sense at all. "We're doing it for the planet." I get a charge out of this one. The only conscience the planet has is ours and you have all sorts of nut jobs talking about Gaia which is a groundless speculation that the earth ecological system is a unity with the teleological principle of optimizing life on earth.

"Hello!" and this from folks that reject just about any other teleological principle. The role of man on the earth is one of stewardship which is intelligent management of the earth's resources. The management of these resources should be a subject for discussion, but it should be a discussion grounded in facts and analysis, not mythologies invented by people who believe things like Gaia. Gaia is a kind of return to paganism and spiritism in the guise of popular science. I have an embarrassing moment on a Bill Moyers' video where he asks Joseph Campbell about the "Gaia principle." A journalist and a mythologist chatting about a pseudoscientific idea is priceless.

Today Reminds the Pope of the Collapse of the Roman Empire

The world is on the cusp of a new dark age. We are near both a moral and economic meltdown of the world. A fatal misunderstanding of freedom amounting to extreme license is poised to take down civilization into a new ominous and dark age. As a society we have embraced Moloch and we will go down to Sheol like Carthage or Rome before us.

The Big Crunch Is Coming and Sooner Than We Think

SEE HERE This kind of stuff is getting to be the daily news. Federal, State, City and Municipality spending of all kinds is getting out of control. There seems to be no end to the things that people can find to spend money on if the money is money they didn't earn themselves and over which they likely will pay no penalty if they abuse their fiscal responsibility. Public pensions, public salaries, public perks, public debt all grow at astounding rates and if you screw up then you're too big to be allowed to fail. Unfortunately that's rewarding bad behavior and goes to a total train wreck in not so long. Previous train wrecks of the same kind around the world are a matter of historical record, but since our leaders are too neuron deprived to have read the lessons of history they are dooming us to relive them. Thanks idiots! What can you do? Find things of fundamental value to invest in maybe. Stockpile some staples so you can at least eat for a while. Be watchful. Stop voting for idiots. If it is too good to be true, then it's not!

Some People Are Worth Learning More About

SEE HERE ... and one of them is Walter Williams ... HERE is Thomas Sowell on the same subject. Most of us have had too much given to us, and sometimes we don't fully appreciate the people in our midst who have risen through great hardship to achieve what they have. My own view is that we don't insist on enough personal responsibility and discipline, and frankly hard work on the part of the young. When you're given things too easily you begin to develop a sense of entitlement that is counter-factual. None of us are entitled to anything except a fair chance to make a contribution and get treated fairly in return. There is no such thing as a free lunch, as Robert Heinlein stressed with the acronym TANSTAAFL! GET IT!

Don't You Get Tired Of The Lying: Here Come The Death Panels!

SEE HERE I just get so tired of all the lying that comes from the left. They vilify people who point out the obvious like the euphemisms that they use to try to disguise the fact that the only way out of their Utopian rhetoric is to include draconian measures. They put phony impossible promises up front that they know (if they have an ounce of sense ... and the media is always touting them as the smartest people on the planet ... I can see how media types could be confused given the neuron deficiency) can't be delivered on. Then after they've sold the impossible they vilify those who point out the logical consequences as somehow mean minded and evil. Only after all else fails do they silently in the stealthiest mode possible go forward with exactly the kinds of policies they all along denied they were considering. Where I come from that's called not only lying, but conspiracy and fraud too.

I suppose the only real remedy is to begin educating our citizens more deeply and more thoroughly so they will not so easily be drawn into these Utopian dreams that they can have everything for nothing. The real world simply doesn't work that way. It never has and it never will. But in the meantime we get phonies like those who made the 20th century the bloodiest in history: the Communist Utopias of Russia and China and Pol Pot's Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam, and Hitler's Thousand Year Reich to be led by the new supermen. We have the eugenics crowd who claim that they can improve the race and the free love crowd who somehow believe that love is without cost and that abortion is permissible. But people seem to be more willing to sacrifice the real world for their dreams even though the result is a death potion.

Ignore the man behind the curtain, you can have everything, everything and it will cost you nothing nothing ... except perhaps your soul! KRUGMAN

What Do The Marines Know?

