I Identify as Grandpa

We are born tiny and vulnerable like our new little granddaughter that I held for the first time last Monday on our 30th Anniversary. We are still the children of two parents, a man and a woman, and no matter what horrors science may imagine, the product of many miraculous processes that those of us with faith believe to be wrought by a benevolent God with a purpose in all, especially for us -- because it is a rare human that actually believes they are are not a unique special creation with a purpose.

For my granddaughter, that is true to infinity and beyond!

Our ancestry reaches back through generations of specific grandparents, great grandparents, and onward. If we just take the time since Christ, we have a bit over 2000 years divided by 20 (the usual "generation" number) -- so 100 x 2 for both ancestors. Each of our whole individual ancestry since Christ could sit in a typical church sanctuary or large college lecture hall.

That is reality as we know it -- we are products of an imperfectly known biology that includes DNA mixing over generations according to some rules of dominant and recessive along with random inputs over time -- and a lot of "unknown magic" or divine direction. We don't "identify as" what is in those genes, we ARE what was in them. It is called being. Some of us also believe that a unique and eternal spirit indwells this earthy body -- for some, "it's just stuff".

Only really being a grandparent gives the meaning to the blessing of Psalm 128:6 "May you live to see your children's children". With age also comes perspective.

One of the surprises of my life was how emotional it was to first hold our newborn children -- tears of joy came on suddenly and surprisingly. I didn't expect it -- possibly partially because the previous generations of males had largely been complete restricted from delivery rooms. Mine was the generation that it became MANDATORY. While I very much enjoyed the experience, it was one of those things that shaped me on "progress".

For having children, we "progressed" from no male that wasn't a doctor being allowed in the delivery room, to it being totally mandatory for the father to be there -- weak stomach, worried about blood, not going to deal well with your wife in pain? FORGET IT! ... you WILL be there! I grew up in a fundamentalist church -- there is absolutely no question that the "fundamentalist impulse", where if an idea is "good", it must be mandatory and if it is "bad" it must be prohibited, is totally active in all humans all the time.

Having a grandchild has convinced me yet again that whether it is divine or just "natural", it is no accident that we are strongly wired to emotionally react to being a parent/grandparent at levels that we are likely farther from really understanding psychologically and socially than we are from understanding "what is life?" biologically. The problem of our human conceit to believe that; "society/culture is "built by man", so therefore we understand it" is covered well in "The Fatal Conceit". Short answer -- a fish describing "wet" has some of the problem.

So our culture has been killing marriage, the stable family, having children and families staying together so the birth grandparents know the birth offspring for so long that we have lost touch with what is really "divinely/naturally the way of life".  In or efforts to "make it better" have we again managed to obscure one of the greatest joys of life, much more available to most than other "peak experiences"?

We have celebrated the single parent, the blended family, etc so much for so long that we have somewhat  lost sight of what is the true / good / best / normal / spiritual  that life can offer. It as if seeing a video of mountains or the ocean became the standard of REALLY seeing them because "not EVERYONE gets to REALLY see the mountains or the ocean, so it ISN'T FAIR to celebrate actually seeing them!".

Only it **IS FAIR**! In fact, denying the joy of real mountains, oceans, sunsets, redwoods, glaciers, etc, etc doesn't make it better for those that are unable to experience them first hand, it makes it WORSE for all! None of us can experience everything possible first hand -- nor would we want to -- say skydiving, free climbing, handling poisonous  snakes, swimming with sharks, etc. When we see the "downside" in something, we are rather happy to have "The Crocodile Hunter" tell us all about it, but ALL of our experience is limited, not just the stuff we are scared of.

One only has to be a grandparent for a little bit and "the club" opens up -- it is one of those "circles of life". You have to "know to know". All the feelings and stories come tumbling out of the other grandparents because "now it is OK to share" -- otherwise it would have  been "bragging". It is as if mountains were kept nearly secret because discussing how cool they are would be somehow wrong.

We deal with all manner of limitations -- some of us can't have kids, for some of us, life doesn't work out so it can happen. Some of us are in wheelchairs, some of us are blind, some of us just have next to no athletic ability (me), YET, for some reason we are all very willing to celebrate Curry, James, Rodgers, etc. Their experience INCREASES our experience -- as it should.

