Cuccinelli On the Primary Stupidity

SEE HERE Well I'm glad someone has the guts to step up to the plate and point out that the system is broken.  When only two candidates can get on the ballot you can stand around posturing and blame it on their organizations or you can start looking at the process which is obviously broken if it doesn't give the electorate the right to vote for who they want.  I for one would like to see us become a caucus state.  I've lived in Pennsylvania (non-caucus and pretty closed as far as I could tell), Minnesota (a caucus state), and Virginia (a non-caucus state) and frankly the politics as more open and more fun in Minnesota than in either Pennsylvania or Virginia.  CUCCINELLI CHANGES HIS MIND  this is a Facebook link and I don't know if it will resolve if you are not on Facebook.  Apparently the question was whether changing the rules in midstream would be fair to those that had observed the rules.  The question I have is whether those who observed the rules but came in with 15,000 signatures actually did succeed in getting the necessary 10,000 valid signatures?  Don't know because they got a pass.

How Long Does the Dollar Have?

SEE HERE Don't get your hopes up too much, especially if Obama gets reelected.  The dollar may not be in for a smooth ride and may well spiral out of control downward.  You can't keep printing them without any basis, except your desire to spend, before long people will stop taking them.

Stand By for Darkness

SEE HERE The various folks that think they are losing money to thieves want to introduce draconian measures to stop those folks, measures that will imposed big brother like measures on the internet.  Welcome to the Gulag brought to you by those charming folks in Washington and Hollywood.  There is no doubt that thieves abound.  A good many of them are in Washington already and partying at the White House as well as the halls of Congress.  They should keep their hands off the internet.  Freedom of speech has never been so thoroughly exemplified as on the internet.  Just because some people do things that others don't like is no excuse to destroy the freedom of all by imposing bureaucracy intrusively.  Once the precedent is established the result will inexorably follow, a loss of freedom.  Keeping the government out of our knickers should be job one.

Seven Disasters On the Horizon!

SEE HERE If the idiots that think they are our masters can't solve these seven conundrums then you can stop worrying about your future, you won't have one.  The ship of fools we call the government will have so thoroughly holed the ship that we'll sink.  Here they are:

1. Every day, the U.S. government takes in $6 billion and spends $10 billion.  This means that every day the federal government spends $4 billion more dollars than it has.
2. The real unemployment rate is a jaw-dropping 11 percent.
3. Every fifth man you pass on your way to work is now out of work.
4. College graduates are now 34% less likely to find a job under Obama than they were under President George W. Bush.
5. Every seventh person you pass on the sidewalk now relies on food stamps.
6. The ravages of the Obama economy now mean that more Americans live under the federal poverty line than at any time in U.S. history since records have been kept.
7. Under President Barack Obama, every fifth child in America now lives in poverty.

Of Course the Government Knows Better Than You What Light Bulb to Use :( — It is Nonsense for the Government to Tell You What Kind of Lightbulb to Buy!

Ship the Loons to Greece Where They'll Fit Right In!

SEE HERE Democrats spend without regard to where the money comes from.  They have simply no concept of where money comes from which is why they feel free to encourage the printing of trillions of unbacked dollars.  These are not only unbacked by hard commodities like gold or silver, they are unbacked by the productive labor of the people so they are just raw inflation drivers.  If some sanity doesn't break through soon we'll all join Greece in bankruptcy.

The Stimulus In Perspective

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago, another is from Tennessee and the third is from Minnesota. All three go with a White House official to examine the fence.

The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Chicago contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700." The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?" The Chicago contractor whispers back, "$1,000 for me, $1,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence." "Done!" replies the government official.

And that, my friends, is how the stimulus plan works! Please note that in the coming New Year, 2012, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day. This is an ironic juxtaposition of events. One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication. The other involves a groundhog.

Ron Paul In the Spotlight

SEE HERE Is Ron Paul really a credible candidate at all? On what grounds? It's hard to see what he's ever really done but talk, although he apparently had a quite successful run as a doctor. He's an extreme libertarian and while I'm a pretty small government guy I find Paul more of an anarchist and more trusting of human nature than I am. Government is instituted to protect society against predators both internal and external and Ron Paul doesn't seem to believe in predators very much. That particular lack of reality is one I don't overlook easily.

Reality 101 — The Blindness of the Press and the Washington Elites

SEE HERE No Scandals? What world do these people live in. Moral blinders in place, stumbling towards a cliff and they act like the rest of us should follow. How stupid do they think we are? ... Don't answer that, it's humiliating!

This Is Interesting

Virginia is pretty much of a laughing stock with their restrictive qualification procedures that reduce the eligible Republican primary ballot to only Romney and Paul. This should be changed and now in my view. Frankly I'd go further. I'd like to see the state become a caucus state. The whole process is too closed. The sound is a little choppy due to wind but the piece is very interesting.

A Visit to Middle Earth

The Hobbit Is Coming!

Perry Looking Better and Better

SEE HERE At least he's not a Washington insider like Gingrich and he's so much more conservative than Romney that there simply is no comparison. I'm inclined to support Perry and Bachmann, Perry for his governorship and Bachmann for her conservative character. Romney is a RINO and Gingrich is just too much of a wildman, not as bad as Paul but unfocused and unpredictable. Both Gingrich and Paul have enough baggage to freeze their campaigns right from the get-go. Still I'll vote for Paul in the Virginia primary and I'm totally irritated with the Virginia Republicans for ending up with a primary ballot with the two extremist on the ticket, the extreme RINO Romney and the extreme libertarian Paul.

Ann Coulter Has Lost It! — Damn Shame But Hard to Ignore.