SEE HERE I don't have anything more against gays than I do against any other group of sinners and we all certainly fall into that category. What I don't like is people who make a show of their sinfulness posturing that it not only doesn't matter but is even an entitlement identifier.

What is gay marriage besides a meaningless noise if it is not about a covenanted relationship between one man and one woman, even in our age of serial polygamy. Marriage is a fruitful relationship ordained by God "that they shall be made one." While homosexual relationships are on the whole transient, bonded only by obsessive abnormal "love" and beset by disease and shortened lives that are "gay" in no sense of the word prior to its abuse as a label.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell was a compromise. When I served homosexuals were tossed out of the service immediately. Throwing these poor unfortunates who are plagued by a developmental psychological deformity into intense combat situations where the key to survival is unit bonding seems at least reckless on the part of those who themselves have never hazarded their life on the trust they have for another.

I don't find it surprising that the Marine Corps, which is always in the forefront of combat, is two thirds against serving with openly gay personnel. But what do these brothers in arms know that our leaders don't? — Perhaps that love is more than passion and obsession.

The Wheels of Justice Mostly Stuck Shut

SEE HERE It is a travesty that this man was convicted in the first place. The entire verdict should be set aside. The big question is what part of the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed is it that New Jersey doesn't understand? Good that his sentence was commuted, now they should go the rest of the way.

Merry Christmas!

¹And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. ²(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) ³And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) ⁵To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. ⁶And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. ⁷And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. ¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good.

American Gestapo Strikes Again

SEE HERE Apparently nothing short of capitulation to stupidity will do when it comes to Homeland Security and the TSA. I think they both need to be shut down before it becomes impossible to shut them down. A BIT MORE
Not only have they taken away his federal firearm but his concealed carry permit has been revoked. Wow! Apparently freedom of speech is limited to what the Gestapo approves.

A Smattering of Angels in the Mall

Sure That's the Ticket! It's Time We Have Liberals That Can Read

SEE HERE The bobble heads at CBS do it again. It doesn't get funnier than this. Let's see how this happens ... hmmmm.... some CBS nerd googles for the cover of George Bush's book and a cover comes up with the face of George Bush on it ... yup that's gotta be it, click, copy to video file, insert in script about the book. Meanwhile, preparing for the telecast the on-screen talent reviews the stories for the evening. Bingo! That's George Bush all right. Does anyone read the copy before it's time to rock and roll? Of course not. heheheheheheheh... hysterical.
An added note: On the other hand, being liberals, and knowing that it would just flit by in a sequence of book covers, it's just like'em to think this would be a fun joke. It is the amusement of those who have little gravitas.

Liberals Are All For Taking Your Money To Give To The Poor. Don't Expect Then To Give Their's Too!

SEE HERE Government has no business in the charity business. Indeed, it is outrageous that charity has become a business because that empties the charity out of it and it just becomes another government scam which bloats federal employment and gives them an excuse to tax more and then give grudgingly to the newest entitlement class, whatever it happens to be. Charity? Well Charity is supposed to be motivated by love, not by self-interest. There is nothing charitable about government largess. It does seem to perform one function quite well. It lets liberals salve their consciences that they are doing something for the poor, making those uncharitable conservatives pay for it. The problem of course is that the uncharitable bunch are the liberals. Sorry if that irritates you liberals, but facts are facts.

When Lindsay Graham Slams It, It Has to be Bad

SEE HERE The Lame Duck session is getting close to winding down (we all hope) and it has mostly been a show of Republican spinelessness or so Lindsay Graham, not exactly the most right wing chisel in the toolchest, suggests. If this is a harbinger of the new Congress then we really need to clear the board totally and start with a new deck.

The Enshrinement of Moral Evil: Something Bishops Should Fight Against

Michael Voris points the point about the elimination of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." It is a moral issue and the bishops failed. But first the society failed. The degradation continues.