Certainly, we should ALSO celebrate whatever adjustments can be made -- wheel chair Olympics, eyeglasses, adoption, blended families, etc, but we ought never make color blindness "normal". That doesn't make anyone's life better, but rather diminishes us all. Seek the purest and best blessings and celebrate them -- and always be thankful for even the paintings of mountains as well.

May you see real mountains, real oceans, and may you live to see your children's children!

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The Virtuous Cycle of Poverty For The Party

Suburbs and the New American Poverty - The Atlantic:

I learned something new while doing a little research on projections for future traffic on the outskirts of the city of Rochester. American suburbs are becoming much poorer!

This really isn't hard to understand with some thought -- "poverty" has become a lot less "poor" from a material standpoint as this article points out . To be poor in America today often includes materially a car, owning your own home, air conditioning. cable or satellite tv, a DVR, the internet, etc. It stands to reason that it would also begin to include that former symbol of "middle class", living in the suburbs!

As I've pointed out before, we declared "war" on poverty which was in rapid decline in the early 60's and have since stopped that decline, and through $22T in subsidy, managed to it back on the increase! Who says that government doesn't work! It is all about perspective.

Most of the poor vote for The Party (TP -- Democrat), so the most important thing that our TP controlled government wants is MORE VOTES! "Poverty" -- which today could really be called "policies for the destruction of the two parent family" creates a virtuous cycle for TP. The more poor there are, the more TP votes there are. The policies which TP puts in place tend to reduce the work ethic across the country by penalizing the productive and subsidizing the non-productive. WIN WIN!

As people are less and less well off, the number of TP voters rises! Exporting this phenomenon to the suburbs is clearly right in line with the TP prime directive ( MORE VOTES!). Besides, due to the same policies, more people in the suburbs are sliding into poverty -- sauce for the goose! Soon whole new cadres of formerly "inner city" poverty pimps will need to be added in the suburbs to manage this new set of vote slaves. Hello "Community Organizer" ?!

Sure, there is a little "collateral damage" -- drugs, despair, violence, etc, but if you want total equality (nobody has anything), then clearly this is the right policy!

This also works in government itself -- government workers all vote TP, so adding more government adds more government workers that increases the number of TP voters, so a huge win for TP!

It really isn't hard at all to understand what is happening with just a little thought and focus! Heil TP!

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President of Spokane NAACP Transracial

'Black' NAACP leader outed as white woman: "
"
This article makes an interesting read in the vein of the modern "liberal" -- "you are who you say you are" and "the truth is what you conceive it to be".

Apparently both of this woman's biological parents are white. She has courageously self-identified as black for quite a while now and has made enough appearance changes so that she appeared black to others. No doubt she was always black inside, and now she is a whole person.

She has been the victim of all sorts of racial threats and intimidation over the years, as well as some bizarre postal accidents -- such as a package being delivered without a postmark!

These things are all easily explainable.

Dolezal told officers that most of these types of incidents were caused by people affiliated with right wing groups in our area.

Damn those "right wing groups" -- they are some shifty suckahs!

I have to admit that I am SHOCKED by Atlanta media and their headline. This seems even worse than calling "Caitlyn" Jenner "Bruce", does it not? If she feels black, she is BLACK! Right?

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Rubio's Boat vs.John Kerry's Boat

Marco Rubio's Boat vs. John Kerry's Boat | Ricochet:



No doubt there will be HUNDREDS of articles like the recent NYTs attack on Rubio. It is so ridiculously easy to compare these attacks with the complete softball treatment of BO, Hilly, Kerry, or anyone else  of the D persuasion that happens to run, that it hardly bears doing a search



If you want a little funny comparison the Kerry boat vs the Rubio boat is cute ... I liked the one comment I saw:  "Core Clinton donors use boats bigger than Rubio’s just to transport underage girls from the dock to the main yacht."



For those that think the Clinton comment is a "joke", sadly, it isn't. ...


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Dayton Wins, Nobody Happy

http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2015/06/what-mark-dayton-getting-out-special-session

http://www.startribune.com/budget-deal-at-the-capitol-yes-but/306777401/

I've included links to a couple of versions of how the Medicated Governor (Dayton) has come out in the special session for those that want to read up. In short, he didn't get much -- like for example, he didn't the money for his early childhood education that he said caused the veto. From my perspective, he ought to have gotten NOTHING -- as one of the articles said, he didn't have a strong position going in and made it weaker by stating that he would avoid a shutdown.

