Science, Politics, Climate Change

Occam’s Razor, the Null Hypothesis, and Anthropogenic Global Warming | Power Line:

Fairly short and very much on the mark to those few still willing to look at science as opposed to politically popular views of "Global Warming" or "Climate Change".

Indeed, "Climate Change" IS true, always has been true and always will be true, it is just that to date, there is no evidence that humans play a part in it.

I love this quote from Feynman. It also doesn't matter how many people support the guess, or even how willing they are to call the people that don't support the guess "anti-science, stupid, etc".

“In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right. Then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with experiment or experience; compare it directly with observation, to see if it works.

It’s that simple statement that is the key to science. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong.”

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The End of the Worst Recovery in History??

Is the Worst Recovery In History Coming to an End? | Power Line:

To the extent that the MSM covers the negative economic growth in the 4Q of 2012 at all, it is "stunning", "surprising", etc.

Huh?? Do they really believe their own BS that much??? There is no way that this would have EVER have been called ANYTHING but at least a recession if a Republican was in the WH I guarantee you this would be a DEPRESSION, and I have irrefutable evidence  (see http://bilber99.blogspot.com/2008/10/part-of-history-that-won-get-told.html)

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Can We All "Progress" to be Chicago??

Teen who performed at Obama inaugural events shot dead in Chicago - CNN.com:

Detroit was once the shining bright star of the leftist "progressive" policies in this country. California, Illinois and cities like Chicago, DC, and NYC are at today's vanguard.

All are violent, all are broke, all are corrupt.

Chutzpah. It is either that or rank malice and/or stupidity that makes CNN, the American elite and the Democrat party blather on about how we all need to be "more like them". Chicago and the state of Illinois ALREADY HAVE one of the most draconian gun control policies in the nation. It also vies for the murder capitol of the nation along with DC, NYC and any of the other heavily gun controlled cities. When they get the just desserts of their policies and their people are indiscriminately dying like flies, what is there "solution"? Misery loves company!

Illinois turns out brilliant politicians like Barak Obama and Rahm Emanuel. Jessie Jackson Jr, and a string of governors that know what it is to eat from a tin tray. Look at the results!!!

Violent, Bankrupt and Corrupt. The actual results and appropriate motto for the "progressive" movement in this nation.

Oh, and is there a good word for the "blame everything and everyone else" mentality in leadership and the media?? The best I can come up with is "feckless". Insanity is good as well. Their policies produce the exact opposite of their stated objectives, and yet it is NEVER the fault of their policies!!!

Definition of insanity: Doing the same things and expecting different results.

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Is Fox a Hedgehog?

Is Fox Actually a Hedgehog? | Power Line:

Excellent little critique of Fox that I wholeheartedly agree with. I find a lot of Fox News very hard to watch for exactly the reasons that they point out.

I also very much miss Firing Line, and am utterly amazed at how quickly the censorship views of "liberals"  come out when they are faced with diversity of thought!

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Krauthammer, GOP Strategy

Charles Krauthammer: A new strategy for the GOP - The Washington Post

I think Charles calls this pretty well. My view is that the country is toast at this point for a good long while, if no permanently.  '14 is a likely Dem pickup in the House because the R's will still be "in blame range" for sure.

Likely odds, things are going to still suck in '14 -- Try to block, R fault, don't try to block, STILL R fault ... could have done MORE!!

Outside chance things get better, certainly "all BO, in spite of R's".

Bottom line is that you can't govern with just the House as Charles says.

The VERY best that can be done is to make it clear that D's haven't done so much as pass a budget out of the Senate since '09 which they are LEGALLY MANDATED TO DO. Ho hum, our MSM could care less about a D breaking the law.

Little tiny symbolic message things are about the best that can be accomplished. It is a sad state of affairs, but things have to get MUCH worse now before there is even a tiny prospect of them getting better!

Naturally the far right will see this as a betrayal and it will increase their desire to push candidates that won't win and fail to vote for what they see as the WAY too "RINIOish" R establishment.

In many ways I agree with their sentiments, I just don't see that strategy as doing anything helpful either short or long term except possibly making a few far righties "feel better". However I strongly doubt if even that is true. No matter what is done, they will see it as "not enough". They are like the "stimulus, spend / regulate" folks except from the opposite side!