SEE HERE Mark Levin put this link up on Facebook and garnered a gazillion comments. It is somewhat incomprehensible how Ann Coulter can support Romney but she did before and she's doing it again. It must be his charisma ... hmmm... maybe not, doesn't seem to have much of that. Meanwhile Thomas Sowell thinks it is down to Romney or Gingrich and is supporting Gingrich. If I have to take a toss-up between Coulter and Sowell I'll take Sowell every time. My own sense of things favors Perry in the current line up. But I'm not happy with any of the candidates and I'm even less happy with the process, the so-called debates, the media sniping and pretext of being unbiased when they are simply the lackeys of the left. The country I remember from my youth is largely gone, swallowed up by the welfare, entitlements, nanny state so that it has become unrecognizable. Can the real America be recovered? I increasingly doubt it. I think we're in it until it collapses and all hell breaks loose because there are so few people of principle left that trying to argue for what is right is just seen as another political ploy.

Arthur Laffer Endorses Gingrich — Let's Fix the Economy!

SEE HERE Meanwhile Arthur Laffer endorses Gingrich. If you don't know who Laffer is then you don't remember the brouhaha over supply side economics which was stirred up during and throughout the Reagan administration. I think Laffer was dead-on and he just ticked off the usual suspects who want to just tax and spend.

Something Fishy In Virginia?

SEE HERE Perry is suing to get on the primary ballot. One has to wonder if the system isn't too darn contrived and expensive. It will be interesting to watch what happens.

This Is My Kind of Atheist — The Non-Militant Sort

Well I certainly don't feel marginalized by Christmas, but then I'm a Christian to begin with. The question is why should anyone who isn't invested in a belief system think how they feel about someone else's belief system as long as it doesn't impose obligations on them, should be given any consideration at all. I don't like certain shades of pink. Does that give me a right to tell other people they can't wear those shades of pink. Get over it they'd say. If I see a Hanukkah menorah I am pleased with its beauty and I certainly don't feel marginalized. Get a life people!

Three Years of Obama — A Disaster!

We continue to be plagued by people who are geniuses in their own minds and total failure when their ideas are applied to the real world. This is what happens when theoreticians without common sense are turned loose to play in the real world with unlimited sums of other people's money. The list Bill Whittle provides is just a start. The failures go on and on and have been accumulating at least since the 1970's. I remember when this stuff started and can't really remember a success. Whenever it fails they just move on to the next big stupidity. It will end soon because the money has run out. Pretty soon you won't even have the change. I saw a pretty funny come-on for a product that makes the point ... it's an envelope filled with miniature replicas of American currency with a title that goes something like "Here's what's left of the change." Well we won't even have that much longer. Hunker down and keep working because you're going to need whatever you can squirrel together.

Thomas Sowell In His Own Speak

The curse of the anointed, people who think they are smarter than the rest of us.

The Best and the Worst — Are We Going to Wake Up?

Just How Stupid Is the Stupid Party?

SEE HERE I guess we're likely to find out soon with the Iowa caucus just around the corner and Virginia letting only two candidates onto the Republican Primary ballot and both of them out of the mainstream on either end, Romney the chief RINO running and Ron Paul the wacko libertarian on the other end of the spectrum.  Meanwhile all the sane candidates are off the Virginia primary ballot.  Joseph Sobran always called the Republican party the "stupid party" and with good reason. 

I've been a Republican all my life, just because in a two party system where one party is the immoral, never saw a baby in the womb they wouldn't kill, never saw a person they wouldn't fleece to buy a vote, and the other party which was a little better, you don't have much choice.  The system is set up to make third parties, except in very rare circumstances, an exercise in electing Democrats.  So this has led to a Republican party that is Democrat-lite with grassroots conservatives at the bottom and RINO country club set power brokers at the top.  The Tea Party has started to activate the grassroots.  We're tired of being the foundation of Democrat-lite — Get your act together and start putting up some real Conservatives.

The Zeitgeist Unraveling!

SEE HERE Ultimately the world turns on truth which is the correspondence between the things we believe and reality.  The truth is suffering a good deal these days as those who care not for the truth, indeed that deny that anything so silly as "the truth" exists at all, gain ascendency and begin the process, now well underway, of destroying the foundation of truth on which the nation is built.  It is the nature of those who deny truth to ultimately fail.  But as they fail they destroy much that is good and which, once destroyed, may be difficult to recover.

Multi-culturalism, diversity, and  other mishmashed ideas are in fact simply a denial of the existence of truth.  If there is no truth then any old thing can be believed and followed.  Now that is pretty stupid, but it's what is what is being passed off as wisdom these days.  It's not unreasonable to say that truth is sometimes hard to discern.  There are competitive threads all claiming to be true which must be inspected and accepted or rejected.  It is easier to just throw up your hands and mutter something incoherent about diversity than to actually make the effort.

I was trying to have a discussion with a niece the other day and anything she didn't agree with she said was just my opinion.  That is a recipe for not thinking of course.  If she disagreed she could have offered counter evidence, but that is too much like work I suspect.  It requires reserving some neurons for something other than cell-phones and Facebook to actually think about the basis we have for our conclusions.  She couldn't be bothered because everything is just someone's opinion and for her at least, all opinions are created equal.  It brings to my mind the lines from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men."

Time to Clean House? — Of Course!

This is what your representatives are doing, trading on the inside information that Congress receives.  Amazingly corrupt but perfectly "legal."  Congress commonly feathers its own nest.  The demonizers are the demons themselves.

Does Harry Reid Exist? — He Apparently Doesn't Think Millionaires Create Jobs! Disconnected from Reality At Least!

Who creates the jobs?  The people who create jobs are those who take risks and risk their own personal fortunes to create businesses that employ people.  But Harry Reid who thinks government does everything is in denial.  Not really funny because it is so pathetic!

Perry Challenging Exclusion from Virginia Primary

SEE HERE  And well he should.  It is ridiculous to be limited to Romney and Paul.  Romney is no more a Republican than the man in the moon.  He delivered the model of Obamacare to Massachusetts and frankly Ron Paul is a nut and and very old and stale nut at that.  Moreover the whole way we do primaries, not only in Virginia but around the states is kind of crazy.  Access to the ballot should not be so onerous that it excludes the majority of the plausible candidates.  That is simply ridiculous and the Republican party should do something about it.