I especially liked this Dayton quote from the second one. "The sign of a true compromise is that no one is happy with it."  -- one might call that the essence of non-totalitarian government. At least in totalitarian government, the folks in charge are happy -- and usually they force everyone else to SAY they are happy, lest they or their families end up incarcerated or dead! 

Small wonder that God gave us Capitalism -- the free exchange of goods and services in which the decision to make the transaction is freely made so BOTH parties believe that they are better off than they were without the transaction. The "seller" got a profit that they were willing to take and the "buyer" got the good or service at a rate that they were willing to pay. The absolute inverse of Dayton's world -- "no deal unless EVERYONE is happy" vs "no deal unless NOBODY is happy".  Is it REALLY that hard to choose between the two? 

Sadly, it is, because all sides go into politics like people go into Social Security -- believing unsoundly that "everyone will get out more than they put in".  As Reagan put it:
“It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.” Our founders understood that government was OVERHEAD, like insurance -- so you wanted to carry the MINIMUM of it that you could handle, lest it consume you. Neither party is even close to that understanding today -- something like 80% of our population are really "liberals" by action. 

It is remarkable how well the left leaning MN press can hold their tongues. A governor known to be mentally ill but medicated, a multiple time lapsed alcoholic who is at present often barely coherent vetoed a BI-PARTISAN budget over a pet project on early childhood education. risking a government shutdown. Were Dayton a Republican (it could NEVER happen with his baggage), the outcry would reach levels of apocalyptic insanity as it did when Pawlenty vetoed a budget with actual reason -- 

Very few harsh words are heard from his compliant friends in the press -- I understand that the Republicans kept near silence because that same press was just waiting on a hair trigger for **ANY** even tiny soudbite that they could use to "blame it all on the Republicans", but it still amazes. 

Without a TINY bit of actual free thinking in the press, we are treated to the sort of ridiculous Kabuki that this Dayton veto has resulted in. When a state is as far left as MN, sane people very nearly need to be drugged in order to believe what passes for sanity in this Woebegone Asylum!

Seinfeld and "Progressive" Preppy Comedy

An Open Letter to Jerry Seinfeld from a 'Politically Correct' College Student | Anthony Berteaux:

This little column is an exercise in smug.

We need to talk about the role that provocative comedy holds today in a progressive world.

See, on college campuses, and largely in the western nations, "progressives" have won -- which means it is now all about power and violence rather than rule of law and freedom of speech.

Mr Anthony Berteaux (column author) is sitting in what he sees as the catbirds seat, and he is pretty damned smug about it. He is certain that he has the power -- and is happy to lord it over in this case, Jerry Seinfeld.

But, he or course doesn't have the power. He no doubt would not want to see a comedian make fun of Muslims on his campus -- that could result in bombings, beheadings and all sorts of violence. Nope, Muslims are off limits --  he just fails to mention them because he is forgetful and wants to be smug.

He makes it plain later with a crass quote -- but he doesn't do a list:

Offend the right fucking people. 

But I will ... Christians, Conservatives, Republicans  would be a good start. Darned near all those people are non-violent, law abiding (because they have something to lose) and they are definitely the right people to offend -- from Mr Preppy's POV.

In the right context, white males are good too -- all be it not in a Biker Bar no doubt, nor likely even in the right kind of a mostly blue collar sports bar -- there Mr Preppy would find his overdog courage tinkling down his leg if he thought of anything "offensive" to say. Power isn't always portable, rule of law, more so -- but we gave that up. It is great to "offend the right people" when you have the power.

In a free society with freedom of speech, all speech -- ESPECIALLY unpopular speech is protected, and the mark of a free people is to understand that words are only words ESPECIALLY in comedy. Being offended was considered immature and shameful among free men. Mr Preppy is clearly not one of those.

But we don't live in that kind of society anymore, so now people need to either be willing to do violence to protect against speech they don't like -- like Muslims, or most likely Bikers at least on their turf. The rest of us have to worry about the State putting us away if we don't talk nice -- because not many of us would worry about Mr Preppy without a few jack booted thugs to back him up.

Thus, we have "progressed" (regressed) back to the medieval times when what you were free to say was determined by the mood of the King -- no freedom of speech. Only today, rather than Royalty -- with all the commensurate responsibilities they bore along with their power, we have Mr Preppy - snotty, crass, juvenile and smug. Very smug.

