Why I Was Wrong

James K. Glassman: Why I Was Wrong About 'Dow 36,000' - WSJ.com:

Very good column with a very good title. We ALL need to do this kind of analysis at LEAST a couple times a year, ideally more.

I realize that in writing a blog, the easiest thing to do is criticize what others have written or said, so that is mostly what I do -- it is easy and fun, and I write this blog for fun!

But blogging wasn't my life and still isn't much of it, so ...

I've been wrong LOTS of times ... some easy ones that come to mind:

1. Voting for Jimmy Carter and being a Democrat ... I'd been wrong for 21 years and it was a big change to vote for Reagan in '80! (but a good one) 
2. Dabbling in Atheism -- I went through the whole questioning thing. Had it not bee for the death of my friend Annette, I'm not sure if I would have ever found my way back to the road to Truth and would likely have left this vale of tears long ago bound for a much worse place. 
3. Some relationships with women that we won't go into! 
4. Thinking that pre-compiled Java would out run Just In Time (JIT) translation ... lots of resources spent, lots of disappointment. 
5. Voting for Perot after HW broke his "No New Taxes" pledge ... giving us Slick Willie and destroying a good number of extra fibers of the already frayed American moral fibre. I learned that politics is "the lesser of two weevils",  and will not forget that again. 
6. HUNDREDS of bad investment decisions ... failing to sell Juno at $80 something a share after I paid $2 a share for it because "I didn't want the tax bill", selling Apple at $150 and watching it go to $800 ... this list is SO long it could exceed War and Peace! 
7. Becoming WAY too trapped into IBM for WAY too long due to "pension" ... I'm quite sure that in < 5 years we will have enough inflation to make that pension worthless to REALLY show me that foolishness, but see #8.
8. Fairly consistently underestimating the resilience of the US economy ... I thought Slick Willie would kill it faster, and BO as well. The original model was pretty damned good, and "big MO" takes awhile to slow down ... so back to the linked article. 

Now that is FAR from a definitive list. The article is from 2011, but some of the quotes are right.

The first major change is that the relative economic standing of the U.S. is declining. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that U.S. growth will average a little more than 2% over the next 70 years, compared to about 3.5% during the second half of the 20th century. This is a stunning decline. 

The reasons? One is a demographic imbalance, with too few workers supporting too many retirees and other non-workers. Another is a growing preference for European-style security. Still others include inefficient investment in human capital, especially K-12 education, and an enormous buildup of debt partly meant to prevent financial catastrophe in 2008-09. Meanwhile, developing nations like China, India and Brazil are growing far 

As I often point out in this blog, the decline of America is REAL, the slow market growth is just one proof. The sad thing is that unlike our inevitable aging and decline, the US COULD still be vibrant and moving to a brighter future ... lower tax rates, more encouragement for work, less focus on "safety net", etc. BUT, we MUST recognize it is happening and TAKE ACTION! 

I'd argue with him that more investment in the current union / democrat party propaganda axis that calls itself "education" in the US is counterproductive ... charter schools, private schools, internet assisted home schooling, more accessible "boarding / prep / military schools" and other true education innovation that I can't even envision could provide the true base for the US to leap-frog the Chinese, Indians, etc ... but the NEA is ONLY going to go on "seniority based increasing 30 year and out to cushy retirement, 25 students in a box with one teacher, and big donations to The Party (TP) to keep the gravy train (for the teachers) rolling" as what to "invest" in. 

Anyway, being wrong is one of the best ways to learn. Admitting it is a way to share that a bit with others ... and in a competitive capitalist nation like we used to be, lots of mistakes tends to drive exciting levels of wealth both individually and collectively. 

... or we can just continue our decline! 

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The Perfect Symbol of BO

Fred Thompson Skewers The Obama Library in One ‘Perfect’ Tweet:



I find B0 (B ZERO) to be a better symbol than his holy odiferousness  BO



So $100,000,000 (lots of zeros) from a state that has nothing (well, less than nothing, but let's be kind) building a nothing a library has marvelous  symbolism!



I really think they ought to put it in Kenya ...  no matter if he was born there, he was VERY explicit in his book that Kenya is where his heart is! It's like the Reagan Library being in California rather than IL.



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Taxes, Kissing, Racism, Privacy

Louisiana Congressman Vance McAllister Won't Run for Re-election After a Kiss - WSJ.com

Scrolling down my Google News today I saw this -- a married Republican man captured on some grainy security tape by "unknown sources" kissing a female aide in his office. Gee, I thought, is kissing sex? I thought if it was consensual, it was a private matter ... oh wait, Republican. Never mind.

Then I see another Republican charged with tax fraud in NY.

and of course we have the sordid tale of Donald Sterling (marginal Democrat, but that isn't news) ... with a tape acquired by who cares  what means as a wife seeks to sue a former girlfriend of mixed race who was gifted a Ferrari a condo and other sundry items that apparently the wife seeks to recover.

Things this brings to mind:

• Tom Daschle failing to pay $120K in taxes from '05-'07, "discovered" in '09. You think anything would have ever come of that if BO didn't try to get him into HEW? No way ... if you want to read the article, it covers a bit about Nancy Killefer, and Tim Geithner as well. Let's face it, if you are a member of The Party (TP), then taxes are optional or much reduced -- they just hadn't worked out the full deal with the IRS to keep the TP stuff fully hushed in '09.

   Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Daschle's former Democratic colleagues had rallied to Daschle's defense in the wake of questions about his failure to fully pay his taxes from 2005 through 2007. Last month, he paid $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest.

• "Privacy" in this country is where? Who taped the conversation with Sterling? Who got the pics of Vance and his kiss? Let's face it, in a nation that PRIDES itself on letting KNOWN rapists, murderers or whatever go on technicalities so tiny that they defy imagination cares not ONE BIT about attacking people for being "racists or republicans" ... oh wait, maybe it is a settled BO pronouncement that racist and republican are just interchangeable terms now? Hard for us old guys to keep up. 

So Sterling is cheating on his wife and giving his mistress millions of dollars of stuff (including a FERRARI??  -- wow, this must have been some mistress, or Sterling just doesn't know his prices that well !  -- as "presents" -- and what we are worried about is some racist rant to the ex-girlfriend that is mixed race herself? He doesn't exactly sound like a Klansman to me -- again, if you want to read the BO book "Dreams" it seems pretty darned clear that BO and his "Choom Gang" said a lot of nasty things about whites.

I would be completely unsurprised if when you get a "couple joints and maybe a little blow" (but no horse ... his words, not mine), into his snottiness  even today, he and Michelle might have some choice words for white folk ... Hell, we KNOW that we are "bitter clingers", and he wanted to filter his mom's "white blood" out of his system. But hey, sorry ... wrong standard, TP says BO is A-OK!

I know all readers of this blog have NEVER said ANYTHING derogatory about men, women, liberals, conservatives, Fox watchers, management/grovelers, Vikings/Packers fans, etc, etc. I mean, that is why we once had "right to privacy and free speech" in this country ... so we made sure that we ALWAYS said EXACTLY what we would say to someone in front of our Mom, preacher, and the person in question! Right?

I mean taping someone whenever we want, making what they SAID public, and then prosecuting them in the court of public opinion is what "privacy and free speech" is about! Hell, maybe that is "The American Way" these days? We can tell, because there is no outrage at any of the sources of this! Just a lot of tsk tsking, head wagging, and sanctimony. It is only Christians that are hypocrites ... never the left!  

Oh wait, maybe it was about POLITICAL speech? No, can't be that, there are all sorts of restrictions on who can contribute to what when and how much, and we are even starting to tread on the path that if you LIE in political speech it can be slander. Really? Oh, ONLY if it is "speech against TP"! That makes sense ... if politicians couldn't lie, I'm not sure any of their speeches could get beyond the Pledge -. er, wait. "liberty and justice for ALL"? ... clearly not for rich folks, justice is equal treatment, and our politicians gave that up to fleece "the rich" long ago.

So why bother with the "free speech and privacy" thing at all? Because if you have enough standing in TP, THEN you get those rights! oh ... and abortion, THAT is part of privacy, just not if you are a baby! Who ever said anything about a baby being "safe (and private?) in it's mothers womb"? 

I think I could just go on, but you get the picture. I'm not sure why we have a defense budget, what is it that we value enough to defend at this point? The "right" to find someone that doesn't meet some PC standard so that we can all take umbrage (the only thing the US has a surplus of!) and therefore feel "good" in that wonderful schadenfreude way?

Marvelous. I think if we look at this and some of the stuff coming out on voter fraud, we can tell TP will be doing very well this fall!