A Lost Civilization

An Image of a Lost Civilization: Why? | Power Line:

When I was in school in the 60's, we also took our guns to school. To work on them in shop class, or as we got to driving age, because we were headed out hunting after school. School shooting? We had never even imagined such a thing.

My view of "why" is that in the interest of supposed "liberty", we destroyed that civilization and it is indeed lost. The book "The Closing of the American Mind" details it very well, but the simple version is that on every front -- from religion, to manners, to civility, to fidelity, decency, responsibility, propriety, decency, etc, we simply trashed our civilization.

We have continued our decline with a slight pause in the '8os, and now we are clearly the bankrupt and corrupt, dying husk of what was once a great civilization.


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AR Ban EXPIRATION 10x Better Than Australian Gun Ban!!

Should the U.S. adopt Australia's strict gun laws? | Intellectual Takeout (ITO)

Really? Well no, not factually, but only in the same sense that the MSM commonly uses to mislead Americans on gun crime.

Short, sweet, and the graph pretty much ends the gun debate for people that are thinkers vs feelers.

The murder rate in the US is higher than the Australian murder rate! Sure, banning guns cut down on GUN MURDERS, but do you REALLY find it preferable to just be murdered by another means?? (and not have the option to use a gun to protect yourself?)

And to the REPUBLIC!!

NRA's paranoid fantasy flouts democracy - CNN.com:

Why do we have a 2nd Amendment? Well, one reason is because some people live in a "paranoid fantasy".

These people talk a lot about liberty and freedom and love to call themselves patriots, but they seem to have a real problem with democracy. In a democracy, if people are proposing a law you don't like, you criticize it, you argue against it, you campaign against it, you vote against the politicians who support it. But if you believe in democracy, you don't threaten to start killing people if it passes. You don't say that if you don't like a new law, you'll start an insurrection to overthrow the government.

Uh, the US is a REPUBLIC, explicitly NOT a Democracy!! In a REPUBLIC, where there is rule of law rather than rule of mob. Things like the 2nd Amendment are ONLY to be changed via the CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROCESS!! "Voting on it" is NOT an option!!

This is on CNN. Don't these people have editors?? Before you start calling people "paranoid, extremist  etc", wouldn't it be wise to at least know the system of government of the country you live in??!!  If not, then how "paranoid" is it for someone to believe that they are going to need to use force to protect the rights that the REPUBLIC that they pledge allegiance to guarantees IN SPITE OF MAJORITY THINKING when a significant numer of our "elite" don't even have enough of a clue to know what our system of government actually is??


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Pumping In IA 2012

Being retired means not having any good excuses for being "late", so I won't offer any. I'm not late! I got to it when I got to it and that is just the way it is!

Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took during my 5 weeks of learning a lot more respect for the guys that make sure we can keep having bacon, ham, ribs and sausage for our pizza!




Here are a few movies of pumping and application operations shot during the fall.

Proudly Gun Free!

Not quite that proud… | Power Line:

Hmmm, OK, maybe not. Is it REALLY surprising that although the left wants to tell everyone else that THEY ought to be "gun free", they aren't so keen on the idea themselves??

I'm CERTAIN that criminals will obey the laws. Look how good a job they do on drugs, drunk driving, tax evasion, etc.

If Democrats demanded that their cabinet folks paid their taxes, a Democrat president could never field a cabinet at all!

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Why "Fake Founders Gun Quotes Matter"

Did Jefferson really say that? Why bogus quotations matter in gun debate - CNN.com

Why does the MSM do this type of a column? I can think of no other reason that to have the headline give the impression that many quotes from the Founders on guns are fake and DO matter.

However, if you actually read it, it only really tries to debunk a single quote, and even for that one it points out that there is conflicting information and that he quote is in fact in line with Jefferson's clear position on guns. It also points out:

Stephen Halbrook, an attorney and author of the book "The Founders' Second Amendment," said he doesn't understand why someone would want to use a fake quotation.
"For years I've seen bogus quotes on gun issues in the Internet," he said. "Since the Founding Fathers were so positive on Second Amendment rights, I couldn't understand why anyone would feel compelled to invent quotes."
Halbrook said Jefferson was a big supporter of the right to own firearms.

OK, so most of the "fake quotes" are in line with the Founders thinking, and for the supposed "many" fakes (one possible "fake" is listed), there are many more available than are real. 