And that is what is called "progress".

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Transgenderism, Homosexuality, Science

Transgenderism: A Pathogenic Meme | Public Discourse:

The linked article is a rather scholarly takedown of the idea of "transgenderism". As anyone with an ounce of common sense knows, the problem is psychological, not physical. "Startlingly", the same thing is true of homosexuality ... people are not born "gay", they for one reason or another go down that path -- and often "come back" to normal heterosexuality as they age. "News at 11".

If "transgenderism" was a horrible burden causing severe mental issues genetically passed on, it would have worked it's way out of the gene pool long ago along with other certainly non-adaptive things like homosexuality.  A generation that forgets the absolute bedrock fact of life that the future belongs to those that are born, unsurprisingly has a very poor grasp on how characteristics breed over hundreds of thousands and millions of years. Don't want to have sex with the opposite sex? Your genes were a bad experiment.  Can't figure out what your sex is? Genetically, it isn't a very long goodbye.

But we won't be seeing any of this published or talked about extensively. While both of the PHDs behind these studies have extensive credentials -- the transgender one being former distinguished professor of Psychiatry and then head of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, this is not information our ruling elites want to have people aware of. It just doesn't fit their narrative.

As the Johns Hopkins PHD says "gird your loins if you would confront this matter. Hell hath no fury like vested interest masquerading as a moral principle". Or a vested interest masquerading as "science" for that matter (see "Global Warming"). So it won't be confronted -- it will be propagandized.

In yet another example of "lives that don't matter" -- along with the 6 thousand or so young black men who kill each other each year while nobody cares, we get thousands of gender and orientation confused youth presented as sacrifices to a "moral cause" vs being treated by a caring psychological community that might look to help them adjust to the reality of the world rather than to treat them as the vested interest of the day desires. Not going to happen.

So the modern left wing pseudo sexual circus continues to parade through society as if it were real. Like the majority of what passes as "news / fact / science" today, it is none of the above -- it is fiction, designed to make masses so compliant that they will credulously fall for literally ANYTHING! In some ways, the more bizarre, obscene, unnatural and irrational the better.

When believing bold faced obvious lies has become so natural that nothing causes suspicion to rise in the masses of the sheep, then the nation is absolutely ripe for the easiest of picking.

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Marriage No Longer Exists

When Bisexual People Get Left Out of Marriage | Advocate.com:

Occasionally someone will bring up the "Why do you care about marriage equality -- it doesn't affect you"?

In order to have an intelligible shared reality, we need to agree on the meaning of words. We no longer have an agreed definition of marriage.

Every claim to "marriage equality" is labeled "GLBT" ... Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgender.

As the article claims, that is **WAY** too restrictive. Facebook now has 58 (and rising) gender options. 

The article definitely says -- as do most of the new "laws" on the books on "marriage equality" that the B and the T are included in this brave to world of "marriage".

So what IS a bi-sexual "marriage"??? Three people? Four people? More? The article carefully avoids defining it, though makes it clear that "gay" or "same sex" are definitely NOT the right terms!How about if you take the 58 types of "gender" that FB has and try to arrive at what a "marriage" between any ??? 2? 5? ?? do numbers matter?

It very much appears that we "needed to pass these marriage laws so we will know what is in them" --- which means that we no longer know what the word marriage means. So yes, destroying the definition of what was formerly one of the most basic relationships in human society matters very much to me.

If it doesn't matter to you, then words having meaning doesn't matter -- which used to be one of the signs of insanity, but in an insane world, is now accepted without thought.How can you possibly "disagree"? What does "disagree" mean? It means precisely what the dominant party (THE Party) says it means -- no more, no less.

Welcome to 1984.
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No Dinosaurs Harmed In Jurrasic Park

Pro-Obama Writer Who Called Conservatives “Idiots” Thinks Spielberg Killed Dinosaurs to Make Jurassic Park:



An entertaining but shallow little column. There are plenty of stupid conservatives -- on most topics I'm one of them, but then there isn't any good reason not to be entertained by our self-declared political "betters".



I loved the little argument in the column about someone "towing the party line", it is SO much like standard conversation with liberals ...

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Escape Mass Delusion, Love and Laughter

How To Escape The Age Of Mass Delusion:

A very important article that I suspect points to an important book, "The Rape of Mind" by Joost Meerloo.

