Is that ink? Or blood?

The Primary Problem

I live in Texas, the second largest state in both area and population (first in common sense), and my vote had zero influence on the Republican presidential nomination.  By the time the Texas presidential primary was held on March 4^th, I had been effectively disenfranchised.  Iowa (30^th in population), New Hampshire (41^st), Michigan (8^th), Nevada (36^th), South Carolina (24^th), and Hawaii (42^nd) combined are smaller than Texas, but the horse race promoted by the news media had already eliminated many of the best candidates. 

 

This primary system is an abomination.  It makes the process way too long because these silly little states keep moving their primaries/caucuses/abortions forward so they can be “first”, and the hell with my vote.  Good God, what a stupid way to do things!  Did you notice that, of the states listed above, only South Carolina went to McCain?

 

Obviously the GOP can’t control when the various states hold their primaries.  They could, however, make one simple ironclad rule:

 

Results of any primary or caucus held before March of the election year WILL NOT BE COUNTED AT THE CONVENTION!

 

In fact, all states should be strongly encouraged to hold the Republican primary on the same day.  Let all Republicans participate in narrowing the field down...not just the states that probably won’t vote for our nominee anyway. 

Thanksgiving

I frequently sat down to my meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand of God's providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness. I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side; and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

From Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe (pub.1719)

Global warming scam...more proof

The world has never seen such freezing heat

By Christopher Booker

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 16/11/2008

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.

If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change.   [Link to full article]

 

Sarah Palin’s father spoke very briefly before Palin and expressed his pride and projected confidence as it turns Election Day on the East Coast.

“I’m just so proud to be Sarah’s father.” Heath said smiling, “Years ago I taught Sarah how to field dress a moose. But tomorrow I want you to see her field dress a donkey.”

[Link: FoxNews]

VOTE!

Concise explanation of the $700B bailout plan

Ma and Pa Kettle not only explain the bailout plan, but now I understand how Obama plans to give taxcuts to 95% of Americans even though 40% don't pay any taxes!
How could I have been so blind?

One vote

The comprehensive argument against Barack Obama

This website ignores all the rumors and innuendos about Obama, and concentrates only on provable facts. 

 

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/21/the-comprehensive-argument-against-barack-obama/

 

 

 

Orson Scott Card essay

I just heard Rush Limbaugh read this letter by Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite authors—who just happens to be a Democrat.  Talk about speaking truth to power!

In a democracy we get the government we deserve.

God help us if we deserve Barack Obama.

--Michael Master

Nobel Prize for economics

It was announced today that Paul Krugman, the leftist columnist for the New York Times, has won the Nobel Prize for economics.  This is almost as much a howler as Gore winning the Peace price last year.   Donald Luskin at National Review has a good suggestion:

 

Whatever the [Nobel] committee was thinking, the only remaining question is what the living Paul Krugman will do with his $1.4 million prize. Will he pay taxes on it at the low rates established in 2003 by George W. Bush, a president and a policy that Krugman has worked so assiduously to discredit? Or will he voluntarily pay at the higher rates he advocates?

Missing questions...

There have been two presidential debates so far, and John J. Pitney Jr. (at NationalReview.com) is curious why none of the following controversial subjects have been raised:

 

·        Abortion

·        Stem Cells

·        Cloning

·        School Prayer

·        Evolution

·        Gun control

·        Supreme Court

·        Illegal immigration

·        Affirmative action

 

Is it possible that Gwen Ifil and Tom Brokaw didn’t think anyone still cares about these issues?  Or maybe they’re afraid that the American people might learn something unpleasant about one of the candidates?

We’ll just have to wait and see what Bob Schieffer thinks we need to know.

 

What Is a 'Right'?

What Is a Right and How Do We Know?
from National Review Online

By Bill Whittle

During the presidential debate Tuesday night, Barack Obama was asked if he thought health care was a “right.”
He said he thought it was a right. Well, if you accept that premise, I think you can ask some logical follow-up questions: Food is more important than health care. You die pretty quickly without food. Do we have a “right” to food in America? What about shelter? Do we have a “right” to housing? And if we do have a right to housing, what standard of housing do we have a right to? And if it is a right, due to all Americans, wouldn’t that mean that no one should have to accept any housing, or health care, which is inferior to anyone else’s… since it’s a right?