The Insanity Of The Present Age

SEE HERE This kind of thing makes me want to vomit. Is that too explicit for your modern informed existentially evacuated and incapable of volitional action mediated by a human will mind? Oops, I forget. Those people are probably not reading my blog. Most of my readers are sane. Now if you think that the nutrition at McDonalds isn't all you want for your children you have a simple choice: Don't go to McDonalds! Is this rocket science? The idea that because McDonald's meals, any of them, can be abused, or that somehow french (ur freedom) fries have fallen off the PC approved list of foods and hamburgers have (gasp) fat in them, that somehow you should punish them for offering the food they offer ... has everyone lost their minds and sense of proportion?

Let me explain this in words a two year old could understand: You are responsible for yourself! A two year old might not be able to handle "responsible" — From what I can see most of the 20 somethings are having some difficulty with it. The buck stops with you, no-one else. You're not the universal victim. If you're screwed up than 'fess up, you did it to yourself and get straight. It's easy really. Every time you want to do something ask yourself the question: Is this something the person I want to be would do? (it requires a kind of double think, a pause in making your decisions) If the answer is "No" then "Don't do it!" I know that obeying your parents was a trial since they didn't make the consequences of disobedience severe enough. That has undermined your sense of personal responsibility. You're just a little feral animal who can't help him or herself. Isn't that what they teach you in "those schools." You're just an animal, do what makes you feel good.

I have a surprise. You're a sentient human being with the capacity to live a willed and intentional life. You've been lied to your whole life and from this moment onward you have the opportunity to show the world what you are made of. It is sterner stuff than the mere whim of hormones. Think about all your dreams. Work out a plan to achieve them. Get on with it. And if you feel like it now and again, have a hamburger at McDonalds. It's your life, live it to the whole!

A Sobering View of Income Taxes

SEE HERE What is the purpose of income taxes? To pay for the government? Think again. READ THIS and get the truth. When you can print fiat money you have no need of taxes. You can remove the wealth of the people with the printing press. At best the fiction of taxes disguises what is truly going on and gives the government a great tool of oppression and control. Thank about it. It's true!

The Lunatics Are Still Running The Asylum

SEE HERE There is never an excuse so slim as not to allow for bureaucratic expansion, no task so small that it cannot be further divided to make room for expanding the bureaucracy. In case you have not figured it out, global warming is a scam to give running room for expanding government in the form of control, taxes, new bureaucracies and ever more intrusion. CO2 is among the least of the green house gases. It is essentially saturated, which means whatever green house effect it delivers is already at its maximum or very near it. In any case it is a plant nutrient so reducing it will not improve things from the viewpoint of crops. We obviously have way too much government if this is what they find themselves doing.

There will be no Nativity Scene in Washington DC this year!

The Supreme Court has ruled that there cannot be a Nativity Scene in the United States Capital this Christmas season. This isn't for any religious reason . . . . .

Deficiency of Wise Men

They simply have not been able to find Three Wise Men in the Nation's Capitol.

No Virgins

A search for a Virgin continues.

Surfeit of Asses

There was no problem, however, finding enough asses to fill the stable.

NO CHANGE SINCE LAST YEAR

Homsexuals In the Military? No Doubt This Will Improve Military Effectiveness Right?

The Six Judases:
Scott Brown, Susan Collins, Mark Kirk, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe, and George Voinovich.
SEE HERE and HERE
The key reasons why we shouldn't have gays in the military are in my book:
1) homosexuality is a developmental and behavioral disorder on the psychological level
2) homosexuality will reduce unit cohesion wherever it becomes a factor in the military
3) the experience of the military prior to the current policies shows that it works against the confidence and professionalism of the military.
4) finally one has to wonder why an objectively immoral and disordered act should be given privileged status in any civilized community.

It is one thing to look the other way when someone's personal practice of immorality is otherwise causing no difficulty. But it is an entirely different matter when you decide to accept and celebrate it. It is simply another step towards the dissolution of our society. I'm not expecting this to be a big factor in improving recruitment.

No End To The Hypocrisy Of The Left

SEE HERE Don't criticize the WikiLeaks crowd or they'll show you about first amendment rights — They're the only ones with rights, being privileged life-forms. They'll hack your website, steal your credit card information and generally trash you as much as possible ... Oh I forgot, that's what the left always does. Gee ... the general principle is to ignore what they say and and watch what they do. Their rhetoric doesn't match their actions. When they speak it is for effect, saying what they think will get them their way.