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Bundy, Sterling, Wagging the Dog, The Party (TP)

Cliven Bundy: Another conservative folk hero exposes racial nerve - CNN.com:

I happen to be in the middle of the "left hand clapping" sound and fury book called  "Dog Whistle Politics". In a world with only a left side, one could imagine a complete creation on the right of "the southern strategy" and "coded messages' (the "dog whistle" ... only the DOGS ... (eg. white folk, but that is OK, NOT racist! ), can hear them). The one sided universe is always a tidy place, and the book really does a great job of pointing out how that one hand sounds (with A LOT of amplification!).

I wonder how "Monkey Call Politics" with some encoding that only blacks hear would fly? Even though monkeys are significantly smarter than dogs.

The next house that I build is only going to have a south side by the way -- the north side gets too many ice dams in the winter, so I've decided to do away with it. I know it is a brilliant idea -- like wealth without work, peace through weakness, leading from behind, ... where if you like your organs (or your guns), you can keep them! (Trust ME!)

Oh, you see a problem with a home without a north side? Actually it COULD somewhat be done, earth home -- but that isn't really the point here. The point is that everything in this world has AT LEAST 3 dimensions, usually more, but for US cases we like to focus on 2, when typically there IS actually just ONE being seen! Because that is what we are SUPPOSED to see!

I need to make "The Party" (TP) clear. One aspect of it is Democrats, but it is far more than that. Teachers, university professors, government workers, union members, hollywood people, media people, lawyers, doctors, corporate employees, etc are required to be  "registered Democrats" or to SHUT THE F**K UP! You have to be a de-facto TPM (THE Party Member) to even survive, let alone get ahead.

So "The Party" suggests that certain kinds of speech are "hate speech, disallowed". Interesting that BO in his book "Dreams" used the "N*word" multiple times, including calling his Grandfather a "House N##GER".  He also discusses the desire to "filter the white blood from his veins". There really is no dilemma there ... that is the difference between being IN or OUT of the TP (THE Party). As long as you have enough POWER, (and BO does), you actually have the "illusion of freedom" ... this is what those on the left dream of. Rising through the ranks with proper fealty to get to the point where YOU are the elite, the 1%, the mighty.

Really though, you are not. Unless your rights are UNALIENABLE,  endowed by your CREATOR, they are only temporary whims of some potentate or power group, see TP!

 In actual Freedom, like the US used to be, nobody really cared that much what Bundy, Sterling or BO said in some context that wasn't ACTION. Words were words and action was action ... you could be a racist, sexist, homo or homophobic, Cracker, Kike, Hymie, Dago, Whop, Pollack, etc, etc, and other than maybe getting your butt kicked if you wanted to bring your slurs out in the wrong context, "sticks and stones would break your bones, but words would never hurt you".

No longer --- we are WAY down the road to TP deciding "allowable speech" -- the discussion is supposed to be OVER (see SHUT THE F##K UP) on race, climate, BO care, Quantitative Easing, higher taxes for "the rich", etc, etc ... that list HAS grown and WILL keep growing.

So far, you won't go to jail for much of it (or worse), but these things take a bit -- you make it CLEAR that WE ... TP, will use whatever word, phrasing, etc, whenever and however we choose. (See BITTER CLINGERS) ... said by a Non-TPM, that kind of remark is RACIST! "Those people" were taken out and stereotyped, and for a Non-TPM, that is RACISM.

But that list grows every day ... climate "deniers" are not much better than racists already and their stock is going down nearly as fast as the temperature.

MUST we really care what some rancher in NV who was picked for his 15min of fame by being targeted by the BLM in the first place, or some NBA owner? The NBA is not exactly a "race equalized" environment last I checked. I mean, if the number of Blacks in prison is a result of racism rather than action, you CAN'T be going to tell me that blacks hold all those NBA places on MERIT can you?


OH, and if we DO care, then why does BO skate?

Right now, "racism" is a FAR better thing for TP to discuss than Ukraine, N Korea, the economy, BOcare, China, Keystone, IRS, NSA, Al Quaeda, or a WHOLE host of other things ... so all branches of TP, the propaganda wing called the MSM being key, and focused in race!


Wake up people ...



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NRA, Come for the Guns, Stay for the People

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/26/307150142/at-the-nra-meeting-come-for-the-guns-stay-for-the-camaraderie

I've always found that pretty much any group of people are just fine if you want to talk to them -- especially those with a passion about SOMETHING ... cars, motorcycles, shooting/guns, hunting, computers, stereo, ....

I'm not sure what NPR was after here ... maybe just straight up reporting? Maybe that "how odd, people that like guns are like other people"? 

I hope it was straight up reporting. 

In Love, Mia Love

Matheson retirement clears the way for Mia Love [Updated] | Power Line:

Gotta curb my enthusiasm but I just donated $50 to Mia and I'm a bit giddy.

I know she just is just another human being that puts her knickers on one leg at a time, and I'm SURE the TP ("The Party"(formerly Democrat)) is going to do ALL they can to take her down! Who knows, maybe she smoked a joint in HS? Seems like that would be a KILLER for HER ... perhaps Barry and his "choom gang" could heap some righteous indignation on her. She isn't running to represent Tokarado after all!

The Republican "War on Women" ... all women, including their mothers, sisters, wives, etc, has always seemed a tiny bit suspect to me (I KNOW, it is PROVEN ... like warming), but TP war on BLACK conservatives, and ESPECIALLY Black Conservative, ATTRACTIVE, INTELLIGENT, Women is VERY Clear!

Mia is CERTAINLY a woman of gigantic courage. Look at what they did to Sarah Palin! It is hard to even imagine how hard they are going to come after this woman -- take Sarah x Condoleezza x Allen West x Clarence Thomas, and we MAY be getting CLOSE to the ballpark, but I actually fear for her life. The left is SEETHING with hatred for this woman.

Man, they HATE any woman that is Republican. If she is attractive, they start going nuts. If she is intelligent as well, ALL the stops come out ... witness Sarah Palin ... "let's get her kids!!!!"

Throw BLACK into the mix and the apocalypse is absolutely here in the "liberal" mind. In order to get rid of this kind of "evil" how could they possibly stop at anything???

Talk about leaving the left wing Thought Plantation!! An intelligent, attractive, BLACK Republican Congress WOMAN!  If she is a Christian as well, there might be TP members actually having their heads explode!

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Was Muhammad a Child Molester?

Opinion: Did Jesus really rise from the dead? - CNN.com:

According to Wiki, at age 53 Muhammad consummated his then marriage of  3 years to his 3rd and favorite wife, Aisha.  She was 9, some documents say she may have been 10.

CNN is not going to title a column "Was Muhammad a Child Molester" partly because someone may be trying to come cut off somebodies head -- hell, they may try to come cut off mine! ... or Wiki's for that matter. That is the core meaning of "the religion of peace"!

But I really don't think that fear is the real reason for writing things like this. I suspect that the author is fine with Islam and whatever it wants to  say or do -- marry off girls less than 10, deny women education, have them wear Burkas, stone gays -- WHATEVER, because he sees Islam as not a threat to HIS religion, which is "Atheism / Secular Humanism / Environmentalism / Narcissism", essentially the worship of his own thoughts as divine.

But he IS bothered by the resurrection!  It seems "otherworldly", and he really does't like that for the same reason that Einstein was offended that God might "play dice". His faith is in the "watch with no watchmaker" ... a very predictable and understandable mechanical universe and biology that "emerged" out of  chaos (unbounded randomness).  Our universe, and likely MANY others (like 10 to the 500)  MUST have arisen without cause, meaning, or real effect in the cosmic sense, for his belief has no "why's" beyond his own mind. His mind MUST be the master of the universe, so our universe MUST be very special -- supremely ordered and predictable, yet totally random in origin! The metaphysical Goldilocks!

Which makes him REALLY uncomfortable with Christ and Christians. It is certain that the people of the Gospels saw SOMETHING that they BELIEVED was their risen savior. The author may be surprised that the Son of God raised from the dead is not instantly recognizable, etc  and complete with all human body limits (can't disappear, walk through walls, etc) All of the disciples save John went to their deaths as martyrs convinced that they and their brothers were changed and would not change "their story" even unto death by torture. "Their story" had become something not seen before or after in human history -- THE TRUTH, which the father of lies hates and seeks to destroy in all ways possible.

In this case, the author is led by his God (we all have one, Satan is happy to let you believe that YOU are god!) to introduce doubt in as many minds as he can relatively softly ..."they left out the ACTUAL resurrection" ... you know, the "specifics" of how the God of the Universe takes human form, dies, descends to hell where he atones for ALL human sin, then arises. Yes, it would be MUCH more "believable" with some "technical details".