Meerloo testified to this feeling of disorientation: “Many victims of totalitarianism have told me in interviews that the most upsetting experience they faced in the concentration camps was the feeling of loss of logic, the state of confusion in which they had been brought – the state in which nothing had any validity.” 

That’s because in the mass centralized state, “peaceful exchange of thoughts in free conversation will disturb the conditioned reflexes and is therefore taboo.” On a hopeful note, Meerloo writes that “love and laughter break through all rigid conditioning.”

I bring up "Man's Search for Meaning" a bit too often -- but it also makes that point, that it is REAL MEANING that is what ultimately makes life worth living. It is much more FUN with more people sharing the same meaning, but if you lose the meaning, you have lost life.  I find the following hits far too close to home:

As more people succumb to PC conditioning and cede their freedom of thought, it becomes more difficult for the rest of us to maintain integrity of mind. Our audience shrinks. As we encounter more and more drone-like personalities in daily life, the world seems to sink into surrealism, like so many in Rod Serling’s old “Twilight Zone” episodes.

 The line that anyone that is still not under the spell of the totalitarian state probably finds most sad is: "That’s because in the mass centralized state, peaceful exchange of thoughts in free conversation will disturb the conditioned reflexes and is therefore taboo.” Few things are more sad at the end of freedom and culture than this somber truth.

We see it happen to friends and family members one by one. They lose the old meaning of life, the ability to "peaceful exchange of thoughts in free conversation", because they MUST follow the absolute strict dictates of the State, or lose what they have now taken to be meaning -- the advancement of state power over all aspects of life and their relations with others of that belief.

There is no way for them to maintain faith in God, love of family, tradition, history, personal responsibility, character and certainly not truth under that onslaught. Any step away from complete State orthodoxy on gays, warming, gender, taxation, choice of media outlets, God, or values brings the glazed eyes, and the end of conversation.

Like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"  they one by one succumb to the new popular mob acceptance -- they are "proud of Jenner's courage", they "don't see why Indiana can't love everyone" ... and then they are lost to any real conversation and contact. Conversation with them becomes a minefield with an ever increasing set of items that are off-limits -- "the peaceful exchange of thoughts in conversation" has died. All that remains is extremely bland talk, if any contact can be maintained at all. The effect to a still free-thinking religious traditional American is as if the former friend or loved one had "joined a cult".

But the minority and the "cult" is clearly those of us who retain even the thought that the weather is just the weather, or now that boys are boys and girls are girls. Such ideas mean that we are now "not of the liberal body", and therefore not worthy of being truly accepted by those who ARE of the liberal body. The pressure to remove all references to anything not in alignment with the state grows larger with each day as the purview of "safe speech" gets smaller -- along with the knowledge  that "hiding out" is not really an option.

Maybe it is your kids lecturing on gay "marriage", or Jenner's "courage"-- or some friend that you "thought was still reasonable" doing the same  -- but at some point, you at least wrestle with the idea that maintaining your connection with God, tradition, country, self-respect, truth, etc is becoming too expensive.

Then the first steps are taken. Mostly first, just silence -- "if I don't speak up maybe they won't notice". Then the tacit little "yes, I agree ... with something".  The "something" may be "many definitions of courage", "we can never know how someone else feels", "there are lots of views on that" ... but certainly there is no defense of "God created us male and female, some things are not man's to change". We start by failing to stand, then we fall. Each step is small, and they become easier.

You feel you MUST "get along with the people in the majority" -- after all, they were your friends and still are your family, although relations with them have become strained and distant. So with each small step the change becomes more "natural" -- soon you find yourself saying things like "I can understand how it must have been difficult for Jenner" -- and feeling a lot less concern or understanding of  the runner up for the "courage award", a tri-athlete who lost an arm and leg in combat. We all have gender -- and have sometime wondered what the other gender feels like. Very few of have lost multiple legs in combat -- the "Mass Delusion" is so much more ... "accessible".

It is indeed VERY "accessible" -- in fact EFFORTLESS! It takes no courage at all to follow whatever whim rises up from the cesspool of the human heart and have your picture draped on the cover of a magazine. Any idiot knows you **MUST** want that, or your picture would not be there! The Mass would like to convince you differently, or that someone that is willing to risk violence to show pictures of Muhammad must "want to be beheaded". The Mass LIVES by getting it's followers to acceed, even violently, to things that they know to be false.