 

sand and rock

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord speaks to us of the two possible ways of constructing the edifice of one’s life: building on sand or building on solid ground. He who builds on sand is the one who builds only on the foundation of visible and tangible things: success, one’s career, money. As if these were the true realities. But one day all of these things will pass away. We see that now in the crash of the great banks: all this money disappears; it’s nothing. And in like fashion all these things, which would appear to be the true reality to count on, are only second-order realities. Whoever builds his life on these realities, on material things, on success, on appearances, builds on sand.                   Pope Benedict XVI, Oct. 6, 2008

 

Root of the problem

For the Democrats to blame President Bush for the economic problem is the height of hypocrisy and dishonesty. Everyone needs to know what really happened. Please watch this video!

The Patriot Tax

“Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans.” [link]
The top 1% of Americans already pay 40% of all Federal income taxes. How patriodic do they have to be? [link]
The bottom 50% of Americans pay just 3% of the taxes. Couldn’t they be just a little more patriotic?

It's all in how you look at it...

National Review Online gets it right in this article by John J. Pitney Jr.:

 

[Sarah Palin’s] perspective is different from that of other national politicians. For Barack Obama, Wal-Mart is a symbol of worker exploitation. For Hillary Clinton, it’s a former source of corporate-director fees. For Sarah Palin, it’s a place where you buy stuff.

 

And that’s why we love her!

The experience factor

The Democrats continue to make pointed references to Sarah Palin’s lack of experience and say she isn’t qualified to be President. Never mind that Barack Obama is even less qualified, and that he’s at the top of his party's ticket.

Certainly if something should happen to President John McCain, Sarah Palin would need the help and wise counsel of a lot of people—including Democrats. She would be able to count on that…wouldn’t she?

This is the 2012 election!

John McCain and Sarah Palin will be elected in November because Americans found out in 2008 who they want to be president in 2012. John McCain will get to be president for four years because he proved once again that he cares deeply about America’s future. And Sarah Palin will be elected the first female president in 2012 because she deserves to be, we need her, and we all know it!

Congress's Finest Hour

from the Wall Street Journal

 

August 21, 2008; Page A12

As the 110th Congress continues its August recess, the big legislative news is that it has passed fewer laws than any Congress in the last two decades. An outfit known as Taxpayers for Common Sense reports that the fighting 110th has passed a mere 294 laws, while nonetheless finding time to consider 1,932 resolutions favoring such causes as National Watermelon Month. This is apparently supposed to be a matter of public consternation because Congress should be accomplishing more.

Sorry, but that's the best thing we've heard about this Congress. What a relief to discover the destruction could have been so much worse. With rare exceptions -- free-trade deals, money for the troops -- we wish the Members would spend every minute of every day passing resolutions. They'd have less time to do tangible harm.

Even we -- fated by bad career advice to write about this stuff -- haven't the foggiest idea what is in most of those 294 laws. The mayhem we know about is bad enough. There was that "reform" that blew up the student loan market and has led to Uncle Sam being America's college lender of first resort. This will be the Fannie Mae of the future. And don't forget the mortgage bailout, which puts taxpayers on the hook for as much as $300 billion in bad home loans.

Come to think of it, we'd feel safer if the whole crowd decided not to come back at all after Labor Day. Just stay home, or, even better, spend the rest of the year traveling on Congressional junkets. Sure, taxpayers would have to pay the airfare and hotel bills, but that's a bargain compared to what taxpayers will owe if Congress tries to solve any more problems.

 

Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

 

A Catholic Case Against Barack

There are many things about Pat Buchanan that have disappointed me over the past 8 years, but this column is not one of them.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27992

 

 

92-year-old witness

Congressional Warming

Contribute to Congressional Warming!!!   Put the heat on Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling before they recess for the summer.

 

Contact information for all Senators and Congressmen can be found at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt.

 

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
- -- George Bernard Shaw

Who does he think he is?