Here's A Message We Need To Hear More Of

SEE HERE

Freedom of Speech Extends to Religious Speech

Increasingly the politically correct crowd, read liberal progressives for the most part, are framing ordinary well wishing with a faith component as inappropriate.  "It might offend someone" seems to be the mantra as if they ever worry about offending anyone when they are pushing their own agendas.  Get over it.  America is about freedom of speech and that extends to religious speech.  I'm glad Congressman Rigell did this.  Someone has to stand up for the right to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hannukah" — It should not offend anyone when a person of a particular religion expresses their faith.  Some people might be offended at some expressions of faith, but the first purpose of discourse is to arrive at the truth and second is to arrive at understanding.  We may not all agree on faith expressions, but we should all seek to understand one another.  As G.K. Chesterton said: "Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it."  We should discuss our differences and not hide them. 

"Oh Wow" — "It's full of stars!"

SEE HERE We all spend just a flicker of time on this blue planet floating in the darkness of space.  We have ideas about what it is all about and some of us claim to know what it is about, but among those who claim to know there is a great deal of disagreement so everyone can't be right.  We look for clues, pointers to what is beyond our horizon and those on the threshold often give us hints.  Some claim to have visited and returned.  We only know that it will be our last destination on our journey setting forth from this blue marble 93 million miles from a burning ball of hydrogen into some greater unknown.  "Oh wow!" seems appropriate and it brought to mind another moment from the movie "2001 a Space Odyssey" when the protagonist, David Bowman, enters the large monolith between Jupiter and Io.  CLICK HERE

Economics 101 Wild Bill Style!

The Debt Car — Obama Triples the Speed! Someone Needs to Give Him a Reckless Driving Ticket

Reality! — The MWP Was Worldwide!

SEE HERE The global warming alarmists are always trying to suppress the MWP (Medieval Warm Period) but now we have proxies from South America which confirms that it was a period warmer than today.  The main reason that the climate hysteria even looks plausible is that they start their temperature series at the end of the Little Ice Age.  Otherwise everyone would be laughing at them.   MORE

Checking Out the Republican Contenders One At A Time

Fun to see a forum of contenders instead of these 30 second sound bite stand up lineups.  Fun to see our Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli too!

From Where We Are It's Not So Far To The Bottom

SEE HERE I personally can't stand "reality" shows.  The shows don't have any reality to speak of.  They are contrived are relatively stupid.  They are designed to pick winners through a process which seems designed to bring out the worst in people.  They seem, from what little I can tell by catching threads, to have a similar structure.  People are put in a contrived situation, chefs, models, fat-people, people looking for wives or husbands, and there is some sort of prize and everyone is competing for it.  The people running things make the conditions relatively outrageous from one step to another.  There is praise for the people ahead with a thread of envy from those further back often used to generate enough votes to vote the "threat" off the show, and finally after some marathon of stupidity someone wins the big prize and it all starts over.  At least this is a step above the type of thing reported in the link above.  Maybe we can have a cannibal show where the loser is eaten by the winner at a special feast.  The winners of the chef show can design the meal.

The Boxer — Simon & Garfunkel

Sound of Silence with Simon and Garfunkel

California Dreaming! — Another Time ...

Cher Nails One!

Joan Baez Sings a Classic

Thieves? — The Biggest Thief Is Government!

SEE HERE  It's clear that the Founders did not envision the kind of confiscatory money grabbing, power grabbing government which we suffer under today.  In fact it was exactly that kind of government they were seeking to escape when they fought the war of independence.  Now we have soft tyranny escalating towards the full up version.  It won't take long.  Just drink the koolaid and pretend you like it.

It's Broke! So How Do We Fix It?

SEE HERE  More people became dependent on government. From 1960 to 2010, the share of federal spending going for “payments to individuals” (Social Security, food stamps, Medicare and the like) climbed from 26 percent to 66 percent.

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Government overreach has typified the past generation leading to a decline in public morality as the "give it to me for free" mentality and the "you're special" and "reward for showing up" kind of rampant stupidity became the norm.  We now have a society that expects to be rewarded for existing and wants everything for nothing.  Perhaps the "bread and circuses" of ancient Rome got this far, but certainly not on so grand a scale.  Almost 50% of the population pays no income taxes.  Fully 2/3's allegedly received more from government than they pay (this of course is an accounting that doesn't bother to ask if what they receive is something they need or want).  But despite the fact that only a third are really paying all the bills the mantra continues that they do not pay enough.  Madness lurks in this whole dynamic.  People who refuse to take responsibility for themselves when in the majority will simply take the system down.  When the system is down then no-one will receive anything but regret and remorse.  It is time to fix things.

Thomas Sowell — A Few Random Thoughts!

SEE HERE Common sense is altogether too uncommon.  Electric Cars?  Stupid idea number one, expensive and inefficient and no less polluting than most other carbon based power.  The electricity has to come from somewhere but the looney left generally doesn't think that far.  Gotta wonder!?

A Charming Christmas Story

Merry Christmas! Welcome to Christ the King!

Brainwashing Instead of Education

SEE HERE  Welcome to what passes for education in the high schools of the nation.  I guess objective morality is a thing of the past and instead we're to adopt the current Zeitgeist as promulgated by the cultural relativists.  Just subscribe to the brainwashing feed so you can find out what you're supposed to believe and don't bother using your brain, it is a superfluous organ in the brave new world of group think.  Anything else is hate speech dontchaknow.

Pointless Stupidity — You Guessed It! Government Sponsored and Paid For

SEE HERE Let's face it.  The reality is that generally speaking government is better at posturing than actually doing anything effective.  The whole airport security stupidity is a case in point.  We are spending billions of dollars to make flying inconvenient, intrusive, and pointlessly aggravating while having essentially no impact on real terrorism.  This is what government does — stupid and ineffective things.  Everywhere it is the same whether it is EPA or whatever.  The majority of it is a waste of money and often it is a deterrent to really effective things.  Less government and more free market solutions would be more effective and we'd be freer which ought to count for something.

