This week's "this week in global warming" has been canceled, as has just about everything else I normally do as I have been working overtime on several other projects. I'll be back to normal posting speed next week. ; )
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I am disappointed in President Obama. I didn't vote for him but I wished him well and hoped he would end business as usual in DC. I now realize I was hopelessly deluded.
His speech before Congress last night was populist, partisan, cocky posturing. Newsweek was right: We are all socialists now. Government will wipe away every tear, change every diaper, and pay for everybody's college. I guess I can drain my kids' college fund now and buy some kickass guitars and guns...
The Great Benefactor took control last night, but a few weeks ago he ceded leadership on the stimulus to Harry and the Pelosicrats, who hastily slapped together a trillion dollar monument to economic ignorance. I now understand why he did it: He is in complete partisan agreement with them.
Robert Samuelson, brilliant economics reporter and non-partisan honest broker, calls this monstrosity what it is: A liberal cornucopia of pet spending projects that is too unfocused to do any stimulating.
Republican governors are leading a revolt (Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Butch Otter of Idaho, Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina). Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has actually read the stimulus bill, unlike the Democrats who voted for it. He points out that this is anything but a "one time" initiative...
The tens of billions of dollars of aid for health care, welfare and education will disappear in two years and leave states with no way to finance the expanded programs.The Governor of Texas doesn't like it much either:
Mr. Perry sent a letter to President Obama last week warning that Texas may refuse certain stimulus funds. "If this money expands entitlements, we will not accept it. This is exactly how addicts get hooked on drugs," he says.The South Carolina Governor had this to say about the new programs this porkulus funds:
"There's no way politically we're going to be able to push people out of the program in two years when the federal money runs out," Mr. Sanford says.These good men are correct: Our government is peddling crack. You can't just snatch billions of dollars worth of programs out from under these government-dependent addicts. This "stimulus" is a Trojan horse that ushers in a new golden age of social liberalism. I guess that's the change everybody's been talking about
State legislators are accusing the Federal Government of flagrantly usurping its authority and bursting it's constitutional bounds.
This allegation is based upon the 9th and 10th Amendments to the US Constitution. It helps to recall a few facts:
1) The constitution does not come from the Federal Government. It comes from the people of the several states.
2) The Constitution is a set of instructions from the people to the Federal Government. It was established by the thirteen original states as a delegation of certain specific powers to the federal government so that the rights of the people might be protected.
3) Our inalienable rights come from God, not the government or the Constitution. The Government and the Constitution don't bestow rights, they safeguard them.
Peoples' Rights and States' Rights: Two Amendments
9th Amendment:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.10th Amendment:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.New Hampshire, Live Free or Die State
"I wish they would explain to me what they are angry about," she said.I guess she hasn't been herded through airport security lately. How about politicians blowing taxpayer money like there's no tomorrow, and then borrowing more from Communist China when the coffers are empty?
United States Federal Government laws are often in violation of the Tenth Amendment, which is perturbing...This is not about treason or revolution. God save us from anything like that. It's not about right or left. It's about legally restoring this nation, These United States, back upon a solid constitutional foundation. It's about reining in the berserk, incontinent, out of control beast known as the Federal Government.
A growing number of states are declaring their sovereignty afforded under the US Constitution’s Tenth Amendment, however the conventional news media are not telling you about what is happening. The State of Washington on Wednesday - 11 February 2009 and most recently, New Hampshire [2009], Montana [2009], Hawaii [2009], Michigan [2009], Missouri [2009], Arizona [2008], Oklahoma [2008], Georgia [1996], and California [1994] all of which have introduced bills and resolutions declaring and reaffirming their sovereignty. Some other states have done this in the past but then let the issue go. Additionally, the states of Colorado, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Alaska, Kansas, Alabama, Nevada, Maine, and Illinois are considering similar measures. More well may follow, such as Wyoming and Mississippi.
THE HURST PHENOMENON by Professor Will Alexander
I have absolutely no freakin' idea what he's talking about, but it may have something to do with sun cycles...or not...But TAKE THAT alarmists!
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Satellite Data Show No Warming Before 1997. Changes Since Not Related to CO2
Warning: This paper has been rejected by Science and Nature. It May be hazardous to your research grant.
