Top Secret Russian Teardrop Memorial

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/tributes/teardrop.asp

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2235284/New-Yorks-Teardrop-John-Craven-tracks-forgotten-monument-9-11-victims.html

Yes, there really is a 100' monument, a gift from Russia, that was dedicated on the New Jersey side of the harbor in 2006.

This article claims the reason it is unknown is "location", and that might be so, but I think back to '06 and wonder.

Katrina in '05 had  been hyped to be "The proof of W Bush incompetence" ... after all, his too slow reaction to Global Warming had basically CAUSED Katrina -- he hated black people, and the fact that the Democrat Governor of LA and mayor of NO were corrupt imbeciles had nothing to do with slow response.

Making W synonymous with Katrina was critical in '06, as was making the case that "Iraq was hopeless and lost". The left saw a superb opportunity to stick Republicans and America with an albatross like Vietnam all over again. Even though with Vietnam, it had suddenly transformed into "Nixon's War" -- after it was started by Kennedy and escalated by LBJ, but no matter. The Party is well aware that losing wars is BAD, so sticking W with losing Iraq on top of his "causing and being totally responsible for Katrina" (facts are never that important to TP, only perception.) were the talking points of '06.

You know, the essence of TP ... "Trust In Me" .... I often think that Kaa from the Jungle Book movie ought to be their spokesman!

A big memorial from an old enemy -- bringing back memories that the left firmly hates from Reagan to the whole idea of one of the worlds leading socialists powers falling into disarray, just wasn't the kind of thing that TP and it's media allies wanted to be seen. It could absolutely confuse the people -- and maybe give W "a good week" ... something that was simply not allowable in the face of THE BIG agenda of TP and the media, taking control of both houses of congress in the fall election.

So it is a big secret -- a giant monument in a highly populated area that nobody is aware of.

Maybe we really ARE being constantly visited by space aliens?

The Litany Of Lawlessness

Hillary Clinton & Kim Davis -- the Obama Administration's Unequal Application of the Law | National Review Online:

I've covered most of what the linked column covers in this blog -- but the article covers it well and succinctly and is worth the rea.

We live in a state where laws are now routinely applied or not applied on the basis of politics -- and generally, the people are either unaware or simply do not care.

America is becoming analogous to the mess in lawless contemporary Venezuela. When the law is suspended or unevenly applied for politically protected individuals and groups, then there is no law.

'via Blog this'

Bernie Sanders', The Morality of Marx and Robbing Hood

Bernie Sanders' Morality is a Threat to the Status Quo | Candy Leonard:

Humans have a built in desire to believe they are "moral". Christians accept that we are NOT actually moral creatures, but when we are prideful, we like to claim it. So some Christians really do make false claims of greater morality -- Christians remain human. Christians DO commonly point out what GOD says are immoral acts -- the gay lifestyle is one example, but adultery and fornication are as well -- as is stealing, lying, gossiping, FAILING to do all the good you can, etc, etc -- It is ALL sin, and therefore worthy of eternal damnation if not paid for by the blood of Christ.

"Liberals" on the other hand "have no god but government" and they are often on the high side of sanctimony as they preach their home brew "morals". This article is feeling especially moralistic and judgemental from the left POV!

Sanders has brought morality to the national discourse, and would be elevating the discourse even further if he and his ideas were given more media coverage. What if the American people really understood Democratic Socialism? But the media, licensed to serve the public interest but responsible only to major shareholders, is threatened by Sanders' integrity and by his compassionate, do-able agenda. Sanders' morality (like the Pope's) makes the protectors of the status quo uncomfortable. 

Sanders' compassion is reflected in what he talks about most often--the imperative to address income and wealth inequality, and other policies that would reduce hardships on working people. A $15 minimum wage, affordable college, student loan interest reduction, paid medical and family leave, quality childcare, and single payer health care, would improve the quality of life for millions of Americans. These concerns, and his call for action on climate change are shared by the majority of Americans. These are not radical ideas.

In the lefty universe, one compares Sanders to the Pope with a straight face.  The Pope who stands for a male only priesthood, declares homosexuality a sin, does not support abortion nor even contraception -- BUT, he has made a few comments about income inequality and climate change, so maybe maybe that is enough to put him in that lofty  "moral plane" of Sanders?