Who Are the Racists? Have You Ever Read the History?

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one."

Let there be no mistake about the direction we are on.  It can hardly end in any other way than an expanded conflict in the Middle East and very likely a nuclear exchange which could draw all the nations of the world into war.  This is a very risky game played on a dangerous playing field by a narcissistic president who believes he is destined for greatness and can do no wrong.  Some of the Middle Eastern nations are now in the hands of extremists and more seem on the way.  This will likely not end well.

Just How Corrupt Is the Obama Administration?

SEE HERE Whenever these little links pop up I'm always reminded of the song that kids sing sometimes, you know "the ankle bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the knee bone ..." and so on.  All of these connections that Obama has and the other czars and appointees have that the news media refuses to follow up on and take seriously.  It is frankly disturbing and grows ever more disturbing, and the proverbial frog is starting to boil and hasn't so much as made an effort to jump out of the pan.

Something Seriously Wrong Here

SEE HERE Perhaps if you can't afford to have photo ID but you can afford to have a cell phone, a refrigerator, a television, air conditioning, and all sorts of other things including your food stamps then maybe your priorities are in the wrong place and you shouldn't be voting.  What is this about?  How hard is it to get a photo ID of some type?  Not very?  If the government is so concerned just require the states to provide an ID of any citizen that applies appropriately.  Just bring along your birth certificate. (I had to do that to register for social security) What is the problem?  Oh ... it gets in the way of the Democratic voter fraud that has become rampant in recent years ... that must be it.  VOTE FRAUD has been alleged in many elections over my life-time and the evidence has almost always pointed to the left as the primary culprit.  We need some way to ensure that elections are honest or the whole process is suspect.  MORE

If you can't identify voters, then how is it possible to ensure that elections are legitimate?  I don't get this mantra that identifying voters is threatening.  Why would that be the case?  I suppose if you're trying to vote multiple times then having to identify yourself might be threatening.  I wonder how much fraud there is in current elections?  Does anyone really know?  Maybe it is larger than we think.  That might explain the concern on the left.

It Takes Lunatics To Think This Stuff Up

SEE HERE Ethanol is bad enough — expensive fuel made from corn that could be eaten by people instead of wasted destroying people's engines.  Now we want to do something even more stupid.  We should root out the people in government and out of it that think these things up and put them on the certifiable list.  Money wasted on stupidity is money that could have gone to better purposes.  Money is work and money wasted is human labor, ingenuity, creativity, and alternative possibilities all wasted.  Just dumb!  The government must have done it, no-one else is that stupid.

An Obama Happy Holiday — For the Rest Merry Christmas!

A Perspective on FDR

SEE HERE I was too little to really remember FDR. He died when I was about three. But I did have a number of teachers in high-school who loathed him and often claimed that he had maneuvered us into World War II. I also have found over the years, lots of evidence that FDR's policies to battle the great depression are more the reason for the great depression than its cure. Don't bother saying any of that to a liberal however, unless you like to hear them rant and see them froth at the mouth. FDR is one of their heroes. So it is certainly disconcerting to have Newt Gingrich praising FDR. I don't know any conservatives that praise FDR so maybe Newt's on the wrong wavelength.

Think About It!

BTW the attribution to Bill Gates is inaccurate SEE HERE although why that should matter very much is quite beyond me. Each idea should be evaluated on its own merits not on the attribution. We have an attribution saturated society as if truth is simply a matter of authority. The reality is that truth is a matter of data and principle and authority plays at best a minor role. Consensus, which is much heralded lately in the face of such things as global warming alarmism is another fallacy. Many can be wrong just as a few or one can be wrong. This is especially true when the many are just repeating the mantra of the few. To be an independent thinker you must evaluate things based on data and principles and where authority plays a role it is the role of people reporting on data and principles. Opinion is of nearly no value unless it is based on data and principles. Some people for data and principles use observation and right reason. Call it what you will, it is data and principles. The principles have to be themselves based on data and principles. It's data and principles all the way down!

Tyranny Rising

SEE HERE  "But Americans should know that to eyes familiar with tyranny by experience, congressional consent to these broad new powers marks a major milestone on the road to serfdom. Before it’s too late, let us resolve to renew and reinvigorate our vigilance for freedom."

Sometimes You Have to Stand Up for What Is Right!

SEE HERE The Federal government was never meant to be an all-empowered umbrella dictating everything to the states.  The whole idea was that the states were creating a unit of government to take care of some joint responsibilities that were better centralized, not creating a master.  It's long past time to reign in the Federal government and restore their powers to limited and enumerated and redefine the interstate commerce clause to make it clear it is not a license to invade all our lives.  It should be done carefully and incrementally, but it should be done and we need to start as soon as possible.

Obama On the Economy

SEE HERE New book reveals everything Obama knows about the economy.  Become enlightened.  This will reveal how insightful the president truly is.

Education Anyone? — Thinking Beyond the Industrial Revolution Paradigm!

If You Want Something Really Messed Up Get the Government To Do It!

SEE HERE If you want something totally messed up, get the government to do it.  There is hardly anything the government can get right and the few occasions when they do, they get it right at a much higher cost.  Waste is a specialty of the government.  They certainly can't be counted on to make a school lunch program work.

Shop Lowes! Some People Get It and the Rest are Delusional!

A Fun Summary of the Global Warming Perspective

This is a fun video which does the White Board quickie talk and draw thing on the subject of Global Warming.  It's a balanced discussion which points out that whatever else is true, the problem is not an "Emergency!" that has to be taken care of this second.  There is plenty of time to discern if there even is a real problem, something I'm seriously in doubt about given the scientific fraud involved is much of the modeling.  In any case it is a fun watch!

Drawing A Contrast Between Freedom and Collectivism

Classical Liberalism leads to freedom while the Collectivism sought by Liberal Progressives is simply soft tyranny which soon enough hardens into hard tyranny as the system breaks down because it doesn't work.  History shows that the first way works and the second does not.  But too many don't read history and so may be doomed to repeat it.