The supposed happiness of the mob is never real. Our souls aren't made to worship the mob, and the mob has ZERO real interest in our souls (or their own -- they gave their souls up to join!). Screw up relative to the mob and there is no "forgiveness" or consideration of "I will stand by him, I've known him for years", or even "that is my mom or dad". No, when you buy the meaning of the Mob, you buy **ALL** the meaning -- which means no honor save compliance, no independence (you say what the mob says), no freedom (you follow the mob), no true emotion (your emotions are what the mob tells you). And no love.

You certainly can't be a Christian and declare gender changes to be "courageous", nor stand up for gay "marriage", nor abortion. God is nothing if not wise. You CAN'T serve "God and mammon" -- the Mob and it's sin is what he wants to save you from!

So as our family, friends and even children turn to the Mob, what they most need is for us to continue to stand as an alternative. While the Mob will never repent, INDIVIDUALS can repent -- they can turn from serving mammon and return to actual love and laughter. BUT, there has to be somebody that hasn't given in to the Mob.

John 4 verses 7 and 8:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love

A person not of the Mob but of Christ can (and WILL) painfully continue to love those who have left Christ and joined with the Mob. The Mob will love nobody -- ever.

I use the Bible and Christian images because that is who I am. One could use the Constitution, the writings of Hayek, Orwell or Burke. Even of Solzhenitsyn.  Find SOMETHING!

Most of all ... "Never, never, never give up!" (Winston Churchill)

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A Little Climate Sausage

No Pause in Global Warming - Scientific American:

The famous quote " Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made" certainly applies here -- as it really does everywhere relative to the works of man. Once we know the trick, the magic is gone. When you solo in an aircraft, some of the magic is gone, and after 30 year career I'm sure it is very much "a job". Only the works of God -- the birth of a baby, life in general, consciousness, etc retain their respect, because as much as we try, they are still miracles -- we can't duplicate them.

I suspect a lot of folks in the Climate Industry are more than a little put out by this study -- the IPCC has already said that they disagree with the analysis, it is easy to see why!

The study was inspired by some new metadata, the data behind the data, that provided clues that scientists weren't properly accounting for certain types of measurements. Specifically, there have been a proliferation of buoys over the past 40 years and the survival of an antiquated measurement technique used by ships. 

Buoys have increased global coverage of the oceans by up to 15 percent since the 1970s, but they have a known cold bias compared to measurements taken from ships.

Darned shame that those buoys have a "cold bias" compared to data from ships! I've read a few other articles on this, but the basic deal is that they decided that the ship data during the day PRIOR to the '90s was WARM BIASED -- like sailors pulled in a canvas bag during sunny days, set it on the deck and put a thermometer in it. The climatologists guessed that the sun warmed the water, **SOOOO** they threw out the daytime measurements and went with NIGHT! Wala ... the data prior to the "pause" was COOLER, thus the "pause" went away!

More warming -- by starting from a different base, the very essence of the whole Global Warming scam ( 1860 was VERY cold, end of Little Ice Age, we HAD to warm unless we were slipping into a real ice age).

The "sausage making problem" is many sided --  making use of regular old ships that kept track of inlet water for their cooling systems is suspect beyond belief! First of all, what is the calibration on your typical ship inlet temp gauge? -- hint, it ain't 10ths of a degree! Second, even if the gauge was PERFECT, can you imagine the accuracy of seaman 3rd class "Juan" reading the gauge and writing down the temp? Anything within 5 degrees is certainly "close enough"! This is true for gauges, bags, or whatever.

What measurement do suppose gets written down in the midst of an ice storm at sea with 40' waves 20 degree temps? Does Juan gamely run out on deck with his bucket and thermometer, or does he write down "yesterday minus a degree or two"? The cooling system isn't likely being taxed very much in these conditions!

Secondly, SURFACE TEMPERATURE???? ! Anyone that has done any more or less modern fishing as a surface temp readout on their boat. The surface temperature varies by at least 5 degrees depending on a lot of factors -- wind, currents, sun, what the boat is doing (if you are backing up, your outwater goes right by the probe), etc. It's a "general relative idea" ... if water temps are in the 50's, it is cold ... if they get in the 60's things are looking up. Readings from 45 - 55 degrees in the same day, morning to evening with the next day being 48 - 53? Very likely -- "temp is around 50!" ...