Let's dissect the Bernie "morality" a bit. First, this is nothing new -- think Marx and Robin Hood (really Robbing Hood!). TAKE from those that earn and use it to buy the votes of those that don't -- at least until you have full control, then there is no need to do any vote buying. Let them all stand in line all day seeing if they can buy some bread or toilet paper while you drive around in your limo. Perhaps you can get them to all chant "Viva Bernie" as you cruise by -- they had to be damned gullible in the first place to fall for the same old socialist lie  yet again!

Judging from the number of liquor stores, pawn shops and weed stores in Denver, I'd have to say that the old USSR model has been updated a bit -- in the USSR they kept them drunk on vodka, now (at least in Denver) they can be drunk AND stoned (progress!).  Perhaps the stoned part explains this piece on Sanders? I suspect the pawn shops are a short term thing based on the winding down of the old capitalist system -- people still have some left over stuff from the old days when America was a growing and thriving economy. For awhile yet, there is a market to trade it in for weed and public transit tickets to a Bernie rally.

For all this "morality", somehow Bernie has a net worth of about $350K, while Scott Walker has a negative net worth. Bernie's campaign has something like $16M. I guess he is a lot poorer than the Clintons, so in the mushy drug addled brain of the left, that's a good thing! A whole lot of people that think Bernie is a god have a net worth a lot more like Walker's than like Bernie's!

**Note, I'm not against a decent or high net worth for Bernie, Clinton or Mitt Romney -- I only point out that hypocrisy is a term that needs to be applied when you are a candidate who claims having a net worth above that of a homeless person is somehow "wrong".

But then nobody ever said that consistency, thought, or even having their eyes open enough to see what is right in front of them was very common on the left. Their leaders know what they want -- POWER, their followers believe that they are going to get lots of FREE STUFF! Once you lose the rule of law to stop it, socialism is just like water -- it always takes your economy to the lowest level possible.

'via Blog this'

Not Working -- American Style

Labor force participation rate falls faster in U.S. than elsewhere - Fortune:

The linked article gives some interesting facts that we don't see in the news much -- you can go look at them and it is worth it, but I'll summarize here.

1. Nearly a third of Americans are not working -- lowest participation since 1977
2. The US is the ONLY nation in the top 8 developed nations where this is happening -- even Japan, where the aging demographics problem is worse than here is not seeing it. 
3. Productivity is ALSO dropping -- at worst levels since '93.

The article doesn't say why -- nobody knows why officially. They hint that it MAY be due to "freelance / cash economy".

I'll give you my theory.

First, the personal case -- no doubt shared by a few million people that many would call "lucky". Add a pension to wife's income and realize that any supplementing to that is taxed at roughly 50% counting Federal and State. I can pull money out of what was saved over 34 years and if very careful, hold the tax rate to "low 40%" -- MN 10% tax on top of Feds (no FICA). 60% of your savings is a lot lower number ... it gives one a LOT of "pause".

As long as I was working and the massive taxes were being pulled out all the time, it was "just numbers". I was a VERY good tax bossie cow for the government. Had I not been fired, I would have no doubt continued to work 60+ hours a week, pour money into the TDSP tax trap, and pay out gigantic tax payments in the same stupid boiling frog manner as I did for 34 years. We have a few millions of people in this boat -- in what counts for a country these days, this is the "Happy Boat" --  but also the "patsy boat".  (if you go to a poker game and don't know who the patsy is, it's you!)

Then there is the starting out, struggling, broken (homes, addiction, criminal record, etc), low education / capability, boat. The $15 an hour minimum wage and under set -- $15 x 40 x 52 = $31,200 a year. Here is that bastion of conservatism, WaPO on welfare benefits for a single mom with two kids. Going through the whole article is a strain, but they end up giving a REPUBLICAN only 2 Pinocchios on their rating which is incredible -- they usually give the words of Jesus 3, and only Karl Marx is completely truthful from their POV!