Hopefully, if the author persists in his willful unbelief, his god will see fit on his path to eternity to clue him in on "how it is done" ... maybe there are hints in the quantum, or perhaps it is "beneath or beyond" that. I'm sure that Satan finds the "details" a source of never ending amusement ... especially when he gets to share them with one of his own.

At the end of the column the author touches on my favorite post resurrection vision from John 21, which I want on my tombstone "Gone Fishing -- John 21", so I thank him for that, and pray that he will decide that there is more to this universe than details and nice supposedly rational analysis. Christ loves the author more than I ever can, and has a wonderful purpose for him if ceases rejecting Christ the Risen Savior!

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Central Park 5 Railroad

What You Won't Read in the Papers About the 'Central Park Five' - Ann Coulter - Page 1:

In my listens to NPR I have heard multiple shows including whole hour segments with Ken Burns on this topic. I really enjoy Ken Burns and he does great work, but if you have a surgeon that you know absolutely hates you, you need to have a REALLY high degree of trust before you let him do brain surgery on you.

"The Civil War" was superb,  "Baseball" was fine ... and I've seen some of his stuff on national parks, etc.

But he has an agenda ... so do I, I'm not faulting him for his, I just preach PAY ATTENTION!  When he took on "The Central Park Five", it was pretty obvious that he wanted to convince a vast swath of Americans that we can be and were manipulated by our prejudices, public officials and media to believe things that are completely false!

I naturally agree with him whole heartedly -- we elected BO for goodness sake, we are freezing through yet another spring of "warming", we were out of oil in the '70s, Slick Willie "didn't have sex" ... the litany could go on nigh on forever.

But "The Central Park Five" seems to have a bit more of "another side". I'm not sure exactly why this "cause" excited Ken  so much, but he REALLY went over to the side of "lets beat on the powers that were" from that time. COULD it be true that "it was all a big trumped up racist mistake"? Sure. It could be true that BO really changed all his beliefs from the time he wrote "Dreams", or he never wrote it and didn't even believe all that stuff about doing in the "Colonialists" in the first place as well ... but I doubt it.

Many things are "possible", but the skeptic circuit is sounding on this one.

A bit of thought on this, and even a perusal of the show is WELL worth the time just to understand what Ken Burns THINKS (or at least wants to convince you for some reason) is possible if the government / media / elite decides they want to pin something on you! But look at Ann's evidence and consider both sides. (She has an agenda too ... but YOU don't, do you??)

Conservatives, Christians and Gun Owners take note! The next "Central Park 5 Railroad" might have you on it, and THIS time Ken will be making certain that there are no "holes" in the prosecution!

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Year Without Summer, Some Minority Climate Thinking

Articles: 2014: The Year Without Summer:

The set of books I'd like to read is stacking up, add "The Year Without Summer: 1816 ...", the link off this article is definitely on this list. "A couple hundred years" isn't much in even very young earth history, and I have long suspected that we could hit some equivalent of a "Little Ice Age", "Medieval Warming Period", etc to end the couple decades of the "GW Scare Warming Period".

We saw a colder year last year, and so far 2014 is colder yet. Will this trend continue? Will this summer make us wonder if we are having summer? Spring as sure accomplished that relative to spring!

The winter of 2013-14 bears a striking resemblance to that of 1815-16, and there is every reason to believe that what follows will repeat the pattern of earlier periods of extreme cold.  The consequences will not be pleasant.  As some have begun to realize, periods of extreme cold are far more destructive than periods of warming.

I love that ... A FEW, and so far VERY FEW have figured out that things grow better when it is warm! Who knows, might some of them figure out that not having kids in a culture puts a limit on the future of that culture? That if your government constantly spends vastly more than it takes in that something is "unsustainable"? I dunno, figuring out such things seems to be hugely difficult for current Americans!

Or this from HuffPo where we get the nice paragraph:

Early on, Ms. Peters tears away at the misguided belief that if we develop sustainabletechnologies and change human behavior it will prevent the globe from "flipping" into the next Ice Age. It will not. We have delayed the latter some ticks of the geological clock, but we can't stop climate change, because that is what the earth has been doing for millions of years -- long before people walked upright.

The analogy used earlier in that article mixes up 1K and 100K and even after pointing out that we are long overdue for an ice age and there is nothing we can do to stop it, goes back to trying to figure out how to stop the temporary warming. I wonder, is it that all liberals are just ADD? "Hi, I'm from next door, a giant meteor is headed for the earth and will kill us all in a day .... Can I borrow a cup of sugar?" 

There are a couple more out there as well that I need to get around to. If we have a few years (even 100) of cooling, does it mean something momentous? Probably not, but as I've pointed out many times, and the Huffpo link points out, we ARE actually very due for the the big drop to continental ice sheets. 

Would a glacier advancing past Calgary be newsworthy? Nah, "the models say" that temp could go up a couple of degrees and some islands in the Pacific might go under in the next 100 years! Now THAT is REAL NEWS! Let's see if we can all go into hysterics and buy Al Gore a new jet! 

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An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America

http://www.amazon.com/An-Anxious-Age-Post-Protestant-America/dp/0385518811

I started this Blog partially because I thought it would be a great place to do book reviews. While I DO like to write (as the couple thousand blog entries out here show), I like to read MUCH MORE! So, when I'm done with a book, I find it daunting to get a summary down to a size of Blog entry that I want to write before opening another book. Writing LESS is often MUCH harder than blathering on for pages for one that has the "writers gene". 

So, I'm trying to reform, AGAIN. I'm going to try my hardest to give a VERY short summary of what **I** thought the book said, throw in some excerpts, and call it good! 

"Anxious Age" was quite humbling. Lots of references to other works and figures in American and world Religion that I was only barely aware of. 

The thesis is that Mainline Protestantism WAS the core of what it meant to be American. We lost that, and now the spiritual core of America has been converted to a "secular salvation" that is extremely unsatisfying and unable to carry the weight of what it means to be human. The NEED for the metaphysical, the spiritual -- the angels, demons, ghosts and goblins if you will. 

The core of this book is "the social forces of bigotry, power, corruption, mass opinion, militarism, and oppression" and your knowledge of, and opposition to those forces defining you as "saved". So "history" is like the "patriarchal oppression of women", slavery, taking lands from indigenous people, colonialism. bigotry is racism, sexism, speciesism, homophobia, etc.

Power is anybody but people who are "saved" having any power (or wealth, or speech, etc) at all. Corruption is again anything that is not "of the saved" is corrupt -- and it is impossible for the "the saved" to be corrupt. For "mass opinion", I read bourgeoise, the "little people", the "unenlightened" ... the kind that might still hold to the old ought to have been abandoned "old time religion". I think you get the idea ... "liberalism now saves you".  

A need to see themselves as good people— a hunger for spiritual confidence in perfect parallel to the hungers that drove previous generations of American Protestants— still compels them in deeply significant ways. In their view, the social forces of bigotry, power, corruption, mass opinion, militarism, and oppression are the constant themes of history. These horrors have a palpable, almost metaphysical presence in the world. And the post-Protestants believe the best way to know themselves as moral is to define themselves in opposition to such bigotry and oppression—understanding good and evil not primarily in terms of personal behavior but as states of mind about the social condition . Sin, in other words, appears as a social fact, and the redeemed personality becomes confident of its own salvation by being aware of that fact. By knowing about, and rejecting, the evil that darkens society. 

So the "believers" here are really new puritans -- although of course they would HATE that comparison.

They are, for the most part, politically liberal, preferring that government rather than private associations (such as intact families or the churches they left behind) address social concerns. They remain puritanical and highly judgmental, at least about health, and like all Puritans they are willing to use law to compel behavior they think right.

Lots of quotes from Tocqueville and others, and some somewhat interesting coverage of Catholic thought history in especially the late 20th century, on how it impossible for Catholicism to carry the metaphysical load that was borne by the mainline protestants for 150+ years as the "Mississippi of what it spiritually meant to be American".

If you like to be a bit challenged in your reading, and realize that even if you think you are well read, there is always someone much better read, it is worthy. It isn't very uplifting -- which seems to be a negative in this new ice age that we have run afoul of.

God Is Great, Beer is Good, People are Crazy

http://youtu.be/PKpQRjj_WbU

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-big-bang-evolution-ap-poll/

Brian Greene, a very smart physicist that I have read and enjoyed is "highly distressed" that Americans don't really seem to care much about the big bang, evolution or global warming. Brian Greene is VERY smart, but as far as being wise in the ways of humans, I believe that Billy Currington (or at least his songwriter) is WAY ahead.