Must Be More Serious Than We Thought

SEE HERE Now am I the only one that thinks this is a little weird? The administration is minimizing the problem of surviving a nuclear attack. What is that all about? I'm inclined to think that they actually think a nuclear attack is more credible and view this as some sort of effort to keep people from getting too panicked. The likelihood that you can escape prompt radiation is low, but certainly getting out of the open or if you have warning getting underground will help to escape direct radiation and possibly minimize fallout. In the event of a nuclear detonation over a city it is hard to expect results much different than those in Nagasaki and Hiroshima SEE HERE so over 100,000 deaths will almost surely result in the first several months and that is likely an optimistic estimate.

Religion of Peace Adherents Planning Christmas Attacks

SEE HERE I guess this is no surprise in the aftermath of the Christmas Tree would be bomber, but isn't it interesting that on the feast day of what they claim is the greatest prophet before Mohamed that these adherents to the "religion of peace" (Requescat in Pace) seek to kill. My what a loving and caring lot they are. Keep safe, it's a jungle out there and Merry Christmas!

The Shelling of Fort McHenry

Freedom Isn't Free!

The Reality of Sarah Palin As Opposed To The Media Spin

You have to wonder what really drives the media distaste for Sarah Palin. As far as I can see she is a principled, dedicated, smart, conservative woman with more spunk than any ten of her critics who are generally know-nothing, do-nothing scribblers and talking heads. It's wonder why any of them should be taken seriously. I remember during the Vietnam war when I was there as a civilian adviser, one of the scandals was that few of the media people ever got out of Saigon. They just hung out and spun tales over beers in the hotels. Sure there were a few exceptions, but that's what the majority did. I don't trust the media at all. They are either rewriting press releases or making up stories most of the time. They need to be constantly challenged.

Coulter Takes On the WikiLeaks Affair

SEE HERE As usual, Ann, who has more neurons than the average or even above average Democrat, points out that there are several rather obvious approaches to prosecuting the WikiLeaks' proprietor, Julian Assange. After all just because the Justice Department is brain dead doesn't mean everyone is. Just the question of receiving stolen goods ought to be good for a few days in jail, right? The fact that no Democrat every wants to prosecute anyone that attacks the United States shouldn't matter. Well that might be an exaggeration, but not a very big one.

Freedom Isn't Free! Our Leaders Don't Get It!

This is an outstanding reflection on what it means to earn the Medal of Honor and how much the current administration just doesn't get it. They don't understand the concepts of Duty, Honor, Country that motivate young men and women to serve and sacrifice. Listen to the end and reflect. LINK SENT TO ME

Some News Sources Make A Difference

SEE HERE The self-censorship of new agencies of things that might upset the politically correct agenda of the media mindset is appalling. Some organizations are making a difference. Check it out. One of the reason that the Internet can be expected to come increasingly under attack is that it is like the "six-gun" of the old West, a great equalizer. No longer, so long as the Internet exists, and a few media moguls control the flow of information. Of course the filtering of good from bad information becomes somewhat more difficult. However, the news media isn't doing that job either. What they are doing is filtering based on their politically correct agenda. I'd rather get the information unfiltered and decide for myself.

The Idiots Who Run The World Don't Seem To Think Beyond The End Of Their Noses

SEE HERE This is typical. An ounce of foresight could predict the consequences, but foresight and any sort of thought are remarkably absent among out anointed leaders. This does mean that in all likelihood oil prices will experience some sharp increases so I expect I'll stay invested in those kind of instruments. On the other hand any increase I may see will be sucked down as I fill my gas tank with more expensive fuel. This is ever the result of government meddling. I'm getting old enough that I've seen the cycle come around several times and every time the government screws it up. Once might be an accident. Twice might simply be extraordinary. But three times means that it's a law of nature.

Polling Over Principles Is Killing Us

SEE HERE Let's get something perfectly straight. Polling is asking a bunch of uninformed people which of a bunch of alternatives sounds the best to them. That's not a measure of reality, it's a measure of rhetoric. What we need is action based on principles and truth not on perceptions and propaganda. The Republicans or somebody needs to start getting it while the republic still exists. I've been listening to a Teaching Company course on the History of Rome and it's sobering to hear in the recounting of the Roman history so many themes that recur in our own history. We are on the same track and largely for the same reasons that led ultimately to the dissolution of Rome. The difference? — We're doing it faster!

