Science, Humanism, Religion, Culture, Romney

MSNBC host apologizes after panel makes fun of Romney photo with black grandchild – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs:

Schadenfreude - pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

Science has actually "proven" what we all already know (by brain scans and tricky questionnaires with eye movement / etc) . People are ALL prejudiced in MANY ways, and especially prejudiced to our own perspective. We like our family better, our group better, our race, our religion, our sports team, our type of car .... and on and on. One hopes they didn't spend to much on studying this, it is sort of like proving that men like to look at female bodies. Prejudice is built into our systems because it was, and to most degreed still is, extremely adaptive since it lets us simplify (sometimes OVERsimplify) a very complex world so we limited brain creatures can deal with it.  

Humanists like to revel in PARTS of  human nature. They love to reward sloth, they seriously love many forms of sexual perversion and drugs are absolutely wonderful. They hate prejudice against certain groups (Gays, Muslims, Blacks), but rather like it against Christians, Conservatives, and "stupid people". Oddly, this latter seems to actually extend to the mentally handicapped, as in the case of Sarah Palin's son Trig, whom they really enjoyed calling a "retard". 

Even a very amateur psychologist can see the problem with the Palin - Trig or Romney's black grandbaby case. The abject hatred of Palin / Romney washes over to their offspring, so the "humanists" say what comes to their mind. 

The true mark of "Progressives / Humanists" is INconsistency without concern, and a major part of the reason for that is that their creed demands they go against features that God gave them. For example, the Muslim religion demands their women run around in burkas and it's objective is for the whole world to live under Sharia Law in a global Muslim state.Violence being used to achieve this is encouraged and even demanded. The marrying of girls less than 10 years old is allowed,  gays are to be put to death (burning, stoning, or throwing from a high place are suggested) ...  to name a few things that you would assume that "liberals" would certainly find abhorrent. 

They do not. Islam activates their "pluralist mode", and they become giddy over things like Keith Ellison being elected the first Muslim in the US House, and the liberal mayor of Boston is fine with helping Muslims get a new Mosque, but goes nuts over Chick-fil-A.

When something like the black Romney grandbaby shows up, they act like humans, which humans tend to do from time to time, no matter what the strictures. Orwell understood the "humanist / progressive / statist / collectivist / liberal" impulses maybe best of all.  When you listen to a "liberal", just think of the exact opposite of what they are saying. When they say "liberal", they mean "everyone must be FORCED to think EXACTLY like me" ... only since they are completely inconsistent (man's natural state), that is more than a bit of a mess. 

A humanist HATES the truly natural (God given) human characteristics. Thus heterosexual drives are highly suspect, and normal teen interactions that could have formerly been handled by a good slap become "criminal sexual harassment", while same sex practices that are wired into the brain to be cringe-worthy are supposed to be celebrated. The book "The Righteous Mind" (written by a liberal scientist) pretty much proves (via brain scans) that even when "liberals" are celebrating those gay kisses, their brains are saying "yuck!" very loudly, 

"One of these things is not like the other things" is pretty much done by the snake brain inside our larger brains. If we are constantly on conscious guard, we MAY be able to avoid "saying the wrong thing", but we WILL think it ... at least for a few 10's of thousands of years, even if we make sure that people that notice differences in race are instantly removed from the gene pool. Ideally along with their offspring, if we want this to go away any time in the next few thousand years. How much of our difference discriminator DNA has to be removed before this works, and the subsidiary question of if the resulting creature is actually "human" ... but it MAY be possible to actually modify even human "wetware" if they work very hard at it ... likely even through eugenics.

Note this DOES NOT mean that "natural human behavior" is somehow sacred, it clearly is not. That is why religion is adaptive, and one wants to be very careful as to what religion. So the modern choices in the west are "statism / materialism / scientism", Christianity, Islam, Buddhism ... etc. Right now the quoted religion is "winning" in the west,  largely because it denies being a religion.. Religion is BAD, so since a new religion is what the powers that be  are promoting, it is not a religion!

But it is. When one walks around living in an abstract model worldview inside a brain that we don't understand, that model IS the territory! We don't have a choice but to live by a whole lot of faith, because we are not running around with an objective scientific instrument behind our eyes, we are walking around with a very dimly understood  set of cells doing electro-chemical operations that seem to produce "us" ... or that ineffable part of us that we call consciousness. 