"It is enormously distressing that science, which is our most powerful means for gaining insight into the world, insight into truth, is so mistrusted by so many people"
Brian Greene, a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, told CBS News.

 Really Brian? TRUST of science for INSIGHT?

How about a beer with an old guy at a bar or even better a funeral for hopefully an aged family member who you loved and whose time came gently? Maybe falling in love, the birth of a child -- or just the sun going down over the desert as your Gold Wing glides into Roswell!

Science is about MATERIAL -- technical, DATA, information! "Insight"? Science can't tell us a single ultimate "why", and it says NOTHING about any values. It can give us knowledge about atoms and radioactivity, but it gives us ZERO "insight" into using them for watch faces, bombs, energy, or whatever.

 TRUTH? Are you kidding? Sure, 2+2 = 4, and math can be extended to at least appear to be a very good approximation of being AN abstract description language of the universe. Super, but why? For how long? How would we know? What ARE "we"? Why? ...

So smoking "causes cancer". OK, does that mean that you should or should not smoke? Suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death and rising rapidly.  http://www.afsp.org/understanding-suicide/facts-and-figures ... especially if you are 45 and over. Certainly the combination of data, stigma, taxes, etc HAS convinced a lot of people to cut smoking, but that in itself says nothing whatsoever about how happy they are ... before or after. "Science, in its really pure form, is just telling you what the state of the world IS. Not "was", that isn't generally repeatable or testable under CURRENT conditions. Not WILL BE ... that is clearly HYPOTHESIS, and only time may convert it into science.

Willingham said. "The more in-tune with reality your beliefs are, the more you are in a position to make a wise decision." 

Like a "wise decision" to put a bullet through you brain? Would science help you with that? Say that science "proved" that less people were good for the environment, maybe that is a very super "rational decision". "reality". Who is to say? Perhaps science could gather some data on that.

No, Religion is at the top of understanding Truth, Values and Meaning. Philosophy is about the metaphysical interpretation of our state. "Man as Man", and then we bring in science and technology. The engineers. Greene seems to think that Jordy ought to come up to tell Picard how to handle negotiations with the new cosmic entity based on how the plumbing on the Enterprise works.

God is Great, Beer is Good, and People (maybe especially scientists?) are crazy.

BO vs Reagan on Job Growth

This Simple Graph Compares Reagan’s and Obama’s ‘Recoveries’:

Of course BO doesn't really believe that a job is something we need and a majority of the country agrees with him!


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Science, and other Myths

An Apple a Day, and Other Myths - NYTimes.com:

The NYTs discovered in February that mammograms are not the slam dunk we once thought they were, now they seem to have realized that a ton of the "well, isn't it obvious" diet pronouncements on red meat, fats, fruits and vegetables, etc, etc are at best questionable.

This really ought not be news -- folk wisdom that has been around for at least 100s if not thousands of years tends to be MUCH more reliable than any late breaking science on a whole host of things relative to being human.

Why? Because the universe and the world is either "a random phenomenon" over such huge periods of time that humans have no chance to getting any big picture on what we are looking at with our tiny and also randomly created brains. Or it is designed by a being that is so much beyond our power of thought that the amazing thing is that we can even get some short-term localized hypothesis that SEEM to hold for some period of time -- maybe even a few decades, or as much as 100 years sometimes.

My belief is randomness and time are just other tools in the Creators toolbox and I have none of the qualms that Einstein had about "God playing dice". Yes, there is "order", but it is God's order, not mans. Let's face it, it if it IS all random as the atheists believe, then it is purposeless -- and understanding that for which there is no reason is best done with a shoulder shrug and a malted beverage.

We step into this physical realm for at most 100 years -- the first 20 we are not yet mentally developed enough to really know much of anything. For the next 50 or so we have "a decent chance" to learn a lot -- hopefully humility most of all, and maybe even believe that we got to know a couple people somewhat well.

I'm convinced that we are pretty much wrong on that actually knowing anyone else, but maybe that doesn't matter either. Maybe we just try to balance kindness and truth with as many people as we can. And focus on the long part -- eternity. If it is all meaningless, then so what -- pleasure is nice, but one doesn't usually have to make it all the way to their 50's to know that the best kinds of that as well are more focused on that hope of eternity. Church, family, friends, history, art -- maybe a big bike and the open road. Not all meaning has to be really meaningful.

Cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimers, accident, etc. Our exit is really the only certainty -- if you are in good enough standing with "The Party" (Democrat-TP), I'm of the opinion that taxes are no longer certain. Tom Daschle, Geitner, etc seem to be too much of a "sample" to believe that we all have to follow the same rules. Why should we? It's a pretty small step from breaking the Equal Protection Clause on "progressive taxation" to exempting "the right people". Why treat people equally? TP believes they are much "better" than that.  It looks to me that the payment of taxes has become yet another politically based uncertainty.

But not death -- so far. The Party may well start hastening the deaths of those that fail to get enough of the memos, but that is OK. Even the "members in good standing" are more and more ready to sign their own ticket to eternity.

So you know death is certain -- right now the #1 cause of injury death in the US is suicide, so apparently our Godless pseudo-socialist  nirvana isn't completely appealing to a pretty good segment of our population. Suicide along with addictions of all sorts and "mental health issues" is growing like crazy, but for some reason it is a lot easier for someone like Bloomberg to limit the size of folks sodas and try to take their gun rights away.

Bloomberg probably figures suicide, like abortion, increase in number of gay relationships and people not having children is GOOD -- we know that in the random world of natural selection, not having any offspring is a sure fire WIN! Right? Have we thought that completely through?

I often think that the 2nd half 20th century Western Civilization deserves the millennial cultural Darwin Award for voluntarily removing ourselves from the gene pool. Perhaps a crescent and a mushroom cloud would be a proper shape for such award?

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Give us More Bullies!

In the universe called reality there are actually limits on the ability of the prissy class to prevent bullying. Much better to have some big friends, preferably with big guns, and while you are at it maybe try to at least imagine what some testicles might be like on your own.

This fits so well with the various states working on "Bully Policies" for schools. These people are nuts. The best cure for a bully is somebody bigger and stronger that has some character that gives them the "what for", and if they don't get it, kicks their ass. They bully because they want to feel powerful -- a curb sandwich tends to reduce the feeling of power.

What the current gyrations do in the classroom and internationally is allow the dirt-balls that just just don't give a rats ass to operate with impunity, while preventing the usual "enforcers of truth and decency" ... the linemen from the football team, the wrestlers, the weight lifters and just the big tough good kids from making sure the weenies are keeping their profile suitably low. The good kids have something to lose, and these policies insure that they will let the actual bullies that "think they are tough" fail to learn their real status as they continue to beat up on the weak.

America used to be like that -- and our superheroes. Superman, Batman, Iron Man, Captain America, etc. We still like those guys, we go watch them at the movies, even though the current versions have a lot of "issues" compared to the old versions, when the chips are down, they still kick ass and are able to know the difference between good and evil.

But since we no longer as America see a clear sense of right and wrong and are very unsure  to even SURE that America is NOT on the "side of good". In fact our President wrote a whole book pretty much making the case that America was pretty damned bad (his Pastor even said God DAMN America ... but Barry was sleeping that day)

So we are a long way down the road to stamping out righteous heroes (along with the whole idea of righteousness), de-exceptionalzing our own capabilities relative to economic and military might,  and allowing the bullies to run roughshod.

Way to go Barry, and your prissy friends as well!  I'm sure Vlad will be gentle with you ... he has the perfect name for a nice gentle guy. Barry vs Vlad ... doubt that would be much of a draw for the WWE.

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You Can Still Follow the Constitution in America ! (for now)

Voters can bar racial discrimination by their government, for now | Power Line:

It is pretty easy to see where this is going. The equal protection clause of the Constitution says we ALL have to be treated ALIKE!

So the "progressive" income tax is illegal. Any kind of subsidy or sanction based on income is illegal.

And of course "affirmative action" has ALWAYS been illegal!

But for 100 years and more we have been just ignoring that clause, so such things keep being taken as "the law of the land", which means there is NO LAW, since the Constitution is our "Law Base Class" ... the rest of our laws "inherit" their validity from there.

What's more, the Constitution is based on NATURAL LAW, meaning GOD's LAW, these basic truths are "endowed by our Creator" and SELF EVIDENT. Only the left doesn't like God, Truth, or ANY curbs to it's ultimate power (well, the power IT believes to be unlimited).