It’s correct that a single parent can receive $35,000 in benefits, if he or she lives in one of the 10 states listed in the Cato report, or Washington, D.C. But the median welfare package, which would have been the relevant number to use, is about $28,800 — lower than Grothman’s figure.

If you go look at the Cato report, you have to get to the 41st from the top least state in benefits to dip below $20K ... Maine and $19,871. My belief is that people at the bottom of the income ladder react to incentives and disincentives exactly like those at the middle and the top. They aren't "lazy", nor are they stupid -- they are rational!

As a single mother with two kids, you can either:

(A). Stay at home and get from $20 - $35K a year
(B). Go to work 40 hours every week with no vacations and take in  MAYBE $31,200.

Does this strike you as a "tough choice"?

Stay at home and you can maybe take in a few other kids for cash daycare. If there is a guy that isn't a total deadbeat and doesn't beat your kids, he can shack up and hopefully add at least some part-time work to the kitty. Hell, if you can find a stand up guy that actually brings in that $31Kish number and you can manage to move to one of the over $30K welfare states ... say #14, Minnesota at $31,603, you are looking at $62K a year "family" income with one parent working! A hard working trucker in the US pulls down something in the $50K range.

So it isn't hard to understand at all why the bottom of the ladder isn't that into working anymore -- incentives to NOT work, DISincentives to work. Stupid is as stupid does!

In between we have a hodge podge --  the median income and most families are clustered around $50K a year, so it is easy to see that welfare type disbursements have a HUGE effect on OVER HALF of the "families" in the US. In fact, 40% of Americans get over half their income from the government!

Destruction of morality and families is critical to the "progressive" agenda to destroy America. Gay "marriage" is important since it further reduces any latent sense of morality, but heterosexual marriage and ESPECIALLY the idea that men flitting in and out of a mother's bed is somehow "immoral / wrong / socially bad / etc" is CRITICAL. Once the figure of God has been removed, the earthy embodiment in a human "Father" being removed is the next important step to destroy culture. For over half of the children in the US, we are already there.

The definition of "family" used to be mom taking care of kids and dad working. Now there is no definition of family -- but for roughly half of the "families" with children in the nation, the "economic father" is the government, and whoever happens to be in mom's bed is "some guy". He may or may not work -- if she is a "good and discerning woman" (by modern standards), he may work quite a bit and even hang around for awhile. The "family" may even be quite comfortable ... lots of "stuff", entertainment, etc. Isn't that what the "progressive family" is all about?

We have been doing this for a generation and we now find that a lot less people are working and those that are are less productive.

Oh, and "nobody knows why"!

'via Blog this'

Rule Of Used Toilet Paper

God vs. the Constitution in Kentucky - The New York Times:

When 5 people in robes with no authority at all (since they broke their vow to uphold the Constitution),  took the formerly sacred document to the bathroom and used it to wipe their asses on Obergefell (gay "marriage"), the media and left wing applauded. The 5 judges ought to have been removed, and if any government employees were to go to jail, it ought to have been them. That would have been "rule of law" and the proper people being "under, rather than above it".

Now the media and TP --(The Party - D), but "Toilet Paper" is also a good moniker for them, feels the excrement stained piece of garbage with "Constitution" scrawled at the top ought to be "sacred" once more. As with a gay "marriage" ... "sacred" only to beelzebub!

But it’s worth repeating once again: No one is telling Ms. Davis what she may or may not believe, or how to live her own life in accord with the dictates of her conscience and her God. What they are saying is that as an employee and representative of the government, she lives under the law, not above it.

Sorry, we have NO RULE OF LAW, only raw executive power, judicial conjuring and public opinion heavily influenced by noxious filth spewing orifices like the NY Times.

We used to have rule of law. If the country that was America wanted to define a "right" to gay "marriage" it was very simple. Write a Constitutional Amendment, pass it through both houses with 2/3 majorities, then have 3/4 of the states ratify it. We used to understand that -- see 19th Amendment!

THEN, there would be a "Constitutional right" to gay "marriage". It would still be wrong -- because it is a crime against God and a crime against nature, but it would THEN be law!