It Would Be Funny If It Weren't Pathetic

SEE HERE I fell over reading this. C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite people and if you're looking for divine inspiration it doesn't hurt to consult Lewis. He's drawn inspiration from scripture and conveyed the messages in all sorts of ways. He's a brilliant guy and I've derived quite a few insights from him. But I gather the idiots on the View (and they can be pretty funny sometimes) don't really understand which marks them for the idiots they are. I think this shows Palin gets it a lot better than the liberal snobs that hang out on the View. Hey BTW catch The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ... it changes the story for cinematic effectiveness a little, but it's quite good and mostly gets the themes Lewis was trying to get across right.

North Korea Threatens Nuclear War

SEE HERE The North Koreans are an example of a bankrupt state which expects to use entry into the nuclear club to allow it to blackmail its neighbors, especially South Korea. A coalition of these terrorist states threatens the peace of the world. It's hard to know how to handle fanatics.

Time To Rethink Our Assumptions

SEE HERE Here's a piece worth dwelling on. The current deification of consumption is implicit Keynesianism and it deifies the poverty creating side of the equation. Production is what is wealth producing. Consumption, especially consumption unbalanced by real production is a quick path to the poor house. Think about it. Does running up your credit card beyond your ability to pay back so you can get all the fancy new doo-daas produce wealth or destroy it? I bet you can figure out the answer. This disease has gone on long enough and should be reversed along with a focus on virtue before the culture collapses in decadent defeat.

China Has Placed Its Bet For The Future Power Source

SEE HERE This piece is really hype to buy uranium stock but think about the implications of the Chinese building so many reactors. They apparently understand that if you don't want to use fossil fuels you really have only one economical alternative. That's right — it's nuclear! All this fuss about wind and solar and all that is about marginal, expensive, and ultimately inadequate power sources. Just the facts, just the fact.

Looking For The King

This seemed like a welcome break from politics in the time of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the theaters. SEE HERE David Downing is a C.S. Lewis scholar of note and has written a novel with some very Lewisian themes: the Inkings, King Arthur, the war and clearly this would include a tie-in to That Hideous Strength, the third volume of Lewis's Space Trilogy which has Merlin as a character. I'm looking forward to reading it. BTW the C.S. Lewis Society in Harrisonburg meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at the Barnes and Noble. You can keep up with the society HERE

Busted? This might be a Mythbusters Not To Miss Next Wednesday

Hollywood Versus the Truth: The Truth Loses!

SEE HERE Hollywood likes a good story even if they have to embellish the truth to get it. This whole "Bush lied ..." motif has been shown to be essentially an invention that ignores the relevant facts. The Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq were there. We didn't find as many or as various or as ready to go as we expected. But then we signaled our intentions to invade for months in advance and long lines of trucks paraded into Syria in the interim. We simply don't know, or won't say how much of the Iraq WMD program has migrated across Middle-East borders into other terrorist supporting states. But the movie, may it go bust, is a fabrication. If the facts don't work as is, then write a film script. Michael Moore has that strategy down pat. If Michael can do it so can all the rest and probably with more polish.

Belly Up to the Trough

SEE HERE Shouldn't we kill earmarks entirely. The several states can create programs to handle their own regional problems. Not only kill earmarks but kill all the funding that has been dedicated to earmarks. Earmarks end up just being a "you wash my hands and I'll wash yours" forms of cronyism. Stop! Stop now!

It Is Sad That People Are So Hateful

SEE HERE I don't suppose these vandals gave a second thought to the faith of the people who preserved this shrine. How is this different from painting swastikas on synagogues or attacking Christians at worship in their churches as happened recently in Iraq? Humanity seems to demand a shared respect for the traditions of others so long as they don't conflict with the natural and universal law.