So, FOR TODAY, a State can vote to follow the Constitution and not discriminate for and against some groups of people. But the 'liberals" show their hand yet again, they do NOT want to treat people equally!!

Orwell told us how it works "Some are more equal than others"!

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Yellow Doesn't Apply To Democrats

Democratic Senator Nearly Qualifies for Darwin Award | Power Line:

Being a Democrat means that you are smart, you know you are smart, and you simply do not have to think about it!

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I'm sure the general media will likely cover this not very much ... clearly not indicative of anything like Dan Quayle spelling "potato", or the REALLY young webbie favorite of Ted Stevens http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/01/15/net_neutrality_struck_down_in_a_victory_for_the_late_sen_ted_stevens.html

As I've pointed out on this Blog before, the BO "out-takes" are not all that flattering either ... spelling RSpect, 57 states so far, 10 thousand killed in a small town in KS, etc

The difference is a very small percentage ever even heard of the Bo out-takes, and if they did and are reminded, they roll their eyes and wonder what in the world one would bring those up for -- racism no doubt.

No, actually the treatment of Quayle, Steven's, W, Reagan, etc is actually HEALTHY! We as Americans are SUPPOSED to see that our leaders are temporary occupants of places of power and are supposed to be our EMPLOYEES, really our SERVANTS!

But "The Party" and their media outlets don't like THEIR powerful being made fun of, and they LOVE to deride anyone that would DARE to hold one of those positions, so in this time of less than 100% Party power, they go berserk when a "conservative" does something humanly "stupid". Making fun of W was super good sport, making fun of BO is "disrespectful", "racist", etc.

One of the dangers though is that The Party leaders tend to believe their own bullshit. They think Putin thinks of them as they think of themselves, economics, climate, medicine, etc should obey their extraterrestrial imaginary thinking, and yes, even bold yellow caution lines apply to mortals from this planet, but not to them1 ...and then they throw all of us out in front of the train -- at least eventually, unless we keep the 2nd amendment. Eventually, being hit by something going very fast is the only thing these other worlders understand!

BTW, I worked on early internet technologies, we OFTEN called the connections "pipes" ... which last I checked are pretty much like "tubes". But then why would John Stewart know that? I doubt he knows DNS from DHCP.

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Keystone, Insanity, Putin, Control

New Keystone XL Delay: 'A Stunning Act Of Political Cowardice':

Yes, Yes, BO is a coward and his minions in the MSM will be too busy talking about Korean ferries, missing planes and boys asking Miss America to prom and such to cover it even if he didn't go max stealth in making his latest announcement on Good Friday!

The Keystone Pipeline / Global Warming element is 100% SYMBOLIC ONLY!

1. The oil is being extracted both here and in Canada,  pipeline or no pipeline! 
2. The oil is being MOVED in ANY case as this article points out, less than 10K tank cars moved in '08, last year it was over 400K! Guess what ... LESS environmentally friendly and MUCH less safe!

So other than pure symbolism, there is NO REASON to protest this pipeline even if your are the most insanely green person possible, but still sane on other topics.

You need to find an extra special sort of extra symbolic insanity to stand in the way of ?? ... well, basically less train cars, or less oil coming from Canada to the US (which just means it goes elsewhere and gets burned).  That makes good sense if you are Warren Buffett and own the railroad I guess, but in other cases it seems baffling at first glance.

It USED to be that environmentalists loved to point out how "insecure" it was for us to get oil from Arab states -- only now I think we have fully given the lie to that fake caring. They don't want the oil to come from ANYWHERE, but guess what? Until BO declares it directly that we don't get the oil, and maybe issues an edict to the rest of the world to not use it either, all those Arab states STILL get money for oil and so does PUTIN!

Remember old Putin who we did a "reset" with after W, and to whom BO quietly promised "more flexibility" after he got re-elected? Yes, that guy.  Lower world oil prices and Putin takes a major league testosterone hit!

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/diane-francis/keystone-and-lng_b_5062039.html covers the obvious fairly well ...

Russia's oil and natural-gas industry, which provides 70 percent of the country's export income and 52 per cent of its governments revenues. Moscow now controls half the energy market in Europe and is able to adjust prices to punish or reward countries and to keep others quiet.

Surprise, while the Warmistas were smugly saying "conservation is the ONLY answer, since the US and Canada are out of oil", innovation in the technology of fracking was still operating. Liberals" always want to kill innovation for just that reason -- in the house of mirrors that is the liberal mind, "liberal" actually means CONTROL, and innovation is very damaging to control!

So, through the scourge of innovation, we now have "Together, the U.S. and Canada have more oil and natural-gas reserves than Russia or the Middle East.' (same article). 

Drop the cost of oil and the US and Canada have more diplomatic power and Putin, as well as those Arab states have LESS POWER! 

But let's face it, that isn't really the objective -- nor is "climate" for that matter. The object is CONTROL! 

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BDS Attacks Beauty and Truth

Robert Fulford: The BDS smokescreen | National Post:



It is easy to confuse beauty with goodness and truth, it does seem like they ought to go together, and in this case, they do.



Boycott, Divest, Sanction was a acronym that I was not familiar with ... although we do hear enough of the idea of the terms relative to anyone that doesn't fully prostrate themselves before the alter of "progressive" dogma in all its strains. It appears that Oxfam of which I had heard but never really knew anything about beyond "progressive / international" is indeed a solid member of the "progressive" tribe.



Proof of God and Christ is really awfully easy even if one hardly opens their eyes. You would certainly THINK that an organization like Oxfam  would be WILDLY opposed to a religion that puts women in burkas, marries off girls less than 10, burns, stones or throws gays from "a high place", and on and on.



You might think that, but you would be wrong! It is Israel that they actually hate!



Even with a crushed head, Satan can and does still direct the hatred of billions against God and Truth. At one time it was possible to add "The American Way" to that list, but old snake has managed to corrupt that last one away. The Church and the Word will stand -- nations don't have that guarantee, and when they turn away, they fall.



Does it really take any more of test of evil than to see the Muslim way proudly "Shopped, Invested, and Subsidized", while the Judeo-Christian side is "BDSed" to clearly see the truth?







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We Define the Truth, No Debate Allowed

Krauthammer Against The Tyrants - Emmett Tyrrell - Page 1:



I'm about half way through a wonderful book, An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America, not an easy read, but a challenging and somewhat humbling read on how Christianity in the US was morphed into a "social gospel":

In their view, the social forces of bigotry, power, corruption, mass opinion, militarism, and oppression are the constant themes of history. These horrors have a palpable, almost metaphysical presence in the world. And the post-Protestants believe the best way to know themselves as moral is to define themselves in opposition to such bigotry and oppression— understanding good and evil not primarily in terms of personal behavior but as states of mind about the social condition. Sin, in other words, appears as a social fact, and the redeemed personality becomes confident of its own salvation by being aware of that fact. By knowing about, and rejecting, the evil that darkens society. 

Bottum, Joseph (2014-02-11). An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America (p. 15). The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

In this Holy Week, it is good to reflect on our fall "You will be as Gods, knowing good and evil".  Often we assume that Satan told the truth, that we now DO "know good and evil". I find it to be a dangerous step to take the father of lies at his word.



The modern left, the "post protestant new puritans" believe with their whole heart that they DO know evil ... "bigotry, power, corruption, mass-opinion, militarism and oppression", and their souls, like Michael Bloomberg's, are saved because of their opposition to what they know as evil.





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Nostalgia For USSR

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/04/better_soviet_posters_for_jay_carney_and_claire_shipmans_house.html

I've been listening to MPR since 1980. They always had a giant soft spot for wonderful Soviet schools, the collective farms, and those wondrous journalists at Pravda "Truth!" ... So very much in common with NPR, but not forced to deal with the lies of commercial media! 

I know a number of people on the left that were significantly shaken at the collapse of the USSR ... Damned Reagan! ... And The POPE no less! Why the UN ought to have intervened to prevent religion from interfering in a nice godless state!

So BO's press spokesman likes old USSR propaganda posters and it isn't much of an MSM story ... The world just isn't very surprising I guess. 

Boston Bombing "Worth It"!

Biden Tells Boston Bombing Victims “It Was Worth It” // Mr. Conservative:



Hard to even imagine the outrage and derision had W or really any conservative of any standing said this!



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Bloomberg Earns Place In Heaven

Bloomberg Boasts of Gun Control and Soda Ban: ‘I’ve Earned My Place In Heaven.’:



There really isn't a better time than Holy Week to remind ourselves of the state of the human soul!