Religion formerly gave us a good way to admit that we were all flawed and to allow for forgiveness and redemption. Now days, if you are a "liberal" and you "go too far" on a Sarah Palin or a Mitt Romney attack and maybe even have some "collateral damage", you can usually apologize and it is "no harm no foul" because "your heart is in the right place". If you are a Paula Deen, or a Phil Robertson, eventually (they keep trying to find some old tape to get him on), there is often no forgiveness ... you didn't "get your mind right", so now you have to pay!

That is one of the really good things about God. He doesn't change ... so you know what to count on. Now, with the "elite" believing that they are "god" and  busily deciding on venial or mortal sins by the second via #hashtag, it is a very uncertain universe! Even though schadenfreude is a sin, it is hard not to feel a little of it when the lefties are hoist on their own petard. 

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Stop and Frisk US Economy

Liberalism and Double Standards | Power Line:

Nice short and sweet on how liberals think at 50% arrest rate for Stop and Frisk shows it is a failure! If only their economic nostrums had that kind of success rate.

The "Wants more government", "More government" picture alone is worth the click.

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If You Shot Bigfoot, You Can Keep Him

Bigfoot: Man Rich Dyer Claims He Shot and Killed Bigfoot | TIME.com:

Anyone that bought the BO line about keeping your healthcare after the government makes all sorts of new requirements on the insurance, being forced to pay for conditions that you are not going to have (like pregnancy for guys / old women), requirements for insurance even if you have pre-existing conditions, etc, ought to find this extremely believable.

Bigfoot MAY exist ... it is impossible to prove a negative! Anyone with a brain KNEW that BO was lying all along!

OK, so the guy has lied before and has a vested interest in the Bigfoot story. Uh, well? Seems way close to the BO and healthcare story!

Oh, and BO thinks the BIGGEST issue is Income Inequality! I guess we are lucky he didn't think it was Global Warming!

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Daily Beast Discovers Aristocracy

The Smartest Book About Our Digital Age Was Published in 1929 - The Daily Beast:

I haven't read Ortega, although I'm vaguely familiar with some of his thinking ... there are ALWAYS more books that need to be read!

Just from going and perusing the very short review of "The Revolt of the Masses" on Wiki, it appears that The Daily Beast may have discovered "Transcendence / Aristocracy / Conservatism" without even realizing it! As is always the case with all our puny human minds, we find an "interesting tidbit", and we shove it into our own puny worldview.

Part of why they don't realize what they are reading is because the column is pretty clear that they don't really want to say what "elite" is ... today it is just a bunch of technocrats, politicians and entertainers that have no more connection to the long arc of human culture than the most plebeian man in the street in the 1800's (and often much less)!

In the last 30 years of at least doing SOME level of reading to understand how stupid I really am about the structure of the Western Civilization that begat the computers where I made my living, the internet where I do my reading/writing  and all the nice power devices with which I travel around and enjoy myself.

Lo, the Beast has discovered that "rule by mob" is likely not benevolent because they have to idea of "up and down" in culture ... as in God, The Aristocracy, The Government, The Guilds, The local churches, etc

If there is no "Up" in a culture, if the masses are everything and in power, then the goal becomes leveling, and the "level" tends to be LOW. Science, Technology and Politics are MECHANISM! As anyone who reads this Blog is well aware, there is NO meaning in mechanism! It is MEANS, not ENDS!

Perhaps it is a good sign that folks like the Beast are slowly coming to at least dimly see the danger in the tools talking over the shed ...

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Economic Malpractice and Overmedication

Times of Oman | News :: Bernanke urges more action to cement economic recovery:

Bernanke notices that productivity growth is "disappointing".

Bernanke said that an important factor holding back the economy was "disappointing" productivity growth. "The reasons for weak productivity growth are not entirely clear," he said.
He said it may be the result of the severity of the financial crisis that tightened credit conditions, inhibiting innovation, or may reflect longer-term trends unrelated to the recession. "Obviously, the resolution of the productivity puzzle will be important in shaping our expectations for longer-term growth." 