The Kentucky clerk is not an appealing spokesperson -- which the media will naturally make the most of. She should resign her job since this is a regime that is fast making it impossible for Christians to work in its employ. The time when it is impossible for Christians to even live openly in the territory controlled by the lawless cabal is perilously close.

The next time you hear about the latest obstacle DC has put in the way of people that want to avail themselves of a firearm post Heller, or some other locality making it impossible for people to get Concealed Carry permits, think of how they treat Ms Davis vs those people! LAW either applies the  TO ALL, or it isn't "law" unless you live in a totalitarian state rather than a Constitutional Republic ... hmmm, maybe we aren't paying attention?

What we "all live under" now is a fetid stew of tyranny consisting of mob rule, bureaucratic fiat, judicial whim and executive edict. We don't know the timetable or who will ultimately drive the random path to ruin --  dictator? populist mob? military? But it is very clear we have left the path of being a Constitutional Republic living under rule of law.

We seem rather ripe to be "Trumped" ... if not by Trump himself, by something.

40 Year Lowest Winds in US

US clean energy suffers from lack of wind - FT.com:

In my frequent travels to Iowa this year I have observed a lot of big wind turbines not turning. It appears that my observations might be accurate.

You need to follow the link above to read it ... they have a copyright prohibiting cut and paste. 

The bottom line ... least wind in 40 years, energy from wind dropped 6% in first six months of 2015 even though the number of generators grew 9%. 

Apparently some of the vaunted Global Warming models predict less wind -- which would also indicate LESS severe weather events. Since we know that all climate factors are "settled", it seems odd that we hear that warming will create MORE serve weather, and our fearless leader BO ... and a lot of others, claim we ought stake our energy future on wind. 

Naturally, my faith that BO and the "experts" have this all worked out with perfect science is unbounded! 

'via Blog this'

It's Always Night There

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe-struggles-to-handle-accelerating-flow-of-refugees/2015/09/07/e2bbc509-414b-4890-bedf-c76b37ae109a_story.html

"I came here because Germany is safe; there is no war,” he said. “Germany is the best in Europe. France is no good, you cannot get language classes there, but in Germany you can learn the language for free.” Although Sweden is offering similar aid, he said it was “too far away, it is very cold, and it is always night there".

It is good to see that the free market still works -- if only relative to free stuff!

Perhaps the Upper Midwest  will be saved from being totally overrun by the teeming masses of migrants --- it's pretty cold and dark here for a lot of the year as well!

Muslim Flight Attendant, Kentucky Clerk, God's Sense of Humor

Muslim Flight attendant suspended for not serving alcohol:

"I don't think that I should have to choose between practicing my religion properly or earning a living," Stanley told CBS News. "I shouldn't have to choose between one or the other because they're both important."

Out in Denver we happened to hear the jailed Kentucky Clerk story covered on one of the "breakfast shows" -- probably "Today", followed without relationship or irony two stories later with the Muslim flight attendant with the lawyers quote above.

The position of the show -- and the left media in this country is pretty obvious. Clearly the KY clerk is a goat and the Muslim flight attendant is a hero! One has to be poorly trained at what is the "proper way to think" to not see that!

Make some accommodation for the Muslim, jail the Christian -- what part of recent propaganda from "The Party" (D) have you failed to understand??

God makes it easy for us to see how the world and tyranny operate -- I strongly suspect that he gets a little chuckle from the complete blindness (faking) of those that claim to see no irony in the juxtaposition of these two stories.

Dilbert saw this phenomenon clearly in one of my favorites, the "Powerpoint Oopsie" cartoon.

For anyone with ANY attention span and memory, there is a "bit" more needed than a "United Way Update" to clear the brain of the treatment of these two stories!

'via Blog this'

Old Ladies and Buses

School Bans Superhero Lunchboxes -- Why It Makes No Sense Morally | National Review Online:

It reminds me of William F. Buckley’s famous retort to those who claimed there was no moral distinction between the United States and the Soviet Union. If you have one man who pushes old ladies in front of oncoming buses, Buckley explained, and you have another man who pushes old ladies out of the way of oncoming buses, it simply will not do to describe them both as the sorts of men who push old ladies around. A country, and a civilization, that actively chooses to render such distinctions meaningless has lost the confidence to sustain itself.