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Get Out of the Top 10%!!!!

2014 Tax Day Chart: Who Pays the Most?:



Everything we need to know can be learned from "The Jerk"! It's not the cans he is after, it is YOU you stupid Jerk!



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Get out of the top 10% (and even 20%) of income earners! There is a highly defective person trying to get you!



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A Record Low Tax Day

Public Information - NOAA's National Weather Service:



If only it was the taxes that were low! We see nothing but and endless rise in taxes, but climate? Seems that "Change" without much in the way of "Hope" unless you really like to freeze!



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70% of your Taxes Are Stolen!

Taxes 2013: Where Did Your Tax Money Go?:

Private property under the Constitution in the days of limited government meant that what you earned was YOURS! YOU! decided how it was spent! There is a GIANT moral difference between you deciding to give part of your money to some person, group or organization, and me coming over, taking that money at gunpoint and giving to them. The fact that I pay a third party (the government) a percentage of your money to execute the transfer makes no change at all in the moral calculus.



Mandatory "charity" is NOT charity! The person doing the GIVING (taxes are NOT "giving") has the right to decide if smart phones, dinners out, flat screen TVs, etc are worthy items for the recipient of the charity to use the funds on!



A quick look at that dollar tells us that defense spending is definitely too high! There isn't anything left to defend! The nation is a giant corrupt mess where 20% of the people are paying 90% of the taxes and their money is being used to buy votes from over 50% of the population! If anyone ought to be paying for our defense, it ought to be the Chinese -- they own our debt, they have a vested interest in there being enough productivity left for our decedents to work for a few generations to pay them off!



God, Gold, Guns and Gardens -- get out of anything approaching an urban center and work to get less than 50% of your assets exposed to bonds, government and wall street.



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Fixing the WoW (War on Women)

Equal pay? Not on the basketball court – USATODAY.com:

I'm quite certain that BO is way out ahead of me on this one, after all, he not only cares far more deeply about women, but is a much bigger basketball fan than I am.

Certainly all the events and speeches and the touting of the "77%" number on "Equal Pay Day" -- one of those quasi holidays that THE PARTY runs to get the membership out and keep them touting the "flavor of the day", are going to be aghast at pay discrepancies in the the 200x vicinity!

There can be no question where BO is on this issue! I can't imagine him sitting down and enjoying another basketball game until this grossly unfair situation for women is remedied! Fixing this is simple and straightforward:

1. Immediately mandate 100% pay parity for all professional basketball players. This is simple and easy and there is no possible justification for allowing this clear case of blatant discrimination to continue An intelligent guy like BO can maybe suggest the proper percentage adjustments, but since male basketball players are obviously horribly overpaid (more than CEOs! and most CEOs "don't even got game!"), something like 80% cut in salaries for the males and then a 50x or so increase for women players should be in the general vicinity of fair. (no doubt BO can appoint a large "blue ribbon commission" meeting in all sorts of nice destinations for a few years to hone the numbers).
   
2. Most likely this is still not going to be economically sustainable, so it seems to me that we need "affirmative market action". Perhaps a digital device that tracks basketball viewing could be required, so that in order to watch the NBA, a viewer must first spend an equal time watching the WNBA! I can see this kind of solution providing a huge assist in achieving the kind of results that all right thinking Americans (especially BO) are in favor of! 

Starting to achieve a truce in this ghastly WoW in some relatively simple areas like sport that while popular, are not cornerstones of the economy is a great way to make real progress in an obviously important area of the push to fairness!

W-NASCAR, W-MLB, W-NFL -- the future looks bright for equality in American sport!

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Eventually They Must Turn on Each Other

Civil War on the Left? | Power Line:

I've often commented on the irony of those who believe the most strongly in the forces of natural selection doing all they can to insure that their constituency minimizes chances of offspring through birth control, abortion, gay marriage and other means.

Similarly, when you believe that the pie is a fixed size and the job of government is to fight over the pieces, then as you gain more and more power:

There is no way out of this for Democrats.  Once you believe that the pie is fixed and has to be divvied up by the state, eventually you’ll have to turn on one another. 

The force of Life or the force of Death?

"Our party seeks to constantly reduce the number of offspring each family has, and to do our best to insure that children grow to revere the government but hate the history of their own country, as well as the beliefs of their parents and ancestors. Our bright shining promised future is what is ONLY to be revered!"

"We are the party of not working. We see Robin Hood as our patron saint, and we seek to follow the maxim of Jesse Jackson and "Take from the greedUH and give to the needUH!"

"There is only so much to go around and every policy we espouse that there will be less overall and that a greater percentage of the shrinking pie will go to an ever larger group of our party members that are well paid to oversee the public gulag".

... and on it goes. The slide into totalitarian hell seems so obvious, but like lemmings, most of humanity is wired to follow the crowd.













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Send In The Thought Police

http://feeds.nydailynews.com/~r/NydnRss/~3/nMsszQRLXJc/story01.htm Sent with Fast News Android ( http://goo.gl/athvJ )

Not Being Friends

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/05/chill-out-about-firefox-everybody.html

Deciding on ones world view used to involved understanding the sum total of mankinds history to the best of your ability. One wants to base big personal and certainly cultural decisions on thousands of years of available track record in that model. The following paragraph gives excellent insight into the "progressive" view: 

As a proud, openly gay man, I am disappointed that anyone contributed to an effort to strip away the rights of any other citizen, especially the important, fundamental human right to marry the one you love. Eich and I would certainly disagree on that point (assuming he, along with so many other Americans, hasn’t changed his mind in the intervening six years). If indeed he valued me as a second-class citizen, or continued to advocate against my civil rights, I suspect we wouldn’t chat for long at a cocktail party. I would not be his friend.

"gay man"?? Who cares? Maybe I like tall skinny blonde women ... I don't happen to, but who the hell cares? How beastial must one be to willingly state that any sexual proclivity defines you?  Perhaps, "I'm a proud owner of a strip club that believes that men are naturally wired to like looking at women's bodies, and women are naturally wired to want to show them their bodies"?  At least that man is only saying that "liking to look at naked women" is "natural", even though he makes it his business (by choice I assume), he doesn't claim that the enjoyment of unclothed female form defines him as a person.

"Strip away the rights"? "Marriage" actually ISN'T a right! There are not likely to soon be "marriage stamps" available like "food stamps". Forgetting that fact for a moment, wasn't the issue about a POLITICAL CONTRIBUTION relative to ADDING or NOT ADDING state recognition of a relationship that some want to enter into?  Eich made a political contribution in the path of the PREVENTION of a NEW recognition. No "stripping", no "right" involved at all. 

"I would not be his friend". I continue to work on the maxims of the liberal mind. ( "We HAVE to DO something!", usually followed by "It's NOT our fault!") I'm thinking "I won't be your friend" is now in the running, it just sounds so much like true liberalism. Christianity requires the acceptance of the Truth (Christ) "like a child". Liberalism requires raising the impulses of a child to ultimate wisdom, as in, you damned well better agree with me or "I won't be your friend". Marvelous. 

I would be happy to do all I could to be Gene Robinson's friend (the guy that wrote the article). My religious beliefs demand it of me in peril of my immortal soul for starters, but even though Robinson and I obviously disagree extensively, I find that to be a basic GOOD, in fact CRITICAL aspect of an actual pluralistic society!

Robinson OTOH is certain that his side is winning, so he is hoping that they will not show their hand with quite so much force, and potentially scare the marks. He sees a brave new world founded on the wisdom of institutions like "gay marriage" that are barely over a decade old. By making his new culture ever more oppressive (but quietly, PLEASE!), he sees some version of heaven on earth where individual lust is virtue, and the vast cultural wisdom of millennia is vice. 

The Minority Party Prosecutor Statutes

The IRS Scandal Nears a Climax | Power Line:

Powerline still harbors hope that we live in a country where the minority party is legitimate and has the potential to wield political power. We shall see, but I believe it is time to consider that we have crossed a rubicon where "The Party", meaning the Democratic Party is equivalent to what the Communist Party once was in the USSR. The "Party of Government", where the government workers, teachers, mainline media people, captains of industry and even entertainers are required to either be members in good standing or to "shut the F*#K Up!". Case in recent point, Brendan Eich, short term CEO of Mozilla.

Remember that during the W administration, Patrick Fitzgerald, the Democrats and the MSM hunted the modern White Whale named Scooter Libby -- with sincere condolences to Moby Dick. Remember, as recently as 2007 the pursuit of a "leak" that supposedly "outed" a CIA "secret agent" that cleverly maintained cover by driving into her office at Langley every day was a constant top news story!