“Americans are beginning to notice Obama’s elevated opinion of himself. There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?”

“His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.”

This is a great column by Charles Krauthammer. [Link]

Good old Al

John had several hundred young hens, or 'pullets,' and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs. He kept meticulous records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced. This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

John's favorite rooster, old Al, was a very fine specimen but this morning he noticed old Al's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets--bells-a-ringing--but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. To John's amazement, old Al had his bell in his beak so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

John was so proud of old Al he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair, and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judges not only awarded old Al the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pullet-surprise as well.

Clearly old Al was a politician. Who else could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention?

Vote carefully this year, the bells are not always audible.

(author unknown)

salmonella prevention

In today’s world our communications are much more sophisticated than our perspective.  The recent tomato scare is a case in point.  According to the CDC about 940 people have been sickened since May with Salmonella saintpaul poisoning that was initially attributed to uncooked tomatoes.  The news was instantly flashed throughout North America and the ‘red menace’ almost immediately began disappearing from salads, sandwiches and salsas.  By June 10 Florida’s tomato industry was in “complete collapse” (Reuters).  Mexico, already strained by the sharp corn (not to mention oil) price increases, must now contend with tons of produce rotting in warehouses.

Now comes word that maybe it wasn’t tomatoes after all.  Jalapeno peppers (and possibly cilantro) are the latest suspect, so everybody stay away from Mexican restaurants!

Nahhhh…..in fact I ate an excellent meal just last night in Houston at Little Pappasitos, and I’m fat and happy.  Of course it’s possible my margarita neutralized the salmonella, but that’s a precaution I always take at Mexican restaurants! (Sometimes I take two large doses of that medicine, just to be on the safe side!)

Okay let’s run some numbers and assume (very conservatively) that only 25% of the US population regularly eats tomatoes.  That’s about 75 million people, so if 1000 get sick that puts my chances at 1 in 75,000, about the same as the odds of my getting a hole-in-one in golf—before I drink the margaritas.

More chips and salsa, waiter….and bring me another ‘rita.

 

God I miss Ronald Reagan!

I just ran across a wonderful Reagan story in vol.2 of Bill Bennett’s great history, “America the Last Best Hope”:

 

Reagan…and the Queen [Elizabeth II] were both avid riders.  Reagan’s men were especially eager to get “visuals” of the president and the Queen riding at the royal estate at Windsor.  As the two heads of state galloped up a steep hill, however, the Queen’s horse let out a long, loud blast of gas.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Mr. President,” the Queen said.

Without hesitation, Reagan responded: “It’s alright, Your Majesty; I thought it was the horse.”

 

Obama and the monkey god

I thought this was a joke when I first saw it at The Times of India website. Then I googled “Obama Lord Hanuman” and got a bunch of hits. It probably would be counterproductive to make too much of Obama’s lucky charm, but a story about his “faith” in a golden monkey idol of is just too good to ignore.

 

10 Concerns about Barack Obama

Bill Bennett has put together a two page summary of 10 Concerns about Barack Obama  that’s very well thought out.  He talked about it yesterday on his radio show (5-8am at 1070 AM).  I could make a similar list of problems I have with McCain, but on every one of them Obama is even worse.

 

The sky is falling!

“James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming…” [Link]

======<<<<>>>>======

I suppose pointing Mr. Hansen to the first amendment’s guarantee of free speech would be too much to ask of him, and do little good anyway. He would just point out that it doesn’t give us the right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. On the other hand, just who is it that’s yelling “fire”?

Question of the day

Just curious…..How long have the Dimocrats been saying that drilling new wells won’t help reduce the price of gasoline because it takes 10 years to get it into production?

Also, if it’s true that ‘speculators’ are one of the culprits behind the recent price increase, doesn’t it follow that futures markets would react quickly if the U.S. announced an aggressive energy policy?

 

Just another broken promise

Obama Breaks Earlier Pledge on Public Financing
[Wall Street Journal]
Barack Obama announced today that he will not accept roughly $85 million in public funds for the general election, breaking his earlier pledge to do so if his Republican rival John McCain opted in to the system.