Cold bias on buoys? LOTS of ways to explain this -- one would expect ships to pay a lot more attention to higher surface temps than low ones, they need the water for cooling. If it is a hot day, captain or chief engineer almost certainly demands a good reading -- cold day, whatever.

Ships move around a lot, buoys don't. Ships tend to go into ports which are shallower / warmer sections of water -- in fact, they spend a good deal of their time around sea lanes and populated areas. HOPEFULLY buoys were placed with some sort of a random pattern. The discovery of a "cold bias" is totally understandable if so.

The belief in the "Settled Science of Global Warming" demands that the public believe the conclusions, agree when they are told that "the pause doesn't matter" (when it is reported at all), and get excited about the latest shocking new revelation in the media -- "New Ice Shelf Found to be Melting"!!!!

Reports of "No Pause in Global Warming" are disconcerting to the sheep  after the experts said there was -- it is like "Cholesterol No Longer Bad" ... or "Oatmeal Not as Beneficial as Thought", "Alcohol Good for Your Heart"! ... oh wait, "Coffee Better for Heart than Alcohol" ... and on and on.

The sheep WANT to believe, so it is hard on them when their masters can't get their stories straight. No doubt meeting some of the "experts" in person would be enough for many "just plain folks" to ask the question -- "How in the hell do these people survive from day to day in the real world"?????

To the extent that more people can figure out that our modern "emperors" of government, media, science and education are generally completely naked intellectually, the better off we will be!

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Some Women Just Want To Be Beheaded ...

CNN's Erin Burnett to Pam Geller: Do You 'Relish' Being Targeted for Beheading?:

It is hard to believe the hatred on the left for those that don't bow to Muslim demands because of the threat of violence. "Do you relish being targeted for beheading?".

Hmm ... how about rape? Do women that dress provocatively "ask for it"?

So if Christians took the same attitude as Muslims relative to gay "marriage", would that earn them the same sort of respect now given Muslims? After some Christian  violence against a gay "marriage" supporter, would the reporter be asking a gay "marriage" proponent: "Do you relish being targeted for violence?"

Let's see. Changing your sex is "courageous". Speaking up for what you believe is "relishing being a target for beheading".

Yup, that is where we live!

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U.S. Productivity Falls 3.1% In First Quarter - WSJ

U.S. Productivity Falls 3.1% In First Quarter - WSJ:



BO says the economy is great, the nuke deal with Iraq is great, BOcare is great, and of course he is ABSOLUTELY GREAT!!!



Here is what the current Fed Chair says about productivity:

“The most important factor determining living standards is productivity growth, defined as increases in how much can be produced in an hour of work,” Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said in a speech last month. “Over time, sustained increases in productivity are necessary to support rising incomes.”

Is that really hard to understand? On average, the less you have to work to create a unit of output, the better your life. It is like horsepower -- it gives you alternatives. You can work less and have more time for leisure, family, education, etc. OR, you can work the same and get more.

Productivity data since the recession has been “disappointing,” Ms. Yellen said, though the cause is open to debate. One possible factor may be the recession, which pushed firms to slash spending on equipment, and research and development.

Or ... it could be that since the US has the highest corporate tax rate in the world, increasingly regulation heavy and hostile to business, investment in US worker productivity is not taking place under the BO administration ... nah, can't be that, or I'm sure our media would be all over it. Right?

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Hemingway Biography, By Jeffrey Meyers

http://www.amazon.com/Hemingway-A-Biography-Jeffrey-Meyers/dp/0306808900

Finished up the subject Ernest Hemingway biography. Well written book that gives a lot of insight into Hemingway the man, the image and the writer. He is indeed the model for the Dos Equis "World's Most Interesting Man". I found Churchill far more interesting, but Churchill did not have movie star looks and movie star sexual appetites as Hemingway did. 

It IS very interesting though how both Churchill and Hemingway were extremely drawn to war, violence and risk, as well of course a lot of hard drink. Churchill drank a LOT for MUCH longer -- Hemingway being a hard drinker that eventually succumbed to alcoholism in his 40's to 50's ... drinking as much as a large bottle of hard liquor a day or more, and it being a major part of his massive decline in health along with his accidents. 