In the current case, the IRS admitted and tried to "head off controversy" by saying that they were sorry that yes, some conservative groups were targeted and private information was released, etc, When brought up for hearings, the ostensibly responsible Party Apparatchik, Lois Lerner, took the 5th twice.

And that is really that. The MSM and The Party have enough power, to simply declare that to be "the end of the story". The american public has no inclination to mistrust the party powers that be --- they know which side their bread is currently buttered on, and aside from the IRS, the NSA and the "PC Police", all is that is required is even the SUGGESTION that you may have stepped out of the party doctrine.

So far, the idea of a "Minority Power", even ostensively having the power of one of the houses of congress is still legally allowed, although increasingly sanctioned. The Senate Majority leader stands on the floor of the Senate and threatens the Koch brothers for speaking out, and the New York Times as well as other large media and party outlets pick up the attack. "Free Speech" in BOistan is saying what "The Party" wants you to say! 

There is no question that the IRS actions demand some form of "Independent" or "Special" Prosecutor, but don't hold your breath. Prosecution is reserved for the Minority Party -- for now, still legal, but teetering. How dare people hold views that do not agree with the Will of The Party? The Party works for the good of the people! To oppose The Party is a luxury that is teetering on oblivion in this totalitarian state.

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Kochs Force Skyrocketing Healthcare Premiums!

Health Plan Premiums Are Skyrocketing According To New Survey Of 148 Insurance Brokers, With Delaware Up 100%, California 53%, Florida 37%, Pennsylvania 28%:



Now THAT would be a story! BOcare causes huge increases? Who would care??



I mean, after all, "They HAD to DO something!" ... and now, why if there are bad outcomes "It isn't their fault!"



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I Hold On

I may have overdone it a bit. Finally getting this done Wednesday AM after my 3-day burst home from LA ... 2K miles over 3 days. I pulled in Monday evening at 9PM. I'm very stiff this AM.

After 5K miles in 8 days, the Wing is now officially Wendy ... and on this trip often WINDY! Her navigation skills are questionable ... she didn't know about hwy 20 being 4-lane across most of IA, so was blissfully navigating through space after valiantly trying to navigate us to Ft Dodge. Maybe she just wanted to help get over 5K! Oh well, my "jump on the bike and punch in a city" approach to trip planning could use a little work too. She was reliable smooth and powerful through snow, rain and hail (just a little), plus a lot of cold and wind.

I launched out of Gallup NM Sunday AM at 7ish with 30 degrees on the temp, about 20 mi later I was freezing and checked it again ... 25 degrees, I was going UP!  It turns out that while I need 45 to be "reasonably comfortable", this trip forced me to discover that the "UNcomfortable" doesn't get too much worse at least down to that 25 or so ... the combination of the heat exchange with the engine being "open", the grip heaters, the "hand wings" deflectors off the bottom of the mirrors, and just the general excellent wind control make it it "survivable". Future spring trips will have better planning on long range weather / altitude !!

Going through Albuquerque NM the drink holder on my right bar loaded with my trusty Dew, departed. Must have just loosened up and there it went ... ought to be an easy fix, but it was sorely missed for the rest of the trip. Somewhere like 30mi past Albuquerque it hit my "minimum desired" 45 degrees. I rode 40 over to Tucumcari NM and then retraced my steps out up to Liberal KS, then turning N for Great Bend where I spent Sunday night. 740 windy and chilly miles. I kind of like the great plains two lanes. Seeing the farming, huge cattle lots, the change or that area to what must already be closing on a Hispanic majority.

The descendants of the European explorers that "conquered" North America came to the conclusion that having children wasn't important, nor was having borders, nor was having European descent offspring do "low income" jobs -- meaning jobs / lifestyles that would have made royalty jealous in the 16th to even 19th centuries. Queen Isabella could not have believed a flat screen TV, internet, let alone a low-rider with fuzzy dice! Civilizations rise and fall, but I think the plains ... and solo riders on horses, motorcycles and ??? will survive.

Monday I took off and headed cross country up to 80, then over to Omaha, then up 30 and eventually to 20 and on home via interstate. Just into IA on 30 I had the treat of watching a jet ranger chopper "surveying something" ... I'm guessing it was power lines from the height and position, but he was going down the road a little higher than the power lines at something like "30 MPH", usually sideways to the road. The moose "limited good judgement in very tough for moose attention control situation indicator" was flashing orange-red. Having a few miles to watch a chopper right in front of me was GREAT, but of course I knew that the chopper was a huge distraction not just for me, but for oncoming traffic as well. Although the thought crossed my mind that 99% of the oncoming found it to be WAY less interesting than I, but anyway ...

I got a couple miles in before a truck came up behind me and I took off. I'm guessing the pilot had done that before ... it was pretty windy, but I could actually see him operating things ... he WAS swiveling his head a lot, which seems like a good idea about 50' up moving in a sideways direction!  I know, the SMART thing to do would have been just "take note and go, or pull over and watch for a bit" ... and then skipping Prescott, Pagoda Springs and probably the whole trip would also have been the most "prudent".

Lots of time alone on a bike for 5K miles, lots of it on flat or mildly undulating roads where the road and the telephone poles recede into the horizon like grade school drawing class. They must have been driving in New Mexico when they made up those classes. The decision to get married, settle down and have kids -- and how MUCH one makes that an "all the way" thing. 34 years at IBM, giving up the motorcycle to "be responsible" and a few other such decisions were likely over on the personal side of "nuts" in the same way as a solo 5K ride in the mostly cold.

But then what is wisdom? One can't really get the summary of a 34 year career or 26 years of having been a parent from reading books and thinking about it. Sometimes you just have to ride.

"I Hold On" (very hot current country song that will likely always bring this trip back to my mind),  is who we are something we are wired with, decisions we make, character we develop, or a gift from God?

I'm guessing it is yes ...

89, Prescott, 89a, Sedona

Took off early from San Bernadino. Very pretty views of Mt San Jacinto with the sun coming up and a cloud deck partially obscuring the mountain. Made great time on I10 and then veered off on 60 and wound my way up to 89 in the "Congress" area. 

Shortly after Congress there is a section of 89 where the lanes are split so there is no oncoming traffic. I had a Ferrari ahead of me  with a bunch of local Harley's ahead of him that knew how to ride the road. Not having oncoming traffic was a HUGE help for me ... one of my biggest weaknesses cornering is backing off the throttle as soon as oncoming traffic shows up (my snake brain isn't very trusting of oncoming drivers!). 

The ferrari had to be a V12, it had an unearthly screaming howl like a pack of wounded coyotes on rock concert amplification. I saw like "20ish" different exotic cars, mostly high end Porche, but I definitely IDed the Ferrari symbol on the one that was ahead of me ... and then let me by. In Prescott I pulled up next to a Lamborghini, but I'm too bummed after the WI loss to keep trying to figure which one it was. In the early stages of that lane split section out of Congress a cop had what I'm pretty sure was a Countach pulled over -- I bet that was a nice conversation! 

I'm too conservative to really enjoy going fast on curves ... but with the front suspension work on the wing and just Harleys rather than crotch rockets ahead  holding back the Ferrari, I was fine ... did a little grinding on the bottoms of the boards a few times, and since I could keep up, I did. I'd say that run from Congress to Prescott has to be way up there in the world for corner speed daemons. 

Somewhere in that section before Prescott I went by Yarnell ... here the group of top notch firefighters died a year or two ago. 

89a up to and beyond Sedona was a lot more sightseeing ... I had traffic ahead of me for most of both. WOW, the Jerome mining town hacked out of the side of the mountain would be a geat place to spend some time in! 

I think I was in a bad mood the only previous time I was in Sedona since I was driving a chevy pickup with a camper on and  sick of "rocks". It was damned pretty this time. Would be nice to come out and spend some time there with the bikes. 

Me and Flagstaff just don't get along! The temp dropped back down to 48 as I went up there from Sedona, and there were some flakes of snow in the air! THIS TIME though the bad stuff looked to be JUST to the NW and I scooted to the east on 40, making it here to Gallup NM, 600+ mi for the day, 1500 miles or so from home ... a hard day and an easy one to go the way I look at it!

More Guns, Less Crime, Chicago Correlates This Time

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/04/126664-coincidence-illinois-enacts-concealed-carry-law-chicago-murder-rate-plummets-immediately/

As always, "correlation is not causality". However: 

-- If gun crime had gone UP, do you want to place any bets on how we would be hearing about it? 