Global Warming and the Price of a Gallon of Gas

by John Coleman
(founder and former President of The Weather Channel)

You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his global warming campaign the next time you fill your car with gasoline, because there is a direct connection between Global Warming and four dollar a gallon gas.  It is shocking, but true, to learn that the entire Global Warming frenzy is based on the environmentalist’s attack on fossil fuels, particularly gasoline.  All this big time science, international meetings, thick research papers, dire threats for the future; all of it, comes down to their claim that the carbon dioxide in the exhaust from your car and in the smoke stacks from our power plants is destroying the climate of planet Earth.  What an amazing fraud; what a scam.

[full text of speech]

 

$4 Gasbags

Wall Street Journal - June 12, 2008; Page A16

Anyone wondering why U.S. energy policy is so dysfunctional need only review Congress's recent antics. Members have debated ideas ranging from suing OPEC to the Senate's carbon tax-and-regulation monstrosity, to a windfall profits tax on oil companies, to new punishments for "price gouging" – everything except expanding domestic energy supplies.

Amid $135 oil, it ought to be an easy, bipartisan victory to lift the political restrictions on energy exploration and production. Record-high fuel costs are hitting consumers and business like a huge tax increase. Yet the U.S. remains one of the only countries in the world that chooses as a matter of policy to lock up its natural resources. The Chinese think we're insane and self-destructive, while the Saudis laugh all the way to the bank.  [link to full article]

Mallard nails it!

Dimocrats

Earmarks After Dark
Wall Street Journal - May 31, 2008; Page A10

Remember those Congressional pledges of earmark reform? Democrats are hoping you don't, as they try to pull a fast one and evade President Bush's pledge to block these special-interest spending projects slipped into legislation without scrutiny.

The battle is over the $601 billion defense authorization bill, which the House passed last week, 384-23. Earmarks are supposed to be included in the text of legislation. Instead, the Members have "airdropped," in Beltway parlance, a huge number of them into the conference report that accompanies the bill. And, to ensure that the money is spent on these dark-of-night additions, the Members have included language insisting that federal agencies do so.

This is a blatant attempt to override Mr. Bush's executive order earlier this year on earmarks. That order took direct aim at "airdropped" earmarks on grounds that they lack the force of law. If Members think their projects are defensible, then put them into actual legislation and vote on them. But because this can be politically embarrassing – think "bridge to nowhere" – Members prefer to slip their pork into the conference reports that offer instructions on implementation. These reports are written by staff members, aren't debated or voted on by Members, and aren't signed by the President. [full editorial]

---

One more proof (as if we needed it) that the only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat.

Promises, promises.

Susan Sarandon vows move to Italy or Canada if McCain elected...[link]

 

Didn’t Alec Baldwin promise the same thing 8 years ago?  Has he left yet?

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

The following is the winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year's term was 'Political Correctness'.

The winner wrote:

'Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.'

Operation Chaos

John Kerry said today that "Rush Limbaugh was tampering with the primary."

 

Sometimes I wonder if Kerry (and the other Dimocrats) are as much worried about terrorists as they are Limbaugh.

 

Service to America

"Every challenge is an opportunity to
measure one's strength of character."
--John McCain

John McCain's Service to America speech in Meridian, Mississipi on March 31 offers some excellent insights into his own strength of character, and how it was forged. We need to enthusiastically support this man. He may not be right on every issue, but he clearly understands the most important ones.
Remember what the Good Book says:

Whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable—
if anything is excellent
or praiseworthy—
think about such things.
--Philippians 4:8

Global Warming Takes a Holiday

Ocean Cooling to Briefly Halt Global Warming, Researchers Say

by Jim Efstathiou Jr. on Bloomberg

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Parts of North America and Europe may cool naturally over the next decade, as shifting ocean currents temporarily blunt the global-warming effect caused by mankind, Germany's Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences said.

``Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,'' Wood said in an interview. ``Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there's no global warming going on.''

``If we don't experience warming over the next 10 years, it doesn't mean that greenhouse-gas warming is not with us,'' Keenlyside said in an interview. ``There can be natural fluctuations that may mask climate change in the short term.''

- - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Gosh, I’m sure glad they told me!  I might have ‘erroneously’ concluded that natural fluctuations in the solar cycle might have something to do with it.

America

The consequence of our common humanity is our responsibility to one another, to our fellow Americans foremost, but also to every child of God. It is an obligation which is fulfilled by Americans every day, here and across the globe, without regard to creed or race or nationality.

Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government. No people in the history of the world have sacrificed as much for liberty. The lives of hundreds of thousands of America’s sons and daughters were laid down during the last century to preserve freedom, for us and for freedom loving people throughout the world. America took nothing from that Century’s terrible wars — no land from Germany or Japan or Korea; no treasure; no oath of fealty. America’s resolve in the defense of liberty has been tested time and again. It has not been found wanting, nor must it ever be. America must never falter in holding high the banner of freedom.

Mitt Romney at College Station, Texas, 12/6/2007

 

Why are we even bothering to hold an election? 
On one side, we have a bitch who is a lawyer and is married to a lawyer, 
campaigning against a lawyer who is married to a bitch who is also a lawyer.
On the other side we have a war hero married to a  

woman with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship. 

What was the question? 

 

Science

In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

- Mark Twain, from Life on the Mississippi

 

Is this really an Oboma-nation?

 

Obama baby

Sen. Barack Hussein Obama, speaking of his daughters, said, if they “make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

I suppose it’s true that one woman’s blessing might be another’s curse, but it does shed new light on a mindset that supports partial birth abortions.

 

Poor, poor pitiful me...

John McCain says “Americans are hurting today.”

Barack Obama says Americans are “bitter.”

 

Why do these politicians think it’s good strategy to make us feel sorry for ourselves?  What makes them think stroking my self-pity will make me want to vote for them?

 

Irrelevant or irreverent?

Hillary Clinton said Sunday a query about the last time she fired a gun or attended church services "is not a relevant question in this debate”.

 

Let's 'Surge' Some More

This is an excerpt from an outstanding article.

---

Let's 'Surge' Some More

By MICHAEL YON
April 11, 2008

It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today.

I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.

The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about "GoArmy.com."

As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda's brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.

Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.    [full article]

 

Happine$$

Barack Obama said Friday that many working-class Americans are angry and bitter over economic inequalities.
And it's his job, I suppose--nay, his duty--to fan the flames and make them feel even worse?

Here's a question and a thought experiment for all those angry, bitter people:

QUESTION: Can money buy happiness?

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: What if there were two doors...

• Behind door #1 is $1,000,000...tax free...guaranteed.
  
• Behind door #2 is happiness...for a lifetime!...guaranteed.

It's your choice--pick a door.

Why Iraq Matters

This is an excerpt from a great article by a former professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  It demolishes every argument put forward by the Defeatocrats.

 

Unless the advocates of defeat can show, as they have not yet done, that the consequences of losing are very likely to be small not simply the day after the last American leaves Iraq, but over the next five, ten, and 50 years, then what they are really selling is short-term relief in exchange for long-term pain. As drug addicts can attest, this kind of instant-gratification temptation is very seductive — it’s what keeps drug dealers in business despite the terrible damage their products do to their customers. “Just end the pain now and deal with the future when it gets here” is as bad a strategy for a great nation as it is for a teenager.  

 

From Why Iraq Matters   [Link]
by Frederick W. Kagan on NationalReview.com

 

 

Bad to the bone!

On April 18, coming to a theater near you:

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

Dimocrat dishonesty

Just three minutes long.
http://www.bercasio.com/movies/dems-wmd-before-iraq.wmv

The REAL political spectrum

The left-right political spectrum as it is generally understood today is essentially meaningless. However, if we define the left side as "absolute government control" and the right side as "Anarchy" (no government), it suddenly begins to make sense. The diagram below is a simple exercise that may make the world a little easier to understand. Just move the various words and concepts to their appropriate place on the spectrum.

Re: Recycle or go to Hell, warns Vatican

As usual, the mainstream media wrote some misleading headlines that were picked up by lazy journalists all over the world.
The real story is on the Catholic World News website.

Ethanol--the hoax

Walter E. Williams has posted a great article about the Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax on Townhall.com.