"Not entirely clear". If he looked closer, I bet he could notice that actual economic growth is "disappointing" as well.

The BO administration has showered the US economy with all the quack economic nostrums available to man, and then thrown in a few actions guaranteed to slow the economy (higher taxes), and doggone it! The damned patient just won't do what we want it to! Human kind is PROVEN to be warming the entire planet (avoid going outside, you will freeze), CERTAINLY we can manage our own economies to be guaranteed to grow!

Hubris is the core fault, the rest just grows from there. Humans have a constant illusion of control, and when that illusion is allowed to mess with something as complicated as the US economy, the results are always bad. Higher taxes never help. Not doing things like the Keystone, and slowing development of oil resources helps keep fuel prices artificially high is a general drain on the economy (as well as hobbling a major specific industry that could provide both productivity and growth!).

Forcing through a massive partisan, poorly designed and poorly implemented health law to very uncertainly nationalize 1/7 of the economy unsurprisingly has a dampening effect on the entire economy! The fact that changes are regularly illegally decreed directly by BO with no congressional involvement is enough in itself to tell the smart money to go elsewhere but the US.

Maybe worst of all, the extension of "childhood" for US young to 26-30 by government. A HUGE amount of the truly innovative new ideas, as well as just as importantly the willingness and even blindness to the likelihood of failure, coupled with the very real opportunity to get massively rich on start up companies (see Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Nike) has severely crippled the primary engine of productivity and growth generation through innovation in this country.

I could go on forever, but the big summary is essentially the "end of American Exceptionalism". It is NFL playoff time. People WANT to believe that "their team" is exceptional!!! Guess what, one of them will be in the end, and to a lesser degree, all those that did make the playoffs are more exceptional than those that didn't!

The "Vision of BO" is that America is just another big bureaucratic entity, similar to any country in Europe, but a little behind the times ... we need to trim off more of our aggression, have a better safety net, make sure any remaining nasty capitalists are heavily taxed and muzzled so they don't criticize the benevolent government (overturn Citizens United), generally level out out population by punishing the top and rewarding the bottom. Most of all, we need to insure that our people are more docile -- get rid of the "extreme right", and the "extreme Christians"  (thankfully, often a lot of overlap here).

Once we have achieved a nice bland, non-aggressive, less competitive, pluralistic (for all but Christians and Conservatives), and most of all, economically level nation, nirvana will have been reached! (oh yes, gotta get their guns as well!)

Yes, and if one compares that to what used to be America, the innovation and growth of any sort are going to be highly "disappointing".

Well, DUH!

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Cold Fact: The Model is not Reality

The BOcare Insurance Bailout

Charles Krauthammer: Stop the bailout, now - The Washington Post:

Good column by Charles pointing out another aspect of BOcare known from the beginning, but hidden in the massive bill.

Not only will you not be able to keep the insurance plans you have now, the Insurance companies will STILL go bankrupt trying to provide what is mandated even with vastly higher rates and deductibles.

So they built a Bailout into the bill to get the Insurance Industry on board ... a bailout that you the taxpayer are on the hook for, along with your higher premiums and deductibles!

The solution if Republicans are smart enough to follow the advice, repeal the bailouts as part of the debt ceiling and let the Democrats squirm. I'm betting the Republicans are too in bed with the Insurance companies to get it done, but it would be a good idea.

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GOP Tries to Make Political Points!

GOP’s 2014 horror strategy: Exploit Americans’ misfortune, drum up fake outrage - Salon.com:

Damn those Republicans! They are using a few "false problems' WAY in the past (2013) to attempt to smear the brilliant BOcare legislation. Do we know what is in it yet? Not for employee plans, that is for sure since those were delayed by .... by ... oh, wait, King BO himself!

They’ll continue to pretend that new beneficiaries don’t exist and to solicit horror stories as if the calendar still said 2013, and will do so for as long as they sense it’s to their political advantage.

If only Republicans would step up to the plate, accept responsibility and lead strongly as BO did! There is a peach of a guy that ran on a platform, stepped into the job, and I've never heard him or his minions EVER try to dodge any responsibility by going as long as a month into the past!