The Usual Old News That Shows The Liberals Were Wrong

SEE HERE This is so ... soooooo old news. This is like the news that the North Vietnamese fomented the Vietnam War and the alleged South Vietnamese insurgents (the Vietcong) were in fact South Vietnamese. Wrong! But that lie was pushed and pushed until every liberal that mouthed it believed it. It was still a lie. Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction ... oh really! Well that was a lie too. It always seems to go one way too. The Democrats cook up a lie and push it for all it's worth until everyone believes it. They they push their policies based on the lie and then later on we discover it was a lie, but everyone has moved on. I'm damned tired of it. I don't believe anything they say anymore. I have to admit that I'm an equal opportunity skeptic. I don't believe the Republicans much either, but at least they are not the biggest liars. That award is clearly reserved for the Democrats.

Time To Review The Mission

SEE HERE Perhaps we can have the forever war in Afghanistan if we keep having such help as this from the Afghan government. Battlefield roulette hardly seems to be the way to run a war. The question is whether we're accomplishing anything. If all we're doing is getting young Americans killed by a bunch of semi-literate savages who think they are acting out the will of Allah, then maybe we should let them go back to just killing each other. We need to articulate a clear and achievable mission. If that can't be done then exit gracefully and take out as much of their infrastructure as seems reasonable. (Talking about the enemy here not the people we are trying to help.) The current story is something like we're helping while they build up their own security forces. Is that so? Where were are the progress reports?

The Military Is Not The Place For Social Experiments

SEE HERE I think gays in the military is just stupid. I don't have anything against gays particularly except that they are people with clearly arrested development. The never got beyond some sexual fixation in puberty and now we want to put a gun in their hands and have them fight along side more mature people. Why? What social benefit emerges from this? Armed forces are for fighting not playing footsie with some disturbed folks. Just get out the statistics on this and be honest. It's a dumb idea. We seem to be increasingly full of dumb ideas coming down from on high. This doesn't speak well for the future of the nation or the maturity of the electorate. But then we have the Narcissist In Charge (NIC) up there and that should explain everything.

"I'm Thinking Sputnik" The Best Educated Win

SEE HERE The dismal fact is that the education results in the United States have been on the decline for a long time. You may have to start learning Chinese before too long. You can't kick back, loaf, learn nothing, eat hamburgers until you're spherical and imagine that you're going to do well in the world. The Chinese will shortly eat your lunch. When the going gets tough the tough get going. Are there any of those left here in the U.S.? If not, it's going to be a long century!

The Government and Public Censorship

SEE HERE Diversity is a buzz word these days. Mandatory diversity is called tyranny. Diversity in speech through media forced on the media is called censorship. Part of the problem is that all the code words really mean that the government wants to control what is actually reported. That violates a basic freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. The FCC got away with a little of it because your were supposedly using a limited resource which the government parceled out called "bandwidth" (i.e. the radio frequencies on which information was transmitted). That argument doesn't go very far when there are no public resources being used. Cable is not broadcast, nor is the internet. So let's hand the FCC their head and move on. Whatever you want to call it the government has no business telling people what they can say or tune to, read or listen to on any media anyway. The freedom of the people to speak their mind isn't something government should be involved in.

Rising Revenue Is Not The Result of Raising Tax Rates

SEE HERE I know that those who believe in a static sort of zero sum game view of money think that raising tax rates will raise revenue, but the fact of the matter is that generally what happens is that raising tax rates contracts economic performance and creates caution in the markets and increases unemployment and either fails to raise tax revenue as much as expected or often actually reduces revenue. This is the Laffer Curve effect which is very real despite all the jokes made about it. Tax rate cuts often produce increased revenue. Unfortunately our brilliant leaders can never resist the temptation to increase spending whenever they get any more revenue and since they are already in deficit spending they just increase the deficit further. What is needed is to cut taxes and reduce spending simultaneously. This expands the economy and reduces the deficit. Wow — What a concept!

Arizona at Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941

I was a fetus at Pearl Harbor on the day of the Japanese attack. My father was ordnance officer on U.S.S. Detroit and on-board ship that day. My mother watched the attacking aircraft with me a little one inside. After the attack she was evacuated with the other women and children to the mainland under the protective escort of Detroit and her destroyers. I was born some six months later on June 4th 1942, the day of the Battle of Midway, and I always joke that the Japanese carriers sunk that day were in retaliation for them trying to kill me at Pearl. It is a day to remember, for the price of freedom is eternal vigilance and freedom isn't free.