This is an excellent column by Jonah. Both nations and people need to have some basic training in religion, mythology, philosophy, or at least superhero comics (morality),  to understand the difference between pushing the old lady in front of the bus or pushing her out of the way of the bus.

When the distinction is lost, that civilization has lost it's way. Unfortunately, we are that civilization.

'via Blog this'

Opossums and Bernie, Viva Venezuela !

Opossum germs 'kill 17 babies in Venezuela hospital' - BBC News:

Seventeen dead babies in hospitals due to contamination by an infestation of opossums is somewhat shocking even by the standards of "good government" that socialism engenders -- that is what you see if you follow the top link. Here is WaPO on how well socialism is going in Venezuela ... short answer beyond the opossums and dead babies, "not well" (it's a January article ... as the babies attest, it's worse now).

Things are so bad that there isn't a bank run — who wants to save their worthless currency? — but rather, as Jonathan Wheatley puts it, a supermarket run. People have lined up for days to try to buy whatever they can, which isn't much, from grocery stores that are even more empty than usual. The government has been forced to send the military into these supermarkets to maintain some semblance of order, before it came up with an innovative new strategy for shortening the lines kicking people out of them. Now they're rationing spots in line, based on the last digit of people's national ID cards.

While BO is threatening congress and crowing about his "accomplishments", lefties have taken a bit to chiding other Americans that "hey, at least you aren't refugees"!  This is true -- YET, although when civilizations collapse, it tends not to be an orderly thing at all. Today your masses are standing at the stations welcoming the lumpen other masses from the ever growing myriad of disasters around the globe -- tomorrow, you ARE the disaster!

Let's face it -- police being assassinated in the street, dead babies washing up on beaches in Turkey, Europe is struggling under the weight of something like 350K refugees with many more to come, Trump, Cecil -- there really isn't much time to cover all the crazy in the world. Even if we had not long ago lost all common sense and any semblance of rational priority.

Hey, we have a SOCIALIST in the lead in a number of polls HERE -- in what used to be AMERICA! Even WaPO can look at the results of socialism with a semi-rational eye when it is in Venezuela, but much like any of us seeing someone else die in a car accident,  cancer, Alzheimer's, etc, etc we miss any possible connection to our own situation.

This is America -- it can't happen here! ... let's not focus very much on "Why not"?

We used to call California "La La Land" -- now it's a worldwide phenomenon, only here in the US "The Party" has achieved such a level of media control that the GDP numbers get changed so we have no idea if the economy is shrinking or growing, and we only vaguely know that the percent of people actually working is now at 40 year lows, productivity is ALSO dropping, AND, we are the only "advanced economy" in which this is so ... the list of woe is endless.

There just isn't enough time to even LIST all the bad news, even if people had the attention span to read the list  -- which they don't.

Perhaps the only sort of thing to do is to talk about Trump, the Cecil Dentist, and congratulate each other on not being refugees -- YET!

'via Blog this'

"I have to go take a Dukakis"

Uncle Joe: A Democrat Republicans Can Believe In - The Daily Beast:

It's PJ, it's entertainment, the "Road Trip Poll" is near the end and is MUST read, but it is all PJ and good. FOR HUMOR! PJ is close to all we have to keep all the abundant humor of the left wing from being wasted!

I need the laugh -- back from seeing Tula, so in withdrawal, blood work Thursday AM, yearly checkup next week -- nothing but shed bills, problems and winter on the horizon from this jaundiced Tuesday POV.

Here is another "Tuesday POV" that PJ would likely recommend -- not that I will be following anything like this song, but my brain does have a tendency to call up songs for streams of words with reckless abandon ...

On the "songs from the Moose brain jukebox", consider this one with "Tula Time" in the appropriate spots ... along with some riffs on "She's a little cutie, a very special lady / baby ..." where they sorta fit. She likes it pretty well -- even with a VERY bad singer butchering it.

'via Blog this'

California Public Pensioner $241K Per Year

Daniel Borenstein: Public pension-spiking Bay Area fire chief faces big cut in $241,000-a-year payout - ContraCostaTimes.com:

If you work or worked in the private sector for a living, this story will really bring a tear to your eye.