The Greedy, Racist, Fascist Republicans — One Needs to Measure Reality By Observation and Data

Bill Whittle provides the data and the observations which show that those doing the labeling are just projecting.

Economics 101 — Money is Always Productive

SEE HERE  Eric Cantor doesn't understand economics as Mark Levin points out.  The problem is that he doesn't understand Economics 101.  This ignorance is due to a lack of understanding of what money is.  Money is just current evidence of past productivity.  If it is not in motion it disappears because it is all fiat money.  Money is always working because it is always in motion.  If you put it in the bank the bank loans it out and that goes to productivity, in the form of either production or consumption.  You buy things and you build things.  You provide services or you consume services and the money is a sign of the exchange.  It has to be in motion.  The corollary is that unless the money is stuffed in a mattress doing nothing it is always being productive.  Eric Cantor should understand that and it is scary that he doesn't seem to.

Thomas Sowell on Newt Gingrich

SEE HERE I have mixed feelings about everyone in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.  I frankly liked Herman Cain a lot until he got "Bimbo'ed" whether honestly or not I can't say and our liberal media achieved its goal of removing him from the race without ever doing more than endorsing the smear.  The people I can stand are Perry, Gingrich, Bachmann, and Santorum, but I have reservations about all of them.  It's significant to me when someone I respect as much as Thomas Sowell weighs in to point out Newt Gingrich's record.  I was a big Gingrich fan back in the 1990s when he orchestrated the Contract with America.  He's clearly one of the smartest people running.  I think Gingrich/Bachmann would be a powerful ticket.

A Moment In The Sun — Before the Setting?

SEE HERE Pat Buchanan produces a trenchant assessment of the rise of a new Islamic identity.  The question of whether it will persist or go into eclipse is fundamental to the overall state of the world.  Europe is in decline.  The other nations of the West may well follow, but it is not clear whether Islam has any staying power.  The fact that none of the Islamic countries is in the top 30 educationally doesn't bode well.  They are alive because they float on oil.  It is unclear that wealth in the form of oil will fuel a sustained resurgence.

The Obvious Question is Why?

SEE HERE Military weapons are being stolen.  The obvious questions to ask is: 1) Does this represent an increase or are they being stolen at about the same pace as in the past? and 2) Where are they going and what is their intended use?  Artillery shells are an example of a pretty big hunk of explosive and will make quite a hole it detonated.  Fully automatic weapons are also fairly heavy firepower, although I'm from the "make every shot count" club.  Why waste ammunition?  So should we be concerned and if so how much?

War Against Christmas ... Of Course!

SEE HERE Christians should not be particularly surprised by the war against Christmas.  The atheists (an incoherent belief system based on the idea that you can know something perfectly logical does not exist just because you decide that's the case), the Christianphobes who are all those who think that they are tolerant as they engage in intolerance, the various forces that are against the entire Judeo-Christian ethical and religious heritage such as the whole Islamic structure that talks about respecting the peoples of the book while doing their very best to eradicate them, all of these are flames in the fire of Christmas suppression.  Isn't it interesting how the birth of a poor Jewish boy over two thousand years ago still causes conflict, a child known as the prince of peace so inflames the haters of the world that they rise up to smite the celebration of his birth, ironically in the name of tolerance.  The hypocrites are everywhere posturing as the enlightened.

Hope and Change? — More Like Spin And Corruption

If We Can't Change This Then It's "Game Over!"

SEE HERE The government is not only not the solution to our problems, it is largely the cause of most of our problems.  I've talked about this before, the two step, 1) government alarmism claims something is a problem, indeed a crisis, 2) Government passes laws and regulations to deal with the problem, 3) This makes the problem worse and government says a) it's worse than we thought, or b) evil [fill in the blank] have taken advantage of the situation and made the problem worse (this is all a form of (1) revisited.  4) Then government solves the new and even worse problem, and so it continues in a spiral downward.  More regulations, more crises, more controls and claims around and around like a merry go round.  Fancier regulations, different regulations, more draconian regulations, more controls, more people to blame, more bureaucrats to work harder on more regulation, everything becoming more costly, due to [greed, yeah that's the ticket] spinning and spinning over and over until the whole system becomes totally unsustainable.  All the time we are told by government that they will save us and all the time they make it worse.  Some of us remember what it was like before the government became so pervasive.  Let me clue you in ... it was better, much better.

Faking Global Warming

SEE HERE If you don't like the answer you get using real data, then hoke it up to get whatever you want.  That's not science, it's baloney!  That's the world of climate "science" however.  It's a thoroughly politicized endeavor.

The War Against Christmas! Talk About Tolerance?

National Group Wants Courthouse Nativity Scene Removed: MyFoxDFW.com

I think the real issue is religious intolerance.  It is the Christmas season and that means Christ and not so much Santa Claus (although he's a distortion of a Christian saint).  If you want to celebrate Hanukkah or Ramadan or other holidays at the appropriate time I don't have a problem with that either.  It's called acknowledging other people's right to worship in their own way.  A display doesn't imply favoritism as the video suggest citing the atheists, it simply suggests recognition of the reality of the season.  I'm rather sick of the people who claim they are so tolerant being the most intolerant of all.

The True 1% — Not the Lucky Sperm Club!

I am the 1%. I am a S.O.B. (son of a butcher). I started out with nothing. I was raised in a blue-collar dead end town on the Bronx borderline. Today I live the American Dream. My story is the story of the 1%.

The fake story meant to deceive you is that the 1% is Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, Senator John Kerry, or Arianna Huffington. Gates was born to a family that owned the biggest bank in the Northwest. Trump was born to a billionaire father, the largest landlord in Brooklyn and Queens. Buffett’s father was a well-connected Congressman. Arianna Huffington and John Kerry married into fortunes. They aren’t the 1%. They’re the lucky sperm club.