If You Don't Like What's Happening, Change The Rules: Tradition and Precedence Be Damned!

SEE HERE This is a signature move by the Democrats. If you don't like what's happening change the rules. The problem of course is that the rules are there to protect everyone. Two can play that game and it leads to chaos and not to good government. It also smacks of the old "pick up my marbles and go home" play I remember from spoil sports when I was a kid playing marbles. "Heads you lose, tails I win," is the name of the game. The fix is in! Hardly the way that grown-ups are supposed to play, but no-one ever said Democrats were grown-ups. Most of the time they sound like whiney-butts.

Climate Models Not Worth A Damn

SEE HERE Why did it take so long for this to come out? It's not as if it should be news of any kind. When you create models (as a modeler myself I've done this) one of the validation steps is supposed to be verifying that the model actually fits the data you have and projects backwards so that you can have at least a little confidence that it will project forwards. Oops! Just where was that step done? Was it done? Welcome to Climate lala land. This is bizarro science created to give the politicians a rationale for doing what they want and they will pay you off in grant money. So much for science.

An Interview with Douglas Gresham

SEE HERE Friday is the opening of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, part three of the Chronicles of Narnia. This interview with Doug Gresham, C.S. Lewis's adopted son from his marriage to Joy Davidman touches on some more wide ranging ground than just he movie, although that is going to be fun enough. TVOTDT is my favorite of the series although, like Doug, my favorite tends to be the one I'm reading. I also like The Silver Chair a lot and The Magician's Nephew is no slouch either. One of Doug's answers referred to education and I can only endorse what he said,

Jack certainly was critical of educational trends and would be even more so today, I think. Jack firmly believed that children were not to be the subjects of experimentation, and I have to agree with him. I think that much of what is done in modern education is sheer folly. In fact, I believe quite strongly that homeschooling is the finest form of education children can get. I think I have used more of what I learned at the dinner table of the Kilns than I have used from any of the schools that I went to.

I totally agree. The schools need to be salvaged from the educators before we have nothing but a nation of pseudo-educated brainwashed slaves incapable of anything but blind obedience to the manipulators, what Jack Lewis called The Conditioners in his prescient book, The Abolition of Man. CHRISTIANITY TODAY

Funny But Meaningless: George W. Bush Nudges Out Barack Obama in Popularity

SEE HERE This would be funny if it were not so vacuous. The fact that John Kennedy is the most popular modern president shows that the only thing this measures is something like name recognition. Kennedy did nothing worthy of recognition. He was a weak president who precipitated a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union. Luckily our position vis a vis the Soviet Union was strong at the time or we'd have nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba pointed down our throats. On the other hand if he's been an effective president we'd have cleaned out that vipers nest then and there. The missiles of October should have been the acquisition of the Cuban territory of the United States. That would have been a whole lot smarter and the Cuban people would be a whole lot freer. Democrats have been really good at giving away other people's freedom just like they are good at giving away other people's money.

Now The Government Is Turning Into the Brownie Police

SEE HERE If you didn't think the government had enough on their plate now they want to tell you what kind of food your kids can eat in school and whether you can have a bake sale. Where the hell is that in the Constitution? Intrusive, unreasonable, over the top government is getting seriously out of hand.

Insanity? It Is Government After All ... This Is Crazy!

SEE HERE I just can't believe what passes for government these days. Here's yet another instance of sheer insanity. I'd practice sensitivity ... I'd make sure the Muslims could all travel on the same plane with one another. If that's not practical maybe we could come up with something else besides letting Muslims grope nuns while pretending to require a special level of sensisivity for their own violent religion. "I'm not being sensitive to peace loving Muslims?" Well first you have to establish that that isn't a null set. Then you have to explain your explanation to those who can read the history of this religion which began by sweeping in violent conquest over all the ancient Christian lands of the New Testament. Islam was spread by violence and continues to be the most violent religion on the face of the earth.