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The Real Truth About AGW
I think a clear distinction needs to be made between (a) the science of AGW, and (b) the perception of AGW - and the use of AGW - by non-scientists.
The science:
The present empirical evidence strongly indicates that the AGW-hypothesis is wrong...
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And a couple from here:
Al and the Apocalypse: EPA Likely to Regulate Greenhouse Gases
Al and the Apocalypse: Global Cooling Continues...
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And, as always, visit with our friends at IceCap (well, we consider them friends, but they've never actually heard of us).
(Please note that I've included some helpful oxytocin information links at the bottom of this post for all the people who are coming here genuinely seeking help.)
Okay, so before I abandoned this blog, now reawakened, to start a site called American Sentinel, I said that I was going to run a test on Liquid Trust, which is supposed to contain oxytocin. Checking the Google Analytics, I see that these threads are still some of the most read on the site, so I might as well finish what I started...
For those of you who don't know, Oxytocin is a naturally occurring substance that makes you less shy, more loving and trusting. Several pharmaceutical companies are working on a synthetic form and a delivery system that will keep oxytocin in the body longer and help the millions who suffer from social anxiety. Many doctors are already prescribing oxytocin in nasal spray form for the patients suffering the most.
I, on the other hand, was just making fun of a site called Liquid Trust, which sells what it claims is oxytocin in a spray bottle. Their claims are that if you spray their Liquid Trust on yourself that OTHER people lose their inhibitions around you and begin to trust YOU more.
So I knew that this claim was ridiculous but thought that there might be some slight (very slight)chance that Liquid Trust might actually work on the person it is sprayed on, so my premise was that I was going to buy some and watch a bunch of Barack Obama commercials on the Internet and see if I grew to trust him.
I never actually tried that, although I did get the Liquid Trust and used it as an aftershave for a week, assuming that closer to the nose was better, and I can report to you that I had absolutely no side effects, meaning nothing at all happened. I might as well have put water on my face.
HOWEVER, real oxytocin is proven to work. As I said above, several pharmaceutical companies are working on a synthetic form and a delivery system that will keep oxytocin in the body longer and help the millions who suffer from social anxiety. Many doctors are already prescribing oxytocin in nasal spray form for the patients suffering the most. Below are some links and other data that have to do with oxytocin, relationships, etc. and it appears that social anxiety sufferers may soon have some help.
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From Dr. John Gray:
One way to combat stress for a woman is to stimulate the production of oxytocin, a hormone proven to lower their stress. "Whenever a man does something romantic--it doesn't matter if it's big or small--it stimulates oxytocin," said Gray. "Men make the mistake of doing big stuff thinking it's going to last a long time. That's why they end up feeling like whatever they do, it doesn't seem to be enough."
Talking about problems is another big oxytocin producer in women, which may lower their stress, but can do just the opposite for men. "Men need to fix things, solve problems, and feel important," said Gray, which increases their testosterone--the hormone that lowers cortisol levels. "The bigger the problem, the more testosterone." However, 90 percent of the things women talk about have no solution. Men think if there's nothing they can do and no way to solve the problem, then why talk about it?
"I think it would be very useful in marital therapies. What oxytocin does is it tunes you in to other people. It makes you more trusting (and) better able to understand the emotions of other people."
It's easy to give oxytocin: A nasal spray works.
Given only a small dose of oxytocin, individuals in a recent study found that their memory significantly improved. Not for historical dates, strings of digits, or bars of music, but for something much more significant: each other.
What's wrong with libertarianism? It's too cold, too logical... Sterile.
It lacks the fecundity to spawn an emotional movement, and sociologists tell us that politics is driven by emotion.
Libertarianism stands for... Nothing! It doesn't have an elephant or donkey as its symbol, or even a flag.
Actually, libertarianism stands for thousands of things: Drug use, homosexuality, gun rights, log cabin get back to nature, Christianity, Judaism, atheism. It stands for not standing in the way of human activity, some of which may be destructive to the actor.