99% of the 1% are just like me- small businessmen and women who started from humble origins and earned their money the old fashioned way. Our "overnight success" came from 25 years of hard work, risking everything, and overcoming failure. Many of us are struggling, but will forever keep striving for the American Dream.

I am sick of being denigrated and misrepresented by the media and leftist politicians who are purposely misleading the public about the 1%.

I am sick of Obama targeting, vilifying, demonizing, and punishing us for our success. I am sick of the class warfare, jealousy, and envy that Obama’s socialist cabal tries to foment among the masses. The public has been told lies about the 1%.

My story is the story of 99% of the 1%. I am a small businessman. I work 16-hour days, mornings, nights, weekends, holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries. I have no guaranteed job for life, nor any pension. I have no rich daddy or sugar daddy.

I don’t own a yacht. I have no private jet. I don’t have millions in an offshore trust. I don’t have one dollar offshore. Unfortunately, I don’t have $100 million here in America either. I am not connected, work like a dog, and fought like a cornered wolverine for everything I’ve ever achieved. No one has ever given me anything. I’ve earned it.

I don’t run a bank and have never been friends with a bank President. My buddies don’t run giant multi-national corporations. My friends don’t control the White House, Congress or the Fed. My friends are small business owners just like me. They are the 1%.

Along the way I’ve created many jobs, helping others live the American Dream too. I’ve made countless payrolls, and paid for other people’s health insurance. I’ve also failed countless times, wiping out my savings. But I never complained, blamed anyone but myself, and never asked for a bailout. Is this the story the media tells you about the 1%? Funny, I’ve never heard it.

My butcher father taught me to ask for nothing from government. I believe in self-reliance and personal responsibility. I’ve never collected a check from government in my life- other than a student loan. And I paid that back in full, with interest. I want and expect nothing from government. And in return, I just want government to get out of my way, and stop stealing (Obama calls it "redistributing") so much of the money I've earned.

I became a self-made millionaire by the age of 30 by working grueling hours, being relentless, and risking my own money. My success was earned with blood, sweat, and tears. I’ve missed far too many cherished family moments with my four children. I rarely get a chance to watch TV. I live on a world-class golf course, but I've never played golf once in the ten years I've lived here. Should I be demonized and punished for my sacrifice and work ethic?

My butcher father taught me to out-work, out-smart, and out-hustle my competition. He taught me to study hard when others are partying. He taught me to stay away from drugs, and alcohol. He taught me that nothing good ever happens after Midnight. His dream was that I be accepted at Columbia University, where he wished he could have gone.

So I studied. I sacrificed. I got Straight A’s. I graduated Valedictorian of my high school. I was accepted at Columbia University (as was my sister). I earned Deans List honors. Should I now be punished for doing everything right, by others who chose to party when I was studying?

My butcher father was right. So I listened some more. He told me you had to risk your own money and start your own business to achieve the American Dream. So I became a risk-taking entrepreneur. After enduring several devastating failures, I became a business owner, television anchor and host, Las Vegas oddsmaker with my own star in the Las Vegas Walk of Stars, and eventually the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee. As Don King says, “Only in America.

Is this the story of the 1% you hear in the media? Is this the narrative you hear from Obama?

I’m just one of millions of small business owners in the 1% who strive every day to achieve the American Dream through discipline, unmatched work ethic, sacrifice, and personal financial risk. Are you aware that the standard Small Business Administration loan is personally guaranteed? How many bank, automotive, or green energy executives personally guaranteed their government loans? Zero.

We have earned our success. Shouldn’t those who create jobs, pay the taxes that pay for the roads, schools, entitlements, and the bills of government be celebrated as heroes and role models? Last I checked you don’t demonize, denigrate or punish heroes, do you?

We are the true 1%.

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This was something a friend of mine sent me and I was so tickled by "the lucky sperm club" that I had to pass it along. Most of us are not in that club but those of us who have worked hard and used common sense and good judgement are likely in the 15% club. Almost 50% of those who are wage earners in the country are not paying income taxes net, and something like 65% are getting more from the government than they pay in taxes. The rest of us are paying for all the freebies and getting maligned in the process. If you don't think you're making enough then my advice to you is to work harder. You have no right to stick your hand in my pocket because you don't think you have enough.

New Concept Sweeping the Nation

This was brought to my attention by a friend who posted it on Facebook. A discovery so important needs to be trumpeted far and wide. No longer slave to the wall socket or the battery, not longer required to push buttons or search through many menus while trying to remember things. With the addition of post-it notes this becomes a universal learning experience. Wow! (The Bibliophile in me laughed and was rewarded to know that there are others who share my views.)

Truth About The CO2 Stupidity — Global Warming Caused by CO2 Is An Instance of The Big Lie

SEE HERE The very fact that so many people are still bought into the global warming alarmism shows how difficult it is to get truth out there. The models are garbage in gospel out that don't do more than provide local data fits and then only through a lot of integration of anomalous runs. Built into the models are non-physical assumptions that provide the effects the modelers want like positive feedback and non-representative forcing functions. The models don't begin to adequately model the reality of the climate system but their data is swallowed hook line and sinker by people who want to use the results to generate restrictive regulations and high taxes. It's all about the power and not at all about the truth. The truth is that it has been much warmer in the past without higher CO2 and it's been much higher CO2 in the past without associated warming. The CO2 story is a dog that won't hunt. But they are still pushing that sorry story for all it's worth. The BIG LIE has always been an effective propaganda strategy.

The Future of Higher Education

SEE HERE What future? Education has become very expensive and increasingly ineffective. The K-12 system funded at great public expense is failing the nation and instead of producing fully activated, intellectually inquiring, growing and engaged minds, it is instead all too often producing slavishly obedient, intellectually complacent, shriveled and uninvolved barbarians facile with cell phones and ipods and fully disengaged, incapable of doing basic arithmetic without a calculator and unable to take note, write cursive, think even inside the box, belligerent and foul-mouthed, impolite and proud of it as if being vulgar is a credential. But they've been told they are the best and the brightest, all winners, and the source of great learning to their teachers. In short they've been lied to all their lives. Are you ready for the full impact of this stupidity? Ready or not, these folks are going to be in charge shortly. When reality sets in I doubt they will be grateful!