The whole concept of mortal sin may have just been dealt a mortal blow.

 

Recycle or go to Hell, warns Vatican

By Malcolm Moore in Rome

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 10/03/2008

 

Failing to recycle plastic bags could find you spending eternity in Hell, the Vatican said after drawing up a list of seven deadly sins for our times.

The seven, which include polluting the environment, were announced by Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, a close ally of the Pope and the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Roman Curia's main court.

The "sins of yesteryear" - sloth, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride - have a "rather individualistic dimension", he told the Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper.

The new seven deadly, or mortal, sins are designed to make worshippers realise that their vices have an effect on others as well.

"The sins of today have a social resonance as well as an individual one," said Mgr Girotti. "In effect, it is more important than ever to pay attention to your sins."

According to Roman Catholic doctrine, mortal sins are a "grave violation of God's law" and bring about "eternal death" if unrepented by the act of confession.

They are far more serious than venial sins, which impede a soul's progress in the exercise of virtue and moral good.

Mgr Girotti said genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs were all mortal sins.  [Link]

Vaclav (is not Santa) Klaus

You've probably never heard of Vaclav Klaus, but he's President of the Czech Republic. He grew up in Soviet communist-dominated Czechoslovakia, and his Wall Street Journal article (by BRIAN M. CARNEY, March 8, 2008; Page A9) offers a unique perspective to the "global warming crisis". Here's just one of several points he makes:

He likens global-warming alarmism to communism, which he experienced first-hand in Cold War Czechoslovakia, then a Soviet satellite. While the communists argued that we must all sacrifice some freedom in pursuit of "equality," the "warmists," as Mr. Klaus calls them, want us to sacrifice liberty -- especially economic liberty -- to prevent a change in climate. In both cases, in Mr. Klaus's view, the costs of achieving the goal, and the impossibility of truly doing so, argue strongly against paying a price of freedom.
Furthermore, the fact that there has been some warming over so many years does not, by itself, prove to him that this trend will continue indefinitely. "Undoubtedly there is some warming," Mr. Klaus allows. "But there has never been no change in climate, no change in global temperatures." [Italics mine.]

Here's another:

Cost-benefit analysis and the precautionary principle "are two different methodologies, two different approaches, two different ways of thinking," he says. The less desirable precautionary principle "as used by Al Gore and all his fellow travelers" says that "if you are afraid that there are risks to something, you may prohibit everything." He continues: "This is for me absolutely unacceptable to think about."

Some of his other opinions are a bit disconcerting but, as I said, he does have a different perspective. One very telling point he makes is that "Russia is more free now than in any time in its 2,000 years of history. So to speak about dictatorship is misusing the terminology, devaluing the terms that we use." I'm not sure I completely agree with that, but his is very definitely a non-American (but not anti-American) perspective. Interesting!
--Cliff

HillorObamaCare

Anyone who thinks they want the "single-payer" health care system advocated by Hillary Clinton or B. Hussein Obama needs to watch this 5-minute video.

Zombies

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." 
                                                            ~ e.e.cummings

Loch Ness Monster--victim of global warming

Gosh darn it!  I just knew it had to be global warming!

 

Legendary Nessie hunter Robert Rines is giving up his search for the monster after 37 years.   The 85-year-old American will make one last trip in a bid to find the elusive beast.   After almost four decades of fruitless expeditions, he admitted: "Unfortunately, I'm running out of age."

World War II veteran Robert has devoted almost half his life to scouring Loch Ness.  He started in 1971. The following year, he watched a 25ft-long hump with the texture of elephant skin gliding through the water.  His original trip was to help another monster hunter with sonar equipment and quickly identified large moving targets.  He was smitten and returned the next year, which is when, he says: "I had the misfortune of seeing one of these things with my own eyes."   Since then, he has been obsessed with tracking down the creature with a staggering array of hi-tech equipment. It was this gear that took the famous "flipper" picture that year which created a stir around the world.

Despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has since gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming.

[link]

 

 

McCain for President!!!