So is the conclusion of the article that fake quotes don't really matter because they in  fact convey what the founders said, only in a shorter version? Maybe, that would be a logical conclusions of just reading the whole thing. They just don't say. 

So my view is that the purpose is to make it seem that there are a lot of REALLY fake quotes out there that mislead people on what the intent of the Founders actually was, when in fact by their own admission the supposed fakes are NOT misleading, and the ONE they point out is very accurate in actual meaning. 

So the article is simply a head fake. 

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"Assault Rifle" NOT used in Newtown Shooting!!!

TODAY: Investigation is very complex

OK, this has been known since the middle of December???!!!  Wouldn't one think that it might get just a BIT more coverage if there was ANY interest in FACTS vs PROPAGANDA???

Day by day I become more and more amazed at just how mislead we are as a people. Without some tiny shred of objective reporting, it is completely impossible for us to govern ourselves, and it becomes more and more clear that that is the agenda of the BO government and the MSM.

The Truth Is Eternal

We are raising a generation of deluded narcissists | Fox News

Good column, unfortunately it is RAISED, not "raising" -- we are neck and neck with Europe on kids living at home,  depression, suicide and general meaninglessness in life. There is plenty of research that shows that Western Culture had it right for at least 500 years, but we decided to blow it and "start over" in the 20th Century and especially post WWII.

The train to oblivion runs on -- but after the crash, as in after the Dark Ages, there will be a decent chance that the requirement for Religion, Philosophy, Dialectic, Rhetoric ... manners, culture, responsibility and actual vs imagined personal growth. Probably only a few hundred or at worst few thousand years of despair to get back on our feet. The next Ice Age will pretty much guarantee a "reset" on a lot of "modern wisdom".

Distractions, however, are temporary, and the truth is eternal. Watch for an epidemic of depression and suicidality, not to mention homicidality, as the real self-loathing and hatred of others that lies beneath all this narcissism rises to the surface. I see it happening and, no doubt, many of you do, too.

Frog of Freedom Boils On

We Are the 98 Percent — The American Magazine

Good article on the continuing slide to greater bankruptcy and socialism. The election is over, some folks from the left are starting to make noises that it is time to move to a wee bit more reality based approach. We are broke, taxing the rich won't do anything to fix it, and if you are a "Progressive", you don't believe that government can spend less -- thus, sharpen up those tax knives and start going after the rest of the folks!

Surprisingly, many progressive pundits are moving away from their traditional complaint that America’s tax code is too regressive, favoring the rich. They are starting to tell us, albeit only after an election mainly contested on these issues, the truth: to fund the European-style social welfare state which they advocate, we must tax everyone more.

I'd argue that we are already at the point discussed in the next paragraph -- people have been suitably brainwashed to believe that there is really no potential for anything but a european style socialist system in the "modern world". "Give us our STUFF!!". 

What happens historically when benefits are bestowed without a bill also coming due is that we get hooked on them. Then, even when they become disasters not worth their cost, people are terrified to change them, as giving something up is indeed quite frightening

Political Storms

Mona Charen: Democrat Hurricanes versus Republican Hurricanes | WashingtonExaminer.com

Why is everything so political? Mostly because the MSM makes it so -- each "event" is a chance to create the mood in the public that the MSM feels is "right".

It turns out that big storms are ALWAYS bad if you are in the path of the storm -- Katrina, Sandy, etc.  BUT, for those that don't experience the storm, how it is viewed is more a function of how it is reported that the reality that "storms always suck".

So, for Katrina .... in a city below sea level, hit with an ACTUAL Cat 5 hurricane, with terrible local and state preparedness, ANY level of problem was INSTANTLY "Bush's fault".  Fighting 2 wars after 9-11 didn't really take Bush down, it was actually the reporting of Katrina that did him in.

Sandy wasn't even a hurricane technically, it dropped below Cat 1 before it came ashore, and the Feds were no better than they were in Katrina -- staging foul ups, red tape, looting, etc. Same stuff as Katrina, **BUT** the reporting was all positive -- INSTANTLY. Bloomberg apparently believed the press and thought he would just run the NY Marathon anyway, until his folks let him know that bodies still needed to be recovered and millions were still without power, heat, water etc. Who knew??? Wasn't a story worthy to be reported.

So the vast majority of the people just listen to the MSM story and the country continues to sail to destruction while whistling happily.