Tyranny Rising! — Be Concerned ...

SEE HERE Frankly I don't care for any provision of this bill. Unlimited detention of American Citizens is against the Constitution, period. This is a bill which grants essentially unlimited detention power to a president that has no morals. Stand by for future developments ... Tyranny Rising! WHO'S A TERRORIST?

Have I mentioned the Sickos Out There?— The Anti-Christian Bigots!

SEE HERE We live in troubling times when virtue is lampooned and ridiculed and people are honored whose obvious mission is to destroy the traditional values of the United States.  We live in a time when diversity is counseled without ever asking the question why?  Why should we honor diversity, differentness?   Isn't the mission of each person to become as wholly real and committed to the truth as possible?

There are differences that are of no particular account, matters of taste.  I like silver colored cars but I used to like red ones.  That's difference without much importance, a mere matter of taste.  "De gustibus non disputandum est." — basically that one ought not dispute about matters of mere taste.  But that also means one hardly should celebrate them either.

When people attack the religious values of others by lampooning them it is not a mere matter of taste.  What it is is intentional ridicule.  Religion is about ultimate truth.  Different religions teach different things and it is certainly appropriate to engage is discourse about the evidence that supports them.  It is hardly appropriate to ridicule them or engage in activities which intentionally foster anger and animosity, and particularly when by so doing you misrepresent the religion.

Mark Levin on Newt Gingrich

Values? The Left? — HaHaHaHaHaHa ... What a Laugh!

SEE HERE Here's the real picture ... there are no real values or decency on the left.  That's just the fact!  Now let's prepare for the cries of "hate speech" and "racist" and "Nazi" that are the only arguments that the left recognizes as canonical.  Oh well .. the truth is the truth!

Twenty Years Ago — A Christmas to Remember

SEE HERE How often does evil experience setbacks and the seeming inexorable decline turn around however briefly in a moment of respite?  The Christmas season is a season of hope and promise, a season of inspiration and memories of gifts long past but still to be redeemed.  "All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well," was the promise given to Julian of Norwich.  It is a season to count our blessings and remember the gifts we have received from the hands of infinite mercy.

The POTUS Is Corrupt — Actions Speak Louder Than Words

SEE HERE You don't have to wonder if the president is a natural born citizen ... He's not!  His father was not a citizen.  The bigger question might be whether he is even a citizen or is his whole history based on a series of lies.  His actions are not those that anyone would find reasonable.  We are all asked to provide identification, copies of our birth certificates, our transcripts, evidence of our ownership of our homes and lots of other legal documents that come up.  Only the president seems to think that his whole life should be secret and protected.  The only people that hide things are people who have something to hide as the president himself said.  Well he certainly hides a lot of things.  His behavior and that of his appointees scream of corruption.  An investigation should be done to find out where all the money, all the billions and trillions now, have gone.  It will be very interesting when it finally comes out.

We are the Fools! — So Send In the Clowns!

SEE HERE A friend of mine put up this video on his FB wall and I thought about how much I liked the song "Send In the Clowns" so I clicked on the video and was treated to a very interesting discussion of how the song came to be and what it meant in its context of musical theater.

These days we are surrounded by so many clowns that we ought to realize that we can only salvage the situation sometimes with a little humor.  SEND IN THE CLOWNS Here's a VERSION MARY MY SISTER LIKES
Here Glynis Johns recreating her Broadway role.  SEE HERE  And here's Liz Taylor doing it rather well ELIZABETH TAYLOR Now here's STREISAND & ANGELA LANSBURY & BERNADETTE PETERS & DAME JUDI DENCH & ANOTHER BY DENCH & TOM JONES & FRANK SINATRA & SARAH VAUGHAN & EYDIE GORME & CHET BAKER & JUDY COLLINS & RUTHIE HENSHALL & BEAUTIFUL PERFORMANCE & MANY CLOWNS & CARMEN MONARCHA. I had a lot of fun listening to so many different artists rendering "Send In The Clowns."

Freedom of the Press? — Let's Start Some New Media That Uses More Neurons

Islam's View of Merry Christmas ...

It's funny to hear a Muslim call Christianity a false religion.  What is tragic is that so many people buy into Islam, a contradictory religion which was spread by the sword and to this day holds its members hostage through the threat of violence and sends their children to kill innocent people by blowing themselves up.  What part of false religion is it that they think they are talking about?  Jesus said, "By their fruits you shall know them."  I'll just stick with that.

The Reality of Welfare — Institutionalized Dependence

SEE HERE We've created a social disaster in the United States with the welfare systems institutionalizing dependence so that whole families develop the expectation that the state will take care of them and that that's "OK."  This actually destroys people so that instead of being self-actualized persons they become drones perfectly willing to live off the work of others even though they are able-bodied and capable, just unwilling to work.

Trust the Government? — Whatever For?

SEE HERE This kind of thing just gripes my soul.  As a scientist I've been trained to publish my data and provide it to any other scientist that wants it to check the results because science is supposed to be about finding the truth.  Apparently government funded science is not about truth but about manipulation of public opinion in order to promote policies that expand government power and feed money to the scientists involved.  That is fraud not science.  It's skulduggery and malfeasance and cheating and corruption.  I'm sick of it.  Now they're also trying to persecute the whistleblowers and whitewash the liars.  Never trust scientific results that come from people who refuse to reveal the raw data, period!  That's a red flag.

This Should Not Be A Surprise To Anyone Who Understands Economics

SEE HERE The government is a great waster of wealth. It should be no surprise that the larger the government the slower the economic growth. Enough government will sink any nation and we're there. It's obvious to everyone except the mindless, see neuron count of average politician and average person with hands out. When the crunch comes various bad things tend to happen. Read history for instruction. It is a sobering experience.