I especially enjoyed reading of his Key West years, having visited Sloppy Joes and his home in Key West. I'd like to spend some more time there -- it is an easy place for the mind to wander to during a MN winter. The book didn't pay enough attention to his cats ... only one good "kitty porn" picture, and gave the author away as definitely NOT being a cat person, referring to Earnest's "dirty cats". A dirty cat is a VERY sick nearly dead cat! If you tour his place in Key West, you will likely meet some of his 6-toed cats. He used the lighthouse next to his home to help him navigate home from Sloppy Joes after "a few drinks". 

Very hard for a Rochester MN resident to ignore this quote: 

"Rochester is a depressing town, where the modern dance of death goes on in expensive hospitals. All visitors are either sick themselves or related to the sick. A grotesque spectacle of illness appears in the corridors and the streets as the modern pilgrims seek salvation in technology rather than in faith." 

At the very end of his life Hemingway received electro shock treatments at Mayo which were not effective, destroyed his memory, and likely contributed heavily to his suicide.

Hemingway's life is full of excitement and interest -- the outdoor life in Michigan as a young man, wounded in WWI, running with the bulls and bullfighting, African Safaris, lots of hunting in the western US (Montana and Idaho), deep sea fishing, a succession of beautiful wives and mistresses, pals with James Joyce, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound ... soldiers, adventurers, hunters, fishermen ... and of course drinkers.

None of us knows what makes any of us tick -- including ourselves. We may think we know, sometimes especially about ourselves, and then find out we are surprised. Therefore, I take this epitaph from Norman Mailer with more than a grain of salt -- I suspect that Hemingway would call it shit (that is how he talked).

"It is not likely that Hemingway was a brave man that sought danger for the sake of the sensations it provided him. What is more likely the truth of his own odyssey is that he struggled with his cowardice and against a secret lust to suicide all his life, that his inner landscape was a nightmare, and he spent his nights wrestling with the gods. It may even be that the final judgment on his work may come to the notion that what he failed to do was tragic, but what he accomplished was heroic, for it is possible that he carried a weight of anxiety with him which would have suffocated any man smaller than himself"

I was struck by how often he worried about the "corruption" of wealth and fame -- but yet "Old Man and The Sea" was done after he had a achieved much wealth and fame. I believe he instinctively understood the danger of wealth and fame, yet he was driven to write -- without writing there was no life, and the fact that in his mind, the electro shock had killed his writing muse meant that for him life was over.

He showed the characteristic that I believe all imaginative people show to some degree -- a difficulty in separating the imaginary from the real. What he read, thought and wrote, melded somewhat seamlessly with reality -- so at one level, he was indeed a great liar, as all writers are. However, as in "myth", sometimes the "not factually true" is more true to what some of us believe is a universe more real than that which we can measure. I believe that Hemingway sensed that truth -- but failed to really connect with it. His hints of the "more that what we see" was enough to create some of the greatest art of the 20th century, and his grasping (in the wrong paths I think) created one of the more interesting lives of the 20th century.

Adventures In Mind Control, Modern Political "Science"

How a Grad Student Uncovered a Huge Fraud -- Science of Us:

This article is about how a grad student discovered that an oft quoted study covered in the NYTs as
Gay Advocates Can Shift Same-Sex Marriage Views was a hoax, but that is not really what I'm interested in.

Yes, yes it is interesting that a whole bunch of people can be taken in by what turns out to be a relatively obvious hoax, and that the act of debunking it was fraught with peril because questioning methodology in modern "political science" (as in "climate science") is not encouraged. We pretty much knew that. 

What I wasn't really thinking about -- although it is pretty obvious once you think about it, is that our modern university Political Science departments are more like some Goebbelesque genetically mutated bastard child of marketing and psychology. 

The 2014 election also helped focus Broockman and Kalla’s research agenda. They were convinced canvassing worked — at least to a point — and that politicians weren’t capitalizing on this fact nearly enough. After the election, they co-authored a November 2014 piece in Vox arguing as much. The pair wrote that “research has consistently found that authentic interpersonal exchanges usually have sizable impacts,” linking to a positive preelection Bloomberg Politics cover story about LaCour and Green’s research.

See, why just STUDY how people think politically when you can take action to CHANGE how they think politically! Obviously to your own inherently superior "progressive" agenda!

One can't be too "careful" ... thus we have this little $585K grant to the University of Michigan to study the "social media use of RIGHT WING organizations"! They didn't say if "right wing organization" in these days and times was going to be the Republican Party or just the Blue Dog Democrats, but one has to keep a close eye on such crazy thinkers!

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