And guess what? That puts libertarianism in complete concert with the constitution. Unfortunately, it also puts libertarians in the same suspicion-worthy category as liberals and atheists in the minds of cultural conservatives. That's too bad, because these two groups have overlapping goals that can only be protected by banding together.
Peter Berkowitz writes in WSJ Online:Unfortunately, contrary to the Constitution's lesson in moderation, the two biggest blocs in the conservative coalition are tempted to conclude that what is needed now is greater purity in conservative ranks. Down that path lies disaster.
Berkowitz explains why these two groups need each other:
The cultural conservatives point to how California, Florida and Arizona passed bans on gay marriage. What they fail to recognize is that, notwithstanding these victories, public opinion is trending against them on this issue. In 2000, 61% of Californians voted against gay marriage. In 2008, the anti vote had shrunk to 52%.
Libertarian conservatives point disdainfully to GOP spending that is indistinguishable from Democratic profligacy, as well as a fixation on issues that government has no business getting into such as stem cell research, Terri Schiavo, and gay marriage.
At best, cultural conservatives and libertarian conservatives are highly suspicious of one another; at worst, these are mutually hostile camps.But the purists in both camps ignore simple electoral math. Slice and dice citizens' opinions and voting patterns in the 50 states as you like, neither social conservatives nor libertarian conservatives can get to 50% plus one without the aid of the other.
He then identifies the principles these two camps can rally around:
The principles are familiar: individual freedom and individual responsibility, limited but energetic government, economic opportunity and strong national defense. They are embedded in the Constitution and flow out of the political ideas from which it was fashioned. They were central to Frank Meyer's celebrated fusion of traditionalist and libertarian conservatism in the 1960s. And they inspired Ronald Reagan's consolidation of conservatism in the 1980s.
Short-term clashes over priorities and policies are bound to persist. But championing these principles is the best means over the long term for conserving the political conditions hospitable to traditional morality, religious faith, and the communities that nourish them. And it is also the best means over the long term for conserving the political conditions that promote free markets, and the economic growth and expanded opportunity free markets bring.
It's not about fighting the noble but futile battle of converting everyone to your social values. It's about defending the constitutional principles that guarantee your right to continue to exercise those values. This is how conservatives keep liberals from hijacking the government and using its powers to snuff their values. It's about creating that space for human action that is free from government control. That is what the founders envisioned. Who knows, in the process, you may just gain some converts by your actions.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123086011787848029.htmlThe Islamic founder of a New York television station that aimed to counter Muslim stereotypes is accused of beheading his estranged wife in what is being called an "honor killing."
That pretty much says it all, but you can go here to read the full story:
Muslim TV exec accused of beheading wife in NY
It seems the EPA has come up with an idea on how to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act that could result in permitting fees or “taxes” on livestock operations. Because of global warming they want to make livestock producers pay a tax on their animals based on the amount of carbon dioxide their animals release into the air in the form of flatulence...Farm Bureau calls it the “cow tax” and says farmers and ranchers can’t afford to pay it.
Article to read: FrontPageMag.com, A Leftist in Labor
Hilda Solis was actually a fantastic choice for Labor Secretary. Who better to embody the Demwit notion of "Labor" than someone who is deeply committed to the "green" wealth redistribution platform? Who better to embody the Demwit notion of "Labor" than someone who is openly friendly to American communist and socialist organizations?
From the article: A Congresswoman since 2001, Solis is a member of the Progressive Caucus, the socialist wing of the Democrat Party in the House of Representatives. The Caucus was founded by the self-identified Socialist and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders—himself a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which describes itself as “the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.” The Progressive Caucus laments that “the concentration of wealth is a problem because it distorts our democracy, destabilizes the economy and erodes our social and cultural fabric,” a crisis for which it advocates “a package of legislative initiatives that will close America’s economic divide and address both income and wealth disparities.” In other words, Hilda Solis wants to spread the wealth around. And her lifelong record bears it out.
This is, after all, what Demwits are now all about. The Democratic Party has become the de facto American socialist party, and Obama's selection for Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, is a perfect example of that.
So here's to you, Hilda baby, you are the Moonbad du Jour.