This Could Get Entertaining

SEE HERE One has to wonder how long it is going to take for everyone to just recognize what a monumental fraud all the global warming alarmists were involved in? The email content makes it quite clear that they were not doing science. If you want to think differently then you simply don't understand how science is done. They were manipulating data to achieve an agenda and that is never science. SEE HERE for why it's been much warmer in the past than it is now.

Rebuilding America

Stupidity from the Queerest Source — The Huffington Post!

Entitlement Enslavement — Goodbye Freedom!

If you reward something you get more of it. The government incentivizes poverty. What you tax you get less of, what you subsidize you get more of. We're taxing the successful and subsidizing the poor. Over time that will collapse the system. "144 Million in our country don't have "skin" in the game." The independent paying for the dependent ultimately leads to collapse and the tipping point is near. When you run the math you find that more people are being paid out by government more than they pay in. Government has become a large wealth transfer organization with self-satisfied politicians and bureaucrats in charge. Do you think it can change? It will, catastrophically, when reality finally overtakes stupidity.

A Christmas Message

Keep Christ In Christmas! — Despite the Lunatic Left

SEE HERE Who let the lunatics out? 

Legalize Drugs? — Where do you draw the line?

We need more open dialogue about difficult issues.  If people are stupid enough to use drugs perhaps the social consequences are not as bad as those resulting from making them illegal, which is a huge black market of violent individuals and a crime incentive for the druggies to commit crime to get money to feed their habit.  Which is worse?  Interesting discourse.

An Interview with God

Previous video got me interested in Holdman so I explored and got this video as well.

Christmas Lights on Steroids

Is Armageddon Coming?

SEE HERE  Armageddon is a term referring to a last great battle, an apocalyptic transcendent battle presumably at the end of time.  With 2012 upon us I suppose we can speculate.  It is disturbing that so many destabilizing effects are happening at once.  Iran's nuclear program, the Arab Spring as they call all this explosion of uprisings in the Middle East, the relative threat of economic collapse in Europe and the United States, and the perception of a lack of will on the part of the United States, and China's build-up of Naval power and increased naval presence are all factors that may just be of minor importance but taken together they start to seem ominous.  It is certainly no time to draw down either our military or our nuclear stockpile both of which are on the Obama agenda.  These are just two more troubling factors which could be destabilizing the world.

A Test of Right and Wrong on Multiple Levels

SEE HERE Science is one thing, but fraudulent scare tactics are another.  Frankly anyone with an ounce of sense can see that you can't drive climate with a trace gas like CO2.  It doesn't work and all the phonies in the world saying it does doesn't make it so.  Worse they are striving to make it sound not like some at most minor incidental warming you won't notice, but trying to make it apocalyptic.  That's the trick of the big lie.  Little lies don't count for much, but you can get a lot of people scared with a big big lie and then you can get them to do things that they'd never do if they hadn't been panicked by the lies.  Show me the data ... no one ever does because there really isn't any.  The only data out there that looks scary has been fabricated, hockey stick style.  Professor Wegman and his group showed that particular lie up for what it was.  SEE HERE  I had Wegman in a class for my doctoral program at George Mason and if Wegman says it's nonsense, then it is nonsense.

The War On Christmas

SEE HERE Of course there is a "War on Christmas" — Satan has been waging it from the beginning and you can discover who Satan's minions are by looking at who's up to what? Religion is about truth like everything else. Each statement one makes that involves ontological predicates, i.e. speaks of existence, is either true or false. The worldlings don't want to acknowledge limits on their behavior so they attack most kinds of religion, especially those that have the greatest claim to truth. So when you hear the snide remarks and are greeted with "Happy Holidays!" just smile and say "Merry Christmas!"

I was curious just how secularized Christmas had become so I googled "Merry Christmas" and here's the first screen.  I scrolled down and there was not a single image of a nativity scene.  Even where Christmas is acknowledged it flies false colors with Santa Claus and Frosty the snowman and reindeer instead of the King of Kings to whom the wisemen brought gifts.  Is it any wonder that our world is so confused with more and more degrading things being presented as normal?  I have a sign in my yard that says "Keep Christ in Christmas!"    

Sanity Is About Being Sensible

UNHAPPY MUSLIMS!

The Muslims are not happy!

They're not happy in Gaza .
They're not happy in Egypt .
They're not happy in Libya .
They're not happy in Morocco .
They're not happy in Iran .
They're not happy in Iraq .
They're not happy in Yemen .
They're not happy in Afghanistan .
They're not happy in Pakistan .
They're not happy in Syria .
They're not happy in Lebanon .

So, where are they happy?

They're happy in Australia .
They're happy in England .
They're happy in France .
They're happy in Italy .
They're happy in Germany .
They're happy in Sweden .
They're happy in the USA .
They're happy in Canada .
They're happy in Norway .

They're happy in every country that is not Muslim.

And who do they blame?

Not Islam.
Not their leadership.
Not themselves.

THEY BLAME THE COUNTRIES THEY ARE HAPPY IN!

AND THEY WANT TO CHANGE THEM TO BE LIKE THE COUNTRY THEY CAME FROM WHERE THEY WERE UNHAPPY ...

Excuse me, but how STUPID can you get ?

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I got this in an email from a friend and it seemed to me to represent a lot of common sense except for the twisted conclusion at the end. The free secular countries of the world offer more hope for achieving human potential than the narrow dictatorships whether simply of tyrants or of theocracies. It is not so much that religion is bad but that bad people often use religion as an excuse to do bad things.

He's Making a List and Checking It Twice ...

The Failure of the Great Society and Collectivism

SEE HERE The failed policies of the Great Society are what has brought us to this place, not the failure of Capitalism. Capitalism built this country and enriched millions of Americans through their own hard work and vision. The Political Left Progressives have gamed the lower class into thinking that they can't succeed with hard work and so must depend on their masters the progressives for hand outs. They've demonized the rich who are those who have succeeded and if the progressives succeed they will crush the country economically and blame it on anyone but themselves. That is what is happening. You better believe it and act on it soon for the time is late and the darkness is growing.