A lot of my favorite conservatives are acting like improvised explosive devices because John McCain will apparently be the Republican nominee for president. Some are threatening to sit out the election--or even vote for Hillary--because of their hatred for McCain. To paraphrase a 1795 protest against John Jay, they want to

Damn John McCain! Damn everyone that won't damn John McCain! Damn every one that won't put lights in his window and sit up all night damning John McCain!

Two months ago I might have felt the same way about sitting out this election, but as the big day looms I'm returning to my senses. The big difference here is that in 1795 we weren't threatened with a Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Hussein Obama presidency. With Barack or Hillary there's no hope they'd get anything right, and in 4 or (God forbid) 8 years they could damage the country permanently.

McCain isn't always wrong, and there's at least some chance that he'll do a few good, big, things...like veto some spending bills, nominate decent judges, cut taxes, and (most importantly) win the war.

John McCain isn't the problem. The problem is a primary system that eliminates most of the candidates before most of the country even gets a chance to vote. I'd like to see a class-action lawsuit against Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida. By moving their primaries ahead of "Super Tuesday" they effectively disenfranchised over 90% of the population. Now that's who we need to be mad at! Where's a good lawyer when you need one?

McCain for President!!!

Sen. Kerry Blames Tornados on Global Warming

Former Democratic presidential nominee blames 'intense storms' that have killed more than 50 on climate change. [Link]

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I’ve heard that the unusually colder weather much of the world is experiencing is also due to global warming. I suppose the lower than usual hurricane activity last season also was due to global warming, just as the higher than usual activity was the previous year. Talk about convenient! It doesn’t matter what happens, just blame it on global warming!

Character

Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process.

- Phillips Brooks (1835 –1893), noted clergyman and author

Republican debate

I hate to say it, but in my opinion Huckabee easily won the debate tonight.  Part of that was due to McCain dragging Romney down into a stupid argument about "timetables".  Lois almost came unglued.  I think she'll vote for Hillary now before she'd ever vote for McCain.  Even Ron Paul came off better than McCain, except for his dumb isolationism.  Huckabee definitely had the best (smoothest?) answers, but I'm afraid all he's going to do is split the conservative vote with Romney and hand the nomination to McCain. 

Sex: work vs. pleasure

The Commanding Officer of a Marine regiment was about to start the morning briefing to his staff and Battalion and Company Commanders. While waiting for the coffee machine to finish it's brewing, he decided to pose a question to all assembled. He explained that his wife had been a bit frisky the night before and he failed to get his usual amount of sound sleep. He posed the question of just how much of sex was "work" and how much of it was "pleasure"?

The X.O. chimed in with 75% vs. 25% in favor of work.

A Captain said it was 50 – 50%.

The Colonel's Aide, a Lt., responded with a 25-75% in favor of pleasure, depending on his state of "inebriation" at the time.

There being no consensus, the Colonel turned to the PFC who was in charge of making the coffee. What was HIS opinion?

With no hesitation, the very young PFC responded: "Sir, it has to be 100% pleasure".

The Colonel was surprised and asked why?

"Well, Sir," began the PFC, "if there was any work involved the Officers would have me doing it for them."



God Bless the United States Marine Corps.

Gas pipeline rupture

This picture shows what happens when a 30" natural gas pipeline, operating at over 900 psi, ruptures and ingnites. It happened on I-20 near Delhi, Louisiana, on Dec.14, 2007. It's interesting to me because as a Gas Controller about 20 years ago I operated this line. Fifty years ago my Dad helped build it.

photo by Clay Cooper III

Whose abortion "rights"?

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters.

The mailer says that seven times during his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, while Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents. [link]

Read that last line one more time...Barack Obama "voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive."

And Hillary Clinton is criticizing his record on "abortion rights." How could anyone vote for either one of these people?

Cold spell soon to replace global warming

MOSCOW. (Oleg Sorokhtin for RIA Novosti) – Stock up on fur coats and felt boots! This is my paradoxical advice to the warm world.   Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases.
…Carbon dioxide is not to blame for global climate change. Solar activity is many times more powerful than the energy produced by the whole of humankind. Man’s influence on nature is a drop in the ocean.  [link]

Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute.