70% Think Things Are Bad

Poll: 70 percent in U.S. say things are going badly - CNN.com

Last night I heard on NPR that "some economists say this may be a mild recession". That is pretty interesting in a week in which we discovered that the economy GREW by .6 in the last quarter and that unemployment DROPPED with a loss of only 20K jobs rather than the predicted 80-100K.

I also watched the movie of "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand last night, where Gail Wynand states that "The masses will believe whatever I tell them". NPR and the polls show that Ayn was right on that front. One of the reasons that "Bush is a bad President" is because this is his SECOND recession! The problem is, that if we used numbers and facts as a measure, CLINTON handed Bush a recession as he took office and Bush presided over a hugely difficult RECOVERY that included 9-11 and ONE QUARTER of drop in GDP - which, if we believed numbers, wouldn't be a recession at all.

We haven't had ANY quarters of decline in GDP yet this time, so by the numbers, this "recession" isn't a recession. BUT, thanks to "the masses believing whatever the MSM tells them", 70% say "things are bad". Most people are drawn to being in agreement with the majority, and the idea that one needs to think critically and use your own mind is a dangerous idea to those that seek collective power. It is also the founding idea of this country and what has historically made us special and great. The individual freedom that makes us special is NEVER "free" however. It requires a significant number of people to stand up for principles that are NOT going to be popular with "the masses".

Say it Isn't So

More signs the world isn't ending - May. 2, 2008

Wow, available on CNN by just linking off the main page. UNBELEIVEABLY, the econonomy isn't as bad as the MSM and the Democrats have been saying!!! As the title says, the world actually doesn't seem to be ending. Even with what we have been told over and over again is just a horrible President and record high oil prices, we seem to be narrowly avoiding a recession (even though the MSM and the Democrats have told us over and over we are IN one). This is INCREDIBLE? I wonder if that means that there might be other things that the MSM is wrong about? Nah, can't be, those folks are just too intelligent to make more than one mistake every century or so.

Since we are on AMAZING revelations from the MSM, I'm still confused as to how it was obvious that Bush went into Iraq for oil, but the prices have just kept going up? Was it sort of like the WMD, eveyone thought that Iraq had oil but it turned out that they really didn't? I mean, I know he led us in there "all on lies" for SOME reason - and I thought at one time I had it straight that he was "lying about WMD to get oil". Since I always believe the MSM, I've been waiting for all that cheap oil that we were going to be getting out of Iraq since that was the real reason we went in there.

I'm generally a red state kind of guy, so not very bright, I'm sure they will be explaining it to me soon.

Nasty Right Wing Bloggers

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Blogger targets Al Franken in Minnesota Senate race « - Blogs from CNN.com

If Al Franken has some problems following laws and paying taxes, what does the MSM think is the interesting part of the story? Well, how and why in the world would anyone be out there even be looking into Dear Al's life at all? Isn't he a Democrat?

Those nasty Right Wing Bloggers-who are they, and why do they do the evil they do? Of course there is no such phenomenon on the left. Right? On The Daily KOS, todays top blog item is

CNN Raises the Traitor Bar; Rush Limbaugh Longs For Riots; Popular GOP Surrogate Suggests Murder

Oh, but I'm sure those are 100% factual with no left wing bias that would rival anything on the right, that is why the MSM doesn't find bloggers like the KOS, Huffington Post and a host of others to be anything that needs to be "outed"--even though they are well financed by George Soros and other wealthy lefties, that is COMPLETELY different from what happens on the right!

Cynicism aside, isn't it amazing how fast folks on the left are into "sticking to the issues" when it is an Obama, Franken, Clinton, or other Democrat that has a tax, minister, poor wording, woman, or other problem. How different it is when it is Bush National Guard record, Cheney working for Halliburton, something said by someone that contributed to Bush, or a host of other things. In the MSM / Democrat mind of course, when it applies to a Republican it IS a "real issue". The natural assumption is that any Republican MUST either be very foolish or have poor character, since anyone of average intelligence that cared for people at all would CERTAINLY be a Democrat. From the "MSM, University, Hollywood, Music (except maybe Country), Popular Culture" view, that is "just the way it is".

Once one sees the world like the vast majority of folks in media, entertainment and education, it is VERY important to make use of whatever can be used to "educate/help" the "foolish and misguided people" that don't follow the popular culture view of "the way things are".

They are really just doing their best to help a foolish and nasty soul like myself or this other evil blogger. It is really sad that nature just didn't give Mooses a few extra brain cells!

Finally California Pictures

Ok, I'm a bit behind schedule, but I've finally organized a set of shots from our trip to California the first week of April.

Recession ?

The following is a quote from Wikipedia on the 2000-2003 recession:

The U.S. economy shrank in three non-consecutive quarters in the early 2000s (the third quarter of 2000, the first quarter of 2001, and the third quarter of 2001). According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which is the private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization charged with determining economic recessions, the U.S. economy was in recession from March 2001 to November 2001, a period of eight months. However, economic conditions did not satisfy the common shorthand definition of recession, which is "a fall of a country's real gross domestic product in two or more successive quarters," and has led to some confusion about the procedure for determining the starting and ending dates of a recession.

It is important to point out that this group is NON-PARTISAN, because the historical definition of a recession is a 2 Quarter fall in GDP. We HAD that definition in the 4Q of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001, with Bush taking office during 1Q 2001. It must have been important for SOMEONE (non-partisan though I'm sure they were) to change the historic definition, so the "recession" started AFTER Bush took office and lasted during months of growth and REMAINED a "recession" even though there was only a single quarter of retraction in GDP, and that as after 9-11. Funny how non-partisan some folks are.

Anyone that listens to the MSM KNOWS that we are in a recession now, only the complete fool Bush won't admit the obvious. So, how do they report the fact that they are wrong and Bush right?

Like This: "Sluggish Growth Disappoints White House" There is a little baiting of the WH spokesperson to see if they can get Bush to "gloat" over the fact that the economy is not in recession, and thus point out how proud they are of the power of the MSM as everyone would disagree with him. In this case, most people "believe" that we either are in, or are sliding into a recession.

Nobody should be happy about .6% growth, but it is better than nothing and better than actually being in a recession. When it was the close of the Clinton presidency and we were living though the stock market crash of 2K and slipping to what became a REAL recession at the 4Q of the last year of Billy C's term that continued into 1Q of Bush's term, it was hard tell from looking at the MSM that there was anything wrong. Now it is hard to look at the MSM and tell that there is anything right. Oh, I forgot, just like "NBER", the MSM is UNBIASED!

Pay No Attention to Any Cooling

or that man behind the curtain either (Wizard of Oz)

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide - Ocean Cooling to Briefly Halt Global Warming, Researchers Say

While the MSM is quick to point out at any signs of warm temps -- record highs, warm spells, hurricane's, etc that only complete fool could see those and not realize the planet is warming, this requires slightly more sophistication. Paying attention to what you experience is important when it agrees with the "proper world view", but when your experience and the "proper world view" don't align, then it is obviously your experience that should be ignored.

The Leibniz study, co-written by Noel Keenlyside, a research
scientist at the institute, will be published in the May 1 issue
of the journal Nature.

``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.''

So there you have it. When it is warmer, that is caused by humans, when it is cooler, it is a "natural fluctuation". The bottom line is that no matter how cold it may be, that is no reason to believe that warming isn't a problem! You just have to "run the model longer". Simple.

Democrat New Direction Car

Here is the Presidential Car designed by the Hillary and Obama staffs based on the messages that they have been presenting for a "new direction".

Is Democrat Hypocrisy Possible?

The Yiddish term "chutzpah" comes to mind. This is a guy for whom the terms "hypocrite", "criminal", "butt boy", and "Big Fat Idiot" have seethed off his mouth with regularity in books, speeches, and public appearances. If there was ever a Democrat that was throwing stones constantly, Franken is it. He is pretty close to the left equivalent of Ann Coulter, although not nearly as good looking, and with a lot less wit in his insults.

So here are some quotes from the latest Strib article.

In total Franken said he under paid taxes by just over $4,000.

"Franni and I have paid state and federal taxes on every cent of our income," he said, referring to his wife. "Franni and I believe in paying state and federal taxes on all our income."

Franken said he would not release his income tax returns for those years. He said he has filed for an extension on his 2007 taxes.

Man, it is REALLY nice that they BELIEVE in paying taxes! Oddly, for the rest of us it is a LAW, but for a Democrat it is really much more than that!! Abortion is their main sacrament, but high taxes are something that is a key tenet of their "government as god" religion. It is more than just the tithe of worship at the government altar - while the creator of the universe is willing to sneak by with 10%, the Democrat god demands by law rates of 30, 40, 50% and over when state, federal, FICA, etc taxes are counted. While God has been willing to stick with his number for thousands of years, the Democrat god of government shows no sign of satiation. For the rest of us, not paying taxes is a CRIME, but I suppose since it is their church, Democrats get Grace there!

Oh, BTW, since Al has a "belief" in this area, he doesn't need to release the information on his taxes! Even HILLARY finally released her taxes ... that is how we know that her and Billy made $109 million since they left the White House. I guess Franken has just done such a good job with taxes since 2003, when we KNEW he wanted to run for the Senate that we really should want to trust him.

"I trusted this to a professional," Franken said of his accountant. Franken said he had hired someone to research his record -- typical for statewide candidates -- but that the researchers had not yet gotten to his financial records before the news broke.

Ah yes, the old "mistakes were made-by others". So Al's dodge is he hired an incompetent accountant AND an incompetent political investigator? Wow, good thing that a job as Senator doesn't involve any oversight or competence in hiring. Oops, it DOES involve that. I wonder if Al would consider this revelation to be disqualifying in a Republican? Do we really need to think about that very long?

While he was incorporated in three states -- New York, California and Minnesota -- Franken said that his company, Alan Franken Inc., was structured in such a way that it had no corporate income tax liability.

Instead, Franken said, he paid taxes through the individual income tax.

So let's be clear here - FIRST, he hired an accountant that knew how to INCORPORATE in a bunch of different states in such a way that the CORPORATION didn't owe taxes. He apparently knew that taxes were required from the states you earned the income in, but "mistakenly" thought you would "just pay those to your state of residence"? This doesn't sound fishy? Let's think of this for a second, I wonder if the Star Trib would be quite as credulous if Al was a REPUBLICAN!!

While the media doesn't like to talk about this much, corporations are great for allowing many people in a business to limit LIABILITY for poor personal financial habits of other investors in the group, and allow a business to outlive it's principles, they SUCK for taxes as a basic principle. When they have income (and they pretty much have to eventually if they are going to continue), it gets taxed TWICE! The sleight of hand to be incorporated, not have to pay taxes as a corporation, but somehow end up paying taxes as an individual is interesting twist.

It seems completely clear at this point that a Republican that was an INCUMBENT would never survive this one, and one that had never been elected would be DONE. Will the MSM be able to dig old Stuart Smalley out of this one? I guess we will just wait and see.

Master Bedroom Project

My poor wife has had to live with half of a 3x4' "pseudo walk in" closet since we moved into our current home. While our old house had none at all, the daily clothes decision for a woman in management is a difficult one that takes much more space than that. The "master" bedroom and both bathrooms next to it are still original mid '70s trim doors and fixtures and similarly small to to the closet. The change is under way.