-- MULTIPLE CASES of correlation, along with a good potential mechanism for WHY there is correlation IS highly useful. If the same standard was applied to "smoking causes cancer"  as is demanded of "more guns less crime", we would still have cigarette ads on TV!

The left wants guns removed for the same reason that they want people that don't agree with their stand on gay marriage to lose their jobs. 

C O N T R O L !!! 

Barabas Lives!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/04/mozilla-exec-out-of-job-for-gay-rights-intolerance-some-think-thats-intolerant/?tid=hp_mm

You will be MADE to think as we do! 

Remember the Puritans? Freedom has NEVER been free, and is UNnatural to humans. Christian Exceptionalism is love for others and most importantly TOLERANCE in the culture (render unto Ceasar). The Puritans were rigorous in their own interpretetation of what they saw as the piety of the Bible, and they sought freedom from the state telling them how they had to worship. 

The human urge to piety relative to a set of beliefs and enforcing that piety as a standard is a constant of human nature -- again, like breathing. We ARE going to do it, the issue is just "how". 

Christ provided an impossible standard (Christ's) as a model,  but explicity forbade using personal power or the power of the state to enforce the standard on others by any means other than "loss of fellowship" for those that claimed to be believers but rejected the standard. 

When humans take the place of God, they DEMAND compliance for ALL, and they ALWAYS end up using the power of the state to enforce their view of "right". 

"Right" (mans right) is made law by FORCE, the only mechanism avaible once Gods standards, justice and love are refused. 

"Give us Barabas"! The cry that still echos loudly!

Viva Las Vegas

After a dismal day yesterday I launched at 9:30 from Flagstaff. 35 degrees again, took a shot at 89a route, but there was ice in shaded areas and I realized that I would not be enjoying the ride even if it DID get better -- scardy moose always thinking that on some shaded canyon turn there could be that patch that would be "invisible". Yea, I know, "it could be anything", but it was going to prevent enjoyment no matter how good the ride was. 

So, I chickened to I40 and sputtered along in the right lane in the wheel tracks that were pretty much dry and watched the bridges like a hawk. It was dropping down out of the Kaibab area at like Williams before it cleared 40. In the current Wing config, I need 45 degrees to get to the "edge of comfort" ... hours of riding without deep freeze. The vents pulling heat off the engine, the grips, etc make 45 OK in "reasonable wind". Today, I was nearly to Seligman before that happened. 

Had a nice breakfast at the "Road Kill Grill" there, warmed up, gassed up, and took the old Route 66 to Kingman. Really enjoyed the ride, saw quite a few bikes. Seligman and a couple of other holes in the wall gave a hint of how hoppin 66 must have been before the interstates took all the tourists. EVERYTHING has it's unintended consequences!

93 from Kingman up to Vegas was funny ... 65 MPH speed limit, slow traffic doing 85, plenty of folks at 90-95 and LOTS of bikes going the other way .. Harleys, in groups, often loud enough I copuld hear the thunder in my lane. When I popped the ridge prior to the Colorado River I once again wished I had a helmet cam set up! Very nice scenery from there over the new bridge above the dam to where I stopped and gassed up at Boulder City and shot the pic with Lake Mead in the back. Had to be upper 60's by then. 

To top my bad day off yestday I discovered that my iPad had not been charging ...  so I had my snazzy new phone route me to the Apple store. Right down town, big cool malln called "The Fashion Show" on Las Vegas drive, right next to a huge Wynns Casino. Bad cable ... cats DO have "some issues".  Vegas reminds me of the Lords Prayer ... definitely, it is LOADED with temptaion "Gentlemens Club, topless this and that, this kind of girl, that kind of girl ..." not to mention gambling and enough beverages to tempt an LCMS guy during Lent! Oh well, it is remarkable how many big buildings temptation can build. Lots flashier than DC, but not NEARLY as much money actually! 

Looking forward to riding down to LA tomorrow and then I will be turning for home by a more southernly route! Sure felt nice to drive around town with the big jacket in the saddlebag and just the kevlar shirt on for a change!

Snowed!

Today was a reminder how easy it is to focus on our own situation and to be FAR too believing of "the common wisdom".  A big part of the reason that I set out on this adventure in this direction was the cold temps in MN all winter and into spring. Even though I'm often a skeptic, I'm ALWAYS a human! The media regularly said "oh, the midwest and east is a LOCAL weather phenomenon, the South West is having an extremely warm winter and spring". Yea, right!

So I believed them. The AVERAGE high for April 2 in Pagosa Springs is 50 degrees, the average high for Flagstaff AZ is 52. I'm sitting in the Days Inn at Flagstaff right now because the temp is  currently 32 degrees, and when I hit the area at 3ish it was 35 and snowing so heavy I had to limp in and stop.

East of Durango, this AM my temp read 37 degrees ...  1 degree lower than when I left Rochester. YES, I understand altitude, but the SW is having above average warmth this winter and spring. Remember?

Everyone,  definitely me, has an agenda, a very limited focus, and even in the best of circumstances, is EXTREMELY fallible! ALWAYS! Especially large organizations like Government and Media!

It is MY fault, my own grievous fault -- I ought to have gone SOUTH and forgot west!

Other than snow to start and snow to end (the start was not as heavy and not sticking), COLD ... mostly 45-50 degrees, with my new record for the trip being 35 degrees and heavy snow at Flagstaff, I did get in 425 miles including some nice rock formations along NM 491.

The elusive Monument Valley remains a quarry for another day and my guess is that the return trip will be SOUTH rather than through Idaho.

Roswell to Pagosa Springs, Memories and Chance

The alien museum opened at nine, so I had to settle for some pics and a couple T-shirts, coffee cup and shot glass across the street.

Hit 285 N out of Roswell and within 30 min was on a completely deserted 4-lane with tunes cranked doing 80 in a 70. No traffic, no place for a cop to even hide ... air would be the only way. "Reaper" came on, I cranked it, popped a ridge, looked forever forward and back, and the snake brain said "top it out" ... had I not had my wireless sending gauge on my tires, the angel moose on one shoulder would have won out ... kick it to 4th, close to redline at like 105,  6th, pulled strong to 120, hit 127  and then was leveling out. The thought of  losing my license and sitting in the Roswell pokey, backed me back down -- but wow, for a couple min, massive smile. Next random song in the mix, Bob Seeger, Roll Me Away ... I ride a Wing, so Marla never has to worry about the girl in the bar. Besides, it is lent and I never drink when I ride anyway, BUT ...

Riding bike makes me think about "the safety net". How many of the best moments in your life have SIGNIFICANT risk? Love, marriage, kids ... and yes, driving whatever, especially a bike. How much  was 116 MPH on the Yamaha sled worth? soloing in a plane? ... and countless other things. Naturally, in some cases if things go wrong, life is changed forever, or over ... in which case it is changed forever for those that loved you. BUT ... is the long "risk free"  (a fantasy) life worth living?

So I drove reasonable the rest of the day ... not slow, reasonable. Wanda the Witch of the Wing and I had an odd day ... I had Monument Valley in as the ultimate destination, but kept seeing things I liked ... long story short, ended up going "too far"  N, saw how beautiful the mountains looked, took 64 to Cimarron and  WOW!!! I need to check into this when I get back, the run from I25 through Eagles Nest, Taos and up to Pagosa Springs HAS to be in the running for greatest motorcycle mountain ride of all time! Passes, streams, great rock formations, snows cappers, elk, some long fast sweeper and straight sections ...  I GOTTA do this one again!

Had never heard of Pagosa Springs CO before either ... in the running for "favorite CO rocky town"  quaint little lodge even has a friendly kitty!

Would never have been here without Wanda and smoke in the air causing early dusk ... the elk were out TOO much and I had no intent for Pagosa Springs, but was HAPPY to see it. Would have blown through for Durango or went a more southern route if not for lowering light and Wanda Routing. Chance? Maybe, we can never "prove" otherwise, but sometimes it just feels like a "better planner".

Lots of 50 ... even 48 a couple times today, barely broke 60. Some of it could have been altitude, I was up and down A LOT. The wind was OK until noon or so, and then BRUTAL ... worst yet! Had to be completely on it or it could definitely cause an accident! Not to mention I was glad for every piece of gear, engine heat blowing on me, full fairing, mirror wings, laminar lip, etc ... didn't see many bikes for good reason, and Wings and BMWs were the ones I saw except for a couple REAL Harley tough guys!

So two years ago today IBM decided that they could go on without me ... rode the Wing that day too, first 100mi ride. 540 today, I'm slipping! So thankful for the blessing of  being able to retire early -- and thanks to Marla for staying working for a bit to help make that a lot easier financially.