A public employee had a meager salary of $194K a year and was forced to scrape by on a pension of only $241K a year for the past 6 years. Now he MAY face a 25% cut for gaming the system!

I'm sure most of you will cry crocodile tears if he is forced into poverty at $180K a year!

When you see tens of thousands of public union employees get out and demonstrate and even make threats of violence against Scott Walker, you can rest assured they have a VERY good reason!

Combine large salaries, superb benefits and hugely lucrative retirement packages with giant financial kickbacks to "The Party" (TP-D) as well as tremendous door to door foot soldier work for TP and you have one of the chief cornerstones of political corruption in the SSOA (Socialist States of America).

'via Blog this'

Broken Windows, White House Renamed To Trump Palace

Obama will rename the highest U.S. peak, dropping McKinley for Denali - The Washington Post:



Our current "elite media" have less foresight than a 7 year old after two Dews and a bag of candy.



This nation elected BO ... MN elected Jessie Ventura ... one really doesn't need to look at the polls very long, let alone watch the trash that just falls out of something like the "VMAs" on Miley Cyrus to realize that at this level of decadence and idiocy in a nation, ANYTHING (bad) is possible!  But our capacity for good has sunk to pretty much zilch! We could EASILY be "Trumped"!



Tyranny doesn't happen overnight -- the important thing is to get "executive orders" to be common, for the great and the small. Win a few big ones like immigration, EPA regulations, then "break a few windows" like ordering McKinley renamed.



The key is to establish lawlessness rather than rule of law as the norm -- BO has done a masterful job of this! A Tyrant to be feared!



So the precedent has been set that whoever is sitting in the WH can just rename any old thing they want by executive order. It is supposed to be OK because ... oh, the Alaskans want it, there have been a lot of attempts, the Ohio delegation is obstructionist about it ... you know. Nobody cares!



Trump loves to name stuff after himself. Why the hell not?







'via Blog this'

Plane Nerd Heaven, Flying The C-5 Galaxy

What It's Like To Fly America's Biggest Jet, The Gargantuan C-5 Galaxy:

If you like BIG planes, and like DETAIL, this is a SUPERB article. It started out as the C5-A, it's mostly all the "M" now ... more powerful, quieter, more efficient engines and a lot of digital upgrades make the monster really a new aircraft.

Lots of interesting background on how USAF pilots start out and choose between fighters and "the heavies", the logistics challenges of a plane with a 226' wingspan vs 196' for the 747, and mission planning for taking things like tanks and helicopters around the world.

The military tends to have some  some tongue in cheek designations for thier craft ... "Freddy" is the C5, an extension of FRED "Freaking (they don't say freaking) Ridiculous Economic (or Environmental) Disaster"!

It sounds like the really hard part is taxiing ... which I can REALLY imagine after only taxiing a Cessna 152 -- being as wide as an airplane because of the wings does not come naturally -- 226' wide is like "out there"!

They launched an ICBM out of one back in '74 ... Dr Strangelove calling!

WARNING ... following the link may induce EXTREME (possibly terminal) boredom in non-aircraft geeks! You have been warned ... NO LAWSUITS!

'via Blog this'

Climate Science vs Climate Politics

German Physicists: Late 20th Century Warming “Nothing Unusual” | Power Line:

A short and worthy read -- bottom line, the planet appears to still be working as it has for the last 2500 years or so. Climate goes through cycles ... news at 11.

The solar and oceanic cycles are the big determinants -- we will return to 1870 level climate temps by 2080 ... if the alarmists had been right about CO2 ... well, I'll let them tell you:

In a parting shot at the politically-motivated, unscientific alarmists, the three Germans point out that “50% of the temperature increase expected to happen by 2100 should have taken place by now – if such a CO2 warming were true. The scientists say that the way things stand now, if the CO2 effect were real, the future warming up to the year 2100 could be at most 0.7 °C.”

No doubt we will hear plenty of climate whoppers this week with BO talking "climate" (actually politics, what he ALWAYS talks!) in Alaska this week.

'via Blog this'