Article to read: from IceCap, Global Cooling Continues
Continuing a decade-long trend of declining global temperatures, the year 2008 was significantly colder than 2007, and global temperatures for the year were below the average over the past 30 years. The global temperature data, reported by NASA satellite-based temperature measurements, refuted predictions 2008 would be one of the warmest on record.
Data show 2008 ranked 14th coldest of the 30 years measured by NASA satellite instruments since they were first launched in 1979. It was the coldest year since 2000.
Here's a rhetorical question for all the climate "scientists" out there. Last week, during the only day that I checked, local temperatures were expected by climate "scientists" - meteorologists -to top out at 58 degrees. We actually made it to 65 degrees. If a forecast made early in the day, or the day before at worst, is so completely unreliable, why should I believe your predictions for 50 years from now?
What we don't know about climate would fill an entire set of books on climate, and today's climate "scientists" are as close to future climate scientists as alchemists of the 16th century were close to today's chemists. It's a joke, plain and simple.
The towering intellects at PETA have started a campaign against McDonald's for "chicken abuse." They are so disturbed, in fact, that they have created a site called McCruelty at which you can watch an informative video that, amongst other things, claims that McDonald's chickens suffer broken bones.
In the slaughterhouses of McDonald's U.S. chicken suppliers, birds are dumped out of their transport crates and hung upside-down in metal shackles, which can result in broken bones, extreme bruising, and hemorrhaging. Workers have the opportunity to abuse live birds, and birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious...
Gee, the "opportunity to abuse live birds" would have been the only good thing about several of my past jobs, and PETA wants to take that away? PETA apparently wants some version of compassionate, assisted, Kevorkian-like suicide, where chicken processors hold the bird's hands as they are anesthetized and then put to sleep.
If you go to the site and watch the video, the key thing to remember is the phrase, "a chicken with its head cut off." There is a reason why this phrase exists. When you cut a chicken's spinal cord they run around, flap their wings, and generally act alive for quite some time. So are all these flailing chickens still alive or are they just having natural neurological reactions?
I don't know the answer to that, and I don't really care. Chickens are stupid, nasty and taste delicious. I'm going to get some nuggets for lunch.
The Religion of Murder has a fine marketing tool here is a movie created by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. The full movie has been broken into two parts, both below. Be forewarned that they are disturbing, as is befitting any honest look at Islam.
Article to read: Human Events: Free Speech is Dead in England
England has become a country that is at the complete mercy of its worst Islamic immigrants.
All over Europe, Muslims are pressing for prosecutions in courts of anyone who speaks the truth about the Religion of Murder. In England, blogger Lionheart has been harassed and even arrested for speaking the truth. In France, Brigitte Bardot has been arrested and fined four times for making anti-Islamic statements. The list of examples could go on and on. Now we have a new outrage.
Geert Wilders, Dutch parliamentarian who made the movie, Fitna, which shows the worst horrors of Islam, has been denied entry to the country by the British government.
Per the Human Events article; Last month, after being invited to address the House of Lords, Wilders was denied entry into the country after protests by a prominent British Muslim.
In defense of England, Fitna is a great movie about Islam, which means that it is truly repulsive and offensive. Go here to watch it: Fitna Video
New Ice Age: Milankovitch cycles
From here we have a story about Milankovitch cycles from Pravda. According to this view of climate science, we are headed into a new ice age. I liked the first two because I'm a huge Ray Romano fan, so I'm sure to like this one.
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Green ideology ‘as deadly as Communism’
From CO2 Skeptics we review the fact that the green movement is merely cover for social change and wealth redistribution, so says a Catholic charity, in fact.
A Catholic charity has launched a scathing attack on the Green movement, describing the excesses of environmentalism as an ideology every bit as dangerous as Communism.
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Antarctic Sea Ice Is Up Considerably (35%!) In January Compared to 1997
Well, this is really tragic. Apparently we need to run out and drive our cars before the penguins all freeze to death.
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Darwin and Argentina Drought
If that headline from Icecap doesn't get you, I'm not sure why you are here.
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“…the world’s oceans are rising more than twice as fast as they were in the 1970s…”
Quick! Pack all your essentials and a sleeping bag on a llama and head for higher ground! I'm just terrified. Scared sheetless, I am.
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And, as usual, a shout out to Skeptics Global Warming.
Part 2 of the continuing saga of Uncle Sugar, giga-pimp, and Jane Doe, his hapless, captive crack ho.
Little dapples of light stabbing through the tattered hotel room curtains made it impossible for Jane to stay asleep. Uncle Sugar snored noisily next to her. The crack pipe lay cold and empty, it's effects now but a bitter fog in her head.
She clicked on the TV, where a bright, cheery young woman was extolling the virtues of Denver Technical College, where "a young woman can become a professional in less than a year! Manicure, hairdressing, and hundreds of other careers..."
"Yeah," Jane thought, hope and optimism coming to life within her. She hit the floor, gathered up her meager possessions and headed for the door.
"Where you goin'?" growled Sugar, suddenly awake.
Jane, full of confidence now, announced, "I'm outta here."
Uncle Sugar glanced at the tail end of the commercial and laughed that low, slow, derisive laugh of his.
"Where you gonna get your food. How you gonna make money?" He bit off the last word and let his questions sink in.
Jane hadn't thought of that...
"Where you gonna live? Those folks out in the suburbs ain't gonna put you up in a hotel like Uncle Sugar does."
Jane was crumbling inside, but she kept up her outward defiance.
"How about your health care. Ain't nobody besides Uncle Sugar gonna pay for all them abortions and contraceptional luxuries."
That stopped her cold. It was too much. She couldn't do it and she felt ashamed and stupid for believing that she could. Defeated, she crawled slowly back into bed and stared at the scabby ceiling.
"Huh uh," grunted Sugar. "Roll over..."
The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, twelve thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years.
So says an article from Pravda, which uses Milankovitch cycles to support the theory. Normally I'm good about reworking material I find, but I'm just going to copy and paste this explanatory paragraph...
The three Milankovich cycles include the tilt of the earth, which varies over a 41,000 year period; the shape of the earth’s orbit, which changes over a period of 100,000 years; and the Precession of the Equinoxes, also known as the earth’s ‘wobble’, which gradually rotates the direction of the earth’s axis over a period of 26,000 years. According to the Milankovich theory of Ice Age causation, these three astronomical cycles, each of which effects the amount of solar radiation which reaches the earth, act together to produce the cycle of cold Ice Age maximums and warm interglacials.
You know you have issues when you start pulling for a new ice age and the resulting deaths of about a billion people just to spite Al Gore, but for some reason I can't help it. I'm sure we can figure out some sort of growing method that will keep food on the table for everyone.
Of course, you realize that even if we do go into an ice age, it will be your fault. They'll figure out some way of blaming it on consumption. They'll say we used so much carbon that we created a permanent nulear winter. But by then no one will be listening to them.
Read all about it here
Liberalism has wussified and californicated the once proud and brave frontier town of Denver. The effete metrosexuals have reduced the city to to a shivering, piddling down its leg inbred toy dog cowering at the foot of the Rockies. Buffalo Bill is rolling over in his grave.
AURORA A Cherokee Trail High School senior who had a ROTC-style drill team rifle in the back of her car has been suspended from school and will face expulsion, officials said.The little liberal pot smokers who tore the McCain bumper stickers off of Marie's car were scared when they saw the drill rifles, so following their socialist indoctrination to the letter, they rushed to tell their liberal overseers.
Marie Morrow, 17, a member of the Douglas County Young Marines, said she brought a wood and duct tape reproduction of a rifle to school Thursday in preparation for drill team practice. When the rifle was spotted in the back of her car by other students, she said, school administrators suspended her for 10 days pending an expulsion hearing.
The continuing saga of Uncle Sugar, giga-pimp, and Jane Doe, his hapless, captive crack ho.
Jane Doe lies sprawled on the shabby bed, her weary head resting on Uncle Sugar's hollow chest.
Her mind wanders back to when she was young and free. She was just a girl with a bright, open future. Uncle Sugar was just Uncle Sam back then, riding the range and looking out for danger: distant, never demanding, and never intruding his help upon anyone.