W? The name has never been uttered from the WH nor in the leftist press since BO boldly stepped in and said "The Buck Stops Here". Blame Bush? Why, BO, Salon, NYT, Chuckles Schumer ... none of them would ever even think of it, Certainly never for "political purposes"!

You talk about a group of people that practice what they preach, one can only stand in complete awe of BO and the American left!


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Kirsten Powers Comes Out!

Fox News' Highly Reluctant Jesus Follower | Christianity Today:

One woman's story of being pursued and caught by the Hound of Heaven!

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Arctic Ice Free in 2013, Global Temps Rise 4-8 Degrees in Century

Report: Global temperatures to rise at least 4°C by 2100 | TG Daily:

It's fortunate that the climatologists long range predictions are becoming more accurate while their short range predictions are failing miserably. The IPCC reports show that we have had "no significant warming" in the past 15 years, and the arctic ice expanded significantly and trapped vessels this past summer. Now in the antarctic we have a research vessel trapped and 50 climate scientists being rescued. The NE of the US braces for a major winter storm in the next couple of days, and our temps here are predicted to be negative double digits for at at least one day next week.

I find the local cold temps to be especially fun. MPR has been having an every Thursday "Climate Cast" going over the effects of "Climate Change" locally here in MN (all politics is STILL local!) One of the hallmark "markers" driven home on this show is how "sub zero overnight temps are a thing of the past in MN". Indeed.

Another major topic every time we have high heat or a big storm event is "Warming and Weather Variability". While it is always carefully pointed out that those events are definite signs of GW, days like today, record low temps in Spring, Summer and Fall of 2013 seem to be non-existent on the show  ... "just weather" you know!

The credulity of your average American is absolutely stunning. It is like believing someone trying to sell you a house in '08 telling you "houses always go up in value".

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"!!!

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Happy 91 Stan Lee! (No Picture)

Stan Lee Is Now 91 Years Old | TG Daily:

The great Comic creator hits a milestone. I would have thought they would get a picture of him!

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Blame it on the 1800's

Obama To Americans: You Don't Deserve To Be Free - Forbes:

Good article pointing out some of the many fallacies in BO's economic "thought". Well worth reading, but the bottom line is that we have not had laissez-faire capitalism in over a century.

Does it work? Who knows? But it CERTAINLY isn't even REMOTELY close to what we have had in the last 100+ years! So quit blaming it!

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Corruption, Climate, Consistency

Hit piece journalism:

The first linked piece is by the eminent Thomas Sowell, who covers the fact that there are "experts" that likely have no bias beyond "that is what they think". But, given the broad range of opinions, a "supporting expert" can usually be found for virtually any position.

The 2nd aspect is that "money talks" ... private money, corporate money, and CERTAINLY Government money as well ... since the government has the deepest pockets of all, and it has a gigantic role in educational institutions where ALL of the PHDs are trained and must pass muster if they want to achieve that degree.

Is the discussion of "Human Caused Global Warming" biased? Well, certainly!! There is money on both sides, their are interests on both sides. I for one prefer a few inches more ocean level and some higher temperatures to mile thick ice sheets covering most of the food growing area on earth.

That is my personal bias, but unfortunately given the historic scientific record, I'm pretty sure that in the next thousand years or so, and possibly AT ANY TIME, we will slip back into an ice age no matter what I or the rest of mankind might prefer. Why? Because as best we know, climate has generally been much cooler and more volatile than what we have seen the last 10K years or so, and "regression to the mean" is a common phenomenon.

Given that ANY view on climate is likely to be biased, I like to search out information when I can on BOTH sides.

Here is some data that would indicate that even though the experts are always telling us to believe THEM rather than our lying eyes (and shivering bodies), there may be something to snow in May, shivering cold the last week of July, and plenty of snow and cold in Nov-Dec. http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/2013-one-of-the-ten-coldest-years-in-us-history-with-the-largest-drop-in-temperature/

Do you think NOAA has a bias? How good would it look for BO, "leading scientists", NASA, etc if it came to light that their claims of "settled science" had a lot more to do with "settled politics" than anything else? Nah, no reason at all for them to have a bias, right?