The new plan involves an 18x24' addition that extends out over our deck that will allow a walk-in of 8x14' (much more "decision space"), improvements on both bathrooms including a steam shower for my sinuses, an air tub and a fireplace in the bedroom. Needless to say we are looking forward to completion, but in the process our son will come home from college and the 4 of us will have to live with one bath and a lot more restricted sleeping space. There are usually a few problems involved with improvement of any type.

I'll try to do some picture updates out here "weekly" during the project.

Small Smalley Tax Difficulty?

Al Franken Pays $70K in Back Taxes

Gee, seems like Franken not only doesn't pay workers comp, he also fails to pay taxes. One of the reasons that Democrats are so excited about raising taxes, even the ones that make millions of dollars, is simply because they don't pay them. Usually they have all sorts of complicated foundations and other schemes like the Kennedy's, Kerry's and such, but as good old Al shows us, there is simply "not paying them". That apparently works unless you are running for Senate and the evil Republicans look into it. I'm sure that Al thought good thoughts while not paying his own taxes, and his commitment to OTHERS paying through the nose never wavered!

Note, the media wasn't very curious about this, the Republicans had to dredge up the whole deal. Not much of that old Dan Rather "can do spirit even if we have to forge the documents" when it comes to Stuart Smalley in the MSM!

Ice Age?

I wasn't going to post anything on this at all, because I no more believe in the coming ice age than I do in Global Warming (GW) ... which means I don't DISbelieve in either one either, I'm an agnostic. I don't think we have nearly enough data to reach a conclusion given glaciation cycles that take order 10's of thousands of years. What is more, our understanding of star behavior is really jaded by our close proximity to a sample of precisely ONE.

In terms of "sensational" though, the idea of rapid expansion of the polar caps and most of the northern hemisphere under continental ice sheets ought to make it. No doubt food production would drop off precipitously as growing seasons became shorter and shorter and eventually were gone over much of our current major food growing areas. Do I believe that is likely? No, it is just what one might want to consider if they were to be close to as alarmist about another set of data than what the GW folks have had their undies in a bundle over for a long while.

Ice Age Data Article

Something a little closer to my own heart as we close to less than two weeks from the MN fishing opener. Note that the latest Mille Lacs had ice out was May 6th, which would be a week from tomorrow. It is still 100% ice covered. (lake cam here). Worse, we are making ice tonight, and the 10 day forcast for Garrison (NW corner of Mille Lacs) is all 50's by day and 30's by night until May 7th when they are supposed to hit a blistering 62. The all-time record is in danger

Here is some data from a couple of MN lakes, just to show the potential for getting the wrong impression from shorter term data. One MIGHT think that there was a BIG warm-up from '96 to 2000 ... and even do some other extrapolation and decide "it is obvious we are warming up". If one looked at over 100 years of data however, they would see that 1878 was WAY earlier (meaning warmer) and 1856 was not much cooler than '96, which would give the impression that at least on that data we had COOLED since the late 1800s. Of course 100 years of data in a data set of 10's of thousands for just ONE glacial cycle, with 10's and 100s of MILLIONS of years of data for multiple cycles is about as close to completely useless as one can get. It is "just data". Any sort of trend projected from it is just like reading the farmers almanac.

Data from MN DNR:
Mille Lacs - Avg April 24, Earliest April 2, 2000, Latest May 6,1996 (42 years of data)
Minnetonka - Avg April 11, Earliest March 11, 1878, latest May 8, 1856 (129 years of data)

There are NOT enough facts to make a decision here, but we know that the best data we have says that the planet has a N hemisphere ice age bias in this land mass configuration. "On average", most of the US is under a sheet of ice, as is Europe for the last 40 million years or so. We are actually IN an "ice age" because there are polar caps. Supposedly the previous case with ice caps was 430-460 years ago, so there was something like 400 million years of "global warming" prior to our current "ice age". This may indicate that it is possible for the planet to warm and cool on it's own, but you can draw your own conclusions about human intervention 400 or even 40 million years ago. Suffice to say we have no tracking data on Mille Lacs from those times, and I have no idea what the fishing regulations were even a mere 40 million years ago.