"Sometimes I'd just like to get out of here," she say unconvincingly, her tired eyes gazing over the ceiling of the seedy, vermin-infested hotel that once was the pride of the city.
"C'mon baby, you know that's crazy talk. Here, have another hit off the crack pipe."
"Ahhh, it feels so bad when I reach out," she thought, "but oh, so good when the buzz kicks in."
"How could I ever leave you, Sugar?"
"That's all right Janey, I'll steal us some more money tomorrow..."
Editor's Note: From the creators of "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less." we now have the "12 American Solutions for Jobs and Prosperity."
Tired of the bloated insanity of the stimulus package? Read this email from Newt Gingrich and American Solutions and then take action!
Dear Paul,
To his credit, President Obama said this weekend that "the American people know that our challenges are great. They don't expect Democratic solutions or Republican solutions - they expect American solutions." We agree with that sentiment.
But this big government, pork-laden spending bill is not a solution. It is not change we can believe in. It is debt we can count on and wasteful spending we will have no control over.
Of course, Washington will never change unless we demand something different. We must present a clear and decisive alternative that contrasts starkly with the 778 page, almost $1 trillion debt package being voted on in the U.S. Senate.
So today, we offer our "12 American Solutions for Jobs and Prosperity." Please read it by clicking on the image below.
The job creation engines of our economy are our small business men and women, our innovators and entrepreneurs. The consolidation of money and power in Washington will only make their job harder.
Mark S. from Marietta, GA wrote to me yesterday wondering what he could do to help our cause. Unfortunately, he recently lost his job, but he has not given up. And nor should you.
Here is what you can do: Read and understand this plan. If you support it, endorse it and become an advocate now. If you don't, then let us know how we can improve it.
Our jobs, our prosperity and our place in the world are at stake. We cannot afford to cripple future generations with massive debt.
Please read the plan, endorse it, and forward it to your friends and family.
Your friend,
Newt
P.S. If you have not already called your Senators to oppose the stimulus bill, it's not too late. You can still make your voice heard.
When people fear the government, it is tyranny. When government fears the people, it is liberty.Skepticism of all government schemes and suspicion of all political practitioners is what attracts me to libertarianism. Indeed, political charlatans do their worst under cover of blind party loyalty (He may be a rotten crook, but he's our rotten crook, and look at the goodies he got us!) Instead of getting into arguments over Republican-Democrat issues, libertarians aim their darts at government gone wild, regardless of whether the cause is stampeding elephants or braying jackasses.
--Thomas Jefferson
The Dems have learned a lot from the administration they deposed. As the St. Lawrence University economist Steve Horwitz wrote this week, "Accusing your opponents of being 'ethics-free Republican hacks'...means you don't have to argue for the merits of the individual pieces, just scare the public and demonize the opposition. Of course, that's exactly what these same folks complained about after 9/11. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss indeed."Regardless of where you stand on these three issues, an honest assessment reveals that the same pattern was used in all three: Scare, Define, Demonize, Ram it through with minimal debate. Iraq is somewhat of an exception, the Democrats caved in on that one with barely a fight.
Hot off of making NBC and MSNBC the official propaganda wings of the Obama campaign, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt has now been named to Barack Obama's economic advisory board, along with such eminent individuals as Anna Burger, the head of the semi-communist American labor movement, Change to Win.
So what kind of advice can Immelt offer to comrade Obama?
1) Obama wants to open dialogues with Iran, and Immelt certainly has ties there. GE has been doing business in Iran for years, even helping to support Iranian terrorist activity in Iraq.
2) GE helped to pioneer and bankroll some of the more ridiculous mortgage guidelines that led to the current mortgage crisis. No one was out in front of GE in the reverse equity mortgage business back at the turn of the century, as they were at one time offering homeowners ways of getting 100 percent mortgages with a side order of HELOC.
3) GE exacerbated this mortgage mismanagement by insuring other mortgage companies and encouraging this bad banking behavior. In the end, GE managed to get a $140 billion bail out to stay in business.
Immelt and Obama seem a couple made in heaven, which makes Jeffy the Moonbat Du Jour.
Today's mildly amusing chain email I received:
Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program
that I will explain using the Q and A format:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.
Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.
Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:
If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.
If you spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs.
If you purchase a computer it will go to India.
If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala (unless you buy organic).
If you buy a car it will go to Japan.
If you purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan.
And none of it will help the American economy.
We need to keep that money here in America. You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer and wine (domestic ONLY), or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the US.
Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, slams global warming and Al Gore
From The Reference Frame via Newsbusters, we have the refreshing news of a world leader who decidedly refuses the Kool-Aid and slams the notion of AGW:
Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment.
While refreshing, this is not unexpected from the man who wrote the book Blue Planet in Green Shackles.
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Super Strong Stratospheric Warming Event to Bring More Cold and Snow as Grand Finale to 08/09 Winter
From IceCap:
It has been a top ten coldest winters for the first two months of the year in parts of the central states. After a bit of a roller coaster ride with even a warm day or two (first in many weeks) the next week, a major stratospheric warming event that began last month will translate down to the mid and lower atmosphere with amazing high latitude blocking - high pressure. Cooling will start the end of next week and continue the rest of the month at least...
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Hat tip to Climate Debate Daily for this link:
Greenhouse Effect Poppycock
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And a couple pieces from here this week:
Al and the Apocalypse: Global Warming & Intelligent Design
End of the Chain Gang: Hundreds Protest Global Warming
The Obama approach will keep the basic structure that the Bush administration took. There will be a White House-based office and Centers for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in the executive agencies.
White House officials and outside advisors say that Obama's effort will be broader than his predecessor's and he will expand the scope of the office to include more emphasis on community organizations and a greater coordination with policymakers.
It's not all good. It's all bad. I said it then and I'll say it again. It was bad when Bush did it and it's bad now that Obama is doing it.
A religion can only sully itself by contact with the government. Jefferson's separation of Church and State goes both ways. Everybody worries about the US becoming an Evangelical theocracy when what they really should be worrying over is government's grubby mitts corrupting and besmudging religion.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has operated an "effective welfare and humanitarian program for more than 60 years without government funding," spokesman Scott Trotter said Wednesday, signaling the church also is unlikely ever to accept federal money under Obama's initiatives.
That stance continues the approach taken by the church in 2001, when President Bush created the first faith-based initiative.
"We like to do [our welfare projects] on our own," the late President Gordon B. Hinckley said at the time. "Once the government is involved, regulations follow."
Here's a libertarian lesson for social conservatives who don't mind hijacking government for their own social causes. It doesn't look so good when the other side does it, does it?
The only honest answer to all this is to get government out of all extra-constitutional activities, including buying off and co-opting religious organizations.
I get loaded up with chain mail: jokes of the day, thoughts of the day, stupid videos, plagiarized garbage, and misinformation. Now I'm going to share the best of this crap, make that "crop," from time to time with you.
Now that's dedication. I would have made about 3 and said, "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time," and then gone inside for some hot chocolate.
What the hell is a performance czar and why does the White House need one? Does she direct White House plays and coach the west wing glee club? Maybe she organizes provocative street theater and liberal agitprop pushing government sponsored socialism...
Who is this woman, now joining the Democrat cast of thousands who have cheated on their taxes? We didn't even get to know her before she withdrew herself from nomination to a White House position.
President Obama is going through Democratic tax cheats like crap through a goose.
I'm not the first guy to say this so I won't take credit, but it's no wonder Democrats are for higher taxes, they don't pay them!
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9646DBG0&show_article=1
$5000 is not enough for some US Air passengers who had that near death experience. I would think being given you life back would be plenty.
Here's a good example:
Joe Hart, a salesman from Charlotte who suffered a bloody nose and bruises, says he "would like to be made whole for the incident.""Like to be made whole"? What the hell does that mean?
Amber Wells of Charlotte says she's so thankful to have survived and to be with her 9-month-old daughter, Rayley, that she hasn't had time to think about her belongings.
If all Americans had her attitude, heroes wouldn't have to hide from the lawyers.She says she lost $2,000 of nursing equipment and a laptop computer, as well as a checked bag and a carry-on bag.
"Everything that's gone can be replaced," says Wells, 34, a senior manager for NASCAR. "My life cannot be replaced."