Naturally, the claim will be "that is WEATHER" ... usually accompanied with things like one being a "foolish denier", or some other crack about lack of intelligence, being a rube for the oil companies, etc, etc.

So here we have an exhibit from last summer dealing with a significant number of climate researches trapped in the ice at the NORTH Pole ... which BTW had been predicted in '08 to be "Ice Free" by '13, but instead the ice EXPANDED significantly http://bilber99.blogspot.com/2013/09/ipcc.html

Now, with nature providing no shortage of irony, we have climate scientists trapped in the ice at the SOUTH pole ... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blizzard-stops-latest-rescue-bid-for-ship-trapped-at-antarctica/

Ok, North America is cold, BOTH poles, SO WHAT! Right?

Well yes, I listen to NPR, I certainly KNOW that record hot temps, lack of cold temps and anything that can be called "changeable weather" is PROOF of Global Warming ... and anything that is record cold, early / late snow, etc, etc is "just weather".  Oh, and anyone that doesn't agree with that is certainly either poorly educated, just stupid,  or "under the influence of big oil".

We also happen to have the 112 year Mideast snow anomaly  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blizzard-stops-latest-rescue-bid-for-ship-trapped-at-antarctica/

Is any of this "proof"? Certainly not. IT IS DATA! However when people come up with labels like "Denier", and start going to great lengths to call the other guy "corrupt", I tend to smell a rat. Name people you know that are immune to corruption? If you named any, I'd suggest you look a little harder. We are ALL very prone to corruption.

Most people don't like to be called stupid ( for some reason, I rather like it, but I know that is an odd predilection). Most people like to feel that the "powers that be" have some reasonably correct handle on what is going on ... again, I don't, and I have been told this all means that I'm an "iconoclast". I've always assumed that "the experts" each know everything about nothing ... while I like to know nothing about everything! Clearly a FAR superior position!

My advice in 2014 is the same as my advice in any year. Don't believe in ANY currently breathing human. Love them, forgive them, but DON'T believe in them. They are NOT reliable! That goes quadruple for me, and unfortunately includes yourself, ESPECIALLY yourself. We are HORRIBLE at even coming close to the truth about ourselves.

Look for what is OLD. What has stood the test of time, and try your best to understand WHY it has done so ... but realize that it is way more important to know it HAS survived rather than to understand why. That is likely impossible in any case! But that is actually really good news!

Happy New Year!

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Redemption, But Not By the State

A liberal mugged by reality | Power Line:

The picture of prominent MN Democrat Mark Andrew in the linked article is a strong reminder that outsourcing good works to the state may make a lot of well off folks feel better about themselves, it does nothing to heal the souls of their adopted wards.

I find the following paragraph quite haunting:

“They’re damaged kids, and maybe they’re too far gone, but I think there’s redemption for everybody,” he said. “So we’ll try to find a way for them to get in a place where they can turn their lives around.” Prison would be perfect.

Indeed Mark, as are you, I, and "every one" in the words of Tiny Tim. Which is precisely why Christ came to the world to provide that redemption on the first Christmas, and died on a cross between two "damaged kids" that had "gone too far". One of the thieves beside him found that redemption, right there on his cross. 

No matter how much of other folks money and time Mark and his cohorts spend trying "to find a way for them to get in a place where they can turn their lives around", the issue is not a place, but a person. The person of Jesus Christ. 

Apart from Christ, there is no redemption, only further sorrow and violence. Were that not the case, the policies of the left would have made this into heaven on earth trillions of dollars ago. 
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Bowing to Pressure, A&E Cancels Duck Dynasty

Bowing to Pressure, A&E Revokes Suspension of ‘Duck Dynasty’ Star - NYTimes.com:

Oh wait, that would a case of "moral turpitude" ... er, what???

MUST the NYT tell it's readers what to think? Are they completely unable to think for themselves?

"A&E Revokes Suspension of 'Duck Dynasty' Star" would be news, the current headline is commentary.

I can only assume A&E "Bowed to pressure" from gay groups at the time they suspended Phil, but thanks to the web, we can actually see the article reporting the suspension thought that suspending him required no commentary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/business/media/phil-robertson-suspended-from-duck-dynasty.html

But reinstatement required that the NYT readers be told from liberal central how they should feel about it!

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