Range Time SP100 First Outing

It hit 50 yesterday so I went out to the range mostly to test out the new Ruger SP100 pistol. The pics above are of my personally customized little 35 year old Ruger 10/22 however. I mounted a Nikon 2-7x scope that I was thinking of using for deer last fall on it and a custom folding pistol grip stock from Midway. I spent a little time dialing it in and then did a 25 yard fairly rapid fire at the bulls eye with 25 rounds in a magazine. Not a lot of center left, really fun little gun. Sort of a "mini assault rifle".

I don't have any targets that impressive with the SP100, but I throughly enjoyed putting 150 rounds of mixed .38, .38+P and .357 Mag through it. I feel as confident as the .9mm XD right out of the box with it, and I'm having the same "low side of target" shooting problem with the SP100 as I do with the XD, so it seems certain that we are talking "operator error". I'm anticipating the shot. Both .38 and +P are a joy to shoot with the heft of the gun and the grip size, and while .357 isn't a "joy", it certainly can be done without much pain, although I suspect that it will be more of a novelty unless I decide to pack it along on a hike in black bear / mountain lion country. It seems like .38+p is one heck of a solid self defense round.

No buyers remorse whatsoever, one simply MUST have at least one revolver, and .357 mag with all the versatility of rounds available seems the obvious choice. Having shot the GP100 with a 6" barrel vs my 2" barrel, it is clear that for accuracy on targets the 6" is a big advantage, but the ability to easily carry concealed with the SP100 seems worth the trade-off to me. Great little gun.

OH ... Bama, Musically

Pretty creative and fun to watch. Since it seems that a lot of the "creative class" has a liberal bent, the vast majority of weeknight comedy shtick, music and other "popular arts" tend to be far over to the left, increasing that view that to be "smart and hip" is to be liberal.

The vast majority is still there, but the web lets the "2nd string" get involved as well.

MSM Does It's Job with McCain

I've often said that if the MSM treated Democrats the same as Republicans, they would be doing a great job. McCain has supported campaign finance measures that I believe are completely wrong headed in the first place and at least ought to be unconstitutional. Of course, the press loved McCain and Feingold being "bi-partisan" on Campaign Finance Reform (CFR).

While it is impossible for a Democrat to by a hypocrite in the MSMs eyes though, the same is not true of a Republican. The NYT goes out of their way to point out McCain actions that are against the "spirit" of reforms that he supported. Should he be held to a higher standard after getting the accolades of supporting CFR? Sure--how about Al Gore on the environment, Bill Clinton on sexual harrassment, and virtually every wealthy Democrat in office relative to taxation? Most DEFINITELY!! As it is, McCain will pay the price for his relatively minor hypocracy, while BO and Hillary will blather about all sorts of "taxing the rich" while they hold and add to their millions and avoid those taxes via clever loopholes, and the MSM and it's millions of sheep won't even be the least bit cognizant of the double standard.


CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com

Financial Franken Questions

Hey, the Strib is at least CARRYING some of the information.

He is a quote from his campaign manager that I love:

"Al spent the week doing an economy tour of the state," Barr said,
adding "We're not hearing about this except from the Republican Party.
..."

Golly, the MSM doesn't seem willing to go out and do any digging on a Democrat Senate candidate, that is certainly something unique! Obama attended an anti-American anti-white church for 20 years and nobody in the MSM thought that was a news story during his Senate race - If Hillary hadn't brought it up it STILL wouldn't be news. It is only for Republicans they are willing to really go the extra mile and forge documents to try to defeat them.

Apparently a lot of the reason that Al is in favor of high taxes and a lot of business regulation is because even though he makes a lot of money and is a small businessman, he just doesn't bother to pay the taxes or follow the regulations. Why should he? He knows he is a nice guy, and those taxes and regulations are there to keep the evil Republicans in line, not to bother a great guy like Al!